Lord Dear & Steve at the House of Lords |
With immense
pride, I met with The Lord Geoffrey Dear Kt QPM DL at the House of Lords this
week.
Lord Dear was Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police from 1985 to 1990 when he became one of her Majesties Inspectors of Constabulary. He was described by the broadcaster Sir Robin Day as "the best known and most respected police officer of his generation". Having served in the West Midlands whilst Lord Dear was in charge, I would totally endorse that comment.
Readers will know that we posted our support of Lord Dear recently. when he wrote an article in the Times that outlined the need for Leadership in policing. As a result of that article and contact with Lord Dear, he kindly extended the invite to the Lords. The article link is below if you missed it.
http://thinbluelineuk.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/police-leadership-time-for-new-moral.html
23 years after his retirement from the West Midlands force, it was a privilege to meet the “Boss” again. Now 75, Lord Dear is even more pragmatic and eloquent than I remembered.
Lord Dear acted as our guide, with fascinating insights into the history and activities of the Lords, against the splendour and majesty of the building. For anyone who has not had the privilege of a tour you may wish to click the links below to see a short video and an online tour of the Lords.
This tour is
also available on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wVllfyvGfU&nofeather=True
The most enjoyable moments however were the conversations over coffee. Lord Dear is an engaging and compelling speaker, both publicly and one to one. 34 years as a police officer, many in the most senior capacity has endowed him with vast experience of policing, justice, the law, politics and business. It was most pleasing to hear his common sense views and values on important subjects such as free speech, international business affairs, the malaise that presently exists in UK policing resulting from the lack of real leadership right through to the thorny subject of gay marriage. In a letter to more than 400 peers, Lord Dear criticised the way David Cameron “shunted” the bill through “a very one-sided” Commons committee stage after “wholly inadequate” scrutiny in the Commons.
He said his initial soundings suggested
there was a real possibility that the bill could now “go down” in the Lords
despite support in the Commons.
“The thing that really bothers many is
that the normal process for something as potentially divisive as this has not
been followed.”
“The feeling in the Lords is that although
(in the Commons) the whip was officially declared not to be on there was a lot
of arm twisting going on.”
Another of Lord Dears passions is that of free speech. Perhaps the best example of this is his tabling of the proposal to remove the word “insulting” from section 5(1)a of the 1986 Public Order Bill.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?gid=2012-12-12a.1119.1
To see Lord Dear introducing the amendment go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQJBKvN42PM
Lord Dears passionate and compelling drive for the changes to Section 5, attracted the support of no less than Rowan Atkinson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gciegyiLYtY
As Rowan commented, it is strange that this act, unless amended with continue to represent life imitating fictional humour characters, as in the Not The 9 O'Clock News sketch about a manifestly racist Constable Savage...
A person is guilty of an offence if he—
(a)uses threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or
(b)displays any writing, sign or other visible representation which is threatening, abusive or insulting,
within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby.
(2)An offence under this section may be committed in a public or a private place, except that no offence is committed where the words or behaviour are used, or the writing, sign or other visible representation is displayed, by a person inside a dwelling and the other person is also inside that or another dwelling.
(3)It is a defence for the accused to prove—
(a)that he had no reason to believe that there was any person within hearing or sight who was likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress, or
(b)that he was inside a dwelling and had no reason to believe that the words or behaviour used, or the writing, sign or other visible representation displayed, would be heard or seen by a person outside that or any other dwelling, or
(c)that his conduct was reasonable.
(4)A constable may arrest a person without warrant if—
(a)he engages in offensive conduct which a constable warns him to stop, and
(b)he engages in further offensive conduct immediately or shortly after the warning.
(5)In subsection (4) “offensive conduct” means conduct the constable reasonably suspects to constitute an offence under this section, and the conduct mentioned in paragraph (a) and the further conduct need not be of the same nature.
(6)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
With his customary eloquence Lord Dear opened the debate with:-
“My Lords, in introducing Amendment 119 I have in the front of my mind the words attributed to Voltaire as far back as 1759:
"I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
That is what it is all about tonight. The amendment seeks to curb what I believe is an increasing misuse of the criminal law so as to curb or prevent the proper exercise of free speech. The amendment intends that the word "insulting" should be taken out of Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 and that Section 6 of that Act should be similarly amended to take account of the earlier change”.
On the Thin Blue Line, this is a subject particularly close to our hearts for the following reasons:-
- We feel the demise of responsible whistle blowing police
blogs is largely due to extreme pressure forced upon their authors, effectively
restricting free speech. This is often as a result of accusations that
authors have brought their force or individuals into disrepute. The
withdrawal of the hugely popular Inspector Gadget blog is the most recent
example.
- We have reported frequently on these pages that Section 5
has been widely abused as a result of Chief Officers identifying it as an
easy win offence where detections are more likely. However, the matters
under investigation are all too often minor domestic issues that should
really not form part of police activity unless to protect life and
property which is rarely the case. The common example is that of estranged
couples, allegedly insulting each other to the point where one or both can
allege being in fear, when in fact this is more often than not a ploy used
by either or both to call in the support of the authorities to exert
control over their former partner. Chief Officers have all too often been
guilty of “Gaming” in the form of “Skewing” which is redeploying resources
to the easy wins to the detriment of more difficult to resolve crimes that
the public have a genuine fear of.
- Section 5 appears in its 000’s in the recorded crime
registers, distorting the real picture of crime and criminalising
otherwise innocent members of the public who will falsely admit alleged
offences for fear of the trauma and uncertainty of prosecution.
- 1956: Joined
Peterborough Combined Police (which became part of Mid-Anglia Constabulary
in 1965) as a Cadet then as a Constable
- 1965: Went to
University College, London on a Bramshill Scholarship to study law.
Graduating in 1968
- 1968: Served as
divisional commander in Cambridge
- 1972: Appointed
Assistant Chief Constable (Operations) of Nottinghamshire Combined
Constabulary
- 1975 to 1977: Seconded
to Bramshill Police College as Director of Command Training.
- 1979: Awarded
the Queen's Commendation for Brave Conduct for his arrest of an armed and mentally
deranged man who held his infant son hostage and barricaded himself in a
house after a shooting incident.
Queen's
Commendation for Brave Conduct
Geoffrey
James DEAR, Assistant Chief Constable, Nottinghamshire Constabulary. For
services leading to the arrest of an armed and mentally deranged man who held
his infant son hostage in a barricaded house following a shooting incident.- 1980: Transferred
to the Metropolitan Police as Deputy Assistant Commissioner (Training). In
this role he came to public attention as he instituted racial awareness
training for police officers in the wake of the Brixton riots, into which
he also conducted an internal investigation.
- 1981: Appointed
Assistant Commissioner "D" (Personnel and Training
- 1982: He was
awarded the Queen's Police Medal (QPM)
- 1983: Headed
the Met's investigation into the shooting of Steven Waldorf.
- 1984: Became Assistant
Commissioner "A" (Operations and Administration) of the
Metropolitan Police. He was the last officer to hold the post of Assistant
Commissioner "A" before it was abolished in the reorganisation
later that year.
- 1985: Became
Chief Constable of West Midlands Police. In the West Midlands, he quickly
came to the fore with his handling of the aftermath of the shooting by
police of a young boy and, separately, the aftermath of the 1985
Handsworth riots. He instituted wide-ranging changes in that force, both
administratively and operationally.
- 1989: He headed
the investigation into the Hillsborough Stadium Disaster, the findings of
which were roundly endorsed by the 2012 Independent Enquiry into the same
occurrence.
- 1990: He was
appointed one of HM Inspectors of Constabulary.
1997: He was knighted in
the 1997 New Year Honours,
shortly before his retirement.
- 1997 to 1998: He
was a member of the Glidewell review into the Crown Prosecution Service
from and advised the Auld Review of the Criminal Courts process in 2002
and the Virdi Enquiry in 2003.
- 2 May 2006: Dear
was created a life peer as Baron Dear, of Willersey in the County of
Gloucestershire.
- He has held a number of remunerated
positions as non-executive director or chairman, and is currently non-executive
chairman of Blue Star Capital plc.
- He takes an active and regular part in the
business of the House of Lords, speaking from the cross benches on home
affairs, criminal justice, and rural affairs. In 2008 he successfully lead
opposition in the House of Lords to defeat the Government's intention to
extend from 28 to 42 days the length of time that suspected terrorists
could be held without charge.
- He is Deputy Lieutenant of Worcestershire,
was Vice-Lord Lieutenant of that county from 1998 to 2001, and is an
Honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn. He is a Fellow of University College,
London and an Honorary Fellow of Birmingham City University
Please accept our warm and sincere thanks for the superb
welcome and kind hospitality shown to us during our visit.
The subjects covered resonated strongly with us all and we
will continue to take a great interest in the work and debates where you are
involved. It is a great comfort to meet someone in a position of influence who is so in touch with the general feelings and views of so many in the community.
With warmest regards and best wishes