A third of police time is wasted on bureaucracy, a report has found.
The work of one student officer investigating a simple burglary was reviewed and directed by nine separate supervisors, said the report on red tape.
And while a superintendent can authorise an officer to carry a firearm on one sheet of paper, it takes at least four sheets to authorise an officer to look through someone's window.
Jan Berry, a former chairwoman of the Police Federation, said it was time to bring back common sense and trust in a bid to redress the balance between the requirement to record and the quality of the investigation.
There were basic skills shortages, a lack of experience in decision-making, inconsistent leadership, poor risk management and an institutionalised blame culture, she said.
Complex accountability and confused governance led to "shared but diluted responsibility, where decision-making can be passed on and no-one held ultimately responsible".
Coupled with the pursuance of personal interest rather than the common good, disproportionate inspection regimes and systems which give "greater attention to recording than investigation", front line officers were left "frustrated at the lack of trust and amount of duplicated effort and waste they experience on a daily basis", she said.
Ms Berry, who was hired by the Home Office to combat bureaucracy, said: "Too much attention is given to crossing Ts and dotting Is and not enough to getting it right first time.
"I would estimate one third of effort is either over-engineered, duplicated or adds no additional value.
"This is unaffordable in the current climate and consideration will need to be given to how savings in time and energy can be realised in hard cash terms."
