G4S chief predicts mass police privatisation

[Reca]

G4S chief predicts mass police privatisation | UK news | The Guardian

G4S chief predicts mass police privatisation Private companies will be running large parts of the police service within five years, according to security firm head

David Taylor-Smith, the head of G4S for the UK and Africa, said he expected most UK police forces to sign up to privatisation deals. Photograph: Guardian
Private companies will be running large parts of the UK's police service within five years, according to the world's biggest security firm.
David Taylor-Smith, the head of G4S for the UK and Africa, said he expected police forces across the country to sign up to similar deals to those on the table in the West Midlands and Surrey, which could result in private companies taking responsibility for duties ranging from investigating crimes to transporting suspects and managing intelligence.
The prediction comes as it emerged that 10 more police forces were considering outsourcing deals that would see services, such as running police cells and operating IT, run by private firms.
Taylor-Smith, whose company is in the running for the £1.5bn contract with West Midlands and Surrey police, said he expected forces across the country to have taken similar steps within five years . "For most members of the public what they will see is the same or better policing and they really don't care who is running the fleet, the payroll or the firearms licensing – they don't really care," he said.
G4S, which is providing security for the Olympics, has 657,000 staff operating in more than 125 countries and is one of the world's biggest private employers. It already runs six prisons in the UK and in April started work on a £200m police contract in Lincolnshire, where it will design, build and run a police station. Under the terms of the deal, 575 public sector police staff transferred to the company.
Taylor-Smith said core policing would remain a public-sector preserve but added: "We have been long-term optimistic about the police and short-to-medium-term pessimistic about the police for many years. Our view was, look, we would never try to take away core policing functions from the police but for a number of years it has been absolutely clear as day to us – and to others – that the configuration of the police in the UK is just simply not as effective and as efficient as it could be."
Concern has grown about the involvement of private firms in policing. In May more than 20,000 officers took to the streets to outline their fears about pay, conditions and police privatisation. The Police Federation has warned that the service is being undermined by creeping privatisation.
Unite, the union that represents many police staff, said the potential scale of private-sector involvement in policing was "a frightening prospect". Peter Allenson, national officer, said: "This is not the back office – we are talking about the privatisation of core parts of the police service right across the country, including crime investigation, forensics, 999 call-handling, custody and detention and a wide range of police services."
Taylor-Smith said "budgetary pressure and political will" were driving the private-sector involvement in policing but insisted that the "public sector ethos" had not been lost.


Read the rest of the article here G4S chief predicts mass police privatisation | UK news | The Guardian

[lewisipso]

Low bidding, get what you pay for, and accountability may be big issues here.

[Ducky]

Shit. The asylum being run by the inmates. Security guards with actual authority. The only hope would be if the existing officers don't quit en masse because of all the "improvements".

[Tango Zulu 22]

They took over a large section of the civilian staff in my local force in April.

Now they're making folks redundant.

Policing for profit - glad I got out with my pension intact.....