Planet Police

Right, this is such an issue at work at the moment. The bosses upstairs, you know the ones, the ones you see once a year for their annual motivational speech where they promise to pop in to your particular office every week for a chat, but in reality It's been years since they did, or ever will. They're the guys who call your county a 'team' and continue to refer to it as 'team Met' or 'team Kent'.. Anyway, they've decided that making PCSOs patrol on their own will increase visibility by 100%. Usually we are double for safety and contact and cover etc.

The issue with this is that we have no real personal protective equipment. We have no baton or CS gas, so we need that extra person to back us up. We certainly don't deal with as much aggression and confrontational situations as Police Officers do, but we do face some, and a second PCSO is invaluable in those circumstances. I don't feel completely comfortable working late at night in high crime areas on my own. And the increase in assaults on my colleagues is a little worrying. With talk of increased powers and responsibility, is single crewing really a good idea?

This is an interesting read about my current situation. More from the author of the above. More policing madness at Ruraltown nick last week. The SMT are very concerned with the fact that the following new technology is not being used by officers (ungrateful sods!) 1. Video Conferencing 2. The Vehicle Locating System on Airwaves 3. The new mini-computer [...]

In our dealings with society, we encounter many different groups & individuals. All diferent sections & sects, religions & ethnic groups, the weird, the wonderful, the dangerous & the downright strange.

Few groups get as much attention as travellers. Travellers get special attention when they come to the notice of the police.

Suppose someone steals your lawnmower, you follow them to a neighbour’s house. You would rightly expect the police to turn up & at least knock on the door, enquire as the whereabouts of the lawnmower & hopefully arrest the culprit.

If the thief is followed back to a traveller’s site, the chances are that the police won’t go on the site, not without significant backup, by which time the lawnmower has been stripped down, repainted & sold on three times.

If a group of kids are standing at the side of the road chucking bricks at cars, you might expect robust dealings from the old bill. You wouldn’t be too chuffed if a copper turned up & declined to go onto the site to find the little brats because the nearest backup was in custody dealing with a domestic arrest & nobody else can attend.

The fact is that when it comes to going onto travellers’ sites to deal with allegations of crime or disorder, we don’t do it unless there are several of us & possibly mob-handed. It works both ways though. When a traveller calls up from his site saying other travellers from another site have come round & are trashing his home, we don’t go on site until there are sufficient units to secure our own safety, so if they are getting a good kicking, that kicking is going to last a bit longer than they might like; you make your bed, etc, etc.

Why is this? It’s because of our dealings with incidents on travellers’ sites  & with traveller individuals suggests that there is a very high liklihood of violence & disorder towards us. It’s not a pleasant experience trying to stop a group of travellers who’ve just raided a petrol station shop & getting a shotgun pointed at you.

Is this health ‘n’ safety or is it racisim?

I don’t know, but it is acceptable to those who run the police.

If I was sent to write down the number plates of all the cars owned by black people on the Ridgewell Estate, did intelligence checks on them & stuck them on an intelligence database, people might be horrified that I could do this & it would be an acceptable tool in the fight against crime. Yet it’s perfectly acceptable to drive round a travellers’ site at 3 in the morning writing down all the number plates & doing checks on the vehicles; it’s about intelligence led policing & is a useful method of tracking criminals.

If I approached you with the expectation that you were going to punch me, I might give off an entriely different vibe that I would if I thought you were going to invite me in for a cup of tea, but it’s OK to believe that if you’re a traveller.

I have no idea what proportion of travellers have criminal records as compared to the average chap on the Ridgwell Estate. I have an idea but if I express it that makes me racist against travellers because I’m going to say that I believe there is a higher percentage of violent criminals amongst that group than most others, yet I’ve only ever dealt with a couple of thousand individuals out of a population of many thousands.

On one of our diversity training days we had to stand in the middle of the room. The trainer read out certain comments & we had to stand in the room according to how much we agreed with the statement. If you agreed strongly you stood by the wall, if you disagreed strongly you stood by the windows, if you agreed a bit you stood somewhere near the middle.

One of the questions was ‘Travellers are more likelty to nick stuff than the average citizen’, or words to that effect.  Most people hovered around the middle of the room, there were a few by the ‘disgaree wall’ but only 1 by the windows. When we discussed it away from the trainer over lunch, most people said they thought the correct answer was by the window but they didn’t want to stand there for fear of being labelled as a racist.

I’d really like to find out the figures, it would be nice to know whether I’m a racist or a realist. I wouldn’t mind knowing whether my bosses who sanction or even demand this special treatment are racist too.

Some days are better than others. Today I had a bit of a lie in and then I took my son to Jitsu. I am chief assistant to the assistant chief at the kid’s classes. They use me as a demonstration dummy. “Look kids, see how the big cop flies through the air and lands with a [...]

I just wanted tom say "Hello", I am about but it's been a bit manic lately. So much has happened since my last post. Er....The local BPA was referred to as "dwindling." "Not my fault," I said, especially when the HMIC and Chiefs push to set up different groups by ...

Some of you may recall the furore over the non-diverse nature of the standard Highway Code sign for wrinklies trying to cross the road.

I'm glad to report that suggestions have now been submitted for a more PC replacement.

© Noddy
Published by Toy Town™ Times

Brian rings up several times a day, when he’s going through one of his ‘episodes’. Sometimes he doesn’t ring for a week or two, others he rings every day for a week or two.

We’ve been to Brian’s house over 600 times in the last 10 years or so. He’s in his 50s and lives alone, although he does have various visitors.  I don’t know anything about Brian other than what I read on all the logs of his calls; I’ve never met him but I’ve spoken to him quite a few times.

Invariably what will happen is that Brian rings 999 & asks for the police, he then tells the call taker that he:

a) has slashed his arm

b) has a knife in his hand & is about to slash his arm

c) wants to slash his arm.

The worst I’ve heard Brian do is a slightly nick his arm causing a minor cut, not much more serious than a bad paper cut or caught fingernail.

The ambulance control are invariably called by our call-taker who have warnings on their system not to go to Brian’s without the police because he is a dangerous man & plays with knives.

The log is then sent across to the radio operator (me) for despatch. This sometimes means sending a unit, depending on what the call taker types on the log. (Sometimes it means typing something on the log about Brian being a regular caller & regrading it as high, so I don’t send anyone initially) As a result of that, sometimes the ambo get there first and, knowing how ‘dangerous’ Brian is, they go in alone & cart him off the A & E, or call back saying Brian’s calmed down & they’re leaving. This also means I don’t have to send anyone.

Sometimes ambo won’t go in & call us & I have to send someone, we get there & help the ambo persuade Brian to go to A & E for a check-up. If we are successful, between us (police & ambo) then we can hand him over to someone else to deal with (A & E). A & E can’t do much for Brian. I’m not sure what he wants or needs but I suspect it doesn’t lie in a bandage, some painkillers & a smiling nurse. So A & E release him a couple of hours later. He makes his way home…and dials 999.

The last few times this cycle has started I have waited ten minutes or so and then rung Brian up. He knows my voice now. I have no idea why but I seem to have a calming influence on him. I know this because he tells me. He says that whenever I speak to him it has a calming influence on him & he doesn’t want to slash his wrists anymore. He feels better, something about me having humanity or kindness, or something. In fact he is quite happy to make a cup of tea & watch the TV before going to bed.

I have no idea why he does this, perhaps he just wants someone to talk to & his social skills make him believe the only way to get some social interaction is to dial 999. I do know that whatever he requires, it can’t be provided by two hairy-arsed coppers blue-lighting it through the town to reach him.

It can’t be provided by two green-clad paramedics shoving him in the back of an ambo & neither can it be provided by a smiling nurse in a curtained cubicle at the local hospital (actually, maybe it can, but I’m not sure that’s on the national Health Service).

So, when he threatens to slash his wrists & I happen to pick up the log, the chances are we won’t attend. The problem will lie when, on the 601st call, he does slash his wrists. No matter who has or hasn’t done what or not provided what it is Brain needs, for the last 10 years, the time he does will be entirely my fault.

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'Diary of an On-Call Girl' is available in some bookstores and online.

Most of my readers should be familiar with Inspector Gadget. He's the only Inspector out there anonymously blogging. He seems to have disappeared now his book has been published.

Inspector Gadget’s new book “Perverting the Course of Justice” is out, published on 2nd September.

There’s a little bit of concern over at the Inspector’s blog at the moment. The last post is a reference to not trusting Professional Standards Departments and a previous entry about the book has been deleted from the blog.

Over 100 comments on the latest entry express concern, worry & support & much hand-wringing over whether the Rubber Heel Squad have finally nailed the good Inspector.

Gadget himself has made no response to all to the comments & his publisher, Monday Books, has made two two tantalising comments about not being able to contact him & then a very hurried call.

 

It’s all very strange.

Update: The publisher has heard from Gadget & is not so worried, Gadget advises of hectic 24 hours, more to follow…

 

 

 

After Dave kicked the door down with this blog and the subsequent book, others have followed him through.
The latest to appear in print is Inspector Gadget (suddenly ominously quiet after a post talking about his book was removed this week).
The question everyone should be asking is, why is it only bobbies, sergeants and inspectors who have had the guts to tell the truth about what's going on? Why no unofficial Chief Inspector or Superintendent blog? When was an ACPO rank going to sit back and think about why he or she actually joined the job in the first place?
We may have found a candidate today.
Sadly, it isn't Chris Sims, chief of Copperfield's old force. The Glorious Leader of Staffs Police wrote a letter to The Times this week. In it, he declares his undying love for fixed penalty notices and cautions Follow the link to read the rest - basically, he's claiming that they've reduced juvenile crime in Stoke by 50% in 18 months, which must make him the world's most successful law enforcer anywhere, ever.
Down in the Garden of England, though, Kent Chief Mike Fuller is taking a different tack.
He gave an incendiary interview to the BBC this morning, also reported in the Telegraph and the Guardian.
The Guardian piece tells how Fuller blames the government for damaging public and police confidence in the criminal justice system.
"Dangerous criminals are avoiding jail or being released early because of a lack of places in the country's prisons". This crisis was "entirely foreseeable... five years ago, ministers ordered police to bring more offenders to justice, but failed to think through the consequences".
Who failed to foresee it? "One would have to point to the government."
Fuller adds: "Sentencing policy would appear to be determined more by the number of prison places rather than the seriousness of the crimes people have committed. That means recidivist offenders are being released from prison when they should not be. People committing serious and violent crimes are not receiving as long sentences as they should be, making the job of the police more difficult."
He gives details of some recent cases. "A burglar with 100 previous offences received a suspended sentence and then committed another one. Last week a man failed to appear in court having been given bail while awaiting sentence for 255 thefts from motor vehicles; police arrested him, and he was granted bail again - only to fail to show up at the time the court had ordered."
(On the BBC, Ed Stourton recoiled at this and sounded surprised. Like, he's only a national journalist - how would you expect him to know what's going on, day in, day out, across the country?)
The piece continues: "(Fuller) also said forces are over-inspected, with hours of his time each week wasted answering to 13 official national bodies, which sometimes gave contradictory advice and uncosted recommendations."
So it's not just the lower ranks, then?
Ladies and Gentlemen: Mike Fuller has just gone through the door.
We all know the politics infests everything that goes on in the top floors, but I think we can take the Kent Chief at his word.
So Mike, take a bow: you've done your country a massive service today.
Now, is Tony McNumpty going to start calling him a liar?

FOXTROT OSCAR

A photo of someone on the London Underground wearing one of Inspector Gadget's Ruralshire t-shirts.













The Guvnor has posted a more than enigmatic post on his blog, and it's looking like he's getting grief from his Professional Standards Department.

I hope he's not, and it worries me - I personally think that he is in fact one of the better advertisements for the Police out there, certainly better than publicity such as senior officers fighting each other in the press.

I realise we can't do much, but please pop over and show your support by leaving a comment.
It'd be nice to think there is still a semblance of freedom of speech in this country...

It is not often that I applaud the comments of our Chief Officer group. For them it appears that the standard practice is to roll out the prepared positive statements that promote the brand but, at the same time do little or nothing to support the frontline officers who earn ...

So, in no particular order and because I thought you might be curious, here are a few pictures.
First of all, chez Copperfield.

I got up one day to find this photo in my letterbox. It was taken by an estate agent, then pasted onto a piece of card, with the legend along the lines of, "We could sell your house and it would look like this." (minus the wheelie bins and box of wood, I hope). I don't live on a slope by the way, it was just the way the photo went into the scanner. Notice also the intense blue sky, which is a regular feature of life on the prairies.

Next, as a sort of homage to Gadget's post about all the police vehicles at Kingsnorth, here's a picture of a Ford F250.

Look carefully and you'll notice the ironic decal at the back that says "FOOT PATROL". It's mainly used by the 'beats' part of the organization. I work in patrol rather than beats and the distinction is rather like the NPT(neighbourhood)/IMU(response) in the UK. Over here, the city is so spread out, foot patrol isn't really an option outside of the centre so the neighbourhood officers go around on mountain bikes. I don't know whether they carry on in the winter, as things get more than a little chilly round these parts.

Finally, here's some roadkill.

I'm told that this is a badger, but realistically, you aren't going to get too many shaving brushes out of him. Readers are, as ever, welcome to comment, but I think it's an American badger and the fact that it appears here, dead, on the front bumper of a jeep means that it's probably not subject to the provisions of the Badger Act. The roadkill in western Canada is enormous and driving between Calgar and Edmonton it often looks like there have been a few massacres on the road, where the odd Elk has lost the battle with a truck.

Just picture the scene - I'm at a meeting with local residents, local traders, local counsellors and a local newspaper paper editor. We're all sitting around a big oak table discussing local issues. The meeting finishes and everyone gets up and says goodbye. The local counsellors are doing that posh cheek kissing business, you know they type, where you put your cheek to their cheek and you make a kissing movement, but don't actually kiss them. I've never been a fan of it but they are doing it. Someone from the council who I've work with in the past is walking towards me, she seemingly leans in for one of these kisses, though on reflection perhaps she was just leaning in because it is loud. I lean in even further and exchange one of these 'posh kisses'. Now I feel awkward and slightly uncomfortable, wondering if she was actually leaning in for a ’posh kiss‘ or not.

A few weeks later I'm stood on point at the bottom of the High Street, looking busy and authoritative, stopping cyclist on the pavement and underage smokers; when the same woman from the last ‘posh kissing’ incident approaches me. I start to panic. Do I do the posh kiss again as now I've done it once, should it be a regular thing every time I see her, is that how it works? Once you're comfortable enough with the other person that's what you do, right? But what if I've got it all wrong and you only do that when you're in the 'meeting with friends' environment, or maybe I shouldn't because the last time was inappropriate and this will just carry that inappropriateness on. Anyway, she comes over and we both just smile and say "Hi", how awkward.

My life is just made up of embarrassing awkward moments like that, that just pop back in to my mind every so often, just in case I forget them.

I'm not right, am I...

I'm sure you have all heard the comments that Police Officers appear to be getting younger by the year. It seems that after 20 or so years officers do appear to be getting younger. Perhaps this is a sign of getting older. Who knows ? I had to head towards the hallowed ...

Following on from my previous post in May regarding the sneaky way some road safety cash generating departments are fielding speed cameras, comes the latest wheeze from Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership who are extending the use of ‘undercover’ speed detectors.

A camera van mocked up as a scruffy blue worman’s van has been used in the area since March to trap, er catch speeders in the Peak District. The council is doubling the amount of unmarked camera vans (OK, done for effect as doubling sounds more impressive than increasing by one).

They state that they want to give motorists the idea that any vehicle out in the area could be a speed detector & thus deter more motorists from speeding. The fact that this is an area with a very large percentage of visitor & holiday traffic most of whom won’t have a clue that undercover speed detector vans are even legal, (leaving aside that they are against Dept of Transport & ACPO guidelines which say they should be clearly marked & the roads they’re used on clearly signed) seems immaterial to the Partnership. I’m not sure, under the circumstances that it will deter a great many people from speeding, but am bloody sure the revenue will increase.

Of course, it will be the police who cop the flack on this again.

Maybe a greater deterrent would be to have more traffic patrols on the roads of the Peak District as a visible deterrent & a reminder that you may get stopped, not only for speeding, but all the other numpty-ways of (dangerous) driving which speed cameras do nothing to detect.

 

 

• A woman has a friend round for dinner, they get a bit drunk and flirty and begin to undress. She changes her mind, he forces her to have sex.
• A woman's ex-partner comes round uninvited and she reluctantly lets him in to discuss childcare. Without any encouragement, he forces her to have sex.

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'Diary of an On-Call Girl' is available in some bookstores and online.

I found this quite interesting. So thought I'd share.

Well I’m not as I’ll not be here but lots are.

Thousands of coppers are going to be out of a job if Lib Dems get their way. The latest idea to reclaim the streets, cure crime & generally solve the nation’s problems is for police officers to undergo yearly fitness tests. They want beat bobbies to pass an annual fitness check or get a desk job.

Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “Frontline policemen (that’ll annoy lots of people) must be fit enough to do their job properly. Free gyms for officers & fitness tests will help ensure our police are a match for the yobs & criminals who blight our neighbourhoods.”

To be fair, I think they have a point. But I suspect that a great many officers, particularly those with longer service, would struggle to pass any kind of meaningful fitness test which would mean queues forming to cover all the desk jobs that aren’t available or re-employment at pie testing factories or somewhere.

It’s a shame that the chief officers haven’t had the same opinion. I can remember when most police stations had some form of mini-gym with multi-gyms & weights available. I even used to use one myself at my last but one, two & three nicks. The bosses decided they needed the space for filing police complaint forms or other such importance & have taken most of them away.

We used to get time off for representing the force at sports events, this was also taken away. There is little to no encouragement from the employers to keep their staff fit unless you happen to be on a firearms squad.

I haven’t had a fitness test since I left training school 30 years ago & the fitness training we did a couple of times a year during riot squad training was a pain for a day, but most people never did anything in between & still managed to pass the shield run 6 months later.

It’s a great idea in theory, I’ll be interested to watch developments from the luxury of my settee & a bag of chips if the Lib Dems ever get it implemented. (labour will probably steal the idea, spend millions advertising what a fantastic idea it is & then do bugger-all about it, anyway)

Answer:     She was hoping the guy would re-appear at her sister's funeral.   If you  answered this correctly, you think like a psychopath.   This was a test by a famous American Psychologist used to test if one has the same mentality as a killer.   Many arrested serial killers took part in the testing and answered the question correctly.        If you didn't ...

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'Diary of an On-Call Girl' is available in some bookstores and online.

Did anyone see ‘Dragons’ Den’ this week?

I saw it last evening on the repeat show. There was a woman on the show pitching for £70,000 for her French furniture business.

Juliette Thomas is a single mother with 4 children under 8. At the time of filming she was running a limited company (or PLC whatever they’re called these days) as the sole director with a turnover of over £140,000 a year, she’d just sold a nanny business for £11,000 & stated that she was currently on state benefits & wasn’t taking any salary from her businesses.

This raised a few eyebrows amongst the Dragons & I confess both mine disappeared off the front of my head for a while.

She said that in order to cover the future loss of state benefits she would need to take £60,000 in wages as soon as the company started to make a profit. I don’t know if I;m interpreting that correctly, can a single woman with 4 kids actually get 60 grand from the state a year?

You can see an excerpt of her in the show at the Dragons’ Den home page, but I guess it will only be there for a few days.

Just finished the end of a weary best part of a month and realised how long it is since the last entry.I thought it best to get a few lines in so at least there is one August entry. I have been preoccupied with trying to nail a group of 'yoot' who have been taking the pi** more often than an Olympics drug testing Team. Still short a couple but enquiries are in hand as they say.

Things have cropped up which I was going to post on but shift hours got in the way.The issues surrounding the release of the killer of Nina Mackay for instance

I thought the comments from Nina's Dad were particularly poignant 'The opportunity for her to visit us for five hours per month would be overwhelming. That is not going to happen and our sentence continues unabated'


The storms washing around the Yard and its Brass who are turning on themselves is getting interesting.......lets see who is still standing in the New Year.
I have no real interest in the winners really as it wont affect me and my colleagues scratching around in the rock pool at low tide when the Storm dies down.

I am hoping the internal strife will filter down and put on hold any new 'big ideas' by those below the 'war(of words)zone' and settle for some stability for a few months.

Probably asking for too much with that though