Bureaucratic English

The Association of Chief Police Officers in the UK has written a report containing a 102 word sentence that defies all efforts to pry meaning from it:

‘The promise of reform which the Green Paper heralds holds much for the public and Service alike; local policing, customised to local need with authentic answerability, strengthened accountabilities at force level through reforms to police authorities and HMIC, performance management at the service of localities with targets and plans tailored to local needs, the end of centrally-engineered one size fits all initiatives, an intelligent approach to cutting red tape through redesign of processes and cultures, a renewed emphasis on strategic development so as to better equip our service to meet the amorphous challenges of managing cross force harms, risks and opportunities.’

My favourite part is: ā€œa renewed emphasis on strategic development so as to better equip our service to meet the amorphous challenges of managing cross force harms, risks and opportunities.ā€ A phrase of concentrated impenetrability, garnished with the inevitable split infinitive.

Leave a Reply