CHIEF CONSTABLES DEFY THERESA MAY OVER POLICING PLEDGE

Our thanks go to the latest post from Inspector Gadget for drawing our attention to this one.

Over half of the 43 police forces of England and Wales have simply ignored the Home Secretary and carried on bullying officers to meet the Policing Pledge and Public Confidence targets, that she formally abolished on 29th June. Over 200 contributors have commented on this article, reporting the examples of forces whose Chief Officers are openly defying the instruction from the Theresa May, effectively sticking their fingers up to the Government.

As far back as November 08, Jacqui Smith, then Home Secretary was congratulating Essex as the 1st force to publicly roll out the pledge.

From the outset, many common sense coppers agreed with the statement that the pledge was a “costly charade” doomed to fail, that would waste public money and valuable police resources administering the latest Government & Chief Officers flight of fancy. Visionary commentators, from both inside and out of the service felt it was “stating the blindingly obvious”.

There are few better examples than the pledge to illustrate how excessive political interference in operational policing, both exposes the naivety of many Chief Officers and reveals how costly and dangerous a little knowledge can be.

The origins of the initiative can be found in three key documents – the Flanagan Review of Policing, the Engaging Communities in Fighting Crime report by Louise Casey, and the Government’s Policing Green Paper. Ms Casey, who previously led Nu Labour initiatives on homelessness, anti-social behaviour and respect, recommended that all forces across England and Wales should put in place “a local police commitment in every neighbourhood” based on the ten approaches identified by the public in her report. She called for the commitments to be put in place by the beginning of 2009.

Many saw Gordon Browns endorsement of the pledge as the beginning of the end when he described it as the start of “a new era of policing”.

At the time Jacqui Smith said “I passionately believe that empowering the public to get a good deal through the Policing Pledge will play a powerful role in driving up the quality of policing for our citizens and in our communities”.

Embarrassingly now perhaps, that enthusiasm was shared both by ACPO and by the Essex Chief Constable, Roger Baker. Cambridgeshire Chief Constable Julie Spence, ACPO’s lead on citizen focus, said that chief officers were “unswervingly committed to a visible, accessible, responsive and familiar policing style, focused on the expectations and needs of local people,” and added: “I hope the national Policing Pledge will help reassure the public that policing is responsive to their needs.”

Twelve months and £3.5million worth of media advertising later, the Advertising Standards Authority ordered that the adverts were misleading by promising that patrols would be visible 80% of the time. The adverts were withdrawn. The HMIC added fuel to the flames when they announced that the majority of forces were failing to deliver on the commitment.

And yet, the tenacity with which the unelected defend their privileges never ceases to amaze us. Under a Labour administration the Police chiefs were digging in every bit as stubbornly as Eurocrats, and for the same reason: they hate the idea of having to answer to the rest of us, to accept that their precious pledge was the flop that the front-liners and police bloggers predicted it would be.

The pledge, along with all the other performance targets such as the nebulous single measure of public confidence, dodgy crime statiticss reporting and fudged detections have served as a convenient cloak for Chief Officers to hide behind and screw the system for their bonuses.

To quote the refreshing Theresa May:

‘We want to let you get on with policing without Government constantly sitting on your shoulders telling you how to do it. I know that some officers like the Policing Pledge, and some, I’m sure, like the comfort of knowing they’ve ticked boxes. But targets don’t fight crime; targets hinder the fight against crime. In scrapping the confidence target and the Policing Pledge, I couldn’t be any clearer about your mission: it isn’t a 30-point plan; it is to cut crime. No more, and no less.’

And therein lies the rub. Stripping out all the potty projects and targets will expose the managerial weaknesses of many Chief Officers, who “Just don’t get it”.

Many of these Chiefs are so out of touch with real policing and have never “fought crime” on the street as the front-liners do 24/7. Their biggest fear must surely be that they will no longer be able to hide behind the latest fad project, pretty power-point presentation or yet another form that is “essential”.

How will they cut crime?

Well it would be brilliant if they would face up to the truth that the figures have been fudged for political and financial gain for donkeys years, but no doubt they will continue to “Cook the Books”.

The rot in recorded crime and detections goes back many years. It was interesting to see the retired West Midlands Detective Chief Inspector, Dr Rodger Patrick confirming these practices are still prevalent in the Telegraph article :-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6736505/Police-force-tricks-to-fiddle-crime-figures.html

“Cuffing” “Stiching” “Skewing” and “Nodding” are all familiar terms to both the front line and Chief Officers, as methods of manipulating the numbers to perpetuate the illusion of falling crime. We know from our front line contacts that the practices remain endemic across the forces. Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation said: “This research demonstrates that senior officers are directing and controlling widespread manipulation of crime figures. The public are misled, politicians can claim crime is falling and chief officers are rewarded with performance-related bonuses.”

Denis O’Connor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, published an official report into the way police record violent crime and admitted the figures may be skewed by “perverse incentives” around government performance targets.

As Dr Patrick discovered though, the HMIC and Police Standards Unit have displayed a general tendency to underplay the scale and nature of the practices. It certainly begs the question as to why there are no examples of Chief Officers being brought to book, or even publicly criticised for this type of crime figure manipulation. Apparently, the HMIC refer examples of widespread gaming to the Home Secretary or police authority, rather than “hold the chief constable to account” because of the risk of political embarrassment.

HMIC inspectors should be made accountable to Parliament rather than the Home Office, and should also be drawn from other professions rather than solely from senior police ranks.

The months leading up to the end of the financial year are particularly challenging within police circles for reporting crime. In particular, the challenges and pressure are aimed at the front line rank and file. These months see a marked increase in pressure from Chief Officers cascading down through the ranks, urging officers to “censor” the crimes that are reported. The reason for this is clear. The Chiefs are massively financially remunerated with bonuses for decreased crime and increased detections and this is the quarter when they can exert pressure down the line to protect their “gravy train” from derailing.

One police blogger drew attention to the increased pressure exerted by Chief Officers until the end of the financial year. To quote an e mail from his Senior Officer from his article:-

“They (front line officers) must not, under any circumstances, get out on the street and find any more crime. Not until the next financial year anyway. All their accumulated leave is to be taken between now and April. It’s best to have them out-of-the-way, they just can’t be trusted to stay indoors”.

How crooked the system intended to prevent and detect crime has become. You only have to read some of the officers comments on these blog pages to see that the pressure and corrupt practices are rife. Ms May and her colleagues face a mammoth challenge unraveling this pernicious conspiracy and web of deceit that has been foisted upon the tax payer.

Not surprising that front line officers feel they are doing the dirty work of the Chiefs, betraying the public trust and feeling pressured into compliance.

Even less surprising is the Chief Officer resistance to let go of the pledge and other doubtful projects that have disguised their incompetence’s and failings for so long.

Poice bloggers are forced to hide behind a cloak of anonymity, in fear of the career reprisals that Senior Officers will impose in the event of their identities being discovered. The officers we have contact with are loyal and committed both to the service and to the reforms advocated by Theresa May. All they want is to play their part in delivering the objective, of truly cutting crime, not cooking the books or manipulating numbers, but in restoring public confidence in the best way possible, by visibly protecting life and property and improving the quality of our society. No one wants to make political statements or be seen to support one politician or another. All they want is a return to common sense policing, a fair and effective delivery of justice.

In support of these frontline officers, we name and shame those forces that, as of today, are openly resisting this opportunity to scrap a project that simply didn't work in practice. We will leave the reader to draw their own conclusions as to their motives.

FORCES THAT REFUSE TO SCRAP THE FAILED POLICE PLEDGE

POSTSCRIPT :-

16th August 2010 : I have today received a reply to two e mails sent to the Home Secretary concerning the forces that have failed to withdraw the Policing Pledge.

I attach a copy of the letter here for information.

The key paragraph reads :-

"The Home Secretary has made it clear to all Chief Constables that the Policing Pledge has now been scrapped, along with the last remaining Home Office target set on the police. Police forces must tailor their service to the needs of local communities rather than following central targets and diktats, which have served to create an increase in bureaucracy. It is now for each police force to determine how best to cut crime and deliver on the priorities that matter to local communities in their area. In future, it will be down to the Police and Crime Commissioner for each force to set priorities locally and for the public to hold them to account for performance".

A Minute for Madeleine McCann

We would call upon every visitor to these pages to click the link below to Inspector Gadgets' site to see the post he has entered -

http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/4258/

On the site you will see a short video about Madelaine. There are some interesting comments below that post. One of which has a lists some very good points. There is a lot of unanswered questions about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and we sincerely hope that someday the world will know the full truth of the matter and pray for her safe return to her parents.

Crime Analysis Team
Nice 1 Limited

THE FARCE OF UK CRIMINAL JUSTICE

When a 17 year old teenager threw stones at the window of a disabled pensioner, Renate Bowling, 71, confronted the 17-year-old youth in the street. She bravely went out to remonstrate with him. During the conversation the frail widow, who fled to Britain from Communist East Germany and walks with a steel frame, prodded the youth in the chest with her finger.

She told him what she thought of him. He called her "some ****ing German woman".


Police officers were called to the quiet residential street and the teenager told them he had been assaulted.


'Then the police arrested me - I thought "What a joke. What is going on?"


'That lad had held my wrists and bruised them and he had the gall to call it self-defence.

'The police put me in the back of their van like a sack of spuds and took me to the station where they questioned me. Then a few days later I was told I was being prosecuted. I could not believe it, neither could my family.

'I had to borrow £20 from a friend to pay the court costs as I only had £30 on me. It has all been a nightmare

To read the full Daily mail story click here

COMMENT

This story exemplifies what a complete farce the Criminal Justice System has become.

That a system has become so perverse that common sense could not prevail is beyond belief. The sad fact is that the majority of common sense coppers in the UK agree with how ridiculously commonplace such incidents are.

Inspector Gadget, Copperfield, Ellie Bloggs, 200 and other police bloggers and authors have been trying to raise public awareness about the mid boggling utter stupidity of the crime reporting system for a few years now.

Hunting detections to improve crime figures is slowly but surely eroding the confidence of natural police supporters. Ordinary people who make up the bulk of the British population are being criminalised in ways like that of Renate Bowling, all in the crazy pursuit of ticked boxes and meeting targets. The common sense police response would be to exercise descretion, rap the youth on the knuckles for his behaviour and advise Mrs Bowling. The mad system that has evolved however does not allow for discretion. Once the matter is reported, (the assualt in this case) it is logged on computer as a crime. The case cannot be resolved and "detected" until the accused accepts responsibility. The officers are not permitted to show discretion and walk away, they are forced by the system to follow it through. Teams of audit officers scrutinise and follow up on such cases until the detection box is ticked.

In this case, as with many thousands of others concealed within Home Office figures, the price paid for the detection was way out of proportion with common sense policing. The result is one criminalised disabled grandmother who has lost all confidence and support for the police. Consider further the many hours consumed by officers taking statements and processing the matter for the CPS. Whilst police officers are tied up with enquiries like this that only serve to diminish confidence in the service, they are not available to respond to other more serious and needy cases. Little wonder police morale is at its lowest ebb, when the very system they are forced to implement prevents them doing the really important jobs as effectively as they would want.

The example is one of thousands where the CPS then exacurbate the situation by pursuing the case, safe in the knowledge they have another detection secured. Why oh why, could common sense not have prevailed and the decision made to take no further action? If the responsibility and decsion to charge was returned back to the custody sergeant, common sense might well have prevailed, and Mrs Bowling may have been saved the indignity of a court appearance and a black mark against her otherwise good name.

Police Officers and CPS are being strangled by Government directions and performance targets to detect at any cost. All so that the Government can feed the public more statistical spin about how crime has reduced since they came to power. 

A consequence of the true public perception is that less than 50% of crimes are reported. The public have lost confidence that the police will be able to do anything, or worse, as in this case, as the real victim, you are more likely to face prosecution than the yob. We no longer have an accurate grip on what is real and manufactured concerning crime in the UK. On that basis, how can any Government accurately forecast the financial and human resourcing for a given area?

The system doesn't legislate or care, it got its detection and that's all that matters.

Politicians take note . . . .  This needs addressing SOON.

The Crime Analysis Team
Nice 1 Ltd

ARE YOU READY FOR THE TRUTH ABOUT POLICING IN THE UK?

One of the better police blogs is http://200weeks.police999.com/ which burst into life on September 9th 2005. The site was created by a rEgular police officer who has dedicated his life to the force and area that he serves.

In his own words, the site author has spent his entire life "in the trenches" as a front line officer. In February 2009, the author hung up his boots and truncheon, and after 30 years service, became a civilian in his police force control room, a vantage point from where he is able to continue his insightful reports on policing as it really is in the UK today.

A prolific and intelligent writer, "200" posts regular articles that provide an honest and informed view of the challenges that face police officers in their attempts to deliver a fair system of justice, despite an ever increasing burden of bureacuracy and idiotic procedures.

The articles reprinted below are two fine examples from "200" of real world of policing in Britain in 2009.

NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH

The dreadful case of Fiona Pilkington whose life was blighted by anti social youths on her estate to such an extent that she took her own child’s life & committed suicide by setting fire to her car as they sat in it, will have some far-reaching repurcussions. The surprise is that, in the two years since this tragic event happened, there has been just about zero change in the way police deal with anti-social behaviour.

I spend every late shift in every town I control not sending police officers to anti social youths. This is despite the fact that I know what an effect it can have on people’s lives let alone their peace. I’m almost ashamed to say but I have anti social behaviour in my street & I never report it to the police, the reason purely & simply is, I know there is little chance of the police arriving before the youths have moved on. If it’s gotten too bad I have gone out there myself & given some ‘advice’, though I don’t like doing this in my own street. (I tend to climb over my back fence & appear from somewhere not near my house so they don’t know where I live).

The apalling crux of the matter is one of mathematics. We have X-amount of officers & we get Y-amount of jobs which take Z-amount of time. When Y x Z > X we cannot possibly get to all the jobs on time, if at all. We either have to make people wait, in some cases days, or we just don’t go.

The problem with antisocial behaviour is that it doesn’t fit in with any targets & we don’t get to tick any boxes. When Jay sends a text message to his ex-girlfriend Leah saying she’s a slag, that’s threats to violence or damage, malicious communications or a domestic, all of which are recordable & may result in a detected crime. When Mrs Miggins is fed up to the back teeth with a bunch of teenage yobs who spend every night shouting & swearing outside her bedroom & pissing up against her fence, that’s just a bit of ASB. Guess which one gets an officer sent to it whether they want one or not & which one gets closed off 2 hours after the youths have gone elsewhere with a ‘no officer available’ closing.

Mrs Pilkington did not have the protection afforded to certain groups within society. Had she been black or Asian, Jewish or gay, she would have had an officer every single occasion she phoned. There are teams within each police force whose sole job it is to look at ‘hate’ crimes against minority groups. I well remember a case of some kids throwing snowballs at a Jewish shop, on a day when the kids were throwing snowballs at everyone & anyone & we didn’t have the resources to deal with all the accidents & crime let alone kids chucking snowballs. Most of the snowball jobs just got closed off because there was absolutely no chance of us sending anyone; we had more important & immediate things to do. The Jewish shop had to remain open because the racism word had been mentioned. Within an hour the Inspector in charge of the diversity unit was on the phone to the control room inspector demanding to know why this racist incident hadn’t been assigned within the 1 hour requirement of force policy.

Nobody phoned up from any police unit who sit on their arses looking at logs in some office somewhere at HQ on behalf of all the other people being taunted by kids with snow. The fact that Mrs Pilkington had a disabled daughter, much of which taunting was aimed at, doesn’t seem to have cut any ice with the local constabulary.

I’ve blogged before about the unfairness of diversity policy & have argued that everyone should be treated on their own merits only. It completely baffles me that, for instance, a 6′6 Afro-Caribbean nightclub bouncer with years in the nighttime entertainment trade, who gets called a rude name is entitled to a better service than a vulnerable teenage girl who may be, unknowingly to us, considering suicide because of some bullying. How can a rule written on a policy somewhere at police HQ possibly differentiate between the effect on these two people & class one as somehow more deserving of a higher response than the other. Where is the leeway to attend based on the individual potential effect on the victim?

Just occasionally, someone will come up with a local operation to target antisocial behaviour. Extra resources will be called in & they will be tasked for ASB jobs alone, unavailable for RTCs, assaults or domestics. This is a clear acceptance of the importance of tackling such behaviour, but if it is important, why isn’t important all the time & on every estate.

Antisocial behaviour is the key to so many more problems in society. Someone who grows up not having consequences for their behaviour will learn that they are entitled to do what they want, when they want, to whom they want. They will grow up with a me, me, me attitude & will spend the rest of their lives demanding everything they can get. A child who grows up to respect other peoples needs & rights will end up as net givers to society.

When I was on the street I actually enjoyed helping to make other people’s lives a little better. One of the reasons I wanted to join the police was to help people who couldn’t help themselves. I held that belief until the day I retired. I still believe it. I am unable to do it because I do not have the resources nor the will from those who run the show to sort the matter out.

After the story of Mrs Pilkington, I will be wondering if the next job I fail to send an officer to will end up with someone murdering their child & topping themselves. That’s simply not fair & I don’t have the power to address it properly.

Time will tell whether the fallout from Mrs Pilkington will make any difference.

AND SO IT GOES . . . .


Twenty years ago Mrs Pilkington would have had a much better service than she got in the years leading up to 2007. There were many thousands less police officers. In March this year there were 144,000 police officers. In March 1987 there were 120,000.

We have 24,000 more police officers yet those available for front line policing have been slashed dramatically. I don’t have access to any figures for the amount of officers available for day-to-day policing calls so I can only go by my own experience. In 1987 one division I worked in paraded 18 officers split between 4 police stations. This did not include 3 rural cars which covered the villages, 1 officer in every neighbourhood beat & a rural officers who shared all the villages between them. We put out 9 patrol cars in the division plus a walker in each of the town centres & the police stations were open 24 hours a day.

Now those same 4 towns have a maximum of 8 officers between them, we are lucky if they can put out 5 cars in the whole division, all of the police stations are closed longer than they are open.

Back in the day the village bobby lived on the patch & knew everyone & everything there was to be known. He probably looked after 2 or 3 villages. Every estate had a neighbourhood officer who lived on their patch, they often had a little police office attached to their house, they too knew everyone, they were a vast source of information. What they knew & what they did couldn’t be recorded in an exel spreadsheet yet their value to policing was enormous.

Then someone in a wendy house somewhere decided that the only way to measure the success of an organisation was to match its performance against a written down set of criteria & the way to do this was to count beans. Suddenly, the value of everything was measured in beans & rural/neighbourhood officers didn’t grow any beans on their patches. Add to that the fact that they lived in expensive police houses.

The theory went that if you did away with neighbourhood & rural officers not only could you pull them all back to the nick where they could produce a few beans, you could also save the expense of maintaining their houses, sell them off & plough lots of lovely lolly into all the new & dynamic projects which were about to hit the world of UK policing. We lost a generation of intelligence which we are only now getting back, amazingly enough, through local PCSOs, who will, within a few years, be just as valuable a tool to police intelligence as the old village bobby.

It made good political – read voting – sense to increase the number of bobbies, so every government promised more. More bobbies means more votes ‘cos we all want more bobbies on the streets, only they never made the streets. They all went into disparate little ‘remit’ teams. You know the teams, they are the ones you ask for help when you’re struggling to meet all the frontline priorities who turn round & say “sorry, mate, not my remit”.

So we had the burglary squad, set up to specifically target burglary beans, the robbery squad busy collecting robbery beans, sexual offences squad, paedophile squad, computer crime squad, diversity squad, more officers means more potential for naughty goings-on so the rubber heel squad was boosted. We had the serious crime units, the bloody serious crime units, organised crime, it goes on. Then there are the units who monitor the other units, who count the beans, who supervise those who count the beans, who make sure the right beans are being counted.

So every time an Inspector of Constabulary comes a-calling & says, “now look here Mr Chief Constable, your force is doing particularly low in detections of spanner-wielding credit-card thieves” we have to have a department whose soul aim is to reduce spanner-wielding credit card thefts.

The problem for those on the front line is that most of the calls we get don’t lead to all the remit-beans. Nobody measures the prevention of crime, nobody measures kids who piss up your garage & chuck eggs through your windows, nobody measures depressed people who threaten suicide but never go through with it. You don’t get a bean for sitting outside a row of shops stopping the kids from spitting at people with special needs.

And if they’re not measured, they’re not important.

If the next Inspector of Constabulary comes round & says “Now look here Mr Chief Constable, the behaviour of teenage yobs in this area is apalling, this chart shows a 150% increase in bad language in front of old ladies, get it sorted” you’ll have so many shiny-arses out of their offices that the problem could be sorted in a year.

It ain’t gonna happen, though.

COMMENT

The authors of this site have been contacted by senior politicians who are capable of introducing effective criminal justice reforms. They tell us that they are interested and paying regular attention to the content on these pages. Whilst the statistical analysis contained in the reports from these pages is our work, the majority of the real life experiences are inspired by or drawn from people at the coal face of British policing, such as the author of the 200 site, Inspector Gadget, PC Bloggs and others contained in the "Thin Blue Line" links opposite.

To the politicians, Home Office civil servants and senior officers that may read these pages, we would invite you to spend some time reading some of the enlightening articles contained on these and other front line policing sites. Be prepared to confront the real world head on through these pages. We invite you to step out of your environment for a while, so that you may empathise with the challenges and obstructions faced by the front line officer. The content is an often colourful, honest view of the framework within which our guys at the coal face of society perform their increasingly difficult duty.

Listening is not enough. Take what you hear to heart. Then take the effective action only you are empowered to take, to make the necessary reforms that may ultimately restore public confidence in the Criminal Justice System that should be the bedrock of a decent, peaceful society.

We know the challenge is a difficult one that will require all your reserves of courage and direct thought. We know it involves accepting openly and honestly that mistakes have been made. Only by applying this level of honesty and transparency in any reforms you consider are appropriate, will your efforts bear the fruit in transforming society.

Britain is broken. You have the power to fix it. Cut through the distractions and obstructions that have plagued modern policing. Let us hear less of the minority projects and more of firm and effective use of police resources. Show us evidence that our taxes are being well spent, that the ratio of frontline officers actually available for real policework, dramatically exceeds those tied up counting beans, creating flow charts and ivory tower projects to justify the perpetuation of departments crammed with wasted resources.

Spend our money wisely. Show us the real value we deserve to see. You will find you have a much greater degree of public support and confidence from the wider public than you may have imagined.

We hope to see evidence of your efforts very soon.

The Crime Analysis Team
Nice 1 Limited

IN SUPPORT OF INSPECTOR GADGET

http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/

Inspector Gadget is a real life senior police officer, fed up with the fiasco of manipulated crime figures & detections, mountains of paperwork that keep his team off the streets doing the job they love (locking up the bad guys), and all the crazy, politically correct nonsense and bureaucracy that is thwarting the delivery of justice in this country. For the first time ever, a senior policeman – writing under an assumed name for fear of exposure – breaks ranks to tell the truth about the collapse of law and order in the UK.

Anyone who has taken the trouble to read his book, "Perverting the course of justice" will have detected that the man behind it and his long running, extremely popular blog, cares a great deal about the standard of policing the tax payer receives.

With access to statistics about frontline police strength (much lower than you think), exclusive inside information on the political targets and interference which are bedevilling officers and detailed analysis of the lies politicians and senior police officers tell, his explosive book and blog reveals how bad things really are.

THE TRUTH THE HOME OFFICE DON'T WANT YOU TO HEAR

Make no mistake, the truth of policing and the Criminal Justice System in the UK in 2009, make for a truly sad indictment of how low this country has sunk in its self destructive pursuit of all things politically correct.

There is a delicate balancing act involved in a country that promotes civil liberties and yet seeks to deliver an effective justice system. Whilst both sides contribute valued and informed views to the debate, extremism on either side results in a lack of confidence from one section of the community or another.

The front line police officer is an excellent barometer of public opinion on the matter. Inspector Gadget tells some home truths about the decline of the justice system in an articulate, persuasive and informed manner.

Witnessing and dealing with society at its worst, more often than not without complaint or descension, the front line officer is well placed to form an accurate opinion of the state of our nation. There are well informed and articulate officers trying their level best in the face of considerable adversity to protect our society from moral decay. It is immensly frustrating to commit your life to an honourable cause, only to find the way blocked by extremist views that often serve to obstruct the delivery of the quality of justice and policing that is required.

Having read Gadgets' book and followed his blog for some time, the authors of this site were dismayed to witness an unwarranted attack on his character by a clearly frustrated civil liberties extremist over the last 24 hours. We won't dignify this extremists views by naming him. He has the right to public expression, and gadget, as the owner of the blog has the right to veto, delete and moderate comments that appear on the pages. This particular extremist takes pleasure in colouring his views with an all too often condescending and attacking flavour. Under different identities, this person makes attacking comments on other sites. It is hardly suprising therefore that his comments receive scant respect from other contributors. In a most recent act of defiance against gadget, this person has threatened to make a complaint against the police for "improper conduct".  A truly desperate measure from an individual with extremist views who is clearly desperate to have those views aired, regardless of the mass of contrary opionion.

On the basis of all that we have seen, we would openly condemn the activities of this individual and offer our support and encouragement to "Inspector Gadget" and other good spirited police bloggers forced into anonimity by the system.  Your identity is of no interest to us, and this persons desire to have you "outed" is scurrilous and serves no useful purpose for the public interest.  

EXCESSIVE & INAPPROPRIATE EXPRESSION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES

The introduction of PACE (the Police and Criminal Evidence Act) was a sledgehammer to crack a very small minority nut of police officers. Since its introduction, the civil liberties supporters have developed an extremist element whose beliefs are not representative of the community as a whole. Certain sections of the civil liberties communities have created an anti police - anti authority stance, which threatens the admininstering of justice and the right to a peaceful, undisturbed quality of life. No one could deny the need for adequate civil liberty in a civilised society. No right minded police officer would argue with the principle. However, there comes a time, when extremist views threaten to damage the fabric of society.

Article 10: Right to freedom of expression - The Human Rights Act


1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by a public authority and regardless of frontiers.

2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for the maintaining of the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.


When public safety is compromised, when disorder threatens to erupt, when the balance shifts in favour of criminal activity, when the right of the majority to live a peaceful existence diminishes, then it is time to consider whether the balance has shifted so far toward politically correct activity. We must consider whether the extremist activity of the civil liberty supporters is having a damaging effect on the nation as a whole.

Politicians need to take a few steps back in order to take the country forward. Ask the public what they want on this seriously important issue. Let true democracy speak for the nation.

If there is disatisfaction and declining confidence with the public sector departments, including the police service, politicians need to be absolutely transparent and honest about possible solutions. Face up to the fact that there have been some serious errors of judgement and direction, compounded by excessive political influence and many would say interference. When pointing the finger of blame at the police service, look at the hand doing the pointing . . . .  invariably, one finger is pointed at the "accused" with three more pointing back toward the "accuser".  For honourable politicians reading these words, please listen to what the public are pleading for, HEAR what is being said, and take swift and decisive action to deliver the quality of democracy the majority of society is silently praying for.

The authors of this site are pleased to report that its contents are being monitored by senior politicians who have the welfare of this country and society at heart. Our plea to you at this juncture, is to listen to the silent voice of the general public. If the voices are too low to hear, please don't wait until they become a scream for help. Ask for their opinion, get the consensus you need, deliver true and transparent democracy and watch the public support and confidence return.

The Crime Analysis Team

Nice 1 Limited

THE TRUTH ABOUT CRIME & POLICING IN THE UK

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The Crime Analysis Team at Nice 1 are collating articles that will be published on these pages over the forthcoming weeks.

The articles will detail many of the "home truths" about crime recording and reporting, and the bureacratic and procedural obtsructions to officers providing the public with a better service. The articles will show that front line officers are frustrated at ridiculously excessive paperwork and processes that inhibit their ability to be truly effective.

Manipulated statistics and detection policies combined with excessive influence from politically correct committees and strategy teams, have turned the average officer into a box ticking, form filling adminstrator, who is in constant and non-sensical fear of being tripped up over administrative and procedural errors.

The vast majority of UK police officers are conscientious people who want to provide the very best service they can for the general public. These pages will show how, over many years, a web of deceit has been built around the real conditions faced by these officers in their attempt to perform their duty.

Grass roots police officers are indoctrinated into protecting themselves against nuwarranted attack from both their senior management teams (SMT's) and the very system they are forced to implement. As a consequence, you and I, the average UK citizen, are being deprived of the protection and response our millions in taxes is paying for.

Who are the culprits? Certainly not in the main, the bobby on the street, (the few that remain). Some (not all) senior officers, Home Office officials and politicians have combined down the years to create the flaws and inadequacies that exist within the service today, for their own purposes of political, career and financial advancement. The rot unfortunately, is not confined to the police service. The UK criminal justice system is severely flawed in many areas.

All is not as rosy as presented in Government and judicial headlines. It is not in their interest to reveal the truth of their systematic failures to the public, particularly not in the twelve months leading up to a general election.

Through these pages, we will present the information as we discover it for you to make up your own mind. We will, where appropriate lobby officials, raise questions, conduct polls, national surveys and petitions.

"Res Ipsa Loquitur" is latin for"let the facts speak for themselves".  We will present the information that will speak for itself.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first steps. The first steps that will be taken from this site will aim to bring this information to the forefront of public attention. We are not so unrealistic as to believe that we alone can bring about dramatic political and procedural change. Our aim is to encourage informed public debate about these subjects which affect the wellbeing of our society. Complete transparency for subjects that are within the public interest that do not conflict with matters of state and national security is a worthwhile goal.

Bookmark these pages and this site to keep informed of the progress. If you wish to contribute, we will understand that you may consider the content contraversial and that you may wish to remain anonymous with your submissions, through this or other sites we are monitoring.

The Crime Analysis Team
Nice 1 Limited

RECENT POLICE ARTICLES

For a brief insight into the pressures and challenges faced by our police officers on the frontline, here is a selection of recent article extracts from real officers at the coal face of British policing. To read the full postings and comments from other officers, click the links to each article.

http://200weeks.police999.com/

Chief Constables are bullies – fact

Apparently the Superintendents’ Association has been doing some research amongst its members & has found that half of senior officers are stressed & depressed.

A quarter of the 800 officers surveyed reported anxiety symptoms as moderate or severe, more than half complained of working 50-60 hour weeks and 40% reported that senior management’s approach to managing performance was “harsh and unhelpful”, and nearly a third said chief constables showed “bullying behaviour”. Others said stress and depression could be triggered by the exposure to traumatic incidents they encountered during their work. Nearly 40% said they did not have enough resources or staff to do the job effectively.

Welcome to the world of policing in modern Britain.

To read the full article & comments click here

Another lost vote

In another case of the tail wagging the dog the law changed recently to allow two lesbian partners to be named on a child’s birth certificate if the birth was as a result of IVF treatment.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 has made it possible for two women to be named on the birth certificate rather than the mother & father.

Clearly designed to magnify the Labour government’s obsession with diversity credentials it means that the birth certificate becomes a work of fiction rather than a legal document recording the parentage of a child. The birth certificate will no longer record the genetic heritage of a child but the names of a couple who happen to call themselves parents at that specific moment in time. When a marriage or parnership between a mother & father breaks up those two individuals are still the mother & father. When a lesbian civil partnership breaks up at least one half has precisely zero genetic connection to the child.

To read the full article & comments click here

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http://disgruntledcop.blogspot.com/

ACPO support long sentances...

Having read this article it doesn't surprise me one bit that ACPO are spouting incomprehensible rubbish.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196987/Inexcusable-gobbledygook--Verdict-102-word-sentence-drafted-police-chiefs.html

The sentence in question is this:

'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.'

Anyone care to translate??

To read the full article & comments click here

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http://pcbloggs.blogspot.com/

Just One Crime

Apparently 1000 of London's CCTV cameras solved only one crime last year.This statistic amazes me. CCTV is pretty much a requisite of any prosecution in Blandmore whatsoever, regardless of the offence. You need only mention to the crown prosecutor to whom you are "selling" your case that the CCTV in a shop/street/dwelling was down/out/non-existent, to see a great sigh appear on their face and a big red pen cross out your hope of a conviction.

To read the full article & comments click here


Victim vs Customer

I've moaned a bit about victim focus recently. Mainly because the Senior Management have been moaning about it, and they tend to delete my email diatribes without responding - whereas they can't delete this without some serious effort and court injunctions.The problem is that whenever frontline police officers moan about Victim Focus, it sounds like we hate victims and want them to die.The truth is, we moan because the language of the government and Senior Management team assumes that the majority of our 'customers' are the same thing as 'victims'. They aren't. Victims of 'volume' crime* are generally bog standard, middle/low income, hardworking taxpayers. For these people, being burgled, having their car broken into, God forbid being mugged or having their kids being beaten up at school, are jaw-aching, heart-crushing blows in their already precarious uphill struggle of life. The chances of getting satisfaction over their burglar/thief/mugger/bully are virtually nil.

To read the full article & comments click here

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http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/


What Really Matters At The Top

September 3, 2009 by inspectorgadget

I want senior police officers to read this and think about it. Not just curl their lips with derision, or excuse it all as nonsense, but to really think deeply. If they still can.

On Tuesday morning (before I went to bed) after a bank holiday weekend of unbelievable overstretch and under resource, I wrote a quick list of what we had achieved over the period on my Response Team.

1. We saved one life (elderly person trapped behind closed doors on death’s door, rescued by a double crew who booted the door).

To read the full article & comments click here


Is There Anybody Out There?

August 21, 2009 by inspectorgadget

Because we use your money to run our huge, top-heavy and mainly incompetent organisation; you have the right to know how things are working in Ruralshire this summer. And how things work every summer, and every Christmas.

To read the full article & comments click here

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Sergeant Simon http://policelockerroom.blogspot.com/2009/08/back-to-basics.html

Back to basics

Was being sociable the other day and was chatting to some people I had just met. Conversations as they often do turned to work and what I do.I explained where I work, being a response team monkey somewhere in a suburb. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised at their surprise when I said just how many police officers there were at any one time. It made me think for the unitiated i.e. those probably not reading this (never mind) there is a spectacular gulf between perceptions of police numbers and the reality of those on the streets who turn up when you call 999.

To read the full article & comments click here

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http://thebluelightrun.blogspot.com/


Time to go code 11?

As a result of the recent nightjack ruling, I was asked by an american twitter friend of mine whether I would be blogging about how I felt about the ruling. At first I wasn't that keen, the judgement has sent a shockwave of fear amongst police bloggers and my initial reaction was to shut up shop. I initially resisted as I wanted to see how others felt first. I have seen a number of fellow bloggers out there walking away from what they love doing. Metcountymounty, The Plastic Fuzz, etc. Sad times, an indictment of how very expensive freedom of speech has become.

To read the full article & comments click here

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http://twining.wordpress.com/

Memorandum of understandings – what a load of….

Preconceived racially stereotypical organisational perceptions of the Black Police Association movement, (e.g born again 1960’s, anti racist, left wing agitating and loony, radical, badly behaving group), exist amongst many within the Police establishment. In fact the term “tiddly winks” to describe the organisational antics of some BPA’s is not unheard of. That some BPA’s are ineffective is another proper view, but then what is ineffective?

To read the full article & comments click here


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http://michaelpinkstone.wordpress.com/


Echoes of Bulger

Two brothers (aged 10 and 11 at the time of the offence) have pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent on two other boys aged 9 and 11.

The attack involved acts of torture, sexual incitement and threats to kill.
It would be difficult not to draw parallels with the murder of James Bulger in 1993 – news that horrified a country and forever permeated the national consciousness.

To read the full article & comments click here

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A NOTE FROM THE CRIME ANALYSIS TEAM :

Through these pages, we will provide collective information to raise public awareness of the plight of our British Bobby at the frontline of problems within our society.

Much of the detail will shock you.

So much of what really faces these Officers is thinly disguised in Government headlines about falling crime, increased resources and carefully selected statistics.

Not all of conclusions drawn from statistics are accurate. Many have a political "spin". Adminsitrative detections are one such example that we will explore in later posts.

Millions of pounds of taxpayers money is spent on strategic committees, civil liberties work groups, performance targeting and flavour of the month projects. Well intended though some of these activities are, they detract from the real issue : providing frontline officers with the resources they truly need to help improve the quality of our environment.

Front line officers are fed up with fiddled crime figures, mountains of paperwork that keep them tied up at the station and buried in bureaucracy. Senior police officers are placed under unreasonable pressure to meet bogus Home Office performance targets and dubious procedural compliance obligations. This pressure descends downwards, back to the Inspectors, Sergeants & Constables who find it increasingly difficult to simply "get the job done".

With statistical analysis reports and real life experiences, we will provide you with the real picture of crime and policing in the UK.

There have been many instances of well intended police officers being pressured into silence about the true condition of our country. If the law abiding, honest tax payer, sick of criminals ruling our streets, knew the full story, more pressure could be applied for the authorities to sit up and listen to what the public wants, and make the changes that are now urgently required.

We have no desire to become a mere "talking shop" about these issues. They are of major importance and most definately in the public interest. A period of information and data gathering (including the valuable opinion of the public) will be required. At such time as is appropriate, the information gathered will serve as one of the instruments of change.

If you are concerned about the crime and policing in the UK, please comment on these pages or feel free to contact us. (Details below).

Bookmark this site from your preferred links in the right hand panel, so that you will receive updates and articles as they are produced.

With Kind Regards

The Crime Analysis Team
Nice 1 Ltd

COPPER BLOG UPDATE

For anyone wondering what has happened to the "Coppers Blog" produced by PC David Copperfield (Stu Davidson), reprinted below is an article released today by Dan Hill from Monday Books.

Coppersblog - It's Not Another Nightjack

We've been emailed and telephoned by a number of people about the closure of Coppersblog.

It had come as a surprise to me - although Stuart is a good friend, we're not in daily contact - so I spoke to him briefly last night.For those who are concerned for him, don't be - he's fine. There's nothing sinister about it, he's just thinking about how and whether he wants to continue the blog and, in the meantime, has taken it off line. He may well be back.

Stuart started The Policeman's Blog in 2003 (the archive only goes back to 2005, but that's because he lost it when he took it down temporarily once before).That's a long time for anyone to keep writing, especially when conditions - personal and geographical - have changed so much.

It may be that he's said all he wants to say; certainly, Inspector Gadget is more relevant to the modern British reader now than Copperfield (Gadget's latest post is a cracker; I don't remember Stephen Fry starting a twitter campaign about the NHS when those 400 deaths were revealed.).

It wouldn't be right to finish the post without inviting you to buy Stuart's book, but if you're feeling the pinch here's a free extract.

Posted by Dan
Posted by News from Monday Books at 11:44

To visit the Monday Books blog click this link http://mondaybooks.blogspot.com/

The Monday Books website is at http://mondaybooks.com/

For the time being therefore, the link to David Copperfields site in the Police Blogs section will not reach the pages.

Kind Regards


Crime Analyst
Nice 1 Limited

CA Comment : We would concur with Dans' comments about Inspector Gadgets latest blog article, well worth a read! To read it now click here