Thank God for people like Mark Rowley, an ACTING chief constable mind you! At last some one at the top of the Police has had the courage and leadership to say what most working coppers at the sharp end have been thinking for years.
Meeting Government targets has become an obsession in the police.

Thinking Copper, Lancashire,

If a teenage 'accidentally' breaks something- they wouldn't get a conviction for criminal damage. There's no mens rea. Surely there were more accurate examples that could have been used? or was this better sensationalism for your readers?

Mark, Cambridge,

<sarcasm on / But this will put some of the Home Office pen-pushers out of a job /sarcasm off >

Jim, Sidcup,

Well done Surrey Constabulary and Mark Rowley, the Man of the Year so far.

john P-T, Reigate,

About time too.

Weaver, Hong Kong,

At last, someone has seen that whilst targets may have a place in management, they have taken over, and in many cases, become what the job is all about. This to the detriment of what the job REALLY is about. As another reader said, this also goes for most other areas of public service. Bravo!

tris, dundee, scotland

Thank God for common sense, This is one of the benefits of locally managed police forces. is it too much to hope that this initiative will filter through to the thousands of box checkers in centralised government departments so they can be given a productive job

Martin, Leatherhead,

As a police officer I am thankful someone is taking a stand over this impractical and taget driven government.I do hope other forces will take note. I speak for all officers when I say we want to HELP the public in whatever way we can however targets have been detrimental to this.

K, STAFFORD,

Can't see Brunstrom buying into this one. He wil still persecute the motorist as an easy target.

Rob, Colwyn Bay, Wales

Good for them. Paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork needs to nothing but more stress and burnt out. Let them do their job. It's difficult enough as it is. I agreed John D let's hope the changes do reach as far as the NHS and Education.

RK, Isleworth,

I recentlty had a misfortunate 'brush' with the law, involving my son and a trivial offence over a plastic air gun. Among other ridiculous rituals, the gun had to be sent off for a ballistics screening. With this sort of nonsence, no wonder form filling is the main pre-occupation for our police

paul, London SW,

A positive move in the right direction, but it is still a long way off. I am currently at work trying to locate my sanity, having spent all morning dealing with utter trivia, perpetuated by the political paranoia of "Every Domestic is a Homicide Waiting to Happen". The pendulum has swung too far ...

PC Michael Pinkstone, London,

A copper on the beat is worth two in the office ...

KR, Stockport,

Now that form filling, enforcement of parking regulations, abandonment of stray dog duties and many other minor issues have been axed, and given that there are thousands of more officers than 30 years ago.% Council tax rising even with speed camera taxes. Lets see some outcomes
Eric Leicester

Eric Vardy, Leicester, Leicestershire

With Brown on track to lead Labour to its biggest defeat ever, hardly surprising some are breaking ranks. "You're going down, Gordon Brown." So either go down in style with even more draconian Marxist legislation, or U-turn your way to oblivion and look like the total loser you undoubtedly are.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

Well done Surrey Constabulary! The greatest power a Police Officer has is discretion. Srap all government targets and sack the imbeciles who dream them up. It must be soul destroying for officers to have their performance measured by criteria set by idiots who don't know a thing about policing.

Ex Constable , Tasmania, Australia

Bravo! They have my full support. Let Labour make a fool of themselves and lose votes if they dare tinker with these police forces. This will make the rest think twice whether they should follow common sense or simply political game of targets.

Prabhat, UK,

I was an old time beat policeman in Lancashire. Eccles to be exact. Police should get out of their cars and walk and talk as we did in the 'Old Days'. It is a waste of time and money following the guide lines of those that know NOTHING of the beat policeman.

Dave, Eccles,

A little bit more of the governments authority slips away!

mitch, Wolverhampton, England

Dave Hall... no need, they alreaydy have their thought reading devices they got from Mars remember!

Tony, London,

Makes me proud to live in Guildford! Thank god the law enforcement service actually appreciates its responsibilities, even if the Home Office does not.

Christopher, Guildford, UK

Fantastic news. At last the job is getting back some sense.

Andrew, Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway

I whole-heartedly agree with the Police officers. It's about time a group of senior public servants stood up against this pedantic govt's bean counting ideology. The govt is more interested in recording results than in the results themselves. I hope other public services follow suit.

AJ, London,

The police force was set up to prevent crime. Not record it.

Sir Robert Peel was right in this. We don't want crime recorded and to go undetected. We want it stopped in the first place.

M Reid, Northampton, UK

I hope this idea spreads to other areas of public service, like the NHS and education.

John D, Birmingham, UK

At last some people with common sense .... Get on and do your jobs well guys... and lets hope others will soon follow and dump all these stupid government requests for endless data.

B Walles, Liverpool, UK

Why pay Constables 30k + per year if they can't make decisions on the ground?

Alex Swan, Lisburn,

Police targets should major on crime prevention and not arrests and prosecutions.

Peter , Okehampton,

Bureaucracy makes for an inefficient police force.
Leave the bureaucracy to the clerks!

Dilip Dhokia, Bradford, UK

Does that include Fixed Penalty Notices. How a government which is serious about crime can go from collecting 28.5 Million in 1997, to 800 Million in just over 10 years, gives us some idea of what targets are important. I now view, the police as tax collectors in uniform, with no interest in crime

Peter, Luton,

This government are collecting the details of everyone in the UK, so they can monitor every move for anything unpatriotic, e.g thinking freely, having fun, or building anything. Once everyone is nailed forever to an unservicable mortgage they'll put the database in the second class mail & lose it.

Dave Hall, Stafford, UK

At last, a return to common sense. Now we need all 43 force areas to follow suit and let effective policing rule our towns and cities. Never mind `Sanction Detections` we need to deal with crime in a positive and robust manner, fairly and with discretion where appropriate.

John , Northampton, UK

Its a start I suppose. Its going to take a lot more than this and a very long time to regain the publics faith in the politically manipulated Police. Far too much political interference and the loony antics of the dreadful scourge of the PC brigade have more taken their toll.I remain very sceptical.

B Davies, Rhondda, Wales

Hooray! i used to work with young offenders. When is started in the early 1990s we worked with the " heavy end " of young people who were persisitant offenders. Today young people end up with a criminal record for the most trivial of offences and loads of wasted paperwork for no benefit!

dave, dover, uk

The problems will arise when the petty (but powerful) bureaucrats point at their little rulebook and say "sorry, the public may love you but you haven't ticked all our boxes so we're cutting your funding".

Chris K, Cheltenham, UK

"A spokesman for the Home Office said that it was pleased at the four forces’ initiative but argued that they would have to continue to adhere to current practice in recording crimes" dont count your chickens, they wont give in that easily.

jerym, caerphilly, uk

The government should stay out of everything
Schools, hospitals and councils - we elect a Conservative councillor but their hands are tied by what the gov tell them -
I work for the NHS and the number of gov targets we have had is OTT. I spend all day on the phone chasing paperwork from hospitals!

Margaret, bristol, UK

It's a start, although it sounds like the Home Office spokesman still feels that lots of paperwork and targets are needed to ensure "public confidence". When will these pen-pushing idiots realise that they have undermined confidence and trust through their simplistic bureaucratic schemes?

Chris K, Cheltenham, UK

Its killing cops worldwide.
There has to be a better way of dealing with crime than to have constables spending 1/2 their time at a typewriter.
We will never get on top of crims the way we are going.
All hail some wisdom!!!

ex-constable, Sydney, Australia

Surrey can do this only because they are less dependent on central funding than other forces and crime is lower. Surrey police is paid for mainly by local people as the labour govt. drains it of resources. So there is less for Surrey police to lose should the govt. stop its grant

Grant Simon, Surrey, UK

Sad, when common sense makes the headlines.

Everyone knows crime is increasing, and no amount of spin will change it.

ronnie, bucks , uk

Well done Surrey.

At last a Chief Constable who realises that 'ticking boxes' and 'league tables' have ruined what was a Police Service renowned for its common sense and discretion.

Mike, Gravesend, England

Part of the problem re these absurd and counterproductive targets lies in the anonymity of referring to "spokespeople for the Home Office". Name people and the civil service just may also start standing up against government diktat. I wouldn't want to be identified as supporting such stuff.

PeterS, London, England,

Sounds more like Gordon Brown has got his focus groups and spin machine back on the go!

While this would be eminently sensible, I suspect that it'll be business as usual with the speed cameras and charging of silly crimes - and Gord might just get a point or two back in the polls.

dom, Rossendale,

mmm, wonder if this will mean the removal of speed cameras from meaningless areas, or is that tick box too far?

david, southport,

Labour is naturally obsessed with bureacratic paperwork. It is what they are. Just like every controlling, spying government, they have to record it even though no one ever reads it.

Great idea to defy them - not much they can do this time is there !!

Mark Duffin, Stratford upon Avon,

Eleven years late but a move in the right direction. Now let's talk about the 8.3 billion crimes that go unreported, the crimes that are not counted ie all crimes committed by under 16 yr olds, all crimes in hospitals, old peoples homes, uni accommodation etc. Put Police on the streets!

Roger, Surrey.,

This is a case of Goodhart's Law: once a measure is used as a target it ceases to be of use as a measure. Classic centralist NuLab mistake being played out across all of our public services. Now we need schools, local authorities et al to break ranks and tear up their league tables.

Stephen Prior, Wolsingham, England

Bring back the good old bad old days. A clip round the ear and a serious debriefing from a copper puts most kids right. "Off with the gloves and sort out the thugs" should be the catch phrase of the moment.

Keith, Newcastle, England

Unfortunately policy has to cater for the minority, both public and enforcing . The proposal is long overdue -but without the investment of technology to support, defend and scrutinise all parties involved in daily policing activities. Another example of an ill considered senior management paradigm

P Minchinton, Erith, UK

The home secretary "betrayed the police service" by refusing to back date a 2.5% pay rise, said the chairman of the Police Federation on 21 May. Now the police are refusing to play ball with the govt. Does rather looks like a swift case of payback on behalf of the boys in blue. Well done lads!

Joe, London, UK

Makes sense to me. What's the point of mountains of paperwork and statistics if they aren't doing any good? I can see the point of recording all the crimes, but not in choosing whether to arrest someone based on 'targets'.

G Davidson, Kashiwa, Japan

Well done. Damage is done though. The good officers ,with their years of experience to tell when it is appropriate to press charges and when to 'give strong advice' are all gone...

Jane, Christchurch, New Zealand

I can only applaud their stance, well done, hopefully other forces will follow.
Lets get back to reality.

Paul Osbourne, Nettleham, Lincolnshire

“We will get fewer ticks in boxes for bringing offenders to justice – but those figures include issuing penalty notices and cautions when it has not always been sensible to do so. ...."

Halleluyah!! At last, SOMEONE is listening!!

Who cares about 'ticks in boxes' when lives will be saved?

Edwin, Bucharest,

Good for the police, throw out the means of government propaganda, it is policing we need, not empty boasts and falsified figures from government.

D.Baker, Peterborough, Cambs.

At long last, some common sense. We now need every police force in the country to win back the trust of the community, and get back to proper policing. Fewer statistics and more effective policing please.

Simon Rogers, Worcester, Worcestershire