The Police Federation is in crisis. How will it carry out the reform it needs?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/07/police-federation-crisis-how-carry-out-reform-needs

Version 0 of 1.

At a time when rank and file police officers most needed the organisation that officially represents them, the leadership of the Police Federation appears to be in the process of imploding.

Faced with the biggest reform in modern times of the pay and conditions enjoyed by police officers, inspired by the coalition, an internecine war has been played out at the federation's Leatherhead headquarters.

The organisation was once feared by government, chief constables, and the media. It isn't any more. It has been weakened by infighting when it needed unity, and its reputation shredded by a series of controversies that have chipped away at confidence in British policing. Its wounds, said one senior insider, were self-inflicted: "The organisation is being lambasted and it was preventable."

Policing has been seen by some in successive governments as the last unreformed public service, with the federation in the vanguard of keeping the status quo.

On coming into power the government was prepared to take on the federation and commissioned a review by Tom Winsor, the former rail regulator. The federation said its results amounted to cuts to officers' pay and conditions; Winsor's supporters said it swept away anachronisms and rewarded merit.

But it was a bizarre incident in Downing Street that heaped scorn on the body that represents 127,000 rank and file officers.

The federation's name was dragged through the mud over Plebgate, where the then chief whip, Andrew Mitchell, rowed with an officer at the gates of Downing Street as he tried to wheel his bike through them.

He denied branding the officer a "pleb" but ended up resigning from his powerful post. But some in the federation were accused of hyping the incident to try to damage Mitchell and the government they saw as attacking their terms and conditions.

An off-duty officer, PC Keith Wallis, was jailed after admitting he had lied when he claimed to have witnessed the row in September 2012. Federation officials in the Midlands were lambasted for giving an allegedly inaccurate account of a meeting they had with Mitchell as he battled to save his cabinet career.

Steve Williams and others in the federation's national leadership commissioned a review of the organisation, conducted by former Home Office permanent secretary Sir David Normington.

Normington recommended radical reform, and since its publication in January, the federation has been engulfed in a row about how far reform should go.

Polls show that confidence in the police is still relatively high compared with politicians and the media. But some polls show a drop, suggesting a direction of travel summarised by Winsor, the chief inspector of constabulary, as the service being damaged but not broken after scandals including undercover policing, Hillsborough, Plebgate and possible corruption in the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation.

For the federation the reality is worse. The government and media disliking them may not surprise federation officials, but the Normington review showed that nine out of 10 members wanted change and were described by the review as being "deeply disillusioned with the performance of their representatives".

Normington wrote: "They feel particularly alienated from the national leadership with 68% of members fairly or very dissatisfied that the national leadership is adequately safeguarding their interests. Even at local level there is an increasing questioning of the value of representation with 47% dissatisfied against 30% satisfied. Most members still look to the Federation to represent them in times of difficulty or crisis but many say they would not otherwise pay their subscription."

As the federation wrestled with how far to reform, with the threat the government might intervene to force it to do so looming over it, it became clear its leadership were at loggerheads in their allegedly luxury headquarters in Leatherhead, which cost £26m and include a hotel with more than 50 bedrooms and indoor swimming pool.

In February the newly appointed head of communications, Fiona McElroy, was fired by general secretary Ian Rennie, after barely having taken up the post. She had been a key ally of Williams, the chair, as he tried to press through reforms. One senior insider said of Rennie's actions: "How come he's more powerful than the elected chair?"

Claims emerged of financial impropriety surrounding an estimated £35m of funds, maybe more, being held in so called "Number 2" accounts at a time when members were struggling financially.

Williams and Rennie will depart after the federation's conference in May. Through the backbiting and internal fighting, two things are clear. The battle is very much on for the soul and future direction of the federation. The organisation still does not know how to carry out the reform its leaders say it needs.