TPAC

RPU meeting on TPAC policy. You couldn’t make it up.

Theft of poppy collection box.

You just have to see this. Thanks to Kendl for spotting this one.

Theft of a poppy collection box recorded on CCTC. Good detail and clear video evidence  for a change.

Fork Handles

Handles for forks………….

A Minute for Madeline McCann

So its one minute and 30 odd seconds. Please pass it on.

Dangerous Dog – Out of control.

Thanks to Ambush Predator for bringing this to my attention. A  reported incident where an allegedly dangerous dog attacked a woman who was out walking and the Police took no action.

The reported story alleges that the Police have failed to act over a dangerous dog incident that resulted in a woman being bitten by a dog that was out of control.

I simply cannot believe that no investigation was carried out into the offence, which it certainly is. Dangerous dog  legislation allows for dogs to be seized in such circumstances whilst an investigation takes place with strict conditions or, in some cases, a destruction order granted by a court if the dog conforms to strict criteria.

Most Forces have trained officers who deal with identification, seizure and offer expert advice when needed.

 

For their sake……….

Please buy a poppy.

Bird-feeder crime.

There are many people who get a little fed up with squirrels breaking into the bird feeders or climbing onto bird feeders to steal the tit bits intended for the birds.How do you deal with the problem of something just a little bit bigger than a squirrel ?

I wonder if the line is going to hold.

It must be super strong stuff.

Would you go out and tell it to get off your bird feeder ?

Police Dog found dead.

An investigation is underway into whether the death of a police dog was connected to threats to kill its handler. The German shepherd dog was found dead on Monday morning at the handler’s home.

A force spokesperson said: “Northumbria Police take very seriously threats made against our own staff in the course of their duties and this remains the priority of the investigation. They are carrying out inquiries to find out if the death of the dog is connected to this investigation.

H/T  Noddy

Replay after 90 minutes.

I have posted this before and found the response both moving and the greatest by far I have had. For all those who have had a dog, lived with it, worked with it and cared for it you will understand my sentiments. About this time every year it comes around again. Some dogs are irreplaceable but some of the personal loss can be replaced by another. Some of you might have already seen it but others might not have.

I hear the phone ringing, I wait for an answer. My mouth is dry and I don’t want to speak. I can’t remember dialling the number. Eventually it is answered just as I am about to hang up and delay the inevitable. My misplaced human sentiment rises to the surface again. I try to talk and explain who I am, what the problem is. The voice on the other end is calm, politely reassuring and knows how I feel. They have seen and heard this a hundred times. I get my time and the count down begins.

90 minutes is an awful long time.

The journey is only a fraction of that. 90 minutes is about as long as a football match. No time at all if your side is 3-0 up but an eternity of torment if your side is 3-0 down.

My 90 minutes of torment has begun.
Every second seems like a minute, seems like an hour, a day, a week.

My friend is not well. He is very not well.

We have seen lots of things together.
We have done lots of things together.
He has saved me from many things and ensured I
returned home. I owe him a lot.

Now I must take him for his last journey.

I cannot explain how such relatively short and slow journey turns out to be such a blur.

I enter the place that has made my friend better on several occasions but that will now stop his suffering because they cannot make him better any more.

They know. They take me to a small room when I walk in and close the door.
They are sympathetic. They care about what they do.

It doesn’t take long but it seems to take forever.
My friend is gone. I’m going to miss him, a lot.

90 minutes was an awfully long time.

Public Service Sector Alliance partnership

There is a wonderful new partnership between the public sector, including the CTCC and the newly formed Public Service Sector Alliance partnership.

This wonderful new entity is going to reduce the costs of running several large public service systems within the health-care, education, local council, Police and Fire Service. Efficiency savings in all areas, pay awards, expenses, budget reductions and pension contributions will all be in the firing line over successive financial review periods.

This is the next step, in the really big plan, following on from centralised communications centres to log calls and dispatch the ‘right unit for the job’, reduce inefficiency and make the services better able to stand up to scrutiny and accountability following established business strategies. It is the right move to provide an effective and affordable solution to today’s problems, apparently.

This partnership will, it is claimed,  make huge savings in the administration, management and supply of essential supplies and equipment for the public service sector. The regional committees formed to mass order and save wads of budget cash seem to disagree on most of what they discuss with individuals wanting to be seen to be having the major influence to satisfy their own egos and build the next part of their career development portfolio. Regional uniforms, regional vehicle fleet, centralised maintenance, cross border alliances, shared resources etc, etc, etc. The list is endless and can be applied to almost anything. Perhapsregional custody suites will also be on someones agenda. Perhaps we will stop arresting people if the quota has been reached and carry over some TIC’s for a quiet month ?

From the 1st of the month our pay has been transferred into the giant that is the  Public Service Sector Alliance partnership.

All of our requisition for supplies from leads, dog bowls and even patrol fleet will now be under the tight monetary policy control of the Public Service Sector Alliance partnership. The spin tells us this will be somehow better. It does not say who will benefit from this being better.

Suddenly all of our computers and our other resources are no longer those of the CTCC, but now belong to the Public Service Sector Alliance partnership.

The projected huge savings will equip the CTCC and all its other partner organisations under the control of the Public Service Sector Alliance partnership to provide an affordable service that will meet the demands they will face and ensure that a top level and highly professional strategic service is provided and will be affordable, sustainable and provide value for money. This is going to make our communities safer and reassure the public.

Already we have seen problems with pay across the new partnership.

Already we have seen problems in getting kit issued or purchased.

Already we have seen problems with accounting for how and why we need kit.

We have had several major crime enquiries and the Traffic Department are investigating higher than usual serious or fatal collisions. I have no idea how the unexpected rise will fall into the big plan. I expect there is some form of contingency plan just in case.

Those who control the purse strings have their own agenda. They also appear to have insufficient administration staff, computers and planning to ensure a smooth transition into the new partnership world.

To save money under the cloak of appearing to give more for a lot less.

Needless to say, I suspect that somewhere, someone will be making a nice little earner out of this and those who are able to balance their own books will be able to get something by way of performance bonuses.

For those at the bottom of the food-chain, the ones who are repeatedly reminded that they are the ones who all this is in place to support, appear to be a tad sceptical and some even doubt that this will improve things one bit.

For the counters behind their desks or those who control the purse strings maybe.

For the people who actually supply the service where it matters, be it in a hospital ward, a classroom, putting out fires, Policing the streets, emptying dustbins or the myriad of other dedicated local authority front-line service deliverers………………I suspect not.  

As the mission statement says, We are working together towards our vision.

What they should be saying is, we will roll you over and make your job just that little bit more difficult and expect ever more for ever less. You are professional and care about what you do so you are easy pickings and have to play by our rules.

Even more of the 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, growth industry where workplace environment, car parking spaces and a good canteen are the orders of the day.

For the Policing side of this wonderful public service thing, I remember when there was a canteen in almost every Police Station with staff who worked for the Police and were not in a contracted out service to save costs.

The front-line deliverers are the ones who provide the service, no matter what that happens to be. They are the ones who do the business and take the flak when the ‘customers’ are pissed off because someone feels that someone has failed to deliver.

Those who make the rules do not play by those rules because they have somehow evolved to be above and beyond the same critical spotlight. Their mistaken views of how important they are overtakes the responsibilities of their role which has no direct link towards service delivery of the chosen area. Add to this having comparable perks and conditions that mirror those of top industry warlords, from office, executive car, parking space and even possibly a nice expenses package to reflect their status.

The non-Police staff who occupy these prestigious and lucrative positions pass on their mirror images to the high ranking Police officers who operate in an environment that loses touch with the realities of front-line service delivery all too quickly.

They are unable to measure service sector productivity so dream up ever increasing ways of targeting things that allow them to benchmark what they decide they understand without accounting for all the things that they cannot measure because they are outside of business models.

If an officer puts in X amount of process per shift, puts in X amount of intel per shift, puts in X amount of stop & search forms per shift and issues X amount of producers per shift, that officer is deemed to be hitting all the right targets and is doing an productive job in line with the necessary strategic forecasts.

Another officer, who is perhaps snowed under with crime enquiries he has been allocated by someone behind a desk who cares not about this officer’s workload but only to hit their own targets, is unable to issue anything resembling X amount of anything because of crime enquiries is deemed to be under performing.

Don’t expect targets, measuring and statistics to go away or reduce because they simply won’t. There is no other way of micro-managing the resources from behind a desk apart from getting those resources to submit stats before a decision is made about how long the shafting stick is going to be before it is used. This will justify the position of those who count to those who manage and allow for ever increasing numbers of resources to be essentially removed from front-line service delivery in the name of counting and managing.

Targets, business strategies, constant measuring and often duplicated statistics are the only way forward for those who have never provided the service or are so long out of circulation that have lost touch with how things have moved away from what they may have done for only a relatively short time in their chosen career.

Targets…………….you can’t beat’em.

The Public Service Sector Alliance partnership, the way forward for those who understand the bigger picture.