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Police: Call the Cops TV documentary

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Old Plod on the 23^rd August 2019 at 12:14 - A Police Blog
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A series which started earlier this week showed the reality behind the challenges officers from Devon and Cornwall experience every day.

Channel 4’s ‘Call the Cops’ docu-series started on Monday, August 19th at 9.30pm and will consist of 6 weekly episodes.

It is set to cover a wide-range of jobs across the force area - the largest geographical policing area in England - such as armed robberies, sexual assaults, missing people searches and domestic incidents.

It is also set to highlight the challenges Devon and Cornwall Police’s staff and officers have to face on a daily basis, including being on the receiving end of verbal and physical abuse.

Police: A JP`s WILFUL REFUSAL OR CULPABLE NEGLECT

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The Justice of the Peace on the 22^nd August 2019 at 12:56 - A Police Blog
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During training all new magistrates are told that if they or a close relative, or someone known to them has an involvement in a case which comes before them they must declare an interest and usually recuse themselves from any participation. Obviously the general guidance can be only that; general. Certainly after a year or more on the bench a magistrate will have learned from colleagues when to consider if they are in breach of said guidance and of course the Deputy Justices Clerk is there for advice. Therefore there appears to be no excuse for this woman although her name has not as yet appeared in cases disciplined by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office. This would seem to be wilful refusal to act judicially or culpable neglect on her part. No doubt the full story will out.

Fire: LAMBETH TURNOUT

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LONDON FIRE JOURNAL on the 21^st August 2019 at 21:33 - A Fire Blog
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Photo: LFB Twitter

Police: PHONING AT THE WHEEL NEEDS A RE-THINK

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The Justice of the Peace on the 20^th August 2019 at 12:46 - A Police Blog
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Without exception government departments employ hundreds if not thousands of people to spread the word; the word they want we, the public, to hear on the basis that all words of opposing opinion will, if not drowned out, be lost in the cacophony that results. Nowhere is this attempt at control more evident than within the Ministry of Justice which day by day is becoming an oxymoron. With all the problems facing the MOJ, last week the House of Commons Transport Committee with or without consultation with its colleagues at Justice or Home Office decided to recommend that all mobile phone use whilst driving be banned. This announcement, of course, made headlines in all media. But in practical terms there is no way that a measure such as this with dubious supposed statistics at its rear end will make it into law. There are as far as I know no statistics on driving convictions or penalty points allocated for the use of in car hands free phone use. The so called eminent MPs might have issued a warning...

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Police: Officer Down

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policecommander on the 19^th August 2019 at 8:33 - A Police Blog
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As the world moves on, it leaves behind a broken-hearted bride, married just four weeks ago.

Officer down.

Most give what they can; some give all they have. PC Andrew Harper was one of those who gave everything, killed in the line of duty on the night of Thursday 15th August 2019.

I never had the privilege of knowing him, but I know what kind of man he was – one who understood that precious, old-fashioned thing called duty. He was described by his Chief Constable as “a fantastic police officer” and “a great friend and man”. I suspect that I would have liked him very much.

The sense of staggering loss is greatest, of course, for those who knew him best and loved him most. I find myself thinking of his two families – the one he was born into and the one he was sworn into – but, most of all, I think of his widow, Lissie. She was supposed to be preparing for a honeymoon. Now she’s preparing for a funeral.

I can’t even begin to imagine.

Those who do the job know the risks of course. But there has been an inescapable sense of...

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Police: ANOTHER COURT INTERPRETER PROVIDER BITES THE DUST

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The Justice of the Peace on the 16^th August 2019 at 15:07 - A Police Blog
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Since 2012 I have been commenting on the less than satisfactory history of court interpreting that began with the yet to be investigated scandal of Applied Language Solutions` contract with the Ministry of Justice that year. The MOJ for its part is regularly issuing notices of how efficient the current service is but apparently old habits die hard when it comes to that organisation`s signing of contracts.

A sub contractor for these services went out of business last week. It is now obvious that all government departments are obsessed with outsourcing. In the oft forgotten days of the Callaghan administration and earlier, government employees used their trade union affiliations to cause havoc to public services. I remember the three day week of 1972 and eating by candle light. I remember rats searching in uncollected rubbish in 1979. There was no doubt that Maggie Thatcher`s reforms to prevent such events was welcome relief but now the pendulum has swung to the maximum of its arc. The...

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Police: CAMERON OR JOHNSON; WHAT`S THE DIFFERENCE?

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The Justice of the Peace on the 13^th August 2019 at 12:20 - A Police Blog
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All those interested will have by now made up their minds whether or not our newly enthroned prime minister was showing “leadership” or being unwise in speaking out in support of “tough” sentencing. My own opinions on his and David Cameron`s similar comments and particularly of the Sentencing Council`s tick box structure have been mentioned here on more than one occasion. Cameron when PM revealed, perhaps without too much forethought, his thinking processes on the Sentencing Council. He is quoted in The Telegraph at the time as saying,

“My mum was a magistrate for 30-odd years and you don’t go on being a magistrate just reading the handbook and working out exactly what sentence is handed down. You respond to local circumstances, to the sense of right and wrong in that community.”

And that is precisely where the dispute in current sentencing now lies. For some years we have been told to do exactly that which is on the tin or top cover if preferred; read the handbook [guideline] and...

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Ambulance: A Family's Cry...

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StorytellERdoc on the 12^th August 2019 at 16:48 - A Ambulance Blog
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"The death of a child is the single most traumatic event in medicine. To lose a child is to lose a piece of yourself."

I walked into work yesterday morning and it only took seconds to appreciate the immense sorrow and sadness that permeated the air. My beautiful work family was despondent and deflated. Shoulders were slumped, feet were shuffling, faces wore defeat.

Something terrible had occurred during the night shift. Damn it. I felt my heart clench with the fear of anticipating the news that would cause such palpable pain to my coworkers.

Walking toward the first nurses' station, "Central" as we know it, I said brief good mornings to several nurses and techs as well as our unit coordinator, Amy. Most of them were either sitting or standing, leaning into the counter. Under the fluorescent lights, their eyes were dull. A profound fog of nothingness seemed to envelop each of them.

"Amy," I said, "what happened? What's going on?"

It took her all of five seconds to explain the catastrophe. "Dr. Jim, four children died in a house...

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Police: A week is a long time in politics and WMP

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CC Dave Thompson on the 09^th August 2019 at 9:05 - A Police Blog
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If you have been watching the news you will see a great deal is going on concerning a national increase of 20,000 police officers. I want to update you on what I know and what this means. Before I do that a few other things.

Firstly, a huge thank you for the brilliant work over July. More detail here, but there is considerable reduction in outstanding calls to what we have seen over the last two years. We are no less busy but the impact of strong planning, escalation policies, more mobility, banded shifts, new control rooms shifts, webchat and general grip and hard work has resulted in much greater control.

Operationally we are starting to see a shift in the right direction on crimes like burglary. More work is needed still on robbery and violence but we have seen less high profile serious violence in the last few weeks. August will keep on testing us but we are definitely in a stronger place than last year. Thank you.

August sees the start of our technology changes with MyTime, the new duty...

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Police: HOW AWFUL

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The Justice of the Peace on the 06^th August 2019 at 11:20 - A Police Blog
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There is no doubt, unless the opinion is emanating from an MP on the Tory side where it`s waffle from dawn to dusk or from the Opposition where it`s based on, "they`re wrong whatever the topic", that most clear thinking individuals when pressed will admit to apprehensions about our justice system. For this short post the justice system is a loose term encompassing the process from the law being broken to a defendant being found guilty or acquitted. In order to bring a defendant to court s/he must first be arrested for an alleged offence. However only about 8% of such people are actually charged. In the last eight years the number of prosecutions has fallen by around 45%. Eight years ago there were just under 900,000 cases at magistrates and crown courts. Latest figures are just under 500,000. Ten years ago there were 20,000 more warranted police officers than there are currently. And nine years ago in Bradford the crown court was being overwhelmed with cases it could not handle with available resources. I posted on this...

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Police: Call the Cops TV documentary

Police: A JP`s WILFUL REFUSAL OR CULPABLE NEGLECT

Fire: LAMBETH TURNOUT

Police: PHONING AT THE WHEEL NEEDS A RE-THINK

Police: Officer Down

Police: ANOTHER COURT INTERPRETER PROVIDER BITES THE DUST

Police: CAMERON OR JOHNSON; WHAT`S THE DIFFERENCE?

Ambulance: A Family's Cry...

Police: A week is a long time in politics and WMP

Police: HOW AWFUL

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