Are Our Policemen This Dim?
It is being reported that the Metropolitan Police spent £35,000 in the last two years ringing the speaking clock. I know it is important that they time everything correctly for the purposes of evidence, but surely, in most cases they have a mobile phone handy. My twenty-year-old phone gives the time very accurately. The only excuse would be that they need to put down the time to the nearest second. And I can’t believe that is necessary.
They also spent £200,000 on directory enquiries. I have spent nothing in the last five years or so, as I always use 118500 on the Internet.
There may be operational reasons why they need to call directory enquiries, but surely the police could have a better internal system, which gave them more information.
It all goes to illustrate how inefficient our public services are and that they waste money our money all the time.
Who Drank All the Beer?
Police in North London have arrested several fellons in possession of about 1,000 beer kegs according to this report.
The report doesn’t say whether the kegs were empty or not, but the police are looking for a several overweight men, who are very drunk.
Thefts From the Police
Can we really trust the police, when they can’t even stop thefts from themselves?
According to this report on the BBC, it would appear very little has not been stolen by someone.
Articles nicked include.
- A packet of crumpets in Hull.
- A mannequin from police dog kennels in Epping.
- Coffee from Newcastle and milk from Huntingdon.
- A terrier and a lurcher from Blackburn.
- Some pit bulls on Merseyside.
Rumour has it that the Met have lost a few woodentops.
The Mounties Get Their Man
This picture deliberately hides the true story, as it’s rather in the distance.
The Mounties Get Their Man
I’d just watched two police officers on bicycles, who are just visible in bright jackets in the picture, chase and stop a cyclist.
It proved how bicycles should very much be at the forefront of crime-fighting. I suppose one of the problems is a lot of officers are a bit too porky.
The Police Don’t Like It!
Surprise! Surprise!
The police don’t like the fact that David Cameron is calling in Bill Bratton.
I’ve met a few high ranking policemen and with one glorious exception, they were not a bunch I warmed to.
They generally want to do things their way and just be given the funding to make their own successes and failures.
I once heard a comment from someone who was selling technology to a particular Police Force. The Chief Constable said that he wanted the best system that money could buy, but he didn’t want the company to sell it to any other Force.
Surely, with Police technology and equipment, it should all be standardised, so that each force uses the same equipment, vehicles and computers for the same jobs. Some have said that the dreadful Soham murders happened because two Police Force computer systems were incompatible and couldn’t talk to each other.
Imagine what would happen if the computer systems at Barclays couldn’t talk to those at Lloyds and HSBC.
Chief Constables are always harping on about their links to the local communities and that every Force has different needs. If you believe some of the stories in the reputable Press, some of them have been behaving in the manner of rather poor dictators, led much more by the rules of the Data Protection Act and the Health and Safety Executive.
They must accept that they don’t have a monopoly of knowledge on policing in the UK.
Why We Should Consult Bill Bratton
It is being reported that David Cameron is to consult Bill Bratton, the former Boston, New York and Los Angeles Police Chief.
And so we should!
When you have a serious problem, you should consult with anybody who might have some serious input. Some of these might not be obvious and many will not share your views.
All of my life I have been a scientific or engineering researcher. If anybody was an expert in what I was looking at, I would seek them out and discuss my problem with them. It often paid huge dividends.
The trouble is that too many people, and especially politicians, think totally inside the box. The only reason for having boxes in thinking, is to store good ideas, that might be of use later, but are quite inappropriate at the present time.
So who else should David Cameron consult about the riots?
Let’s start with Terence Conran, Norman Foster, Danny Baker, David Attenborough, Dan Snow, Stephen Bayley, Rio Ferdinand, Jo Hussain and Joey Barton.
The Thin Blue Line
At first sight it might appear that just six policemen against a much larger mob in Catford wouldn’t have stood much chance in protecting stores from being looted. But the line held as the BBC reports. Here’s a bit of detail.
A police officer has described how he and five colleagues, armed only with two shields, defended a retail park from a gang of up to 50 hooded youths.
PC Gordon Murphy, 30, said despite their lack of numbers, officers charged at the mob who were trying to loot the stores in Catford, south-east London.
He said: “We decided, as they ran at us, to rush back at them, with only six officers running back at 40.
“The mad thing is, they all ran back so we didn’t even have to make contact.”
It’s all a bit far from a similar situation, I heard of years ago from a British Colonial policeman, who faced up to rioters somewhere in Africa. He said you just identified the ring-leaders and shot them dead.
I suppose that the youths in Catford, had all the courage of mice and felt that running was the best defence.
I think in some ways this story is in a way a return to old-fashioned policing, where police often stood their ground and didn’t call for massive backup.
One of my abiding memories of Liverpool is that on public order duties most Northern Police Sergeants carried long batons, when trouble was expected. They weren’t afraid to use them either. I may have seen them deployed but I never saw one used.
Another policeman in London once told me that the worst thing they ever did for policing was give officers a personal radio. Without these they had to sort the problem out, but with them they always called for backup.
Is It Time To Close the Madeleine McCann Case?
Close is probably not the word, but there comes a time after any death or when someone goes missing, when those left behind must move on! And I say that, as someone who has lost not only a son, but a wife as well. I also once in the 1990s had a long talk, with a senior detective, who had been involved in quite a few cases where a body had been discovered many years after death and the results weren’t always murder, but sometimes a very unusual accident. Admittedly most of his cases involved older children or adults, so his experience can’t be applied to the McCann or any other child cases, but it was a fascinating insight into so-called cold cases.
Read this article on the BBC, which describes a dignified protest by others who have lost children. Here is an extract.
The Met agreed to review the case after a Home Office request, but London Assembly member Jenny Jones has said this was unfair on other crime victims.
It is in some ways a hard thing to say, but I agree with Ms. Jones. As the detective also told me no murder or possible murder case is ever closed in the UK.
It is not a decision I would like to take, either as the parents , a policeman or a politician. But then I had to move on in my life! and I can say that it has helped me to come to terms with all my grief. After all, everybody has something to give to society and dwelling on the past doesn’t help in that process. Learning from your experiences and the mistakes you might have made does help and we all have a responsibility to help ensure that what happened to us, doesn’t happen to others.
Strauss-Kahn is a Disgrace
The Times today carries an article under the title of Love bomb that failed to go off, which describes in detail how he pursued a French reporter working in London. I’m not quoting from the article, as it is copyright and although it is in a respectable newspaper, it might not be 100% true. I’m no lawyer, but I would feel that Strauss Kahn did enough to fall foul of The Harassment Act.
If I or any other person, behaved like the article alleges, I would certainly have had the police at my door.
If he is that desperate for women, then he can always phone up and get one delivered on a plate wrapped to whatever taste he prefers.
Type “Strauss Kahn escort” into Google and you find this.
On a positive side perhaps Strauss Kahn and Fred Goodwin should form themselves a bank called the Wunch Bank. They deserve each other.
The Anonymous Widower 