Here, as Rodgers and Hammerstein once wrote, are some of my favourite things.

Favourite Colour: Blue

Favourite Book: 1984, George Orwell.

Favourite Film: The Great Escape

Overall Favourite Quote:

“I am no Inspector Gadget”

Tim Godwin OBE QPM, Dep Commissioner, Met Police .

Favourite Quote about me:

“He is not an Inspector”

Nick Herbert, former Police Minister.

Favourite Ludicrous Quote:

“Let me make this clear, your mission is to cut crime, nothing more”

Theresa May, Home Secretary.

Favourite Policing Quote:

“Only merit, not gender, ethnicity or anything else should be criterion for advancement in policing”

Tom Winsor, HMIC.

Favourite Policing Facts:

We are unarmed
We lock up more criminals than any other European country
Our prisons are full
Crime has fallen each year for the last decade
A British police officer is assaulted every 20 minutes
We are accountable to five separate organisations

Abandoning the ‘Beat System’ was seen as ‘Police Reform’ at the time.

Favourite Song Lyrics:

The first four lines of ‘Knives Out’ by Radiohead.

Christina Edkins was stabbed to death on board a bus on Hagley Road, Birmingham while on her way to school in Halesowen.

West Midlands Police are continuing to question a 22-year-old man who was arrested near the scene of the stabbing a few hours later. Police believe Christina was killed in a random attack.

Any person who randomly stabs a child to death is mentally ill, diagnosed or not. In Ruralshire, mental health provision is woeful.

People on the verge of suicide or a manic breakdown cannot access help because crisis teams are too busy or closed outside office hours. Front line police and ambulance staff have been witness to this for decades.

Now, a combination of rising demand and government cuts is leaving the services at breaking point.

A huge amount of our activity on the Ruralshire Constabulary response teams is directed at ‘keeping the lid’ on this issue ‘out of hours’. Neighbourhood police spend time assisting mental health teams and following up emergency incidents.

In my experience,...

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Greater Manchester Police has teamed up with Scott & Bailey to help raise money for Joshua Wilson, a local boy who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2004. Officers from the Prestwich and Whitefield Neighbourhood Policing Team, the Chief Constable and cast of Scott & Bailey demonstrate their best Gangnam dance moves in a video for the Whitefield student.

Inspector Mark Kenny from the Prestwich and Whitefield Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “Joshua loves the police and when he got in touch to see if there was anything we could do to help, we were only too happy to help out.

“Devon and Cornwall did a fantastic job with their video, but being based in Joshua’s home town, we were keen to take it one step further and involve him in our production.”

Dawn Fidler, Joshua’s Mum, said: “We are totally overwhelmed by the support of GMP and everyone involved. Joshua has just loved being a part of this and I’d like to say a huge thank you to...

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There was very little point in voting in the police Industrial Rights ballot, other than to save face by avoiding a low turnout.

This government has no intention of allowing anyone any further rights, indeed, the current drive is to reduce people’s rights, whether they be Human Rights, the ability to have a case heard by an employment tribunal or secret courts.

For those who are interested, 42% of police officers voted. Of those, 82% or 45,000 police officers, voted in favour of industrial rights.

Just for the record, I voted, and I voted in favour.

But let us hear no more of this nonsense from ministers about how less than 50% of the membership bothered to vote, and that somehow this dilutes the result, or makes it somehow less legitimate.

Rebut low police voting figures criticism (42%) by reminding people only 15% of voters turned out to elect the government flagship policy Police & Crime Commissioners, a peacetime low, and in some areas, no one voted at all!

Never forget this: Ministers were happy to go...

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Cops Quiz:

Which English police force has seen precisely no change in service delivery ‘on the ground’ since the election of a new PCC?

Which English police force is happy to risk the lives and safety of police officers by sending them to dangerous jobs ‘single-crewed’ to give the illusion of greater coverage?

Which English police force pretends to have given PCs their discretion back, while relentlessly bullying staff for targets?

Which English police force scrapped CID prisoner handling units, forcing Neighbourhood PCs to spend their whole time in custody?

Which English police force has just adopted a new operational model, even though the pilot failed to deliver at every level?

Which English police force has avoided an equivalent drop in perks, conditions of service and pensions for senior officers as for federated ranks?

Which English police force has acquiesced to impossible political demands for crime reduction by ‘managing crime’ instead of challenging the targets?

Which English...

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The claim

“We are recruiting 5,000 constables over the next three years and we want Londoners of every background to consider a policing career.”

Boris Johnson, 30 January 2013

The background

Keeping police numbers up to strength was one of the key commitments in his pre-election manifesto. And last week the mayor was quoted as saying that we can expect 5,000 new recruits to the Met over the rest of his term of office.

That came as something of a surprise because police officer numbers have been falling in London and the Met has a nasty hole in its budget. Is there really a recruitment drive in the offing?

The analysis

The mayor of London’s press office says: “The mayor has pledged to keep police numbers high and has a plan to deliver that which requires recruiting 5,000 new constables over the next three years.

“Recruitment was put on hold during the Olympics but unlike many other parts of the country, the Metropolitan Police is now training new officers and numbers will rise again this...

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Two police officers who dived into freezing water to save the life of an unconscious woman trapped inside her car say they do not consider themselves heroes.

Ryan Perry, 38, and Marc Cash, 26, from Response Team 3 at Barnet risked their lives when they jumped into the icy lake in Totteridge Lane to pull the 32-year-old from her Nissan Micra during yesterday’s morning rush hour.

It has since emerged the woman was wearing her dressing gown when she was found in the car and police are not ruling out the possibility the incident was not accidental.

PCs Perry and Cash were on routine patrol when they received a call from horrified witnesses saying the car was sinking into the freezing water.

After rushing to the scene, the constables sprinted to the bank and threw off their belts, body armour and boots before jumping into the water in temperatures just above freezing.

PC Cash, who has been with the force for five years and is engaged, said: “It just took your...

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I find it hard to believe that for the second time in less than five days, another police colleague has been discovered dead, this time at an address in London.

The 43-year-old PC was discovered by fellow officers at a property in Camden just after 4pm on Tuesday (February 19) following concerns about the occupant.

Officers forced entry to the address and found the body of the PC, who was in the Met’s Specialist Protection Command, with a gunshot injury. Our thoughts go out to those police officers who, as always, 24/7, were ready to do their duty in difficult circumstances.

The death is not being treated as suspicious at this stage and next of kin have been informed.

A postmortem examination will be held in due course and an inquest will be opened and adjourned on a date to be fixed, a spokesman for the Met has said.

The officer is not believed to be connected with the current inquiry into a foul-mouthed-rant aimed at protection officers in...

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Kent Police Federation have reported the death of a serving police officer, Detective Sergeant Benjamin Turner.

Within hours of this tragic news, their Facebook page was inundated with hundreds of tributes from people who had served with, or knew, Ben Turner. As you are probably aware, I monitor these issues where I can, usually because readers alert me on Twitter or by email, and I have never seen such a huge outpouring of support and collective tribute as this.

Reading the comments from his colleagues and friends provides a clear picture of a legend of a man; a man of great humour, compassion and professionalism.

Policing is not predominantly popularity contest. But popularity can be an important quality of its own. It is this quality, along with the respect his colleagues obviously felt for his coppering, which has caught even the Federation by surprise:

“The response to the tragic loss of Ben Turner has been beyond imagination. The messages of condolence from...

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Theresa May and Damian Green want all police officers to declare any second jobs they may have on a website open to public view.

“Outside interests including second jobs will be published on-line.”

However,

ACPO guidance on Internet and Social Media states;

“It is recommended that Police Officers do not post any of the following information on the Internet or Social Media

Details of your employer
Details of your posting
Hobbies and places frequented

So once again we ask; which is it?

Do we publish our names, force, location and details of any second job? Or do we not?

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Also, the Home Office claim that up to 400,000 sexual offences remain unreported every year.

Damian Green claims that crime is down, and has been falling every year since the government came to power.

So, which is it? Is crime down? Or are there 400,000 unreported sex offences, which would put crime up by a huge amount?

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I’m rather more...

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