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This essay has discussed challenges within stop and search in policing, it will now discuss lack of resources within policing and the affects and challenges it faces. Policing has altered considerably over time and continues to change to keep up with constant changing demand. In 2010 funding to the home office was cut considerably inclusive of the police and the recovery is still ongoing. There was speculation from the media that around 60,000 officers would be lost before 2015 (Daily Mail, 2010). These cuts have left forces with lack of resources compared to the increase in demand. Consequently, lack of resources has resulted in a rise in crime and lack of thorough crime investigation. For instance, since 2013, crime has increased by 7.5% (Unison, 2022) with Home Office analysis stated that the decline in police officers was probable and will be a ‘contributory factor’ in the rise of crime (The Police Foundation, 2018). Alternatively Chief constable Ian Hopkins from Greater Manchester Police suggested that financial cutbacks have resulted in officers prioritising more brutally than before. Jobs such as thefts were being "screened out" and not investigated. This is down to lack of officers and if it is not a ‘serious’ crime, it will be closed quickly and stated as lack of evidence to pursue (BBC News, 2019). This behaviour can have a negative impact on public perception of police. Although there is an increase in the recruitment efforts with the promise of 20,000 new officers within the police, these are predominantly student officers in their probationary period with less experience than the skilled officers that were lost in 2015 (Gov UK, 2019). It appears that abilities are simple to lose and challenging to ‘regain’ (Heslop R, 2011). This is evident that lack of resources has a negative impact on response times and crime investigation in policing, as there is lack of competent resources. Due to this, the public are lacking faith in the police force, therefore not trusting them as much, due to being quickly disposed of and poorly investigated and can lead to the police being deemed “a waste of time” (BBC News, 2019). It is evident that new officers are being micromanaged, leading to preventing new officers use of discretion and being unable to properly investigate crime following expected standards. Through lack of resources police services are becoming risk averse, which is affecting public perception and officers often feeling the pressure to avoid scrutiny (Heslop R, 2011). Professional standards are a collection of standards in which people are expected to perform within. They include ethics and conducts that participants of a specific professional group should adhere to. These standards through a regulating body that represents the concerns of the group are then agreed to. Professional standards are vital, they guarantee that there is accountability for decisions and actions. Policing professional standards are incorporated in The Code of Ethics, this was made by the College of Policing in 2014. It establishes exemplary standards of conduct and the expectations of how the police should behave from the public’s perspective. Nine principles were created within the code of ethics. These are Accountability, Fairness, Honesty, Integrity, Leadership, Objectivity, Openness, Respect and Selflessness (College of Policing, 2022). Lack of resources in policing poses a challenge on officers abiding by professional standards, as the lack of resources affects fairness within the professional standards. For instance, fairness is when every member of the community is treated equally which does not appear to be happening because of this. Low level crime is often brushed under the carpet and not properly investigated. This can vary from the type of crime it is, which is not showing use of integrity towards the victims of crime. If a substantial number of competent resources were within a police force, then it would have a positive effect on incidents as they would be treated at the same standard and level of accountability. Accountability could be taken for workloads following the standards set which through lack of resources is resulting in officers not dealing with jobs to a high standard (Heslop R. (2011). In 1993 sociologist George Ritzer developed the mcdonaldization theory. This examined the controlled, governmental, lacking in humanity way of modern social life. It appears that the rules of the fast-food restaurant are occurring in more areas of society. This appears to be focussing on more of an organisational change than relating to just a ‘fast food restaurant’ This is becoming more apparent in many social institutions such as the police. The mcdonaldization theory has 4 components. These are calculability, efficiency, predictability, and control. In relation to these components, it has been mentioned that in more recent years, the police are being subject to scrutiny as part of performance and have become obsessed with quantifying. Alongside this, the ‘value for money’ is being monitored. The newest generation of police officers who have been recruited in the last decade have experienced nothing else other than the quantitative performance target regime. This has become the main approach of assessing accomplishments which is described as “the counting culture”. Omnicompetent police officer is at risk of becoming non-existent due to officers not dealing with incidents from beginning to end. This is due to the cuts made to officers and the uplift in officers predominantly being student officers (Heslop R. 2011). For instance, one job could be looked at by several different people involved in one investigation. The issue then is who takes responsibility of a specific area of work, if not one individual is taking accountability of this it can lead to important elements being overlooked. Control is one of the main factors which links with lack of resources in policing as through the reduced number of experienced officers over the years. Although they are beginning to be replaced as mentioned, with new officers there appears to be stricter rules and one way of doing things. This is known as being ‘micromanaged’ and ‘lack of discretion’ being allowed to be used. Conclusion In conclusion, this essay has proven through statistics, that stop and search is being used in a discriminatory manner. This is posing a challenge for police officers actioning their duty due to scrutiny and misinterpretation, even if the search has legitimate grounds. Discussion on diversity and the importance around a diverse police force has shown that if a force is diverse this can prevent misunderstandings. The procedural justice theory strengthens the importance around ‘voice’ and ‘neutrality’ ensuring legitimate policing. This essay further discussed the lack of resources in policing and consequently it is proven that although the efforts of recruitment have been made, it is the lack of competent officers and the mcdonaldization of policing that has a significant reduction on police discretion and deskilling. This has brought around de-professionalisation (Trust and Justice, 2022). In summary, It is impractical and unnecessary to insist that policing should be immaculate. However, police services should strive to increase competent resources to work effectively while striving towards a diverse force, following professional standards.