UK Policing News

A Somerset-based police officer has taken to patrolling his village on a tractor to overcome the snowy conditions in the county. Sergeant Ed Hawkins of Avon and Somerset Police has been driving around Gurney Slade, near Shepton Mallet, on his own Massey Ferguson 35. The recent thick snow in the village meant that his Vauxhall Astra struggled through country lanes. "The bad weather didn't deter me from coming to work," he said. "The tractor came in very handy after the snowy conditions meant that a number of vehicles became stuck blocking the A37 and we had to temporarily close the road whilst they helped to clear it." Sgt Hawkins is a full-time police officer,…

When the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs reports next week, if (as it seems) they recommend reclassifying ecstasy from class A to class B, would you support it? To me it would seem like a perfectly sensible step, although the Government is so far against the idea... BBC News Ecstasy 'not worse than riding' Taking the drug ecstasy is no more dangerous than riding a horse, a senior advisor has suggested. Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), outlined his view in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. The council, which advises the government, is expected next week to recommend that ecstasy is downgraded f…

BAFFLED bobbies have been banned from sipping the soft drink SHANDY BASS on duty. Top brass at Leicestershire Police ordered a complete booze ban after an internal memo was passed round by the internal watchdog. It warned despite Shandy Bass containing just 0.5 per cent alcohol there was still a chance members of the public might get a "whiff of alcohol". The memo, published in respected Police Federation magazine Police, states drinking Shandy Bass "would create the wrong impression". It continues: “This particular drink contains very low levels of actual alcohol, namely 0.5 per cent, and could therefore be seen as a soft drink rather than an alcoholic beverage…

Snow joke: 'Killjoy' police break up giant snowball Officers accused of petty officiousness after pair push massive snowball into town When the first flakes fell earlier this week, there were reports of police officers merrily taking part in snowball fights with the kind of feral children they would ordinarily be trying to give an asbo. But four days into the UK's worst snowfall for 18 years, it would seem the patience of some officers has run out. In Northampton today, the police were accused of "petty officiousness" after breaking up a "harmless" giant snowball that two young men had spent all morning building. Ben Elijah, a 24-year-old account manager, took picture…

Police Exposed As BNP Members The British National Party has called for a police investigation after a full list of the party's 12,000 members was posted on the internet. Mr Griffin said the leak was "intended to frighten the faint-hearted" Serving and former police officers and members of the armed forces are reported to be on the list, along with their hobbies and qualifications. The blog post has now been removed from the site after complaints from the BNP. "It is looking increasingly likely that this is the work of Labour Party supporters," spokesman Simon Darby alleged. "If they have not protected their IP (internet service provider) address properly, there w…

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_3089156.html?menu=news Haringay council will just not take responsibility for their own incompetence, blame everyone but themselves.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/7873023.stm Two men have each been jailed for 17 years for a raid on a house in West Sussex in which a couple were tied up while their home was ransacked. Seems an appropriate sentence, thou kind of strange they were given that long, must have come as a shock.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2211404.ece COPS blasted time wasters last night after getting 15,000 emergency calls this week — to report SNOWBALL throwing. Going to find it hard to save the evidence, will it not melt?

Drug dealer's cash helps fund £200k city youth projects http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburg...fund.4954492.jp Published Date: 06 February 2009 By ALAN McEWEN COMMUNITY projects are set to benefit from more than £200,000 in assets seized from a convicted drug dealer after he was forced to sell his house. George "Dode" Buchanan was ordered to pay out the cash under the Proceeds of Crime Act after a judge last year ruled he was "a dealer in controlled drugs" who profited from the illegal trade. Now the money is set to fund projects such as youth sports, mobile CCTV police vans, child outreach schemes, and anti-drug dealing campaigns. Leith Athletic Football …

Very Dangerous Individual. Hopefully he will get deported after his jail term. He's lucky to not have been shot dead after pulling a second gun and aiming at officers.

Boredom and a lack of motivation is causing some police community support officers (PCSOs) in London to commit criminal offences, a report has said. PCSOs were responsible for the majority of cases of gross misconduct in the Metropolitan Police in 2008, despite making up only 20% of the workforce. Some felt akin to "glorified security guards", the force's HR director said. The role was created to put more uniformed police on streets and to take some duties away from other officers. The Police Federation has described the introduction of PCSOs as "policing on the cheap", while other critics have expressed concern that PCSOs have no power to arrest suspected crimina…

BBC Website Bristol Evening Post (the UKs most anti-Police newspaper) I'm not sure about anyone else but I have mixed feelings about the sentencing. On one hand he has deliberatley left his vehicle to violently punch the victim causing an injury that has killed him, so with this in mind he should have got more... But on the other hand exactly the same single punch could have caused injuries only amounting a common assault and he would therefore only have got a caution. The same action could have caused a completely different outcome, do we sentence depending on the action or do we sentence depending on the outcome? Difficult!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7869634.stm Moooooooooooooooove along MAM!...

" a discretionary grant " The Government should cough up, simple as that!. Suffolk Police have written to a government minister in a bid to recover the costs of guarding Gordon Brown and his family while on holiday. Security during the two-week break cost the force about £160,000. Mr Brown stayed in Shadingfield, near the resort of Southwold, with his wife Sarah and two young sons, John and Fraser, in July and August. The letter was sent to the Minister for Policing Vernon Coaker but the request is being considered by the Home Office. The force said the considerable security costs had not been part of their planned budget and has now put pressure on the rest of…