Bernard Hogan-Howe couldl join Lord Stevens (the former Metropolitan Police commissioner) to oversee the establishment of a GB pound 20 million uniformed force to patrol the UK’s notoriously ‘porous’ civil borders, preventing illegal immigrants and criminal factions from entering the country.
Enlisting Hogan-Howe to sit on the UK Border Security Advisory Committee would be a major coup for Cameron. As Merseyside’s most senior officer, Hogan-Howe has often spoken of his despair at the criminal justice system for letting suspects (including armed robbers) back on to our city streets only for them to re-offend. Last month, Hogan-Howe became the first senior police officer in the country to admit that the decision to downgrade cannabis to a Class C drug should be reviewed.
Hogan-Howe holds an MA in law from Oxford University, in addition to a diploma in applied criminology, and was awarded an MBA in business administration from Sheffield University. He joined South Yorkshire Police in 1979 where he worked as district commander for the Doncaster West area, and also headed departments in traffic policing and a team responsible for implementing a comprehensive reorganisation of South Yorkshire Police. He has experience in crime investigation and strategic leadership of major public events, public disorder and organised crime, particularly involving the use of firearms. In 1997, he joined Merseyside Police as assistant chief constable with responsibility for community affairs before assuming responsibility for area operations in 1999.
Hogan-Howe joined the Metropolitan Police Service as assistant commissioner in July 2001, with responsibility for Human Resources. During this time, he led a team which recruited 10,000 officers and 1,500 Police Community Support Officers in just three years. This helped the Metropolitan Police Service to attain 20% growth reaching 30,000 officers, the largest ever in the history of the force. In his final year, the force took 15% of recruits from the minority communities of London.
Hogan-Howe also represented ACPO as chair of the Personnel Committee, and took part in National Terms and conditions discussions at the Police Negotiating Board in 2002/03 (in turn rejecting the Police Reform Act 2003). He was appointed chief constable of Merseyside Police in September 2004.
At present, there are six agencies directly responsible for preventing individuals illegally entering the country, including the police service, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the immigration service. However, Cameron (who has been severely critical of what he perceives to be a “lack of overall co-ordination” between these bodies) wants to explore ways in which the disparate strands of law enforcement could be merged. “Any country that is genuinely serious about its security must have properly policed borders,” suggested the Conservative supremo. “We are an island, so to achieve that state of affairs should be much easier for us than it is for most nations. However, under the present administration we don’t know who’s coming in or who’s going out. That is unacceptable. Our society is not being properly defended against drug dealers, gun smugglers and terrorists.”
The Tory leader wants dedicated officers, under central command, posted at every major port and entry point around the British coast. The announcement that he will use money from ditching Labour’s planned ID cards scheme to help fund the force is part of a clear attempt by the Conservatives to answer charges that they have been too soft on immigration and security while attempting to give the party a more caring image.
Other members of the seven-man UK Border Security Advisory Committee include British Transport Police chief Ian Johnston (who also sits on Security Management Today’s Editorial Advisory Board) and former chief inspector of constabulary Sir Keith Povey.