The Final Curtain

I have been a bit tardy lately, largely due to the pressures of work I face. However, I have two bits of interesting news to impart. The first is that John, who features in the post of 7th June 2011 called “Men Behaving Badly????” has now submitted an appeal to the Criminal Case Review Commission. He knows it is a long shot but it is the only shot he has.

Many people who know him are of the opinion he was badly done to not only by the investigating force but also by the judiciary and his own force. A man who is a victim of regular and concerted domestic violence, 18 occasions of which he reports to the job, has photographic evidence of bite marks on his back, bruises to his arms and body, has colleagues who saw a stab wound from an eating fork, should be allowed to defend himself

Unfortunately, one bad investigation later, John is convicted of being reckless in his use of self defence. Clearly the magistrates did not understand the R-v-Beckford stated case quoted to them. We now know that Social Services were in possession of overwhelming evidence against him at least 4 weeks before he was ever interviewed by the police!! The evidence was so overwhelming that all the professionals including the investigating police officers in the meeting came away knowing that on his return to the police station he was to be charged. Why was he interviewed and why did he spend a further 8 hours in custody? I don’t know but it seems a bit suspicious to me. There are several other areas of difficulty which have been reported to the CCRC so we wish him good luck with his appeal.

New Front

On a new front, a former colleague is now in the process of trying to get an out of time Judicial Review of his debacle. His uPSD investigation team, quite simply, deliberately misrepresented the reality of his grievous bodily harm interview by neglecting to point out that the injury subject of the grievous bodily harm was caused by a car crash. Even more sinister is the fact that they knew this fact before the interview for GBH because the doctor treating the “victim” told them so in a statement, conveniently not disclosed to our former colleague, his Federation Rep not his legal representative. Mr NCC has the evidence in his possession and no-one has been to see it. The point in question is this fabricated excuse for an interview was then used in a subsequent misconduct trial where the officer was sacked for excessive use of force. Without the interview was there any evidence? Only the word of a drug fuelled, burgling car thief who provided a statement which was a pack of lies to the uPSD. Why should we worry about the truth when the uPSD have an ulterior motive to the benefit of us all………… apparently!

We believe this to be a crime but the relevant force refuse to investigate. The IPCC hide behind the Police Reform Act and both organisations use delaying tactics to defeat the gathering of evidence. For example, the relevant Police Force is now at day 96 of the Data Protection Act request that they are required to complete within 40 days. They have originally denied the existence of certain information and then suddenly found it when challenged with identities of persons known to have the  information. How about an ACC who carried out a full review of the case but failed to notice that his own uPSD may have acted corruptly? If the courts won’t help us then it may have to be the press. I will keep you posted.

Noble Cause Corruption!!

There for the Grace of God

The hacking dilemma rumbles on with high ranking executives now either being arrested or resigning due to pressures behind the scenes. Many commentators in the press seem to revel in the fact that there appears to be a police bashing angle as, allegedly, some cops may have accepted payment for inside information. If it is true then Noble finds their actions reprehensible. However, I suspect every cheroot smoking, hard drinking Fleet Street hack will have tried to recruit some cop at some stage during their career. The press, in paying for salacious information, are just as reprehensible.

Whilst this gnashing of bones and grinding of teeth continues in the high paying executives suites of newspapers and ACPO led departments we often forget that every day officers are still risking their lives for the benefit of the general public. Yet the story of the police officer shot in Croydon overnight is a lower importance story in the Daily Wail Mail than a missive about where has our summer gone. To provide some balance it does not feature prominently in the Sun, The Mirror, The Telegraph, the Guardian or the Independent who believe that the phone hacking crisis and the resignation of Rupert Murdoch’s best mate is more important.

It has been reported in the local Croydon press and Inspector Gadget has blogged it with typical gusto. Other than that where is the interest, where is the media and press coverage? The only thing I will say is that when you face your next angry man and you consider that the options that are available include:

being shot,

being stabbed,

being battered,

making an arrest without major incident,

making an arrest which becomes a major incident,

making an arrest which results in a criminal allegation against you,

making an arrest which becomes a misconduct allegation against you,

making an arrest which becomes a criminal and misconduct allegation against everybody involved,

you might wonder why you chose to try and make the arrest in the first place. However, we are all professional people and joined because we chose to serve the public. It is a shame that the press think that listening to someone’s voicemail is more important to the general public than a shot policeman.

WTF

Everybody calm down, I've arrived!

I was going to finish my blog there but I happened across a television report in respect of patients possibly being murdered at Stepping Hill Hospital by someone tampering with saline drips. The criminal investigation is in full swing which will eventually determine what has gone on staffed by Detective Constables and Detective Sergeants with a couple of pro active Detective Inspectors. What has irked me is that ACC Terry Sweeney turns up outside the hospital purporting to be in control. Now we know from other Noble Cause Corruption blogs that have reported that these ACPO rank wallers actually know the square root of f*ck all about investigation. So why did Terry take advantage of this free publicity opportunity? Surely it wasn’t to massage an ego and make people believe that he actually is in charge of the investigation. Jerome Caminada will be turning in his grave.

Terry, stick to what you know best. Putting pins in maps and reading glossy reports about crime statistics. Like most of the ACPO rank, an investigator you most certainly aren’t.

The Contagion is Catching!

In Salford which is part of the Greater Manchester Police area the District Judge sat at the Magistrates’ Court has made a valiant effort to be considered as having made the most ridiculous legal decision ever. If you want to read about it then check out the Manchester Evening News for details. I am sure it will be national news in a bit.

The decision essentially is that he considers that the detention clock should run when a suspect is not in detention! That means that the bailing of suspects for a few weeks whilst further enquiries are made should now cease to happen. This Judge must be extremely well qualified, you would think, so how has he come by this decision. However, this example of sheer stupidity has been ratified by the High Court. Are the Judges on the side of the right and proper thinking. If they are, how can they possibly interpret that this is the message the law makers intended when the relevant law was drawn up. Therefore, his interpretation of the legislation is so poor that he deserves not to be a Judge presiding over the law and should be sacked.

It is simply stupid to think that this invite to criminals getting away with their wrong-doing can improve the efficiency of the judicial system. What should happen is he should be hauled in front of the people charged with ensuring the judiciary act in the best interests of the country and interpret the laws as the man on the “Clapham Omnibus” would expect them to be. Once there he should be disrobed and banished to paper clip counting where he is unlikely to have to make another important decision again.

If only there was an offence of outright stupidity in a public office we could save the country from rack and ruin.

Who Put ACPO in Charge….?

The ACPO Policy on Police Modernisation, perhaps?

Recently, at a court case I was questioned by a smart alec barrister about my adherence to ACPO Guidelines when undertaking a course of action. It got me thinking; during the evidence giving actually; apparently I can multi-task even though I am not a woman and I was later to find that my iPhone app gave me an IQ of 165. The thinking was, “Who put ACPO in charge?”

The fact that my application for a subscriber check on a mobile telephone wasn’t in a size 12 Arial font has bugger all to do with ACPO so why do they make the rules and issue them as ACPO Guidelines allowing barristers to make an issue out of nothing (I know ACPO haven’t actually made a rule such as this, but you get the point!).

As I stood there considering whether to tell the Barrister to mind his own business and stick to the issues at hand namely the baddie over there was a serious criminal and shove the question up his expensive backside, half expecting the Prosecuting barrister to jump and ask the Judge for a relevance ruling, I suddenly and inexplicably blurted out the correct answer in considerable, magnificient and incontravertible detail. I have never seen a crest fall so far, stammering a couple of times, he began to suffer “Dock Asthma.” This is the suddenly inability to breathe when you have your legs taken from under you during a court interrogation. You know the sight, a grown man opening and closing his mouth like a goldfish out of water looking like he is gasping for breath.

When did ACPO start making the law of the land or the law of police? When did the courts start expecting officers to comply with ACPO Guidelines instead of the law? Consider that the first ACPO Guideline issued after months and months of high level meetings at Bramshill was:

1. ACPO Policy and Guidelines are never wrong and cannot be challenged even by common sense and legislation.
2. Even when ACPO Policy and Guidelines are proven to be a crock of sh1t, refer to no. 1

This is the classic problem of putting ACPO in charge of the decision making when it comes to Misconduct. What they need is for a few Fed Reps to embarrass them in the Misconduct Process but showing them where their uPSD have gone wrong, which they promptly ignore, and apply a sanction which is so far away from the true representation of the officer’s breach. Of course, the likelihood is that the uPSD will have worded them up as to the real culpability of the accused officer even though they couldn’t quite get the evidence.

But surely it couldn’t happen. I was once present when a senior uPSD officer indicated that he applied the doctrine that if an officer or a member of the public has nothing to gain by coming forward and giving a statement then they must be telling the truth. It would be laughable but for the fact that it is frightening. Don’t get me wrong, there are occasions where they let people off in the face of overwhelming evidence but I suspect these are token gestures. I think it is important that ACPO officers on panels understand that “on the balance of probabilities” means that there is a more than 50% chance that the accused officer has done it.

It is the same for random drug testing. The amount of money thrown at this useless excercise to monitor the level of drug abuse amongst cops. In my force after tens or hundreds of thousands of pounds we have still to have a positive hit. ACPO must be very disappointed because we are all clean living and drug free! It just shows the warped sense of being they have and it shows what they really think of you and me and shows why they should not be put in charge.

Have you heard enough or should I bang on about another marvellous ACPO policy namely Special Priority Payments? They wanted them and were told they were divisive and impossible to administer. Now they don’t want them because they are divisive and impossible to administer.

These are the people in charge of our police! You know what is really laughable? They are a private limited company!!