AND NOT ENOUGH SERGEANTS

 "Lions led by donkeys" is a phrase popularly used to describe the British infantry of the First World War and to blame the generals who led them.  That short description  by Alan Clark in his 1961 book The Donkeys served to elevate the common soldier while denigrating the officer class.  Of course a century ago there was no department of human resources in the British army of 1914-1918.  Now people are paid enormous salaries to determine inter alia the "who, why and what"  a company or organisation demands of its workforce.  In many ways the ranked order of a workforce is no longer achieved by the rule of thumb instinct of an entrepreneur but by supposedly expert functionaries themselves subsumed into grades. It was perhaps in the Roman army where defined units were perfected.  Indeed modern military formations are largely based on the efficiency of such units.  These were refined as:-

    Contubernium. A squad of eight men, led by a decanus.
    Centuria. A group of 10 contubernium, led by a centurion.
    Cohorts. A group of six centuria, totalling out to 480 men.
    Legio. A legion of 10 cohorts, roughly 5,000 men.
    Eques Legionis. The cavalry unit of a legio consisting of 120     men.

It is common knowledge that since 2010 20,000 police officers have been made redundant or retired and it is also common knowledge that notwithstanding Boris Johnson`s pledge to recruit 20,00 replacements all has not gone well with many of these new recruits resigning before becoming truly effective. 

On 2nd June 2010 I blogged some statistics on police numbers and ranks.  This is copied below. 

There is 1 sergeant for every 4.8 constables
There is 1 inspector for every 3.04 sergeants
There is 1 chief inspector for every 3.85 inspectors
There is 1 superintendent for every 1.89 chief inspectors
There is 1 chief superintendent for every 2.1 superintendents

Latest figures available today are as follows:-

There is 1 sergeant for every 5.41 constables
There is 1 inspector for every 3.26 sergeants
There is 1 chief inspector for every 3.11 inspectors
There is one chief or superintendent for every 1.49 chief inspectors
There is 1 chief officer* for every 5.56 chief or superintendents

*Includes Assistant Chief Constables, Deputy Chief Constables and Chief Constables, and their equivalents in the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police. These police officers were previously referred to as Association of Chief Police Officer (ACPO) ranks; however, on 1 April 2015 ACPO was replaced by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

Those who are much more knowledgeable than I  know that the backbone of an efficient fighting force is determined by the quality and number of its non commissioned officers.  This opinion has been reinforced by the war in Ukraine where the Russians have been found deficient in that very area cf the highly trained Ukrainians.  The ratios of constables/sergeants and sergeants/inspectors have significantly changed since 2010.  Sergeants are perhaps the most important  cohort within the police service.  No amount of fast entry university graduates can be a substitute for training on the job: a form of education which after two generations of being excluded from so many routes to professional qualifications is just beginning to be recognised as the educational baby which was thrown out with the supposedly academic bathwater.  

This post began with an adage and I think an even older one best sums up the situation as above...........too many chiefs and not enough indians.