Put The Kettle Back On

Back in April 2010 you couldn't pick up a paper without reading about the High Court deciding that the police use of kettling at the G20 protest in 2009 was unlawful. You could read about it here, here, here, and here, for example.

You may be forgiven if you were not aware that a few days ago the Court of Appeal overturned the High Courts decision and ruled that the kettling had been lawful after all. It was covered in the Grauniad but elsewhere you would be hard pushed to find the story.

Protesters and their lawyers have vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court next and, if they lose there, I suspect the case will end up at the European Court. (Who is paying for all this?! The taxpayer I suspect.) If the case goes against the Metropolitan Police expect to read lots more on the subject. If the police case is upheld you may not hear so much as a whisper.

                              Police to Sue For Being Kettled?

Stupid Coppers!

I can't help watching cop programs on the TV. My favourite is Police Interceptors. Mostly, the officers are highly motivated and they know the law and arrest lots of bad guys, and that is how it should be. I get depressed when I see what the rest of the justice system does with these offenders but then that is another story.

Last night I watched Coppers on Channel 4. I cringed with embarrassment watching some officers behaviour. We saw a female officer referring to criminals as 'shits.' We saw a male officer pushing a drunk away and telling him to go away. The drunk just wouldn't go. The policeman pushed the man hard four times causing him to fall over and then eventually arrested him. There was no justification for pushing him in that manner.

Later in the program we saw a number of police officers attend a disturbance on a social housing estate. It is fair to say we had about ten drunk men, women and children as young as 14. All those involved were of very limited intelligence and were probably inter related. There was no reasoning with them. They wouldn't heed any instructions or warnings and some were abusive. Arrests started being made. A woman shouted abuse at one of the officers and was taken hold of and thrown on the ground causing more mayhem as those present protested about her treatment. I understand this was a difficult situation but there was no justification for the way this woman was thrown to the ground.

The above video has just popped up on Youtube. The police officer is on a bike and has stopped another cyclist who he says he has seen ride through a red traffic light. This offence is an increasing problem and pedestrians and the cyclists themselves are being injured or worse by this behaviour. The alleged offending cyclist is an arrogant barrack room lawyer who is one of those pedantic idiots I actually like to deal with. But it must be done properly. The problem is this officer doesn't know what he is doing and makes a complete arse of himself. He even stupidly tries to grab the cyclists camera.

I guess the point is the police are having to deal with more and more awkward and difficult people. The days of almost anyone doing what they are told by anyone apparently in authority are almost over. To effectively deal with these people you need to be calm, composed and in control of yourself at all times. You also need to have a good knowledge of the law.

From what I have seen over the last few days some police officers are failing miserably when it comes to these qualities. Supervisors need to get hold of these officers and get them shaped up or shipped out!

Police Shafted! 2

                                      Winsor -  Bothered?

I wrote back in March last year regarding the Winsor report and how this might affect police officers remuneration and working conditions. This was always going to be a difficult subject and I am certainly not expecting the public to be queueing up supporting the police cause.

The Police Arbitration Tribunal (PAT) have now decided that the Government can go ahead and impose most of the changes to our pay and conditions. You can read the full PAT report here. The summary of decisions is on pages 44 and 45.

Without going into detail, the PAT decision confirms that police officers will receive no pay increase for at least two years. A number of allowances and overtime payments will disappear or be cut. In addition to this you need to understand that officers pension contributions are being increased by up to three and a half percent. At a time of high inflation and economical difficulty, police officers face an average pay cut of around 10%.

Historically police officers have not been financially motivated. The job was largely vocational and officers were happy to work hard and answer all the demands of the role secure in the knowledge that they were reasonably rewarded. This used to be the case in other public sector occupations such as health. Nurses were always the saints who had the time and motivation to take care of patients. Over the last 20 years this has changed. Public servants are often portrayed as expensive and inefficient. The bottom line of the private sector has been seen as the panacea to solve these inefficient organisations. Cleaning is contracted out. Auxiliary nurses were brought in to do the menial tasks that we were paying nurses too much to do. Targets and qualifications with rewards for achieving them were seen as the answer to the perceived inefficiency. Private sector management understand little regarding the service the public sector provides.

The same management has now infiltrated the police service. We have seen the introduction of PCSO's to replace 'expensive' police officers. But they cannot carry out many of the tasks that police officers on patrol are required to. We have a target driven culture (despite what the government say) with senior managers being rewarded for achieving them. The myriad of tasks we carry out that don't appear on the target list are neglected. The culture has seen policing becoming less of a vocation and more and more officers are now treating it as just a job. The problem with this has already compounded itself in nursing. A recent inquiry has come to the conclusion that many nurses lack the compassion and ability to do the job.

What has happened in health will manifest itself in the police service. The remuneration package the police will now receive combined with the target culture and attack on conditions, such as shift patterns and on call, will result in fewer capable people joining the police and a lack of care and compassion for the law abiding public we try to do our best for.

I am seriously concerned regarding the future of policing in this country.

Diane Abbott MP

As one might expect, the white supremacist groups are crying for blood regarding the stupid comments tweeted by Diane Abbott. If you missed it she tweeted 'White people love 'Divide and rule' We should not play their game.'

What annoys me is that Abbott has tried to defend the indefensible. In an interview, (shown above) that was clearly uncomfortable for her, she said. "Some people have interpreted it maliciously." (For some people insert racists. Diane's defence usually labels critics with this tag.) She claims she was referring in the tweet to 19th Century colonialism. If you read the thread of the tweet, this is not true. During the interview she got a call from Ed Milliband who was hopefully trying to show some leadership and tell her to apologise.



Here is Diane, looking very uncomfortable, being questioned by Andrew Neil regarding more stupid comments.

There are calls for the police to get involved in this. I have no doubt they would be champing at the bit to do so if the circumstances were different. Arguably the police could be looking at investigating the statement under Sections 17 to 29 of the Public Order Act 1986.

It now appears that Ed has given her a dressing down and told her to apologise. It is a pity she did not do this immediately. She has now issued a statement saying “I understand people have interpreted my comments as making generalisations about white people. I do not believe in doing that. I apologise for any offence caused.” I hope that is the end of the matter now and that the police do not become embroiled in investigating these stupid remarks.

Wasting Police Time

I really drew the short straw this Christmas, working a late shift on Christmas Day. In my Force if you work Christmas Day you don't work New Years Eve. Sounds great but I am on an early New Years Day which means a very subdued celebration tonight.

Christmas Day wasn't too bad this year, a bit like a Sunday. We only had three domestics to attend. These were all at, dare I say, social housing. Very sad really but a product of the society we live in. In every case we have a woman who is quite inadequate in many respects. There are children and there are the current 'partners.' In all three cases the current partner is not the father of all or any of the children in the house. The 'partners' have their own issues and inadequacies. Only one of them was working, for example. In every case there has been excessive alcohol consumption and petty arguments. The sort of arguments that only these children in adults bodies can have. In two cases there are allegations of assault and so off to the cells two of the 'partners' go.

The next few hours the children's Christmas is taken up with the police completing a 12 page risk assessment and the mother making a statement to police. A statement they will withdraw in the morning when they realise the inadequate waste of space they have given a roof in their taxpayer provided house, will not be coming back if charges are pressed. And after all, they do love them really.

I paid a visit to the control room. Thank heavens it is not too busy. The number of police officers working on a Bank Holiday has been cut to worrying levels. The control room has also been pared to the bone in an effort to save money. Trying to run more than one incident in the County would be quite difficult.

Of note is the calls coming into the control room. Christmas Day is one of the few days in the year now when everything is shut. So the calls for help come into the emergency services. Can we find a plumber for someone whose heating has broken down? Are there any trains running today? What time does the Next Sale start tomorrow morning?

I shall be at work at 5.30 a.m. tomorrow morning. There will be a skeleton staff on again as it is a Bank Holiday. The biggest concern will be do we have enough staff to deal with all the drunken idiots that will be arrested tonight.

Happy New Year!!