The NYPD have recently undertaken a form of industrial action – is this ever something that’s acceptable for police officers to do? (Image from NYPD Drills)

There are lots and lots of things that us police can do.

We can arrest folk, we get to go on stakeouts and drive our squad cars down alleys through piles of cardboard boxes.

On the flip side, there are also things that we cannot do either because there are rules or laws that advise us certain things are not permissible.

One of the things that us British police cannot do is strike owing to the Police Act 1996 telling us that it’s not something that’s okay for us to do.

The debate over whether we should be able to strike has been hovering in the background for several years with some in the Police Federation suggesting we should be balloted on getting the right to strike in response to changes to our working conditions.

Over the past couple of days, the idea of industrial action being taken by police forces has come up again when officers from the New York Police Department have...

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Scrapping police cautions could mean a greater focus on ‘restorative’ remedies such as cleaning graffiti.

So then, police cautions may well soon be heading for the scrap heap.

If all goes to plan during an upcoming trial by three English police forces, we will be making room for cautions next to rainproof macs, whistles and moustaches – items gradually retired as the police service moves forward.

The proposal is that rather than the police issue cautions, effectively official warnings for low level offences, we’ll adopt a system designed to give the victim more say in how we resolve crimes.

The Ministry of Justice promote the new system as simpler and propose that (prepare a hoorah) they’ll mean less bureaucracy for us officers to face.

Under the new system, we’ll be able to arrange compensation and apologies for minor crimes with offences deemed as being more serious being dealt with by way of ‘suspend prosecution’ under which we can steer offenders towards rehabilitation.

In my experience, the perception that cautions are seen by forces as...

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Want to avoid compromising photos of yourself popping up on the interweb? Tips below!

There are lots of things that us normal people don’t have in common with Hollywood celebrities.

We don’t have pet tigers, we can’t charter a private jet to deliver us a takeaway and we tend not to sign million pound deals with glossy magazines to photograph our weddings.

Whilst it’s true that we’re unlikely to bump into Queen B whilst we’re at Aldi, this isn’t to say that there aren’t things that sometimes happen to celebrities that could just as likely happen to us.

I don’t mean uploading a video to YouTube that wins us a record deal to be Justin Bieber, I do mean though as has recently happened to Jennifer Lawrence and others, storing compromising photos on the web that may find their way into the public domain if your security settings aren’t good enough.

This is what appears to have happened to a host of A-Listers over the past couple of days, hackers have used their geek skills to illegally access cloud* based storage services such as...

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Welcome to David Jamieson, our new Police and Crime Commissioner.

A quick post this one to congratulate Labour’s David Jamieson on his success in the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner election and to welcome him to the new role.

David fills the vacancy left by the late Bob Jones and will work alongside our Chief Constable, Chris Sims, acting to oversee how the force is run.

As you may have noticed from the press coverage following the announcement of the results, voter turnout was somewhat lower than many people had been hoping.

In fact, if you happen to be reading this blog in the company of nine friends or family (hello everyone – gather closer!), statistically only one of you likely cast a vote.

Read into this statistic what you will but I think more than anything else, it suggests people are not yet familiar with what the Police and Crime Commissioner’s role is.

They’re not ‘in charge’ of their police force as such, rather it’s their role to hold the force to account, to set budgets and outline the force’s priorities.

The Police...

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We’re holding a firearms amnesty between July 19th and August 2nd 2014 during which people can turn over weapons without fear of being prosecuted for gun possession.

In Britain, one of the tightest areas of the law concerns the control of firearms.

Without a licence, you can barely so much as look at a gun without getting into trouble. Even if you don’t break any of the laws concerning discharging them, merely having possession of a component from a gun is likely to attract a hefty sentence from the people in funny wigs.

With a licence, there are still plenty of restrictions in place about what sort of weapons you can own, where you can take them and what you’re allowed to do with them.

Assuming you’ve been granted a licence, you still can’t your shotgun to the pub with you after a long day blasting holes in grouse – you’re expected to rigidly follow the guidelines and risk having weapons confiscated if you don’t.

Considering the misery that both real and imitation firearms can cause when they fall into the wrong hands, it’s clear...

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The ‘Gameover Zeus’ malware is threatening computers. Unlike with real Zeus though, you can protect yourself by following some simple internet safety steps.

I imagine there’s a fair chance you’re sitting reading this thinking ‘As this isn’t ancient Greece, there’s little-to-no chance that Zeus will descend from Mount Olympus and attack me today’.

This is usually quite a safe assumption.

Sitting in Bloxwich, or Aldridge, or maybe even Dudley, there’s so little chance that an all-powerful mythological deity is going to suddenly appear and wreak havoc that it’s really not worth worrying about.

Problem is, you might not be as safe from godly thunderbolts as you think.

As the National Crime Agency is warning, we may have around two weeks to protect ourselves from the ‘Gameover Zeus‘ malware that is currently slinking around the internet, creeping its way into people’s computers and causing all sorts of problems.

Often spread by people downloading attachments on apparently legitimate emails, the software then hunts for financial...

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What do the burglary team do all day? Sometimes we fight foes on top of waterfalls. We do other stuff too though…

What do the burglary team at Local CID do all day?

The obvious answer would be that we look for clues with our magnifying glasses, try on deerstalkers and place pins on large wall maps.

To be fair, this is pretty accurate.

Without magnifying glasses, we’d miss the vital piece in the jigsaw that cracks the case.

No deerstalkers and nobody would know we’re from CID, no randomly-placed map pins and our office wouldn’t look professional.

Whilst it is pretty accurate, the role does involve more than just fighting nemesis at the top of the Reichenbach Falls*.

For the burglary team, one of the first things we do in the morning is to check overnight crime to see what’s been happening on our beats.

Any house burglaries that we find, we look into to see what areas they’re in, how they’ve been committed etc and then will give the victim a call for an update.

We’ll chase up any forensic results, check out the intelligence using...

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Time to update your operating system? Support for Windows 3.1 ended years ago, XP has now gone the same way.

Anticipating the mood swings, messy bedrooms and questionable hygiene to come, this week Microsoft did what most parents can’t and cut loose support for their thirteen year old ‘child’, Windows XP, before the troublesome teenage years really kicked in.

This means that they’ll no longer be releasing security updates and bug fixes for the still popular operating system and users will be largely on their own.

Using a computer without any sort of security support is a bit like lion-taming without a whip and a chair – it’s generally not a good idea and whilst you stand less chance of being eaten by a lion, you could be gobbled up by the digital equivalent.

As such, the large numbers of people still using XP, maybe a quarter of all users, are now realistically left with three options -

1. Upgrading their operating systems
2. Paying Microsoft several million pounds for extended support on an individual basis as some governments have done
3. Continuing...
   
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Stolen in a recent charity shop burglary, can you help with enquiries?

The below press release was issued by our Corporate Communications department recently following a burglary at the St Giles Hospice Shop in Walsall Town Centre, I’m republishing it here too in case anyone missed it.

I’m in charge of the case and with the victim being a cancer charity, I’m obviously keen to do all I can to find out who was responsible.

Please feel free to forward on this appeal and as per the below, if you have any information that may help then please let us know or pass it on anonymously via Crimestoppers.

Walsall Town Centre Charity Shop Targeted

Walsall Police are appealing for information following a burglary at a charity shop in the town centre.

As Wiley will tell you, previous arrests might see you turned away from the USA or Canada if you’re not prepared (Image from Clozone)

Unlike three hundred years ago when to get to the USA or Canada would require a six month sea voyage during which you’d probably have to eat half the crew, things are much easier these days.

You buy a ticket, hop on a plane and you’re there by the time you’ve watched Meet The Fockers twice over.

The exception to things being this simple, as rapper Wiley has recently found out on a failed trip to Toronto, is if you’ve ever been arrested or have previous convictions.

This is because any arrest, even one not resulting in any charges, means you may no longer be eligible for a visa waiver and so will have to apply for a visa from an embassy.

Canada and the USA deal with previous arrests and convictions slightly differently but if you’ve any doubts over whether you may be considered ‘inadmissible’, you need to check with the immigration authorities before you go.

Not doing so may...

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