UK Policing News

A Labour MP has said Kent Police's decision to let officers wear riot gear while they dealt with protesters at the Climate Camp was "heavy-handed". Bob Marshall-Andrews said he was horrified by the footage he saw showing police and campaigners clashing on the Hoo peninsula on Monday. After an hour-long meeting with senior officers, he said the decision to use shields and helmets was "provocative". The force said officers needed the gear to protect themselves from missiles. A group of hardcore protesters had thrown coins and forks, according to Kent Police. 'Police provocation' Mr Marshall-Andrews, who is the Labour MP for Medway, said the scenes in a field abo…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7556786.stm Axeman 'lashed out' at uniform A teenager armed with an axe lashed out at officers because of his hatred of police officers in uniforms, the Old Bailey heard. Hundreds of shoppers witnessed 18-year-old Mohammed Sheikh chase the men in Wood Green, north London, in March. Sheikh, from Islington, north London, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted wounding. A Police Community Support Officer narrowly avoided injury as Sheikh went after him twice, the court heard. PCSO Neil White, 23, and PCSO Charlie Moxom, 21, a former footballer, had detained two suspected shoplifters and were waiting for police back-up to arr…

1/1/07 A five-year-old girl has been mauled to death by a dog in her family home. The child suffered fatal injuries when she was attacked by what was believed to be a pit bull terrier at her house in Eccleston, St Helens. She died at the scene, Merseyside Police said. The dog also attacked a woman, thought to be the girl's grandmother. She is being treated for serious injuries in hospital. Despite her injuries, the woman managed to shut the dog in a run outside the house. A Merseyside police spokesman said: "The emergency services were called just before 4.30am to report that what appears to be a pit bull terrier-type dog had attacked a five-year-old girl and a woma…

Police pay dispute could leave forces short-handed as frontline officers launch 'work to rule' By Matthew Hickley Last updated at 8:45 PM on 13th August 2008 Frontline policing is facing unprecedented turmoil after 140,000 officers were urged to work to rule in a dramatic escalation of their bitter pay dispute with the Government. The number of officers available for duty could be severely hit and leaders of the rank-and-file Police Federation who issued the call warned that crimes could go unsolved. Officers are being urged to stick to the letter of official employment conditions over last-minute changes to duty rosters or agreeing to be 'on-call' for urgent inciden…

A test version of the Metropolitan Police crime statistics map has gone online showing crime figures broken down by ward and sub-ward - about every 600 households. A quick search for the Vulture Towers postcode shows we're in a high crime area with 44 crimes in June compared to just 29 in May. Reg staffers were probably not responsible for this spike. The site is based on Google maps and allows searches by postcode as well as more general browsing. Areas are split into five colours for increasing levels of burglary, robbery and vehicle crime. Proposals to show more detailed crime maps were promoted by Home Secretary Wacky Jacqui Smith and London Mayor Boris* Johnson. T…

And here we have a fine example of the blind pursuit of policy coupled with the race for sanction detections producing exactly the wrong result. It illustrates everything that is wrong with the police at the moment. Firstly, although the daughter called the police in the first place she's long since changed her mind about making a complaint before the officers arrived. But of course, it's already too late. It's domestic violence, so a policy written months ago that cannot possibly give any consideration to the actual circumstances of the incident comes into play and has to be adhered to. The officers are given no discretion; no opportunity to exercise judgement in the ma…

Please watch this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7554085.stm

Police chief criticises targets A senior police officer has criticised some Home Office targets, saying they have had a damaging impact on policing in England and Wales. Chief Constable of Staffordshire Chris Sims said they encouraged a "policing to targets" culture, rather than one focusing on the public's needs. He said he welcomed a government green paper aimed at cutting police red tape. Home Office minister Tony McNulty said targets had improved "productivity", bu…

Football clubs should pay all the costs of policing games, says the Association of Chief Police Officers. There are significant costs involved with policing a football match Clubs currently have to pay back only the costs incurred inside their ground or on their property, with the rest coming from police budgets. Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Thomas said local communities were in effect subsidising the clubs. The Premier League said clubs were meeting their legal duties to pay policing costs inside their grounds. Freedom of Information requests from BBC Radio Five Live to the police showed it cost £7.5m to police 13 Premier League clubs, with the teams paying …

DNA profiles of innocent people should be removed from the national database, a government-funded inquiry has said. Control of the database should be taken from government and police and an independent body should be established to run it, the Citizens' Inquiry urged. Javed Aslam, one of the 30 members of the public on the panel, said keeping the records would be "the first step towards a totalitarian state". But the Home Office said the database helps to secure convictions. The UK has the largest police DNA database in the world - with more than four million people on file. The four-month inquiry was overseen by the Human Genetics Commission (HGC), which will now ma…

A generation of boys is growing up amid a 'bling culture' in which crime is seen as a short cut to wealth and power, Skills minister David Lammy said today. They were seduced by the 'get rich or die trying' lifestyle - and not just youngsters from poor backgrounds. Middle class children were often starved of parental guidance too because of the long-hours culture, he writes in The New Statesman. " While there may be young men on estates missing fathers who left them, there are also children in Middle Britain whose parents become strangers in a culture of long working hours," said Mr Lammy. The Labour MP forTottenham called for more male role models in the community, o…

Chasing targets - not criminals Officers say their morale has been sapped by chasing targetsThe government has promised that it will liberate police officers from chasing meaningless targets. A policing green paper, From the Neighbourhood to the National, published a month ago, promised to cut red tape and give the police more time to get on with their jobs catching criminals. In a series of interviews, reporter Andy Hosken spoke to some of the serving police officers who have seen the effect of Home Office targets on their daily workload. They describe how ordinary law abiding citizens are being criminalised, and how the culture of targets and statistics is destro…

The man wrongly accused and later cleared of the murder of Rachel Nickell in 1992 has told the BBC that he has been awarded £706,000 in compensation. Colin Stagg confirmed the payout to the BBC's Crimewatch programme. Ms Nickell, 23, was stabbed 49 times in a frenzied daylight attack on Wimbledon Common in front of her child. Mr Stagg was cleared of any involvement in the killing in 1994. Robert Napper, 41, was charged with Ms Nickell's murder last year and is awaiting trial. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7559026.stm

DETECTIVES discovered a deadly converted 9mm pistol at the home of a boy aged just 13 in a gang raid this morning. Officers investigating criminal gangs raided the property in New Cross, south-east London. During a search of the house they discovered the weapon hidden under the stairs with two silencers and a bag of up to 20 cartridges. Senior officers believe the teenager could be one of the youngest people ever captured with a firearm in the capital. One source said the discovery and arrest highlights the falling ages of those involved in gang violence. Ballistics experts will now examine the weapon to see if it has been used in any of the recent shootings in …

An angry judge has branded a prosecution worker an "illiterate idiot" after spotting several spelling mistakes in an indictment. Judge David Paget was reading a list of charges drawn up by Crown Prosecution Service staff at Wood Green Crown Court in north London when he spotted errors. The indictment, which accused a man of assault, included attempted "greivous" bodily harm. The judge said he hoped staff at the court would take more care in future. Another charge accused the defendant of using an offensive weapon, "namely axe", instead of "an axe". Throwing the paper down on his bench, Judge Paget added: "It's quite disgraceful. "This is supposed to be a centr…