UK Policing News

I wonder whose idea this was.

Just watched the tail end of tonight's Panorama on BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03bj88x Basically it was pulling apart the latest tax rules allegedly brought in by Osborne with a view to cut tax avoidance, but also attracting corporations to the UK https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/193239/Corporation_tax_road_map.pdf The programme interviewed a Tax Minister who could not answer any yes/no questions. It also suggested that as a result of these schemes the treasury will require the off £Billion to make it efficient. Due to the avoidance schemes HMG will need to pull in money from public services the programme sug…

A police officer is being treated in hospital after being sprayed in the face with a noxious substance, believed to be ammonia. The attack happened after the male officer, who was in uniform, stopped a man on a silver moped on York Place in Battersea, south London, at around 3pm this afternoon. The suspect then sprayed the substance into the officer's face before fleeing the scene. Attack: A police officer was sprayed in the face with ammonia on York Place in Battersea, south London The officer, from the Met was taken to a central London hospital for treatment. His current medical condition is unknown, but it is understood that the injuries are unlikely to be life…

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is to consider charging 14 serving and former police officers, including two current chief constables, over their roles in a murder investigation. The four most senior-ranking officers implicated are: Gloucestershire Chief Constable Suzette Davenport Northamptonshire Chief Constable Adrian Lee Staffordshire Deputy Chief Constable Jane Sawyers West Midlands Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale If there is something in it, and five men had their murder convictions quashed so something must have gone wrong, it sounds like more than a mistake or a rogue cop.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-24141165 Police officers need to be more vigilant in cases involving children, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner has said. A serious case review into the death of murdered Daniel Pelka in Coventry found missed opportunities by police, the city council and the NHS. Officers were called to 26 separate incidents at the family home, many involving domestic violence. PCC Bob Jones said officers needed to be trained to be "more assertive". Daniel was starved and beaten by his mother and partner before he died in March 2012. Quite a long report, which somehow fails to state how police failed. Its h…

Guardian

Paraphrasing the Pogues there...! I am wondering how PACE will work with this.... They'll be marching them to cashpoints next http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24135219

Seventy-three years ago today, the climax of the Battle of Britain is believed to have taken place. It was the day when the Luftwaffe took its worst beating (although the statistics of the event are still somewhat uncertain) and so made the Germans believe that an invasion of Britain would not be an easy task. To me the important thing about this battle is that it was fought by "The Few" - a small band of mostly very young men, some as young as 19 or 20. In the years after the end of the War there was much pondering about the "youth of today" and whether they would be up to the standard of "The Few". In the past few years we have seen that, indeed, many of the young men a…

Original article link: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/429623/EXCLUSIVE-Scotland-Yard-to-downgrade-police-entry-tests-to-allow-for-ethnic-minorities?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-express-uk-news+(Daily+Express+%3A%3A+UK+Feed So, according to this, policing in England no longer requires to be fluent enough in English to be able to pass a basic written test and consequently, being able to interact with the public, with colleagues and so on. And I say this as a foreigner whose primary language is not English (evidently... )

Original article link: http://www.policeoracle.com/news/Watchdog-made-'unlawful'-conclusions-about-PC_70988.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24148129 Police forces in England and Wales have been set 178 performance targets by police and crime commissioners, despite a Home Office vow to cut red tape. Last week Home Secretary Theresa May told senior police officers they "have only one target, to reduce crime". BBC analysis shows 18 of the 41 PCCs have set targets or performance measures and others broader objectives. The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners said the targets bore "no resemblance" to past government goals. In a reform championed by Mrs May, PCCs were elected in all police force areas outside London last November to replace police authorities. They are re…

I believe the thoughts of many will today be with these brave young women and their families. May they continue to Rest In Peace and their families take comfort from knowing that their loss is shared by many.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24135219#

What use are the police these days? We know they have a pretty ambiguous attitude towards us, the public, avoiding us where possible by staying indoors or racing about in cars, and seldom going out alone in case one of us actually approaches them. They’re busy doing something else, as one of them recently explained to me in an irritable voice, when I asked him to act against a driver who’d driven through a red light at a pedestrian crossing 20ft from his nose. That ‘something else’ often involves hanging about scowling, with sub-machine guns, supposedly saving us from an exaggerated terrorist menace. Letting us down: The police don't know who they are suppose to b…

Click Just heard a report on Sky News and the justifications by Spurs fans defending the use sound very much to me like the justifications given by some Black Americans for the use of the "N" word. This recent ruling in NY state has somewhat reignited the debate around claim that the "N" word is a term of affection in the Black community, which in my opinion it is not and is used only by those who've come up from the streets.