Unlike other European countries the United Kingdom has no statute of limitations for any criminal offence except for summary offences (offences tried in the magistrates' court). In these cases criminal proceedings must be brought within 6 months.  

Last week a 74 year old male was jailed after being convicted of multiple charges of sexual abuse against a 14 year old boy between 1976 and 1979. There is no doubt that the victim`s trauma had a lifelong effect. We have no knowledge of the offender`s history; the report of what was a very unusual case is, unfortunately, truncated to say the least except that we know there was no need for a trial as he pleaded guilty.  Understandably the victim`s name is withheld but it might have been useful if the judge`s remarks including presumably the...

This police blog continues, Read More...

I was a new paramedic.  The senior medic briefed me.  They took two guys out of a basement apartment with high carbon monoxide readings after a dryer caught on fire.  Ones already on the way to the hospital for evaluation. Your patient is the guy over by the building door arguing with the police officer.  He wants to go back in his apartment to get some items, and the officer won’t let him.  Just then the man punched the officer in the jaw..  The officer threw the man against a car and put him in a headlock, and then handcuffed him.  Instead of bringing him over to us to be evaluated, the officer put him into a squad car.  “Asshole!” he shouted at the man.

“Do you think he’s an asshole or do you think maybe carbon monoxide is making him act like an asshole?” I said to the other medic.  “Shouldn’t we go over there and talk to him?”

The medic shrugged, and said, “You can’t argue with a man with a gun.”

The cop took him to the police station for booking and we cleared the scene “Patient item A...

This ambulance blog continues, Read More...

These are the most challenging times for policing in this country since the end of the Second World War.

I said as much at the start of 2020. And then the virus came. And then George Floyd was killed. And then the streets filled with protestors. And then the second wave of the virus hit. And then Sarah Everard was killed. And then the streets filled with protestors. And then the Government proposed new (and singularly ill-judged) legislation for the policing of protests. And then the streets filled with protestors.

At each point along the way, police officers have been caught in the middle of it all, seemingly damned whatever they do. ‘All Coppers Are Bastards’, remains the refrain. And yet, in an increasingly divided society, as we face an increasingly uncertain future, the need for good policing has never been greater.

This then is my blueprint for policing: eleven brief thoughts about where we go from here.

I. We need to talk

We need to have a proper, old-fashioned, grown up conversation about...

This police blog continues, Read More...

Sacked magistrate Richard Page`s supposed transgressions have been documented here since his unfortunate saga began...

This police blog continues, Read More...

It’s back.

Two weeks ago, our hospital had 0 COVID patients admitted down from highs of 55 in April and 44 in December.  Just like that we are back up to 12 in just a couple days.  Elsewhere in Connecticut, the head coach of the woman’s top ranked basketball team missed the opening round of the NCAA tournament with COVID.  Some girls my daughter plays basketball with had to quarantine due to exposure to people with COVID and on the COVID ACT Now, map, Connecticut has again turned red, signifying.

From all I have read, the cause is likely the arrival of the COVID variants that are more infectious than the original COVID.  We are all hoping that our high and ever increasing vaccination rate (33% 1^st dose/18.6% fully vaccinated) will soon overcome the variants, but we can’t be certain.

Daily coronavirus updates: COVID-19 hospitalizations rising in Connecticut as variants spread; vaccine distribution skewed toward white residents

I am worried about the number of people who are still refusing to get vaccinated.  It was a huge relief for me to get my shots, and I hope others will soon make the decision to bare their arms for their country.

Just out, an interview I did with the Addiction Podcast about my new book, Killing Season; A Paramedic’s Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic.

Peter Canning – Saving Lives as a Paramedic and Learning A Lesson About Drug Addiction

And of course there are other definitions along similar lines of thought but those will suffice for now.  And it is precisely the loss of that liberty as a punishment in itself which is now one of the purposes of imprisonment. It wasn`t always so.  Hard labour or penal servitude was not abolished in this country until 1948.  The prison population of England & Wales quadrupled in size between 1900 and 2017 with around half of this increase taking place since 1990. There are currently around 80,000 convicts in England and Wales that number having reduced by around 6% since the onset of the pandemic. Treatment of those incarcerated has been a political and social hot potato since the days of Elizabeth Fry 1780-1845. Allied with arguments over...

This police blog continues, Read More...

Looking back even fourteen months ago, it is hard to imagine we would ever see the events of 2020. Our world has changed so much.

For some this has been a dreadful year of tragedy. We mourn those we have lost within our own West Midlands Police family and today think of those who have died in our communities. We are looking forward to enjoying a brighter future that sees us meeting up with family and friends again.

This year has also been inspiring in so many ways. The miracle of science that has created the vaccination programme, the tireless work of NHS staff and those in care homes. Acts of kindness across communities.

Our own work has been outstanding. The preparation for mass fatalities saw us work with partners to create the largest temporary mortuary in the country from scratch. The work of our community deaths teams earlier in the year was remarkable. The quality of coordination with partners and, of course, the tireless work of all of you in enforcing the...

This police blog continues, Read More...

A night of rioting in Bristol.

Yet another set of grim and deeply depressing headlines. 

Police officers with broken bones and punctured lungs. Police vehicles overturned and in flames. Police buildings under sustained attack. Extreme violence and endless vitriol directed yet again at the brave women and men who stand on the thin blue line.

What the hell is going on?

I don’t know whether I’m actually capable of a coherent answer to that question, but I do know that it’s about more than a single night of criminality in a single urban neighbourhood.

It’s about much more than that.

At this particular moment in time, it feels as though police officers are being attacked from every side:

• By those who think the policing of protests is far too robust
• By those who think it isn’t nearly robust enough
• By those who think the policing of Covid regulations is far too draconian
• By those who think it isn’t nearly draconian enough
• By feminists
• By misogynists
• By anti-racists
• By actual racists
• By those who accuse the police of...
  
  This police blog continues, Read More...