UK Policing News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7386889.stm Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said cannabis is to be reclassified as a Class B drug against officials' advice. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs says cannabis should stay a class C drug, the category to which it was downgraded under Tony Blair. But Home Secretary Jacqui Smith highlighted the use of "skunk" - a stronger form of the drug - as she said she wanted cannabis laws strengthened. The Tories want cannabis to be Class B. Lib Dems want ministers to heed advice.

After a drunken assault on a policeman, Lee Jones might have thought he had done well to escape with a suspended sentence and a night-time curfew. But the best was still to come. A judge has now agreed to lift the curfew so the offender can fly off on a golfing holiday in Portugal. The decision was condemned as "outrageous" by campaigners Jones, 24, was given a six-month suspended jail sentence only last month and ordered to stay at home between 8pm and 5am after he admitted punching a police officer repeatedly in the face. Yesterday his probation officer returned to Gloucester Crown Court to ask for the curfew to be suspended between May 8 and 13 so that Jones can…

SIR Alan Sugar last night called for BILLIONS to be spent on the police force to mend Broken Britain. The Apprentice guru said “rotten†yobs need to know they will be brought to book if they cause trouble. In a passionate plea, he demanded “radical†investment from the Government to get thousands more bobbies on the beat. The Amstrad tycoon — worth £880million — also urged troubled kids to get off the dole and use their streetwise skills to achieve success in business, craft or sport. He BLASTED “crazy†human rights rules which tie the hands of cops and teachers. And he RAPPED the parents of hoodies for alienating their teenagers by ignoring them. Spea…

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/156...-Ian-Blair.html By Philip Johnston Page 1 of 2Last Updated: 2:08AM GMT 02/11/2007 I know this is old news, but does make for very intresting reading. Last week he was in the dock over his bonus. Now his force has been found guilty of health and safety breaches over the De Menezes shooting. Here Philip Johnston argues that the Met chief has come to personify all that is wrong with the police He looked every inch the top cop. Resplendent in the uniform of the Metropolitan Police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair was facing what should have been a routine monthly meeting of London's police watchdogs. They gathered in an unpreposse…

Police raids on homes and businesses across the UK are expected as officers seek to make further arrests in connection with the seizure of cocaine worth £15 million. Officers from Cumbria Police targeted two lorries entering the UK from Holland at the port of Harwich, Essex, on Saturday morning. The force said it was one of the biggest seizures made on the UK mainland. So far, seven British men have been arrested and police say raids are taking place at private and business addresses across the UK. Among those arrested are a 49-year-old man from the Kendal area. Detectives revealed the operation was the result of a "major" intelligence gathering operation led by the…

Police are investigating the "suspicious" deaths of two young boys found in a parked car in Glasgow. The bodies of a two-year-old and a six-year-old were discovered on Crow Road in the Lennoxtown area of the city. Strathclyde Police have not confirmed exactly where the bodies were found. Inspector Jan Connolly said: "Police are investigating the suspicious death of two children aged two and six years old. "They were found this evening within a parked car. Police are following a positive line of inquiry." Officers blocked the B822 Crow Road to all traffic heading north out of Lennoxtown, East Dunbartonshire. A recovery van was allowed through the roadblock. The van, …

The only terrorist to escape alive when the SAS stormed the Iranian Embassy in London 28 years ago is on the point of being freed to build a new life in Britain. Iranian diplomats say they have been told a parole hearing will be held within weeks. They expect Fowzi Badavi Nejad to be freed soon afterwards and granted asylum. Officials in Tehran have demanded his return so that he can face trial in Iran for the murder of two hostages during the siege in 1980, which would lead to an inevitable death sentence. But the Daily Mail has learned that preparations are under way for 50-year-old Nejad, who is Iranian, to spend the rest of his life in Britain. Iran has warned…