Police chiefs have been accused of a ridiculous use of language by the Plain English Campaign after writing a 102-word sentence that “defies understanding”.

The offending sentence, part of a response to the Government’s Green Paper on policing submitted by the Association of Chief Police Officers , was dubbed “ploddledygook taken to extreme levels” by the campaign, which has entered it for its Golden Bull competition.

The paper, signed off by Sir Ken Jones, the former Chief Constable of Sussex and president of the association, is peppered with “baffling” language.

The sentence in question was revealed in Jane’s Police Review as: “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.”

Marie Claire, for the Plain English Campaign, said: “This sort of business gobbledegook is pretty much inexcusable now. It is a public document supposedly aimed at any reader. It shames me that the authors are the leaders, the people who can effect change, the senior police officers who can really make the difference when it comes to clarity.”

An Acpo spokeswoman said that the language was used because “that’s how civil servants speak”. However, she added: “This may be one occasion when an appropriate response is, ‘Fair cop, guv’.”

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