PC James Patrick - A Welcome Update!

Crime stats whistleblower 'will not be sacked'

Outside force reviews evidence against PC and concludes it is not gross misconduct.

 

Re posted from Police Oracle
http://www.policeoracle.com/news/Crime-stats-whistleblower-'will-not-be-sacked'-_78375.html

A Metropolitan Police officer who gave evidence publicly about the manipulation of crime statistics will not be sacked, the force has agreed.

PC James Patrick (pictured) was due to face a gross misconduct hearing – and, by extension, potentially dismissal – over his book The Rest Is Silence, proceeds from which went to the Care of Police Survivors charity.

The force claimed he had not declared the book, which makes claims about police manipulation of statistics and criticises recent reforms to the service, as a business interest.

While he was due to face to gross misconduct proceedings, PC Patrick also made headlines by testifying about the manipulation of crime statistics before the Public Administration Select Committee.

But another force has reviewed the evidence against him and said he should only face a misconduct meeting, where dismissal is not an option.

The Met, which has accepted this, said it had requested the review “in light of the significant interest in this case”. PC Patrick will face a misconduct meeting, chaired by an inspector.

Karen Todner, from PC Patrick's solicitors Kaim Todner, said: “We are pleased to advise that following a management review, the Metropolitan Police are not proceeding with the full disciplinary hearing against PC Patrick.

“They have determined that PC Patrick’s conduct amounts to misconduct and accordingly this matter will now proceed to a misconduct meeting at a date and time to be arranged.PC James Patrick continues to defend the allegations.”

Thin Blue Line Comment

Many congratulations James. We sincerely hope that this is the first step to vindicating your courageous commitment to exposing the truth about the scandal of police recorded crime and statistics.

After years of campaigning from this site and others like it, along with many brave officers who have shown great integrity sadly lacking in many of their senior officers, the scurrilous and pernicious deception foisted upon the general public seems likely to be exposed.

We continue to hope that the Chief Officers of ACPO and SMT ranks will finally be held to account, for it is THEY who must be held responsible for this disgraceful travesty.

It is THEY who have benefitted financially from exorbitant 15% bonus payments for fallacious crime reduction figures.

It is THEY who are being dragged, lying, denying, obfuscating, scheming and kicking to admit the truth that many have known or suspected all along, that the now discredited police recorded crime and the equally fallacious detections are manipulated for political, career and monetary gain, whilst rank and file officers have their professional integrity compromised as they are pressured into implementing strategies they know to be corrupt.

It is the ACPO and SMT rank officers who could have stopped this fiasco in its tracks. It is THEY who chose to perpetuate the myth of falling crime, for their own selfish, corrupt motives.

It is THEY who, even now, with all of the evidence being exposed for the world to see, who are desperately fighting to protect their careers, pensions and fiefdoms.

It is THEY who will undoubtedly point the accusatory finger at junior officers for strategies THEY constructed, orchestrated, enforced or at the very least condoned.

It is THEY who must answer to this. It is THEY, who in all likelihood, will walk away scot free, having been ultimately responsible for the decimation of the police service so many have been proud to commit their lives to.

It is THEY who will likely evade punishment for depriving the tax paying public with the police service we deserve.

Yes, politicians and Home Office civil servants of all persuasions have played their part, many of whom now display a sense of mock surprise and horror at the revelations we have seen. Many of them knew full well what was happening, yet chose to capitalise on the opportunity to boast that crime had fallen to unprecedented levels. Rest assured, THEY KNEW!

ACPO and SMT rank officers lacked the integrity, honesty and courage required to stop the rot. They were the only ones who could have resisted the pressure to manipulate and distort crime. They failed in their sworn duty to the general public and the rank and file officers they command when they chose the corrupt and crooked path. It's high time those who are responsible were brought to book. They do not meet the standard we expect of our most senior police officers. They have not only failed us, they have betrayed our trust and faith in them.

The only just result of the crime statistics mess, is that those officers who KNEW full well what they were doing and chose the wrong crooked path, should face criminal or at the very least severe disciplinary punishment.



HOME OFFICE MINISTERS & POLICE CHIEFS COMPLACENT ABOUT THE PROBITY OF CRIME STATISTICS

The chairman of a Commons committee which has led an inquiry into crime figures accused Home Office ministers of “complacency” after they trumpeted yesterday’s figures as a success for the government.

Bernard Jenkin MP

Bernard Jenkin MP, chairman of the public administration select committee said: “I am disappointed about the apparent complacency shown in some of the comments being made about today’s release of crime statistics. It is as though there were no concerns at all about the reliability of the police recorded crime statistics, let alone that they have been officially downgraded by the statistics watchdog. It is this kind of complacency which has led to the unreliability and downgrading in the first place – and this complacency goes right up to Home Office ministers.”

Last November the committee was told by serving and retired officers that official crime figures are skewed by the police - often at the instruction of senior officers - to make their performance appear far better than it is in reality.

In response the UK Statistics Authority stepped in last week to strip the figures of their “national statistics” kitemark.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/10592271/Crime-the-facts-and-figures.html

Until we can trust the way crime statistics are collated, there is little chance of restoring public faith in their veracity.

Crime fell by 10 per cent in England and Wales in the year to 2013, according to figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics. On the face of it that is excellent news, confounding the predictions of those who said cuts in local police budgets would see a rise in criminality.

But does anyone believe the figures any more? Public confidence has been dented by recent revelations from police “whistleblowers” that the way forces record crime has been flawed, though that is putting it kindly: fiddled, others would call it. Indeed, the UK Statistics Authority has withdrawn its official designation from all crime data recorded by the police.

Yesterday’s statistics, however, were based on the British Crime Survey (BCS) of some 40,000 people, who are asked about their experiences over the past 12 months. The BCS has consistently shown a decline in offending over the past 20 years. Yet it is an unsatisfactory measure, since it excludes offences involving the under-16s, the homeless, all businesses, murder, manslaughter and so-called victimless crimes such as drug abuse. Having two sets of figures is also confusing: once, the BCS was supposed to complement the police data, but it has now become the main measurement of crime.

Arguably, the collection of national – as opposed to local – crime figures is no longer worthwhile, if it ever was. As long ago as 1968, the Perks Committee on Criminal Statistics proposed that the periodic deluge of statistics should be replaced by an annual crime index, weighted to reflect the relative seriousness of offences. This is a good idea; but such an index would need to be based on police recorded figures – and until we can trust the way they are collated, there is little chance of restoring public faith in their veracity. 

ANOTHER EXCELLENT POLICE BLOGGER SITE

Another excellent site http://justiceandchaos.blogspot.co.uk/

Thursday, 23 January 2014

As if by Magic...It's Gone!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25831906
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25858421

Interesting crime figures. Unlike a decade or two ago, the majority of BBC writing these days is disappointingly tendentious. Nevertheless, this gives the figures for 2006-2012:

Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) - 17% fall in crime.
Police statistics - 33% fall.

Personally, I doubt crime has changed at all - up or down. Nevertheless, it's a rather suspicious divergence - presided over by Commissioners Blair, Stephenson and Hogan-Howe.

As for the lowest estimated crime since 1981, don't make me chuckle. It's all in the way they're (not) recorded. I am a constable in the Metropolitan Police Service and when I report a crime such as a burglary, for example, I often find the offence later changed without my intervention. A burglary mysteriously transmutes, as by alchemy, into a theft and a criminal damage. A street robbery changes as if by magic into a 'snatch theft'. The logic behind this process: burglaries and robberies are graded as more serious than theft or criminal damage.

Sometimes a crime even turns into a 'crime-related incident' – a non-crime!

And there are other tricks:
If a victim decides they no longer support police action, the case will fold and it counts as an 'undetected crime'. To expunge this black mark on the books, constables are ordered to take a 'no-crime statement' from the victim. This amounts to saying, “I'm sorry I phoned the police. It was a false allegation.” The crime can then be taken off the system, as if it never happened.

One has to admire the creativity of the analysts and officers who think up this chicanery.

I need to emphasize that constables cannot argue against this. We find it extremely distasteful but our hands are tied. The instructions are filtered down from The Powers That Be, reaching the constables in email form. Often the email states:

“Robberies are too high. DO NOT create a robbery report without first liaising with the Robbery Squad DS.”

The principle here is that the Robbery Squad Detective Sergeant is expected to find creative ways to reduce her robbery figures. She is under pressure to persuade the victim that his robbery never happened. OR, click a button on the crime-reporting system to transform a crime into a non-crime.

My constable colleagues and I feel nothing but disgust for these practices. Many of us have been telling everyone who will listen about this for decades - I'm fed up of banging my drum about it. So why has this only just come to light?

Tom Winsor and others are subtly hinting that the constables are responsible. Mr Winsor, please try to understand that police senior managers rule with iron fists and in the Met at least, they have it all sewn up. They cannot bear dissent, and absolutely cannot bear light being shone upon their venality and incompetence.

It's only the senior officers who are strongly motivated to do this. They have a lot to lose – acquiring more crowns and braid on their smoothly pumiced shoulders, and a better pension, depends on them showing that their teams have hit their targets. Those of us without stripes, pips or crown on our rather tired and rounded shoulders are simply trying to pay our mortgages and get through each day safely and without having to explain the lack of resources too many times to frustrated members of the public.

POLICE CRIME FIGURES - CONTENDERS FOR THE 2014 FICTION PRIZE!

England and Wales crime falls to lowest level in 32 years .... Are they pulling our tadgers or what??

Latest crime figures - still cooking the books!

England and Wales crime falls to lowest level in 32 years

You can stop laughing now! Read on mcduff....

While the headline figure is down, detailed police recorded crime figures show ‘signs of increasing upward pressure’ in specific austerity-related crimes.

Crime has fallen by an unexpected 10% over the last year, with 8m offences estimated by the authoritative Crime Survey of England and Wales – the lowest level since it started 32 years ago.

The fall in crime in the 12 months to September 2013 is across most types of offences including a fall in the murder rate to 542 homicides recorded by the police, 11 fewer than the previous year. Overall violent crime is down by 13%, according to the survey.

 

But the detailed police recorded crime figures also show “signs of increasing upward pressure” in specific austerity-related crimes.

 

These include a 4% rise in shoplifting, which is up by more than 11,000 to 313,693 offences. The police recorded crime figures also show a 7% rise in “theft from the person” which includes pickpocketing up to 110,408 offences.

 

The rise in shoplifting was seen in 29 of the 43 police force areas, with the largest increases in West Midlands (up 18%), Merseyside (14%) and West Yorkshire (12%). In evidence of a new north-south divide shoplifting in London actually fell by 1%.

 

Are they pulling our tadgers or what?

Over all the years I have been analysing recorded crime, crime in general and detections, I have less faith in the Crime Survey than I do in recorded crime.

Whilst I believe the numbers are probably closer to the real picture with the survey at 8million crimes per year, one simple question has always screamed out at me…

If the survey only deals with the responses from 50,000 respondents, many of whom were not actually victims of crime, how the heck do they arrive at any sort of national figure other than by “best guessing?”

•In accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, statistics based on police recorded crime data have been assessed against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and found not to meet the required standard for designation as National Statistics. The full assessment report can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website. Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales continue to be badged as National Statistics.

•ONS will continue to publish and provide commentary on police recorded crime data pending consultation with users about their needs for such data in the light of the forthcoming inspection of data integrity being carried out by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. Further information on the interpretation of recorded crime data is provided in the User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales.

•Latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimate that there were 8.0 million crimes against households and resident adults in the previous twelve months, based on interviews with a nationally representative sample** in the year ending September 2013. This was down 10% compared with the previous year’s survey, and is the lowest estimate over the history of the survey, which began in 1981. *** (THIS IS THE CRUX OF IT! A representative sample? 50,000 respondents enables them to guess at 8 million??. That is like in my business, asking 10 insurance brokers how many policies they think they will sell, then basing my actual sales performance on that instead of the REAL sales my 2,000 broker customers will actually sell).

Politicians! One system is shown to be bent, so the back up one was always considered more reliable anyway!!

•The reduction of crime measured by the CSEW was led by statistically significant decreases in both household (vehicle and property related) crime and personal (theft from the person and violent) crime. Household crime was down 10%, while personal crime was down 9%.
(That’s not what recorded crime is indicating!!)

•The police recorded 3.7 million offences in the year ending September 2013, a decrease of 3% compared with the previous year.

3.7million vs 8million… Go on lads, have a guess, any old number will do, the public haven't got a clue anyway we've been fudging for so long!

BOTH of these systems are absolutely useless and worthless measures of real crime in England & Wales. The fact is the service has lost much of its credibility and the survey is just that, a survey, and a pretty pathetic representative one at that.

Scrap both of them. Wipe the slate clean. Admit the books have not only been cooked, they’re burnt to a cinder, which is all they’re good for, fuel for the fire.

Start again, afresh, with all the incentives to manipulate removed. Score no points for fallacious crime reductions and detection increases. Let’s get to the truth once and for all. Only by arriving at that juncture will PCC’s , the Government, Police leaders and we, the tax payers know more precisely what resources are actually needed to provide an adequate policing solution. Anything less remains a fudge with which politicians will continue their mantra that the service can achieve more with less.