Local Community

Went into the local co-op today to get a few bits and bobs which I forgot from the weekly shop. Not only were there a couple of till persons, but a security guard who was saying how he was there full time now.

Quite sad how loads of places like this require a security guard.

On another note, why do we not get this type of stuff as reality TV. Would beat Big Brother any day!

Proud to be British

Are you?

UK Worst for Children?

Apparently this fine country is the worst for failing children! How can this be I ask . . . .

Be aware its quite graphic and violent.

The Bill

Have to love "The Bill".

One of many things on it which would be great if real is when dealing with an incident!

The Bill

• Get sent grade one to a 2 day old theft
• Turn up on blues/legging it on foot
• Talk to the owner, find out it was tens of thousands of pounds worth of goods taken, get a full perfect description with the offender caught on cctv with a full view of their face, drivers license with name and address on it too.
• Leave the store after hearing this without doing any paperwork, taking statements, booking on crimes, spot the offender, chase them, and arrest them

Scroatsville

• Control calls for someone to attend 2 day old theft
• No reply, so straws are drawn
• Officers attend in the hope of being diverted to another job
• Once they arrive, the item stolen comes to a value of £2.34, the cctv is of poor quality, all you can see is a blurred person in dark clothing as the camera was facing the wrong way, the disc of the cctv cant be released until the morning manager comes in the next day, the store worker is also unable to provide a good description.
• Take statement
• Book on crime
• Give shop crime number
• Leave
• Go back to the nick and complete more paperwork
  

I Would Never

Another quick poll for you! Please feel free to add a comment to justify your reasoning! What would you rather do instead too!

I would Never Work....
	CID
	Traffic
	Response
	Community Team
	Professional Standards
	Speed Camera Team
	Prisoner Interview Team
	At all

Deal, or No Deal?

Should I remain on a response team or should I go to a "community" team.

Being on response seems to be job to job to job and most of them seem to be domestics or shoplifters depending on the time of day!

The "community" team where I would be going is in a rough part of town (Crime Hub of Scroatsville), its easier to drive to from home, and doesnt cover anywhere near where I live. The stuff we would do is drugs raids, sneaky beaky operations etc. The team are great and we all have a great time when we crew and all are very pro-special.
Oddly there are more response drivers on this team than the response team.

What do you reckon? What woud you do?

Police on Speed

I have already looked at taxi drivers, mobile phone users and those who dont wear seatbelts and not forgetting speed cameras!


What about all the stories we hear about how naughty the police are as we speed all the time. Sometimes without the blue lights and sirens.

Just to clear up to members of the public who may be unaware.

Section 87 Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984 exempts certain emergency vehicles from speed limits if observance would hinder the use of the vehicle for the purpose it was being used for on that occasion.

Basically, if sticking to the speed limits would hinder the emergency/incident, then the police (and other services outlined in Section 87) then they can speed.

This means that

• Blue lights do not have to be used
• Sirens do not have to be used
• If a police car is speeding and doesnt have blue lights and sirens going, doesnt always mean that they are just speeding for the hell of it (obviously sometimes it does)
• If a police car wacks its lights on overtakes you turns them off and bombs it off, they are not always late for the Kebab house run, they may be going somewhere urgently but dont want to give the fact away to who they are looking for.

Obviously, this leads to many problems.

1) The moaning member of public. This is the sort of person who goes out of their way to find a non story, and blow it out of proportion. Such stories include the caller complaining that the police car went through a red light "too fast" or just the fact that they did it, that they were not wearing a seat belt at the same time as having the person in the back of the car jumping all over the place (kicking off).
This sort of thing is something that happens quite often. This is one of the latest stories.

You might even get the odd disalusioned person saying things such as

"Speed cameras, and the way speed is being enforced, are criminalising everybody, but the police's own people are let off"

Nigel Humphries of the Association of British Drivers. Lets see what he says when his house is being burgled with him being threatened with a knife or a gun and to have the police stuck in traffic, or making at the speed limit from 20 miles away.

2) The more serious stories crop up from time to time which involve police vehicle accidents.
Apparently, according to the good old Home Office anyway, 126 people died as a result of an accident involving a police vehicle between 2000 and 2004.

Everytime a police officer gets into a car, they could be open to being charged with driving without due care and attention or even dangerous driving should something happen. Examples of this can be found here here and there are many times when a crash happens which injures or kills an officer.
Not forgetting cases such as PC Milton - these dont help in what the public think of police driving!

What should be done about it though??
How many times on an average shift do officers go to a grade one (blue light job). Many thousand times a day across the country. How many of these result in an accident?

What would happen if there was no exemption? People would critisise the police for taking too long to get somewhere, for not doing enough.

This just relates back to my good old theory of damned if we do, damned if we dont.

Aint it Funny

Scroatsville has been hit quite badly over the past few months with robberies in a specific area.

Solution: An operation
Details: Have dedicated plain clothes and marked patrols in the area
Sucessful: Yes - the main offender was caught in the act and arrested.
But really, was it sucessful: No - the offender that we caught is still out and about doing robberys and keeps getting arrested.

Surely he shouldnt be out on the streets!

A solution to this??

Prison II

My last post looked at how "bad" prisons apparently are.

This time, a look around the world - I shall let you see how nice and cushty prisoners in Britain are compared to the rest. As always, please let me know your views.


Russia

Criminals in the former Soviet state are still sent to the “gulags”

Russia has 900,000 prisoners and many are held in the 120 remote hard labour camps which date from Communist dictator Stalin’s brutal reign.

During winter temperatures can fall to -40°C. Inmates are expected to cover their own costs and often have to cut timber in bitter conditions to earn cash.

City jails are just as tough. Kresty prison in St Petersburg, where revolutionary Leon Trotsky was once held, was built for 1,000 inmates — but now holds ten times that figure.

Up to 14 people share cells measuring just over 9ft by 9ft.

Food is very basic and rationed and Russian prisoners complain of malnourishment.

The conditions have led to poor health among inmates with one in ten contracting TB.

Russia’s crime rate is 1,754 per 100,000 people. However, the country has an extremely high murder rate — four times that of America.

Greece

Greece has a prison population of around 8,841 in 25 boot camp-style jails.

In Athens’s Drapetsona detention centre, inmates — who can be detained there for up to a year — sleep on the floor, receive only basic food and little medical care.

Prisoners are expected to buy their own toothpaste and other toiletries and use crude toilet and washing facilities.

Detainees here are not allowed access to social workers or other state services. Greece’s largest jail is the Korydallos Prison Complex, which houses some 2,200 inmates.

Its claustrophobic cells measure 6½ft by 10ft and prisoners are confined to their beds while under lock and key.

Criminals on remand in Athens’s Kolonos police station jail also sleep on cell floors and are not allowed baths or hot water.

Wardens feed them just one basic meal each day.

Greek crime is 4,145 offences for every 100,000 inhabitants.

Saudi Arabia

Westerners held inside Saudi Arabia’s no-mercy penal system often complain about harsh conditions — but very few risk becoming repeat offenders.

Around 23,000 adult inmates are behind bars in 30 jails and more than half are foreign nationals.

Saudi’s largest prison al-Hair, in the capital of Riyadh, is modern and clean but offers only the most basic of “comforts”.

Jailed British expats complain of brutal conditions in al-Hair and other Saudi jails. They claim wardens regularly use axe handles and iron bars to extract confessions.

Four hundred prisoners held at Al-Jawf’s central prison recently rioted over conditions.

Inmates wanted newspapers, doors on bathrooms and recreation facilities.

Saudi has just 405 offences per 100,000 people — the lowest crime rate of the nations on this page.

Brazil

Scores of inmates leave Brazil’s tough prison system before the end of their sentences — but only in wooden boxes.

Brazil’s 512 prisons — known as presídios — are among the harshest in the world.

Sao Paulo’s Carandiru jail is Latin America’s largest jail, holding 6,500 inmates.

Prisoners live in dormitory cells laid out along long corridors. Inmates depend on relatives to provide bedding, mattresses, clothing and toiletries.

Brazil also locks up criminals inside local police jails. These often consist of a covered patio flanked by cells.

An inmate in one such jail in Minas Gerais said: “Every Friday we have a full search. Everyone is forced to strip naked and wait on the patio, often in the cold.”

Conditions at Mata Grande Penitentiary in Rondonopolis are so bad inmates regularly riot or try to escape. Thirteen were killed during one break in March 2000.

Brazil has just 927 offences per 100,000 people.

France

The French prison system is said to suffer from serious overcrowding and unhygienic conditions.

A recent report by the Paris-based International Observatory of Prisons revealed the average jail was working 25 per cent beyond its capacity.

In Mans prison for instance, 135 people share just 45 places.

The report also claimed conditions in most jails were unsanitary and the head doctor of Paris’s La Sante prison has told how mattresses were filled with lice, cells were infested with rats and inmates became so depressed they swallowed rat poison.

A report by the Council Of Europe also described French jails as “repulsively dirty”.

France has a much smaller prison population than Britain, with 61,000 inside. Its crime rate is 6,932 reported offences for every 100,000 people.

USA

The US got tough on their dangerous criminals by building “super-max” prisons.

They are used to hold the worst kinds of murderers and rapists.

One of the harshest regimes is in Ohio state penitentiary in Youngstown where prisoners spend 23 hours a day in small, sealed metal cells.

Cell lights are never turned off and lags are never allowed outside into the fresh air. They are granted just one hour of exercise a day, undertaken alone in a bare room.

Whenever an inmate leaves the cell block they have to wear a set of rigid metal handcuffs.

There are more than 50 such supermax jails for the “worst of the worst”.

The country has 1.96million prisoners and the crime rate dropped last year.

There were 4,118 crimes per 100,000 people in 2002.

Prison

Facts about prison

• Up to three-quarters of men in UK prisons suffer from two or more mental disorders.
• One in four women in prison has spent time in local authority care as a child
• The number of 15-17 year olds in prison has more than doubled over the last ten years
• It costs over £40,000 per year to keep a person in prison
• 67.4% of all prisoners re-offend within two years of release
• The suicide rate for men in prison is five times that of men in the community
• Almost one third of suicides occur within the first week in custody, 1 in 7 within 2 days
• One study found that 72% of those who committed suicide in prison had a history of mental disorder
• Boys in prison aged 15-17 are eighteen times more likely to kill themselves than in the community
• Almost 1 in 5 of those held on remand before trial were acquitted or not proceeded against
• Recalled prisoners now make up nearly 11% of the population of local prisons
• One third of all women in prison had no previous convictions
• The majority of women in prison are held for non-violent offences
• Nearly two thirds of women in prison have a drug problem
• Over half of the women in prison have suffered domestic abuse, 1 in 3 sexual abuse
• It is estimated that 150,000 children have a parent in prison
• England & Wales has the highest number of life sentanced prisoners in Europe. It has more than German, France, Italy and Turkey - combined.
• 30% of people released from prison will have nowhere to live
• Over half of all prisoners are at or below the level of an 11 year old at reading
• Just under half of all male prisoners were excluded from school
  

Does prison work? Does it rehabilitate people? Does it solve matters? More importantly, does it reduce crime?

Is it time to actually tackle the causes of crime, the upbringing of a child & parenting.

What I Saw Today

A driving instructor driving about on his phone. I do wonder what he would say if one of his pupils decided to do this.

Another thing I saw today . . .

Why is it perfectly legal for someone to, whilst driving, mess about in their handbag looking for their fags, find them, open the packet, stick a fag in their mouth, search around for the lighter, attempt to light the cigarette, find the lighter doesnt work so have to pay even more attention to the lighter trying to get it to work, even using their other hand.
However, its illegal to hold something to your ear and will soon carry 3 points and £60 fine.

Go figure.

(by the way, before I get jumped on, I do not think using a phone whilst driving is a good idea)

Christmas (or is that Winterval?)

Christmas Day. First call comes in. Can we attend a burglary at Pine Tree Road. On arrival we are met by a distressed mother and 2 kids. They have had all their Christmas presents stolen as well as their new tv and other such items.

The mother had told us that she had been working all year long to pay for these presents for her kids. Through no fault of their own, someone had decided that these presents under the tree were intended for them, most probably to fund their crack habit.

Move onto the next job, a domestic. Yes its early for one. Turned out that wifey wasnt impressed that her husband hadnt got her what she wanted. Worse off, she found what she wanted hidden in a cupboard, labelled for Claire. Wifeys name was Erica. Oh dear. Not a nice christmas for wifey.

Next call was an RTC. A couple had been driving on their way to see their children and grandchildren, but a drink driver (yes its early but obviously it wasnt for some!) had gone into them trapping one occupant. Ambulance and Fire had arrived. The female was walking wounded but the male had to be cut out of the car and taken to hospital. The drink driver was arrested and taken to custody. Custody was looking no different today than any other day of the week. It was just very quiet with the odd bit of noise from one of the few we had in residence. The driver was breathalised and stuck in a cell.

We resumed.

Driving through Scroatsville was very quiet. Could smell all those delicious meals being cooked, the only thing I would be eating is that sandwich I made earlier. All those people seeing loved ones, unwrapping presents and having a good time (on the whole). No doubt there will be loads of alcohol fueled domestics in the evening.

Fortunatly for me, this post is fictional. But I have lots of respect for those officers who are on duty today and will be dealing with such incidents.

A Happy Christmas (NOT Winterval) to everyone!

What The Public Want

Today I visited a large town/small city and spent the majority of the day in the town centre itself.

Police Officers seen: Zero
PSCO's Seen: 5

Is this what the public really want??

Restorative Justice

What a pile of fluffy liberal crap.

For those who are unsure of what restorative justice is,

"where victims have an opportunity to express the full impact of the crime upon their lives, to receive answers to any lingering questions about the incident, and to participate in holding the offender accountable for his or her actions. Offenders can tell their story of why the crime occurred and how it has affected their lives."

I see some problems with this.

1) The little shit that smashed my car window for example, if I were to have a "session" with him and listen to why they did it, it would more than likely look like this:

• I was bored
• It was a dare
• I wanted the cd player
• I wanted the couple of quid you might have in your ash tray
• I accidently threw the brick through your window, it was meant for the old lady walking past

To be honest, I would be far to tempted to knock the little shit into next week than listen to the rubbish which is going to come out of his gob.

2) What sorts of crimes is this appropriate for? Theft? Common Assault? ABH? GBH? Murder? Who decides?

3) Who would organise it?

• Not enough police officers to organise it although im sure they can take more frontline officers and stick them in offices for it
• Social Services? Might take a very long time for them to sort something, if there is somebody on call and you dont get the answerphone. If not, your screwed
• A new body which can be given millions of pounds to become yet another government faliure

4) Would people actually be interested in meeting their offender and "forgiving them" and all that fluffy stuff??

Ladies and gentlemen, your thoughts please

Basket Case

Do you have the time
To listen to me whine
About nothing and everything all at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone no doubt about it

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up


(Basket Case - by Greenday)

So am I a Basket Case for doing this for free?

First off, I certainly didnt join to "give back to my community". If I was going to give back to the community I would be urinating in their garden and breaking into their cars, as this is what I have been given.

I have had poor assistance from the police before. Instead of moaning, I got convinved by a regular officer to join. Didnt have a clue what I was letting myself into.
So now, I am one extra person, one extra pair of hands in the grand place that is Scroatsville. May seem insignificant but for that person who rings us up to report gremlins in their house, at least thats one more body that might be able to deal with it.

Can you tell I ran out of ideas this week?

Interested to hear others reasons for joining

Black Sheep

Am I allowed to say black sheep?? Im sure one of the PC Crew will correct me with this weeks appropriate phrase!

Before I joined the specials, I had no clue what it was all about. Infact, I had never even heard of a Special Constable!

Then once I commenced training, I got the usual comments from people who had little idea:

But you cant arrest people!
So is it like a citizens arrest?
Do you get a gun?
Dont the regulars look down on you?

The last point was the one which worried me, how wrong I was though.

I have only ever had one "bad" experience with a regular officer. Well, two actually.

The first was when I was crewed up with a regular officer and we were looking for some, (MoP's, believe it or not!) Burgulars! We had the copperchopper up above and we were on foot searching a field. Another regular comes up and begins barking orders at me. He then notices my collar number (showing I am a special - have to look twice as we dont have the SC & Crown etc). On seeing this he stopped talking, turned to my regular collegue, and said exactly what he had said to me, to her.
We were both shocked at this.

"Oh ignore him, he is just a dinosoar"

Never seen him since though, nor have I let it get me down!

The second one wasnt really anything major, and more aimed at me being "lazy" than anything!

I started duty at 09:00 and I was sat in the office after having just booked in a prisoner, enjoying a cup of tea waiting for another officer to bring me some store CCTV to book in. Obviously there was nothing I could do at this point other than enjoy my cuppa! Took 2 hours to book in the prisoner (shockingly poor!) which brought me to 1700 (oh the joy)

In walks the inspector:

Insp "What are you doing?"
ESP "Huh?" (I thought it was pretty obvious to be honest)
Insp "Why are you sat about doing nothing?"
ESP "I am waiting for another officer to bring CCTV to me from the town centre"
Insp "Well I dont want you sat about doing nothing"
ESP "What should I do then??
Insp "Not sit around" *she then walked off*

A regular then made the comment of "Your lucky mate, she's not your inspector, wish I had Inspector ***** too!" (Probably Inspector Gadget! My Inspector, not the one in question!!)

Perhaps she just wanted me to juggle some MG forms - Moscow Circus meets Scroatsville Police type stuff. Who Knows!

As I have said several months back, I have loads of support from regular officers, and always give my time to assist them back in any way I can.

Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares

For those locked up in one of Scroatsville's Cells, they get a bed, and more important, a meal cooked by our gormet chef.

Breakfast

Full English - Rice Crispies or Corn Flakes With Milk
Continental - Rice Crispies or Corn Flakes Without Milk

*A sprinkle of sugar available for those with an exotic taste*

Lunch

Cold Buffet: Rice Crispies or Corn Flakes with or without Milk
Hot Selection: A variety of coloured slops flavoured to represent cuisine from around the world

Being The Boss

What would you do if you were the Chief for the day? (There we go PC Bloggs, put a photo of a female Chief rather than a male one as they are more understanding of peoples needs than a male one due to all that testosterone!)

Anyway, what would I do? (Stole the idea for this blog from PS.com)

I would be very tempted to change the uniform. There is nothing worse than having to run after some scroate with a shirt and tie on not to mention the other numerous kit.

Would also have stabvests which have a zip down the middle rather than having to put it over your head - it tends to ruin peoples hair - apparently.
One thing for sure would be have more cars available so officers dont have to hang around for ages waiting for the shift before to return with cars!

I cant speak for regular officers for a lot of stuff, so will do this from a specials point of view.

1) Offer a bounty to specials doing a certain amount of hours
2) Invest more in the training of specials - after all, once attested, they will (hopefully) work a hell of a lot of hours - for free!
3) Give specials more PSU training - this means that instead of having to piss off regular officers to come in on rest days to do it, can get specials who will drop everything to do it!
4) Training is ongoing. This includes doing paperwork and putting together files - even if they are basic files. This means that regular officers wont be pestered into completing specials paperwork whilst they bugger off home ontime

There are many other things I would want to do - sadly I cant think of any more!

Please do add your own!

Hug A Hoodie

Or at least show some love!

I was on my way to the gym today, so had my hoodie on, t shirt underneath and my tracksuit bottoms on. Needless to say, I looked a proper chav.
Thought whilst on my way, I will stop off to do a quick bit of shopping as I will be too lazy to later.

In I go. The bloke giving out baskets looked at me as if I was going to nut him one, and I had to help myself to a basket.

I go up an aisle which is a little busy, and ask an old lady if I could get past please. Her reaction? She flinched and ran a mile!

When I got to the checkout the person infront of me decided to hold onto her bag tightly whilst keeping her eyes on me.

So people, next time you flinch, or feel threatened, do think about David Cameron and his "hoodie hugging" and "hoodie loving"

The Parent Test

Further to my post here, I have thought out a test for women to undertake before they are permitted to have children.

1) What would you call your child?

2) Do you have a partner/in a long term relationship?

3) Do you work/does your partner work? Please note, some types of employment are not acceptable.

4) Which do you prefer, Argos or Tiffany?

5) You have won a free holiday, where will you take it?
a) New York
b) Magaluf

6) What is your idea of "education"
a) GCSE's, A-Levels and maybe even University
b) A shag behind the co-op and the Radio Times

7) You know the local bobby's name because . . .
a) You respect him as a community figure
b) He arrested you last week yet again

8) Drugs are . . .
a) Something to stop a headache after a long day at work
b) Not enough to satisfy me anymore

9) A good night out is . . .
a) Nice meal with my darling partner
b) Not complete without a fight

The rest I shall leave to you all