Fair Coppers?

Jan Berry - Blindin' Diamond Geezer?


Jacqui Smith - Right Bad Egg?

Regular Blogistas will know I’m not the current Home Secretary’s biggest fan but even I was driven to sympathise with her on the churlish Section House behaviour she received from the Coppers Protection League otherwise known as the Police Federation. Here was the snide introduction by the outgoing Secretary of the Federation, Jan Berry, who represents those blameless souls, the Constables of the United Kingdom who stay awake at night thinking of nothing else other than our well being and safety:

“At my first conference, I introduced the opportunity to ask questions of the Home Secretary. Although some Home Secretaries have subsequently regretted it – the session has been an important and healthy exchange of views. Home Secretary - I admire your courage. You didn’t have to come here today and I know conference will treat your office with the respect it warrants. I am sure when your Private Secretary reminded you of today’s event you felt like reaching for the nearest stab proof vest - and perhaps slipping into old habits and lighting up to calm your nerves…”

Now this is from the lady who is leader of the Police Federation, the organisation that represents those blameless souls, the rank and file police officers. Perhaps Jan Berry could tell us why it is that, no matter what outrages are committed against members of the public be it dying in police custody whilst officers make monkey noises or some lesser outrage her members are rarely found guilty of anything or disciplined. I would genuinely like to know, I have made no pre judgements, but it certainly raises the possibility that there is one law for the constabulary, and one for everyone else.

It may well be so that the police are overwhelmed by paperwork, although a recent documentary featuring undercover filming of the Leicestershire police force showed junior officers (presumably members of Ms Berry's organisation) wasting their own time, and using paperwork as an excuse to stay in the station rather than going out dealing with incidents. This kind of thing certainly suggests that some police officers think they are a law unto themselves. What is more worrying is that they are confident that the culture of the organisation will protect them. None of this, I am afraid, inspires confidence in the public or politicians. Ms Berry may be too young to remember why the police are deluged by paperwork and general bureaucracy. It stems from the realisation which dawned some thirty to forty years ago that some police officers were routinely corrupt, abused their powers and made up statements and other evidence. Indeed many of these incidents which led to PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act) happened to involve Irish Terrorist defendants. The bent coppering which led to PACE had two effects, the innocent were imprisoned whilst the guilty were not and the “intelligence” leads which the police had were useless, making life more dangerous for all of us.

Community Copper

Should Ms Jan Berry or anyone else suggest ways in which these tendencies can be monitored and controlled without resort to massive paperwork and bureaucracy, then they should share their ideas as widely as possible. But it is within living memory that a Lord Justice of Appeal, Lord Denning, openly said it was better to send (Irish) defendants to jail than “open up the appalling vista” that the Police routinely fabricated evidence. Well the appalling vista was well and truly opened up and judging by conviction rates the Police are not coping too well with having to tell the truth.

Consider the appalling background to Crime and Policing in the UK set out by the pressure group “Police Reform” which Jacqui Smith and any Home Secretary would have to deal with;

“Crime is high by international and historical standards. The Government’s claims to have reduced crime are not borne out by reality. Substantially increased spending on the police has not been matched by corresponding reductions in crime, indicating that productivity has fallen and the public have received poor value for money. The fight against crime is a challenge for the whole criminal justice system and for society as a whole. But effective Policing has a vital role to play.”


A Patch - historic photo

“Crime today is almost ten times its level per 100,000 of the population than in 1950. People in England and Wales are the most likely to be victims of crime of any developed country, except only for Australia. The UK is the most burgled country in the European Union, with the highest levels of assault crime. The Government claims that crime measured by the British Crime Survey has fallen, yet the British Crime Survey massively underestimates crime. It covers only half of recorded crime and ignores murder, rape, fraud, crimes against under-16s, commercial crime including shoplifting, and crime where there is no direct victim such as drugs dealing. Estimates suggest the true figure of crime in England and Wales is roughly three times the level indicated by the British Crime Survey. Since 1997-98 total recorded crime has increased from 4.5 million to over 5.5 million crimes a year, an increase of approximately 22 per cent. The Government claims that changes in the way crime is recorded have caused this, but steep increases in crimes such as robbery and violence against the person cannot be explained by changes in the counting rules. Britain now spends more on law and order as a proportion of GDP than any other OECD country, nearly two-thirds of which goes to the police, costing each household in England and Wales £550 a year.”

It is not just that we spend so much on policing but we get so little for it due to the restrictive “Spanish Practices” of the Police Federation, although the Spanish will complain that they have moved on.

Richard Barnbrook BNP London Leader supporting Fair Coppers - 23rd January 2008

As police stations have closed and foot patrol has given way to modern policing methods, the police have become increasingly alienated from the public. The way to rebuild public confidence and tackle crime is to have police officers on the streets. But the reintroduction of community policing has been inadequate. Record numbers of police have not been reflected in officers on the beat, and key Government programmes such as promised Police Community Support Officers and the national non-emergency number have been scaled back.

It's a stressful job, innit?

What Jan Berry’s members have represented is the maintenance of restrictive practices and an inability to embrace change; a change the public clearly demands. Here are some of the restrictive practices the Federation maintains.

1. Rostered rest days; Police have to be given the days they are not working 9 months in advance. If they are then required on any of those days they receive 2 days off in lieu PLUS overtime. Last year the 127,000 police officers in the UK earned half a billon pounds overtime, that’s an average of over £4,000 each. Compare this to the £250 a head they claim they have lost under the staged wage award which was the reason the barracked Jacqui Smith at their conference.

2. Operational Feeding; Judging by the beefy rows of well upholstered police officers facing the Home Secretary at the Conference this policy is conspicuously successful. If they are on an “Op” away from their station “Nick” for over 4 hours they have to be fed a “substantial hot meal”, over 7 hours two hot meals. Of course the time they spend getting to the trough to consume their swill and the time spent consuming their ethnically inclusive “full English” is “operational time” charged to overtime. So at moments of great danger to the Nation TV crews are treated to the inspiring site of the Metropolitan Commissioner walking between long tables of Police Federation members consuming their entitlement. No army rations for Britain’s finest!

A Shout - great for overtime

3. 30 year pension window. Like the armed forces the Police have a hugely generous, publicly funded (that is to say unfunded!), final salary pension. Unlike the armed forces the Police Pension is hard to justify. Of course many don’t hang around to collect it for particular laxity is shown to “medical retirement” where they can retire early on “medical grounds” get their entitlement plus a “gift” of an extra 10 years. I personally know of one 42 year old inspector who had done 20 years (20 + 10 = 30!), took medical retirement for whiplash (sitting in his stationary car in a car park) and is running a security company despite his “reduced” health.

4. Archaic Disciplinary Procedures: At any one time 1 in 15 Police Officers are subject to criminal or disciplinary investigation or proceedings. I’ll give you the number, that’s over 19,000 officers who can’t be deployed effectively because their use is restricted. The proceedings are long winded and arcane and would take a book to outline but suffice to say the police don’t make co-operative subjects and are advised by the Federation to say nothing, agree nothing and sign nothing and contact the Federation’s solicitors for this restrictive cartel will defend it’s members good or bad. Contrast their advice to their members with how they would want the public to co-operate with Police “enquiries.” Even then they can bring any disciplinary enquiry to a shuddering halt merely by resigning. This “right” has been exercised twice up to Chief constable level in the past months (http://daithaic.blogspot.com/search/label/andy%20Hayman )

A Nick - Only one in 8 of those left are 24/7

5. Spend, spend, spend! We can take it as a given that the police are not very good at protecting us for the £550 each household it costs all of us but they are not very good at using the money when they are given it. Police Committee’s are an exercise in non-accountability where they exist and most forces don’t have qualified accountants in charge of their finances, as different criteria must have been used for recruitment in the past. Take the delicious fraud of “Lord Williams” as he styled himself in the Scottish village and estate he bought. He had a Scottish connection alright for he was Assistant Finance Director of Scotland Yard and he purloined £12.6 m from a “secret account” which was maintained to develop (wait for it!) a remote surveillance drone for the police. Or then recently Scotland Yard cancelled 1,450 credit cards which were being abused; I’ll give you the number again that is one third of the total credit cards issued or to put it another way, 5.6% of Metropolitan Police Officers could not account properly for their expenses. Hello! Hello! Hello!

6. I could go on, but one final point. The Police Federation has by agreement, officers working for it full time on the payroll of every force in the country paid for out of police budgets, over 100 police officers at last count. These Police Officers (such as Jan Berry) are, of course, unavailable for policing.Once again I'll give you the number, that's a direct subsidy from Public Funds of over £5 m for the Police Federation.

So I hope Jan Berry enjoyed her swan song and her cheap shots at Jacqui Smith but this should not give her false confidence that the Public are happy to keep paying premium rates for this increasingly slapstick and dated Police Pantomime.