Category Archives: IPCC

Bloody Ridiculous!!

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I have been extremely busy over the past couple of days which has meant that I have had my thunder stolen in respect to the latest plebgate events. Having said that, the Chair of the Metropolitan Police federation is only saying what I was going to say. What a complete and utter waste of everyone’s time the investigation into the incident involving Andrew Mitchell on Downing Street whereby 30 officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Professional Standards Department are to interview 800 Diplomatic Protection Officers. In case you missed it, Andrew Mitchell was reported by Police Officers as having sworn at them when they refused to open a gate on Downing Street asking him to use the pedestrian access. His response in swearing was the old I pay your wages type comment and also that the officers were plebs.

Andrew Mitchell pictured on CCTV leaving Downing StreetIn fairness to him, he denied it. There is no independent recording of the actual conversation so you made your own mind up. It intrigues me that Mitchell did not deny the abusive language but seriously denied the use of the word pleb. I often apply the missive, having been accused of making up stories in my own career, that if the officers on the gate really wanted to stitch him up would they use an innocuous word such as pleb? Of course not, so my opinion of the incident for what its worth sides with the officers at the gate.

Then came the cctv footage which showed that Mitchell was forced to use the pedestrian gate. Somehow, even experienced journalists managed to infer that from a silent video the words attributed to Mitchell could not have been used! However, it did call into question the evidence of one person who happened to be an off duty cop posing as a member of the public and present at the scene. Unfortunately for him, the cctv does not appear to show him there. Of course, the utter b*llocks being spouted now is that because he is accused of lying it must be the case that all the cops are lying. The reality of it is that the behaviour which Mitchell admitted should have led to his resignation not just the use of the word pleb.

mitchellIf it is true that now 800 officers are to be interviewed in this case then it is an expensive joke. However, we know that this witch hunt fishing for information over a poxy dispute instigated by a pompous MP will cost hundreds of thousands of pounds and will demoralise all those involved. Why doesn’t Andrew Mitchell do the decent thing and insist to Hogan-Howe that the Met Police Professional Standards Department should wind their necks in and get on with law enforcement. That way he gets a bit of credibility back – far more than a pathetically posed snog of an Inspector in his local constituency

Guilty as Charged

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Today I probably committed a disciplinary offence for which I could be sacked but, you know what, I couldn’t be arsed. I have had an experience which is seriously making me consider my future. I have a partner who has set up her own business with a friend where she goes to certain types of markets and sells often 3 days per week. These markets seem to be popular as my partner has indicated that she is doing very well at it. This morning, her friend who was to help her on the market rang, very early, to say she was ill. My partner was gutted because this particular event was one which was always well attended. So, what the hell, I decided that, because it was almost 40 miles from home and no-one who knows me would likely be there, I would go with her and help on the stall.

On the way we passed through a City centre. We stopped for some cash at a cash machine and I noticed broken glass and blood on the pavement a few feet away. I also saw a silver button with a Crown on it, probably an epaulette button rather than a tunic button but I picked it up to stop it being collected like a trophy. My mind wandered and I thought that some cop must have been involved in a fracas near this location overnight. I just hoped that the blood wasn’t his/hers.

We got to the venue and I was amazed throughout the day just how busy we were so it came as no surprise when the tally up at the end of it revealed that we had taken a substantial amount of money. A profit of just over £1000 to be split 70% to my partner and 30% to her mate due to their initial outlay. 5 hours work for £700 – not bad in my opinion but an average day according to her indoors. Considering that on the 16th November 2012 Greater Manchester Police Federation reported national Federation findings that 56% of the police in this country are considering whether they want to remain in the police. Well now, make that 56% + 1. What a great time I had speaking with people without worrying whether I was saying the wrong thing. I did not have to have eyes in the back of my head.

In January this year a Metropolitan Police survey revealed that only 47% of the Met were satisfied with their job. Another more damning statistic was that only 34% of the Met Police believe that they provide a good service. Yet still we need to cut and chop the service to bits. The Manchester Evening News uncover that road deaths are soaring following a significant reduction in Road Traffic Cops in the force, yet still Sir Pete cuts deeper.

I felt the silver button in my coat pocket and thought of my times dealing with drunken idiots, the blood and gore, the violence and the sheer stupidity that often symbolises an average weekend in the city. Then I thought of the great time I had had committing a misconduct offence and earning £700 in the process. No nights, three days a week, no blood, vomit or drunken dickheads, no pain, just early mornings and a great deal of hard work for two grand a week. On the other hand, I could stay as I am and have to work longer for less, have my pension reduced whilst I pay more for it, work for butterfly senior officers who constantly spout the ACPO mantra. Decisions, decisions?

The Powers that be

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So another Chief Constable bites the dust. Chief Constable Sean Price, sorry Mr Price, has been found guilty of the misconduct offences relating to honesty and integrity. In a remarkable turn of events, he was sacked rather than being allowed to retire or just brush the allegation under the carpet and fade away. Apparently, he is still under investigation for another matter so I had better wind my neck in about that. This comes on the back of Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison, soon to be just Sir Norman who also has a size 11 in his gob after his diatribe about Hillsborough.

Are the general public beginning to see through the ACPO facade which designates the two rules of the police service:

  1. ACPO are never wrong
  2. When ACPO are found to be lying, cheating and conniving, close ranks and refer to rule 1

Of course, there are many good ACPO officers working hard to get the job done efficiently and properly without treading all over the backs of honest, hard working officers who risk their lives on a daily basis. If only we could get back to the times where the support of the front line officer from those on high was a genuine sentiment rather than a passing fad. The Chief officer commanding his force and ensuring proper discipline rather than looking for people to blame and persecute when things go wrong. Apparently, subject to any appeal process, Mr Price is a liar. The simple truth is he probably got sacked because he couldn’t find anyone else to blame.

Noble Cause Corruption

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Glad to be back. Duty called and I had to respond.

Unfortunately it does not amaze me when I read the story of Hillsborough and the blatant attempts by a Police Force and the Senior management to change statements and evidence to alter where the true blame lies. They take out evidence which criticises their own force and then pass off the resulting statement as the truth. I do not know what the full story of Hillsborough is. I was influenced to an extent at the time by certain rags or newspapers which apportioned blame where it should not have done. I was also suspicious of the inquest verdict based on the, now, flawed evidence obviously put before it but in essence I had a little doubt. Not of those who died but of others present at the scene and I now admit that it is to my shame that I know I was wrong.

Why do so many of you who email me not believe that any corruption which may exist in the police in this country only does so in the higher echelons of the service at the most senior ranks? Yet it is the rank and file officer who faces the brunt of the public attack and anxiety. From my extensive experience, the cops on the front line, do so for a reason. They do so to make things better. They make mistakes and often those mistakes lead to sackings and even loss of liberty but I can assure you that they do not go on duty with the intention of finishing it with a potential criminal conviction and loss of livelihood.

Some senior officers, however, adopt a wild west attitude to their domain. They are judge, jury and hangman in their decision making process and they are inconsistent and even corrupt in their application of the regulations that they should adhere to. They pull the wool over the eyes of the general public who do not believe they can be wrong or corrupt or choose not to consider the possibility. This has been going on for years and years yet we hear the complaints and ignore them. Perhaps the issue stems from the inability of the IPCC to accept complaints from serving officers due to the Police Reform Act. Instead they refer the complaint back to the same officers from the same force that the complaint is being made about leaving people like me with nowhere else to go except blogging about it.

There has to be a change. If we have to have an IPCC then that organisation should be compelled to treat allegations from serving officers about a police force with the same gusto that they treat a complaint from the public. I know of many officers who have been shafted from a great height. They would welcome the opportunity to provide evidence of the shortcomings in their own matters and I know they will be watching to see if the subsequent treatment of the senior ranks mirrors their own experiences. Don’t say that you have not been told.

A Bare Faced Rumour

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A former police officer who was required to resign following a mistake he made whilst on duty has reported to me that he is now the subject of a number of possible Police Disciplinary procedures in spite of the fact that he left the police over 2 years ago. This former officer was a Greater Manchester Police officer. He went on duty one day, performed to the best of his ability but made a mistake. His mistake was that a third party decided that he was guilty of the misconduct offence of using excessive force on a prisoner. This result was arrived at even though their was no complaint from the person who he was supposed to have used excessive force on!

The incident was captured on CCTV which meant that the senior officers of Greater Manchester Police were able to put any spin they wished upon what they saw. They were able to ignore the reality of the situation as described by the three other officers present at the scene and effectively dismiss the former officer based on a two dimensional CCTV view without sound of an incident which was enacted in three dimensions with the screams of abuse from the prisoner and surrounding community morons intent on releasing him from his arrest for violent crime. At one stage during the incident the offender was being investiagted for attempted murder of a police officer!

The former officer thought it was all over. He failed to win his job back through the Chief Constable and also failed at his Police Appeals Tribunal so he got on with the rest of his life. This life now involves a senior security position within a multi-national company. I suspect he would dearly love to be back in the job but, in essence, he is earning as much now as he did as a cop with a company car, no shifts and no weekends unless he fancies doing them himself. He is loved by his bosses and, since being given the push, he has arrested burglars on two separate occasions in the vicinity of his own home.

So what has got his gander up? It is this! His mates who are still in the cops have been told that because the former officer has been removed from the police in these circumstances they must now report every time they associate with him. In fact, any officer who has left Greater Manchester Police under circumstances which are less than amicable are now subject to suspicion and social exclusion because any contact must be reported to senior command. The former officer is a well respected member of the community, he has no criminal convictions because the CPS decided he was not guilty of any offences and he is still a law abiding citizen assisting the community to keep it safe.

What is the world coming to when law abiding citizens are treated as if they are suspected criminals? What have Sir Pete’s senior command got up their sleeve? Shouldn’t they be concentrating on harassing the bad guys? Someone please tell me my information is wrong!!

The Daily Wail Motto:

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Earlier today I was thinking about what I was going to blog about. I do most of my thinking in the bog because I am too bloody busy to do any thinking anywhere else, being run around like a blue a*se fly. I suppose that it is the same for most of us. There was a momentary panic when I thought the bog roll had run out but then I saw a Daily Wail Mail on the floor and knew that I was safe. Wiping my a*se on it would be symbolic of a newspaper who support the unfounded criticisms of the police simply to get a story . They are the hatchet wing of a government hell bent on running down the great tradition that is the police. On this occasion the reporters were James Slack and Jack Doyle, a dynamic duo who, in emulating the Sun, use a pair of tits in their attempt to sell the paper.

Their scoop was to reveal that nearly 200 police officers are full time Federation officials representing over 134,000 Federated members. A quick analysis reveals that nearly 200 actually means 176!! I suggest their superiors check their expense claims just in case they round up their beer and fags bill, oh, and their informant payment account! Wow! How many years does it take at journo school, guys, to come up with that piece of detective work? By the way, whilst we are on the maths issue the true representation of 176 for 134,000 officers comes back as 1 paid officer for 761 police members or 1 in nearly a thousand using the Daily Wail Mail mathematical formula. Then, to reinforce their newspaper story, they quote their old friend Dominic Raab MP for Esher and Walton who declares that, “The hard-pressed taxpayer will  be gob-smacked that millions of pounds of their money is being squandered subsidising the  activities of the histrionic Police Federation, rather than mitigating pressure on local force budgets.” A little over 12 months ago Raab was subject to scurrilous accusations by the same paper he uses to attack the Police Federation.

Future Home Secretary????

Nice to know that the Tories believe that workplace representation of Crown Servants with no right to strike, who cannot be unfairly dismissed, can be imprisoned simply for trying to do the job to the best of their ability, have spineless ACPO idiots changing policy dependent upon which way the wind blows and are often killed or seriously injured in the course of their work protecting the rights of idiots like Raab, is considered money that has been “squandered.” Just goes to show that we must be winning the argument when they cannot come up with balanced and evidenced views in support of their attitude.

Keep trying guys. You are beginning to give me great heart. Then I wiped my bottom with you and flushed you down the pan!!!!!

The Comment of the Conference..!

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“Hands up if you believe that the report by Tom Winsor was impartial,” said Paul McKeever. “I notice you didn’t put your hand up, Home Secretary”

There then followed much mirth and laughter and the Home Secretary looked like a bulldog chewing a wasp. How satisfying it was and in that moment she felt the wrath of 130,000 officers and their families and their extended families. The Home Secretary during her conference address took great pleasure in stating that she was “telling it as it is” however she looked very uncomfortable when we, too, told it as it was. Theresa, dearest, what is good for the goose………! I’ll leave you to fill in the rest yourself.

I normally leave any replies to speak for themselves. However, in response to the last post about Tom Winsor I have faithfully reproduced below a comment contained in the replies section by Rather Annoyed on May 14th 2012:

Don’t forget that Theresa May is shareholder in Prudential which is the largest shareholder in G4S so she is lining her pockets as well! Visit http://bit.ly/KgOUNa and you will Theresa May’s entries on her Register of Interests. 26th November 2002 you will see states a shareholding in Prudential. Visit http://bit.ly/KlLXNV and you will see that Prudential has a 6% shareholding in G4S (the largest shareholder) – proof enough that these fat cats are getting fatter by robbing us, screwing us, and privatising the best police service in the world for their own gain?!

If this is true how can we really trust the impartiality of anyone dealing in this sorry business, from politicians to business leaders. They all seem to be p*ssing in the same pot and want us to believe that it is for our own good that we should put our lives on the line every day that we go out to protect the public and society at large. I’m certain if I tried this with my uPSD they would be lining me up for criminal charges. Why is no-one asking them questions?

A Tribute to this Government

On a slightly different tack, I have been in contact with the supplier of the now world famous T-Shirt bearing Theresa May’s head and the logo “Get Shafted and Carry On” and have been asked to co-ordinate all enquiries into sales for these shirts. Those of you, and there have been lots, who have already emailed will be contacted very soon in respect of your own orders. Demand has been a lot higher than anticipated so please bear with us. The price is anticipated to be in the region of about £10 plus postage and packing but I’ll let you know.