The Elderly of Today

Have a read of this story about a 68 year old woman who was found guilty of growing cannabis. In particular, I liked what a supporter of her said which was

"I hoped the jury would find her not guilty and that the law might change."

Quite how they would find her not guilty I dont know.

I am interested in peoples views of this old woman though. Would it differ if she were 28 as opposed to 68?

Happy Hunting

Now that driving whilst on the phone carries 3 points and a £60 fine, will people stop doing it? Has anyone given a ticket for this yet? If so, what has their reaction been.

These photo's were taken yesterday












Obviously it wont change some peoples attitude

Dont Investigate Mispers

Having a read on PS.com it became clear why people dislike having to attend mispers.

"TWO fuming cops had to fork out £90 after their police car was clamped as they hunted for a missing person.

One of the officers had to draw cash from his bank account to get their marked Ford Fusion released after an hour and a half.

They parked in a private car park at 10.45am on Bank Holiday Monday — and a team from Aquarius Securities fixed a yellow clamp to a front wheel.

Witness Jim Birmingham, 45, said: "I was absolutely gobsmacked. When I caught his eye, the clamper looked at me with a little smile. The police were not a happy bunch."



Barry McQuile, of Aquarius Securities, said that the car was only clamped when it became clear the police were not on business at the firm that leases the car park space in Portsmouth, Hants.

He said: "Police need to realise they’re not above the law."

But Inspector John Anderson said the clamping firm had failed to use common sense.

He added: "The officers were investigating a case of a high-risk missing person. They were only gone five minutes. An employee has been reported for obstructing police."



Well, almost a detection out of it.

Britain Britain Britain!

Is this the only country where if your a dangerous sick (as in perverted) criminal, you dont get sent to prison yet if you "hack" a Royals phone, you get sent to prison.

Now I know which one I would rather see locked up!!

In the words of Inspector G "You couldnt make it up"

Taking The Piss

Yahoo News Story

Police said on Friday they were hunting a man who stole a urinal from a pub toilet.

The suspect walked into the Royal Oak pub in Southampton, ordered half a pint of beer and then made several visits to the men's toilet.

There he carefully removed a white urinal from the wall, stuffed it into a rucksack and was captured on closed circuit television walking out with the bulging sack on his back.

"He made a very, very expert job of dismantling it from the wall and turning the water off. A very professional job," landlord Alan Dreja said in a video posted on the Southampton Daily Echo newspaper's Web site.

A police spokesman said the thief may have been a tradesman.

"One of the theories is the guy is some sort of cut-price plumber who is going round and stealing parts to order," he said.

TPCSO

Traffic Police Community Support Officers?

Oh deary me. This was brought to my attention on good old ps.com (usually get my info here before most other places!)

It seems that the "C" from pCso is being removed! Where is the community in traffic?

I am sure when PCSO's were introduced they had a clear set role and that they would not have powers given to them thus creating a two tiered police service.

Personally, I think this is a bloody stupid idea. I have offered asked and begged on numerous occasions for a traffic attachment (and a dog one for that) and have been denied for "health and safety reasons", so how come PCSO's are being able to? (yes thats a bit of jelousy!)

Also, what about the following points:

What happens if a car fails to stop (hang on - why would they be stopping a car, and how??)
Do they pursue?
Can they only pursue for 30 mins?
If there is a decamp do they arrest?
Using what to handcuff?

All these issues.

As one poster has stated on ps.com, "No, no, no. This is mission creep at it's most sinister." Obviously I shall let you decide!

Life Saving Device

So police officers in Dorset have been given defibrillators to save lives. A great idea, think of all those lives that can be saved.

Will be even more usefull in the future when we will all be given Tasers and start to "zap" random people for the hell of it. Liberty will be pleased, as tasers only kill people - apparently. At least we can now bring them back to life.

Blue Light Takeaway Run

Oh dear oh dear, yet another speeding police officer.

How terrible this is that he got caught for being hungry. Obviously this information is quite clearly made up and the officer was genuinly on his way to the RTC! Quite clearly, he was on his way to pick up the food and got diverted, but then cancelled, and a disgruntled member of the public, more than likely who has just been given points for speeding himself, saw the officer about to tuck into a delicious meal and was jelous so reported him.

Perhaps PC Akrill could take these steps next time:

1) Preorder Chinese as usual
2) Choose a good route to go to the chinese, possibly in an area that other officers will not be near.
3) Call up stating that "a member of the public has just reported an accident. As you are a dedicated officer, refs can wait until you have dealt with it, and no other units are required"
4) Speed to the incident, which just happens to be near the Chinese.
5) Discover that the MoP was lying, but in your rush to get to the incident to save lives, you didnt take down their details
6) Call up stating a speed camera activation
7) Go to the Chinese to pick up food
8) Call up control stating that there was no accident
9) Take Chinese back to station and enjoy

Obviously, if Indian is your preference, then this is an adequate substitute.

[/Tongue In Cheek]

Coke Problem

Apprently the UK has the "Worst Cocaine Problem in Europe"

Perhaps we should start to give cocaine out on the NHS too, or do people who want their next fix of cocaine not cause crime? Perhaps someone could enlighten me?

Recently we had a drugs awareness session. So here is a test for you all, which one of these is actually cocaine??

A)



B)



C)



D)



Answers on a postcard?

Oh, and just for fun, one reason why dogs shouldnt be given drugs:



Incidently, my post here has caused a few mixed feelings and a nice debate! Have a look here and here, its ok - they dont bite! (I got a nice warm welcome and am starting to learn more about their role! Definitly worth a look:) )

Crime Laws Key To PM's Last Year

The PM is at it again!

Shame we have heard this same thing for the past 9 years

Police Dogs Muzzled

Hoorah!! Whilst reading things online this story struck me. Its about time Policy Makers had some common sense and put such a policy in place. After all, we dont want forces to have to pay out hundreds of thousands to innocent people who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and dont hear the numerous warnings of dogs barking and who fail to think what might happen if the dog is released.

Seriously, what planet do these people live on? Its like spraying people with water instead of pava, incase it burns their eyes causing them to spontaniously combust on exposure.

Surely the point of a police dog is another level in the conflict resolution model. Whereas people may not be to concerned with getting sprayed, or even hit with a baton, they dont particularly want a dog pouncing on them. Surely by putting a muzzle on the dog its, well, giving the criminals something less to fear.

Sadly, I am not a dog handler so cant say when they would be released onto a suspect, but I strongly suspect its not used for ordinary law abiding people, and more for people who are/will be violent etc. So where is the problem? If the person being bitten has done wrong, then tough, you cant sue. Perhaps you shouldnt have been doing what you were doing to gain such response from a police dog.

Yet another example of people in their 9-5 job making up policies for highly trained frontline officers who undertake extensive training for the unique role.

What are your opinions of this be it in support of this (as you are a criminal and have been bitten) or against it, as you have common sense?

(dont forget the post below which I only posted a few hours ago! Oh you lucky people getting two blogs in a space of a few hours!)

Two Tier Policing?

The topic of PCSO's is a controversial topic with many good reasons and many bad ones in regards their introduction. There is currently a huge drive to recruit PCSO's in many forces: The Met, Lancashire, BTP, and well, even Scroatsville Police Force! So much emphasis is on recruitment at the moment for PCSO's that in Scroatsville, specials intakes have been put on hold, and regulars intakes have been cut down to only a few a year, and even then not that many on each one.

Is this the answer to crime? Is this the governments solution to problems - by putting "officers" (note: not police officers) onto the streets.

One news story even says that PCSO's are not effective! However it does go on to say that residents of communitys feel safer by their presence. Well, at least that is something then!
(Granted, having a few is a good idea, I know a couple who do a great job, but also know some who are useless!)
So, what can PCSO's do?

PCSOs do not have powers of arrest, cannot interview or process prisoners, cannot investigate crime and do not carry out the more complex and high-risk tasks that police officers perform.

PCSOs spend much of their time on foot patrol, and are a visible, anti-crime presence in communities throughout England and Wales. Because they are so visible, members of the public feel comfortable approaching them with questions or worries about anti-social behaviour or crime.

In Scroatsville, they get paid up to £22,000 per year.

The latest government craze is "neighbourhood policing" and in Scroatsville, we are also adopting these (well, we have to!)

Each team consists of 1 Sergeant, 2/3 PC's, 4/6 Specials, and about 4/6 PCSO's. (Lots of debate about specials joining these teams in Scroatsville at the moment - but will save that for another time!)

So, here it is, my masterplan to avoid a two tier police system which many believes will happen.

1) Get rid of PCSO's
2) Use that money to get regular police officers
Ah, but what about the community based aspect?? I hear you cry!!

Simple solution, which is absolutely brilliant!

Have dedicated "Community Beat Officers". Several per area and they are dedicated to that area! Brilliant idea!

Oh hang on, we have this now.

Police Cuts

It seems that Northamptonshire Police and Leicestershire Police are both having to "cut" the numbers of police officers to save up to £6 million each!
The reasons we are given for this is that the government has not given the police forces, errr, services, enough money.

This leads me to think of a few things.

1) Force Mergers - how much money did the Government cause police forces to waste on these failed mergers? Surely (no, make that definitly!) this money could have been used for the shortfall in police funding!

2) PCSOs - Why is it that forces are recruiting a small army of PCSO's. Fair enough, the government is giving more money to forces for doing this, but a line needs to be drawn between their usefullness and overkill (rant to come soon!). Surely if we recruited half the amount of PCSO's then some of the police funding shortfall could be paid for? No??


As Tesco say - every litte helps!

Sacked For Chasing Criminals

So, soon you can get sacked for chasing criminals according to the Daily Mail. The reason for this?? You have guessed it! Health and Safety! Apparently chasing suspects across railway lines and roads might lead to an injury - not of the officer but the criminal. Is this yet another right on the "criminals charter"?

This is pretty much related to my hypothesis a while back! So you dont chase, you get critisised for missing out on that great thing that is a sanctioned detection, but if you chase then you can get sacked!

Quite what the home office thinks a police foot chase is like I dont know. Perhaps they think it is like this. If only it were, would definitly make a chase more fun, and also mean that you wont have to go to the gym so often.

I did hear that in the pipeline for other future "health and safety" things being brought in include:

*having a case files "staple" protruding more than 1 mm from the paper, thus likely to result in an injury
*using pens incase officers accidently swallow the lid, or even worse, an offender grabbing a pen off you and attempting to swallow the lid
*batons are to have lights on the end of them to warn people where the end of it is, just incase of an injury.

Dont we just love the home office!

Parking Ticket PC

Have a read of this story.

As much as traffic wardens are a pain in the arse (well, ok, not all of them are like a *insert huge american bird name here* to a corpse) how many of you would do this?

I have had a parking ticket but wouldnt dream of doing this! None the less, this PC obviously wasnt too happy with getting a ticket!

I am surprised this story was not turned into an anti police story saying how it was happening across the country as institutionalized grievance against traffic wardens!

What do you think then? Would you do the same? Or would you just fork out the money and not make an ass of yourself?

Fireman Sam's Prank

Ever thought what it would be like to get into a tumbledryer and turn it on?? Well this is exactly what a Greater Manchester Firefighter did!(note that I say fighter, not man as this is clearly not acceptable in todays PC society!)

The story can be found here

So now officials are investigating this. Right ok . . . this is obviously a priority! It seems that fun is not allowed, and is this really as dangerous as going into burining buildings? It was a bit of fun! Ah, but on the otherhand I suppose we cant have this sort of thing happening now can we. The public will be screaming that the fire service took so long as they were all playing with tumble dryers . . . . well, you never know!
I do wonder whether Professional Standards/equivalents have their sense of humour removed which is a shame!

Below is a list of equvalent things that one may find themselves doing in a police environment when in the same mindset with these firefighters:

*Kitting up in full PSU gear and hitting each other
*When a collegue falls asleep on the van near the end of the shift, park up and leave him (or her) in it - locked!
*Put on an inspectors jacket and trick naive probationers into making teas for the team
*Email the shift from someones PC whilst they are out the office declaring undying love for the inspector

Insert your own pranks/comedy moments here (ie. add a comment!)

Crime of the Century

Have a read of this news story and see what you think!!

Three 12year olds had climbed into a tree to make a den. Pretty normal thing to do, most kids (used to) do exactly the same thing in this gorgeous weather than stay inside and play on their XBox.
Anyway, someone had decided since they were getting up to no good to ring the police (probably as a 999 call as they most likely felt threatened in some way!)

The next thing that happens is the kids had been arrested and "locked up". They had their "shoes removed, mugshots, DNA samples and mouth swabs were taken." Well this bit is normal, that happens to EVERY prisoner that enters custody.

However, why on earth were these kids brought into custody?? For god sake, they were building a tree (as far as the story tells us anyway!)

I assume the resident would have been far happier for these kids to be smoking drinking and making noise and causing distress for people??

What happened to disretion from the officers? Did they forget what they used to do when they were kids, or is it that if they had done nothing (which I would have probably done, with the facts given) then a supervisor would have kicked their ass for not taking "positive action in line with force policy" or not getting a sanctioned detection!?

One thing is for sure - these kids wont be forgetting this experience! Maybe it will deter them from committing any crimes in the future! . . . . maybe one nighters should be compulsory for all kids!

Im Sorry . . . . . . . Not!!

I read an article on the bbc news site which can be found here. Its basically a great new idea that young criminals can avoid court if they apologise to the victim!

"The plan is one of a number of measures proposed by Lord Falconer to help speed up and improve criminal justice."

Improve?? I dont think so. Some call it "summary justice" but if I had a scroate at my door wanting to apologise to me for throwing that brick through my window, he wontbe greeted with a cake and a can of coke! More likely to have a kick up the arse, but were not allowed to do that!

Fair enough, currently warnings reprimands etc do bugger all at the moment but do they really think that this is an improvment to the criminal justice system??

Doesnt seem right to be honest, especially as you see the same little shits week in week out who are always up to no good, nicking stuff, yet are constantly in and out of the nick, yet none of this appears to effect them! They just know how to play the system, isnt it about time the system came round and bit them in the ass??

What do you think?

People Lie About Crime

I found this news story online at BBC News. It is basically about people admitting they ring up the police and make up incidents/over exagerate in order to get a police response. Obviously I will leave it to Life of a Comms Operator and A Year In the Life of a Police Operator who have discussed the "non merits" of doing such a thing. However, it begs the question why do people do this.

Often (depending on the controller and their mood etc) will get sent to a "juvinile nuisence" and before I get sent the controller will occasionally add a comment. The most frequent one being "im sure its nothing except them just being young". What do they mean by this?

MoP View: "As they are young and hanging around, they will be waiting to pounce on someone and rob them and kick them in and kill them and vandalise my house and every other bad thing under the sun

Youth View: "There is bugger all to do in this dump so I am going to hang around the park kicking a ball about with a couple of mates until its time to grab some food"

Quite a difference. When I go to these jobs not only does it annoy me that I have been sent to it, it annoys the "youths" also. It annoys them because it makes them feel "criminal" when they have done nothing wrong whatsoever. We often tell them that their only crime is "being young" and sadly people just have a stereotype of a young person being up to no good all the time and nothing they do can be good.

Back to the original news story, what benefit do they have making something up? It gets a police response. Thats it. What happens when they genuinly need a police response but cant as police officers are currently otherwise engaged dealing with a made up report of youths kicking a car in and setting it on fire (as I was the other day). It turned out that these youths had just arrived on the park, this car had been set on fire the day before (it was stone cold, and no wet around it from where fire would have no doubt put it out and it wasnt there the day before the day before!)
The caller wanted me to give him the names and addresses of all these "hoodlems and little shits". When I told him I couldnt and wouldnt, he got a bit pissy at "my attitude" and the fact that it took me "half an hour to get there" (yes mate, im sure it did - I got sent here 5 minutes ago from the other side of town, so actually it didnt take me half an hour, it took the police service half an hour)

He was writing a "report" on my town (ohhhh nearly wrote my force name there without realising!!) which he was going to send to some newspapers/magazines. It was examining how much we are paid and where this money goes (as in deployment) and the hours we work. I was very tempted to "uriniate on his pile of combustion" and tell him that 1) I do this for free 2) will go home when I get fed up 3) have done 4 nights this week for free 5) he would have had to wait longer for a police response had I not got my lazy arse out of bed that day. Ofcourse being such a nice kind officer I am I simply made him feel happy about what he was doing . . . but alas, where does this tie in with the original story (I digress yet again!)

I reckon, that if it were only "actual police related calls" (I use that term in the best meaning way possible) that response times would increase as we actually have officers available to deal with proper jobs rather than silly little arguments which are of a civil matter and have shockingly actually been dispatched to!

So before you pick up that phone to make a call to the police, think about is it actually necesary! (Obviously if its an emergency do call! I am talking about the innocent group of youths playing footbal who are somehow when it gets to us, beating someone up and injecting each other with heroin!)

Tragedy

Today one of our collegues from another force was murdered by some gutless scumbag, similar to lots of other scum bags which now inhabit our country under our great "Criminal Rights Act"

The full story can be seen on the BBC News Website and also read my fellow blogger's post Special Constables Blog

It is sad and my condolances for her family.

Is this what Britain has come to? Murdering police officers? Is this Tony Blairs tough on crime stuff. Perhaps its about time that the government got their fingers out their arse and think "how many more police officers have to be killed before we actually do something about the shit state this country is becoming"

Look how much her collegues care and are also upset about this on Police Specials Forum. It is very sad this event is.

It was only a few months ago that another officer was almost killed on duty but luckily survived, you would think that the courts would start to punish these scum bags and discourage other pondlife from doing the same. I apologise about some of this language but it is just unacceptable!

Deepest condolances to a truley good officer who spent many hours of her life volunteering for the Met doing what she can to help her community.