DEMOS

With the public increasingly believing that elected politicians are unable to deal with drugs, human trafficking and mass migration, a reforming government is swept to power.

Terror and other threats to national security remain at a high level, and the incoming government creates a Homeland Security Agency encompassing border control, immigration, customs, coast guard, disaster response, counter-terrorism and the security services.

The other parts of the criminal justice system including the Police Service, Prosecution Service, Prison Service and Probation Service are merged nationally and made directly accountably to a new Ministry of Justice.

The focus of all police work is now exclusively on law enforcement and bringing offenders to justice. Crime prevention, public reassurance and concerns relating to the fear of crime are ignored or left to Local Authority services. Experiments with public and community involvement have long been abandoned and priorities are determined according to strict national criteria set by politicians. Performance management frameworks focus resources on high profile priorities like arrests, clear up rates and conviction rates.

A single national Director of the Police Service is accountable to the Ministry of Justice. Following public disputes between Ministers and Chief Constables, local Police Forces were swept away and replaced with a national command structure and a National Police Plan, updated annually to reflect changing political priorities.

Under this plan, Basic Command Units are the dominant unit of delivery within a national framework, operating in a competitive performance culture and required to meet national targets. BCU performance is measured in performance league tables, with BCU commanders who fail to perform facing the sack. By contrast, high-performing BCUs are given much higher levels of autonomy in relation to funding and staffing.

The old ‘middle tier’ of Police Forces and Authorities has been drastically reduced. Some of the responsibility for policing ‘level 2’ crime has been devolved down to BCUs, but most responsibilities have been centralised to national police functions focusing on specific aspects of criminality. Teams of specialists run the new national-level functions from different locations in England and Wales. They operate through a national network of offices many of which are located within BCUs. The Homeland Security Agency and international law enforcement agencies now deal with all remaining aspects of  ‘level 3’ crime.

Following a substantial increase in migration from eastern to Western Europe, the prevailing public sentiment has taken a highly anti-European turn. While the Ministry of Justice seeks international cooperation in tackling terrorism, it seeks to operate unilaterally – especially on issues relating to border control and managing migration.  This places strain on relations with other national police forces in the EU. Increasing numbers of foreign citizens are deported and the numbers of successful asylum applications dries to a trickle. Over-zealous attempts to identify and deport illegal immigrants creates tensions in some local communities in the UK.
 
To combat identity crime newly born babies can be voluntarily fitted with Radio Frequency ID chips that permit their movement to be easily tracked. All other citizens already carry biometric identity cards. The national biometric ID database greatly aids crime detection and clear up rates.