Apparently the Federation of Police Officers are urging the government to scrap arrest targets as some pretty benign offences are being dealt with by arrest.
Does it take a genious to work out that the same could be happening with motoring related offences? If so, do Whitehall employ geneuses (or geneii)?
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Quite. An advantage of speed cameras is that you can say "speed cameras save lives" and then the more tickets you issue, the more lives you save. Easy innit? I'm sure the same crass target driven thinking applies to motoring in general.
Personally I think the equivalent of a clip round the earhole from a copper can often be as effective as an arrest or FPN, and yet saves time and administration costs. Let the coppers decide who is "Mr. Big" and worthy of arrest and who is "Mr. Silly" and worthy of an earful. (Or Mrs/Miss/Ms.) Targets have unintended consequences, and IMO are often not a good measure of success.
It is curious that several issues are being raised now, presumably in order to influence Big Gordon when he takes up office.
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The Police Federation (sounds so much nicer than 'union' doesn't it) is presumably very keen to see the targets scrapped because their members don't like them. A couple of cases quoted by the Federation include a child arrested for throwing a bun and another arrested for throwing a slice of cucumber. But hang on, haven't the arresting officers got the sense realise that they might be doing something very stupid? They're not robots are they? They could use their common sense. Of course we also don't know all the details behind some of these stories - there could be more to these cases that meets the eye.
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The lady from the Police Federation actually mentioned that she felt that the 'managers' in other words the sergents and station inspectors etc were insisting that arrests should be made where a crime has been committed.
How true this is I don't know but I am all in favour of the Police Federation urging the government to re evaluate the way it measures performance of the boys in Blue. Those few policemen that are here (MLC, Fullchat and another who's name escapes me) have IIRC muted their issues with this.
My point is that the police are being encouraged to strike where they can be sure a crime has been committed so targets can be achieved, instead of striking where they will have the greatest effect.
For example, the story of arresting that chap who barked at those dogs for a public order offence (conviction later overturned) was, at the time an easy 'nick'. Whether or not targets were the driving force here I don't know. However concentrating on a string of burglaries and increasing the possibility of nicking those responsible would not have guaranteed results.
The same is true IMO for the biggest criminal classes that exist on our roads today - the law abiding motorist. Whether or not it is in the public interest people are getting points on their licenses for driving a few mph over the limit, whereas the pond life who regularly break into cars, steal them, drive whilst under the influence and cannot be traced will not even be on the targetdriven radar, as (with the effort that usually goes into solving such crime) a conviction is far from certain in most cases.
Aprilia - whether or not you fully agree with the Police Confederation - I would advocate that you support them as IMO there is validity in what they are saying.
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Aprilla,
Have a look at what MLC says in the other ongoing thread. Because of so-called ethical crime recording they are forced to deal with bun fights and cucumber croquet. Common Sense has been factored out not by Police Officers or their bosses but by the Home Office ( or "Justice Solutions" as they are about to be re-branded) this is the madness of Blair's Britain. Right let's explain it in simple terms.
Child A cops a bun in the eye, goes home crying. Distraught parent calls the Police (because they have been given what is called an "expectation" by HMG where everything is now classed as "ASB"). The incident is recorded by call centre, classified by their "civvi" Crime Recording Bureau as an "Assault" Police vehicle is despatched. This is now a "crime". An Officer may have 20 to 30 or so crimes on their workload all of which are investigated and won't get signed off (usually again by a civvi bod in an office). Force and HO Policy dictates that that Child B "the Offender" has to be arrested and interviewed. In Interview Child B says that Child A initially slapped him in the face with a rotted Cucumber, so Child B becomes the victim, another crime is generated and Child A has then to be arrested and interviewed. A file has to be produced containing forms MG1 through to MG20, these in most forces are generally hand written by Officers, taken to the CPS who then direct further enquiries to be made and more writing and then the crime is "disposed" of either by charging child A or B or both. Or by using the YOT disposal or NFA'd. This process takes weeks if not months and Officers have no option other than to investigate otherwise it's quite likely to end up as a disciplinary mattter. In the meantime Child A and Child B are the best of friends again......
This is reality Officers would love to use common sense but can't simple as that.
It's a deeply flawed and broken system and undermining Police morale.
Keeps me in new BMs anyway.....
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...and it's the POLICE FEDERATION not Association or Confederation (sorry Hugo)
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I read what you say PU and it is perfectly clear to me. However, how does what you say fit in with that unfortunate young man whose killers were sent to prison the other day? He lived somewhere in East London, had complained for months about threats and harrassment from a known gang of nasties. No action was taken SFAIK. They then came to his home, he confronted them and was shot dead for his trouble. No cucumbers involved - just a deadly weapon.
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Latest nonsense in today's Telegraph. A child in North Wales collected £700 from 542 people, claiming it was for Comic Relief. The money was not passed on to the charity, all 542 people were interviewed and gave statements. The child was given a caution having been charged with 542 offences of obtaining money by deception, and this showed is the stats as 542 crimes solved!
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stats as 542 crimes solved!
We can now expect the North Wales police to be at the very top of some league table - and there will probably be knighthood for you-know-who :-)
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Child A cops a bun in the eye goes home crying. [snip] This is reality Officers would love to use common sense but can't simple as that. It's a deeply flawed and broken system and undermining Police morale.
Frightening.
I know from the experience of my late mother that the claims about NHS waiting lists are false as they are fiddled.
I wonder how many road stats are fiddled. I have heard that there is pressure to change the way that certain injuries are classified so as to reach targets.
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If so do Whitehall employ geneuses (or geneii)?
Since you ask ~ geniuses. ;-)
--
L\'escargot.
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Blame is due to the Chief Constables. If they have neither the wit or nous to redirect their own officers in the most time effective way, it's THEIR fault.
All the rest imo is noise and fluff.
madf
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I recommend anyone interested in this to read this book
www.amazon.co.uk/Wasting-Police-Time-Crazy-World/d...f
=pd_bbs_sr_1/026-2493162-0998051?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179311776&sr=8-1
(sorry, can't run a link that long)
(PS has some good police car anecdotes - motoring link).
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Elected Chief Constables who have to campaign on their policies to the public they serve is the answer.
wemyss
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Elected Chief Constables who have to campaign on their policies to the public they serve is the answer. wemyss
It seems to work well with our elected politicians! ;)
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police get given targets e.g. reduce street crime by x% or solve x% of crime (aka 'clear ups')
doesn't matter whether or not a specific area has an actual street crime problem, they've still got to reduce it by the x%.
very senior police officers get performance related pay and are required to police to the requirements of politicians via the Home Office....that means everyone else in the system has to work to this as well.
Everyone knows of course that policing has a multitude of things to worry about e.g. motoring and motoring issues......but if they're not priorities...forget it
The reason why there are minimal traffic cops, why motoring offences soar, why 999 call answering is getting worse (check your local figures, they'll be appalling) and why some cops go for the easy option to keep their managers off their back....(the figures are more important than the bigger picture).
in the old days the Chief Constable decided on priorities and everything was considered, not as at present where some things get resources thrown at them, whether it's needed or not and some things get ignored when they shouldn't be
get your pens out and A, vote and B, write to your MP to complain....can't see anything changing otherwise
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