Police chiefs ridiculed over `gobbledegook’
Author: Daily Telegraph |
The comment, from the Association of Chief Police Officers, was so ridiculous it has now been put forward for the Golden Bull awards run by the Plain English Campaign.
Without allowing the reader to pause for breath, it contains language such as “centrally engineered one size fits all initiatives”, “amorphous challenges of managing cross force harms” and “authentic answerability”.
The passage was in a formal response to the Government’s Green Paper on policing, and signed off by Sir Ken Jones, the President of ACPO, but the critics said whoever drafted it should hang their head in shame.
The full sentence read: “The promise of reform which the Green Paper heralds holds much for the public and Service alike; local policing, customized to local need with authentic answerability, strengthened accountabilities at force level through reforms to police authorities and HMIC, performance management at the service of localities with targets and plans tailored to local needs, the end of centrally engineered one size fits all initiatives, an intelligent approach to cutting red tape through redesign of processes and cultures, a renewed emphasis on strategic development so as to better equip our service to meet the amorphous challenges of managing cross force harms, risks and opportunities.”