Police authorities are required by law to produce a Local Policing Summary every year. This summary is meant to let the public in each area know how their force is doing with meeting targets and where they see their priorities for the coming year.
Crucially the law does not dictate how this should be published – it just says that there should be guidance from the Secretary of State. It’s important for the police to communicate with the general public, but it doesn’t need to be at such expense. These summaries should be published on the web, to make savings that do not affect the frontline. At the same time, police authorities should not produce any kind of vanity publications.