Home Office police white paper contains complete myth

Theresa May’s white paper on police cuts reform includes proposals such as the replacement of some police with unpaid reservists as a “clear manifestation of the ‘big society’ in action”. In a great spot by the Exclorative blog, it also features an anecdotal untruth about so-called bureaucracy. Section 3.11 of the document, entitled “Policing in the 21st century: reconnecting police and the people” claims:

Whole shopping trolleys’ worth of guidance is loaded onto the police during the course of a year. Whether this is guidance for officers on how to dress or 92 pages on how to ride a bike – this has to be reduced.

Very good. Except no such bike manual was ever in use by police. A unofficial training guide was produced by a group of enterprising officers but it was never adopted, as police chiefs clearly stated when this story originally did the rounds:

This work was neither requested nor drawn up by ACPO and we do not endorse it. It was put forward by a group of well meaning police officers with an interest in this area. ACPO will not be taking it forward.

One would hope the government had a better purchase on reality than a Daily Express hack or Mark Wallace.

What next:” immigration white paper proposes halt to free cars and mobile phones for asylum seekers”?