Auditors

[Fedster + 1,307]

London politicians put measures to senior Met officer, but deputy mayor suggests they may be disproportionate.

Sophie Linden said that officers should have the confidence to use their powers if they think a crime is going to be committed

Politicians called for more police action – including stop and search – to tackle criminals riding mopeds.

At a meeting of the London Assembly, representatives of three different parties mulled policies which could tackle scooter-enabled crime, such as robberies.

Figures to September this year show there were more than 19,385 "moped enabled" crimes in the capital.

Green Party member Sian Berry asked Met Police Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt whether it would be legally possible to introduce a ban on passengers being allowed to ride pillion on the vehicles.

Ms Berry said: "Maybe for a temporary time or across a temporary area [you could say] we're going to regard you as suspicious if you do that [have a passenger], I don't know."

AC Hewitt said police do not make laws.

Conservative Steve O'Connell said: "I've had suggestions that your officers should be stopping anyone with a pillion [passenger] in order to have a conversation with them."

Labour's Andrew Dismore added: "Is there not a case in areas where you have more instances of this crime for a policy where you do more aggressive stop and search of people riding pillion?"

"If you stopped them when riding pillion and they had a knife or a hammer they would need a pretty good excuse for doing so."

AC Hewitt said police do already look out for those who they think are suspicious on scooters.

Prominent Labour and Conservative politicians have been critical of police use of stop and search in recent years.

At the meeting Sophie Linden, the deputy mayor for policing, said: "It's always going to come back to what is proportionate. We don't want to go so far one way […] we've had a conversation about stop and search and the level of stop and search had been too much of a blanket [policy].

"There is that danger with this, but clearly you can see from the [crime] figures it is concerning."

Pressed further on the issue Ms Linden, Sadiq Khan's delegate on policing matters, added: "As with stop and search, officers should have the confidence to use their professional judgement where there is a high crime, and in Camden and Islington it is mopeds.

"The message is you should have the confidence to use your powers where you think a crime is going to be committed. Clearly it does have to be intelligence-led, it does have to be proportionate, but it is needed."

View on Police Oracle

[HazRat 762]

2 hours ago, Fedster said:

Green Party member Sian Berry asked Met Police Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt whether it would be legally possible to introduce a ban on passengers being allowed to ride pillion on the vehicles.

Ms Berry said: "Maybe for a temporary time or across a temporary area [you could say] we're going to regard you as suspicious if you do that [have a passenger], I don't know."

AC Hewitt said police do not make laws.

Conservative Steve O'Connell said: "I've had suggestions that your officers should be stopping anyone with a pillion [passenger] in order to have a conversation with them."

And the award for silly suggestion of the week goes to the Green Party.

Let me break this down into small bite size, easily understandable parts..... they ride around in motorcycles (not mopeds) that are stolen. They don’t worry about insurance or driving licences. So they’re not going to worry about a law that says you can’t carry pillions (as they don’t generally have a licence they can’t do it anyway with current legislation).

Lets avoid the real issues. High gains for minimal effort and minimal chance of getting locked up long term if caught ie no deterrent. Lack of police. Lack of trained pursuit drivers who believe that the system will look after them if they do everything correctly.

[Indiana Jones + 1,103]

3 hours ago, Fedster said:

Ms Berry said: "I don't know."

I think that sums up this load of old tosh quite nicely.

[Mac7 808]

Round of applause for the Green Party delegate.

They really do live in cloud cuckoo land - “Stopping anyone with a pillion for a conversation!” You can just imagine that scenerio can’t you!

It’s ironic that Mayor Khan announced prior or not long after coming to office that he would drive down stop and search. Now his delegate on policing wants it increasing.

Some resources to be able to proactively go after these people would be a start.

[obsidian_eclipse + 1,202]

Hahaha.. They really think that these people will be bothered and actually stop for police? They don't afterwards so they certainly won't before. The only reason they wear helmets is so you can't see their faces, it's not out of respect for the road traffic act.

 

Basically a conference about "how can we make it look like we're doing something when we can't and don't want to do what is needed". On one hand they'll be patting each other on the backs and then the other slapping us down because we're using our powers too much.

 

 

[BlueBob + 700]

Perhaps they could have invited the AC along and asked what else could be done rather than suggesting unenforceable ideas and the AC having to nicely tell them they are disconnected from legislation and the real world.

[HazRat 762]

9 minutes ago, BlueBob said:

Perhaps they could have invited the AC along and asked what else could be done rather than suggesting unenforceable ideas and the AC having to nicely tell them they are disconnected from legislation and the real world.

I disagree. They should invite the frontline officers along. You the know ones, the ones in plentiful supply, run ragged attending call after call with actual experience as opposed to something they read in a report that came over their desk.

[Zulu 22 + 4,628]

Where are you going to find an officer who has the spare time to attend their pointless meeting. What was shown was, that they have not got a clue about Policing. They condemn stop and search yet, they suggest, no demand more stop and search. They are not mopeds, they are high powered motor scooters and will only stop if they want to, which do not.  The only ones who would stop are the legitimate, licensed and insured, scooter riders. These Politicuans are such a naive lot. 

[BlueBob + 700]

18 hours ago, HazRat said:

I disagree. They should invite the frontline officers along. You the know ones, the ones in plentiful supply, run ragged attending call after call with actual experience as opposed to something they read in a report that came over their desk.

In part I agree, not so sure how well that frontline officer could answer or suggest how to impose some of these temp powers etc.  There are times when rank really does matter

[Zulu 22 + 4,628]

23 hours ago, BlueBob said:

In part I agree, not so sure how well that frontline officer could answer or suggest how to impose some of these temp powers etc.  There are times when rank really does matter

Except when did rank above Inspector last do a stop and search?  There will not be any official figures but I would hazard an educated guess at zero.

[HazRat 762]

On 19/11/2017 at 12:38, BlueBob said:

In part I agree, not so sure how well that frontline officer could answer or suggest how to impose some of these temp powers etc.  There are times when rank really does matter

I get your point, but it would be a reality check. I reckon I could free up an officer for a few hours, or invite the Assembly Members out in a TPAC car to see the scale of the problem and the issues the officers face. 

[BlueBob + 700]

3 minutes ago, HazRat said:

I get your point, but it would be a reality check. I reckon I could free up an officer for a few hours, or invite the Assembly Members out in a TPAC car to see the scale of the problem and the issues the officers face. 

since when did reality matter.  

[Pete 1,492]

they need someone with some knowledge of it to take the p*** out of their ridiculous fantasies. 

banning passengers on mopeds. we should ban GBH and robbery aswell, when the criminals hear it’s banned they’ll stop all this nonsense.

utter buffoons.