Kindly supported by BT            Official media partner: Police Professional

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The Police Foundation's first annual conference took place on Tuesday 7 September 2010 at the BT Auditorium and Customer Showcase in London. It addressed some of the practical and ethical issues the police service will face in a new era of public service disinvestment. This will include the staging of the Olympic Games and how working in partnership with the private sector may (or may not) help tackle these challenges. 

Following a long period of expansion, Chief Constables are now beginning to grapple with how they are going to lead and manage their forces in very different circumstances. Reductions in public spending and tighter budget controls, not to mention the resources required for policing the Olympics, will pose serious challenges to the police service but may also offer valuable opportunities. The conference brought together representatives from the police service and police authorities with suppliers from the private sector to identify the up and down sides of collaboration and explore how the police service can leverage more benefit from the resources currently available. The conference addressed such questions as:

• What challenges and opportunities will the new era of austerity and the staging of the Olympic Games bring for the police service and what role, if any, might the private sector play in helping it meet these?
• How effective are other public-private partnerships (e.g. in the NHS or the prison service) and are there transferable lessons for policing?
• How can operational efficiency and productivity be raised when the public demand for security seems to have no bounds and might a greater role for the private sector in this constitute a blessing or a blessing in disguise?

The event was chaired by The Lord Dear QPM DL