A byproduct of the London riots has been calls from quarters various ranging from Boris (who has a mayoral election to win next Spring or all those nice seats at the Olympics might go to his friend Ken) to the Police Federation (union) and all sorts of others for "the cuts" not to be applied to Police numbers,- or indeed anything else.
As in nearly everything to do with "the cuts" so far, there is fundamental confusion between numbers of heads employed and their effectiveness. The Government missed a vital trick at the very outset of the defecit reduction programme by not insisting that cost cutting did not mean stopping doing things. Up and down the country Government departments and councils ,particularly Labour ones who do not want "the cuts" to succeed anyway, have drawn a straight line equation between cost reductions and activity reductions.
We have said before and will keep saying,-that equation is invalid.
Take for example Police or customer service people in any business on the beat or station/airport/shop floor. One person, armed with all the required training and information plus now modern communications, can be very effective a high percentage of the time they are deployed. What happens if a second is added and they work in pairs? A 100% increase in effectiveness? Sadly not. Being human, they will start to talk to each other. That's pleasant and comfortable and doesn't involve difficult people,questions, exertion or even danger. Quite quickly a high percentage of their time is spent inwardly focused on each other. Their time/cost effectiveness plummets. The larger the group gets the steeper this downward productivity curve gets. Just look at two police on the beat,- how much more would they be looking around and taking things in if they were on their own? The next time you go to an airport take a look at what the staff are doing if they are at desks, boarding gates etc in multiples. Most frequently they are talking,-to each other,-often with backs to the customers.
As a rule the closer the number of people employed to the real demands of the job in hand the more effective and outwardly focused on the task they will be. Add more and their individual performance drops off. It's human nature. The smallest number will also probably be happier and more satisfied by their jobs through achieving more, learning more and being responsible for more. No wonder unions, driven by the financial need to keep memberships and subscriptions up ,hate to even contemplate "more with less". Happy people aren't good for recruitment. As for Boris,-well, he just doesn't understand it and again there is that election to win.
