Well the next time you go off for a spot of annual leave, that you will have booked up to a year in advance after the lottery of dealing with minimum staffing levels and trying to fit in with the rest of your colleagues…………please, please, please bear a small thought in mind for our overworked political masters and their partners in opposition who are beginning their well earned rest after their toil, trouble and graft at the hub of British politics.

Our beloved MPs have begun their period of leave from the rigours of shouting “hear, hear”, waving pieces of paper about in the house and seeing exactly how much expenses they can get the tax paying public to fork out for them to spend. They have just started their 75-day summer recess.

Just think…………what could you do if your Station/base or department shut for 75 days ?

Well the kids arrived from schools all over the County to see the brave boys and girls from the emergency services doing their bit at the County Emergency Services open day. Good for citizen focus and promoting the brand within the realms of those we can impress with our own style of portrayal of what we do in our efforts to make our part of the world a little bit safer for the population.

With members from the public service family strutting their stuff, the ambulance service, the fire service, search and rescue and various departments from the Policing fraternity putting on a show of truly momentous proportions to fly the flag and show exactly how good we are. Great entertainment for the kids, a break for the teachers and our talents embedded into a section of the community for all the right reasons. Its funny how many Police officers are happy to leave the security of their offices to come along and do their bit for the community in these circumstances without the risk of having to get involved in anything too risky, not even playing a bag snatcher. More of that later. 

The kids enjoyed the large fires, marvelled at the arrival, with all horns blazing, of the Fire Service and I must say that the plumes of smoke as the fires were extinguished was truly impressive.

Kids, being kids, seemed to enjoy all the exciting and gory stuff far more than the entertaining but informative stuff. A great narrative by the presenter describing how the exciting stuff happens, when it happens, is far more focus holding than the safety first but essentially boring things like how to approach a fire, or a good bandaging technique. These things were  lost once the real good things started to happen. Out with the boys toys to cut the top off a car, the ambulance evacuation of a heavily injured casualty (obviously simulated, blood and all, I hope) and the Police car chase around the large arena. All very exciting.

Not, however, as exciting as someone’s sniffer dog pissing on one of the brigade’s displays causing a large degree of cheering. After all they were only going to set fire to it so it didn’t matter. All of this was a mere trifle compared to the sight of a canine hot footing in pursuit of the handbag snatcher who had, by prior arrangement of course, robbed a lady teacher of her handbag and foolishly run off across the large open arena in an effort to escape the clutches of the good guys. Like a cartoon exaggeration of the archetypal pantomime baddie, the boo’s soon evaporated into muted cheers of expectation. Something was going to happen, these kids are not stupid. The National Curriculum must be working.

Enter stage left, trusty Police Dog handler, like some super hero but without the cape or underpants on the outside, large dog accompanied by even larger crown anticipation. The level of cheering increasing in a crescendo to match the closing gap between dog and bag snatcher, followed in due course by canine affixing to a body part of bag snatcher followed by enormous applause as bag snatcher hits the ground in a crumpled heap with canine on top of him. The mad man with the rather large and threatening stick got a great ovation, but only when submerged under 100lbs of determined canine attitude. I wonder how many sanctioned detections or at least NFA’s we might be able to get out of this lot ?

Give’em action every time. They can sit on bikes or in cars, climb ladders and try on helmets, they can talk on radios or be taken for a quick but safe spin in the trucks, turn on the horns and lights but nothing, and I mean nothing, nothing goes down better than one of the dogs chasing and nailing the fugitive. No amount of talking has the same effect. If only everything in life was this simple, the world would be a far better place. We were cooking, and the first bite is with the eye, as it were.

In addition to the above, the CTC Constabulary, in true Police Dogs tradition, is hosting the 15th No12 Region Dogs trials with competitors from Ruralshire Constabulary, Blandshire Constabulary and it is expected that PC Plod will be the only entrant from the Northern Sector or the Region in attendance. I haven’t had a reply from BP so don’t know if any representative will be coming from there.This is as long as they are free from all their excessive form filling and target hitting. It could be embarrassing with just the three of us but at least we can keep all the trophies. We will be doing the stuff at the weekend so there will be plenty of space to park in the car park. The budget has been cut for this so we will have to bring our own packed lunches and drinks for the dogs.

It seems that Police Dogs can be scary. Some times at least.

I presume this is not the cuddly but somewhat hyperactive little springers or cocker spaniels, the sociable but eternally affable labradors often used in the realms of drugs and explosives detection work. I can only assume that this is aimed at the larger and less understood larger and often deemed ‘bitey’ dogs.

The malleys, rotties, GS Dees of the general policing dog world. The ones used to support the response officers by finding the miscreants and general unlikeable elements of our crime ridden and imperfect society as well as the lost and vulnerable or eternally stupid. 

According to one daily rag there are concerns over the use of Police dogs. As a result the liberal and weak kneed are running for cover following another serious bout of arse covering for a perceived deluge of compo claims because our Dean-Dale-Darren-Shaun-Shane-Carl-Dom or whatever name exists has a bit of a problem with canine allergies or the like. Not just the problem with the sharp bits but also the lustrous and furry coat of said beasts.

Police dog handlers have been told to consider whether criminals could be frightened of dogs before using them in raids or searches.

They should also think carefully about the possibility of suspects being allergic to dog hair, according to draft guidelines drawn up by senior officers.

The proposals follow fears that suspects with medical conditions affected by dogs could sue forces which authorise the animals’ use during arrests or raids.

Peter Vaughan, the Association of Chief Police Officers’ adviser on dogs, explained the principle behind the proposals.

‘The draft guidelines outline a general principle that forces should consider what steps can be taken to avoid offending people during operations.’

Mr Vaughan, a deputy chief constable of South Wales Police, added: ‘This might include different categories of people such as those with a fear of dogs, for example, or asthma sufferers who may be sensitive to dog hair.’

PC David Heaps, a dog handling trainer at Derbyshire Constabulary, added: ‘We are very mindful not to cause offence.’

However a serving dog handler, who asked not to be named, declared: ‘I have never heard anything so ridiculous. What’s next? Sparing people custody because they have a fear of enclosed spaces?

‘This is just another example of namby-pamby policing laid down by people who haven’t been on the beat in years.’

One thing is for certain. If you commit crime, try to escape, engage in acts of violence or threats of violence and there is a large Police Dog deployed in the area, unless you comply with the instructions you might be given if the circumstances allow you are likely to face a good chance of an introduction to some serious canine dentistry. This is likely to smart a bit and might even require a visit to hospital. Itis also quite likely that you will carry a visible reminder and a hard learned memory as a result of your actions.

Oh yes…………..we also find lost and missing people who do not face hospitalisation or the need to be sewn back together after a meeting with our dogs.

I am beginning to understand why the warning on a packet of nuts states…….quite clearly………This product contains nuts. Its time for that darkened room again.

Progress and change are at the forefront of Policing advancement. They suggest moving forward in a positive and meaningful way. They are the bywords of those who have the power to change things, sometimes for the better. they are the words used to create an upward and positive picture at times when negativity and reluctance need clarity to focus the mind towards the bigger picture that only the gifted and visionary few can really see and understand.  Change appears to be the sibling of progress and one is bereft of any worthy existence without the other. To oppose change is to deny progress and be a traitor and blind to the positive outcomes that progress and change can bring.

To the eyes of everyone ?            Possibly not.

 At the CTCC it appears that we are having a bit of a problem.

There simply do not appear to be enough Police Officers to go around. We appear to have run out and have no reserves to draw on.

We are failing to answer calls received at the Communications Suite that is now strategically placed at the hub of the multiverse within the Constabulary HQ. Despite the gradual reduction from a control room on each district we are down to one. Less staff collectively, more efficient computers, an alarmingly effective progression and a good sign of the progress we have made. After all the seats now don’t only swivel, they have low friction casters instead of wheels and the backrests are adjustable. Message reminders and other various levels of threats covering the host of operational jobs can be emailed to the unfortunate recipient at the simple touch of a button. 

A sign of the change, therefore also progress, from several control rooms to one control suite, less staff, more efficient and effective ? No need for local knowledge in the world of technological development.

There are umpteen thousand more calls received reporting everything from a burglary in progress to the loss of our sister’s cat called Einstein. There are equally more calls that require what is now deemed to be ‘Policing Intervention’. Exactly what that means I am not quite sure. I expect it has its own strategic definition as well as its own risk assessment protocols.

Add to these ever increasing calls received at the Communications suite, answered, graded, forwarded to a separate dispatch wing of the Communications conglomerate with its own logo and catchy mission statement, you then have the devolvement of responsibility to the ‘resource’ allocated to deal with the incident requiring this Policing Intervention.

The Response part of the chain of Policing Intervention then deals with the incident that requires such intervention…………..I shall reword that. The Response part of the chain then adds the incident that requires Policing Intervention to its already long list of similar things that require Policing Intervention.  As a result the regrading merry go round spins and things reorganise themselves in the shuffle to prioritise the workload.

With all the other resources deemed available, the dog handlers, traffic officers, firearms reaction teams, the big vans you are always glad to see turn up, the community beat officers, the PCSO’s and we move onto the various squads of targetting teams and tactical detection squads and one would think that there are more than enough around to deal with what is always a simple & minor incident that is always claimed can be dealt with in a few minutes.

A call allocated, another call sheet written off, only thing needed is an incident closure detail finalisation to get this one out of the way. Following the call, after the suitably timed closure details reminder message from he/she who checks such stuff, it turns out that the unit has not attended yet. What are response, or whoever was allocated this particular incident for Policing Intervention, doing that has delayed them so. After all we have targets to hit for answering calls, for allocating a resource to attend and for finalising the incident closure sheet. This is how the cut throat and devisive world of things that be measured operates.

The one big spanner in this otherwise faultless plan, is there are simply not enough Police Officers out on the ground to make this system work. We have sunken to almost an entirely Fire Brigade type of response towards Policing Intervention incidents.

There are not enough Community beat officers.

There are not enough Police Officers on the response groups.

There are not enough dog handlers, traffic officers, teams of burly and fearless officers who arrive at times of disturbance, distress or to look for things in ways that only they know about.

There will never be enough because there are no more locked away in the ranks of the back-up legions in the secret resourcing room waiting to be unleashed in case of emergency at times of Policing Intervention need. 

In times of need, the need to have bods on the streets to deal with the high demand for Policing Intervention of the responce nature but where have all our Police officers gone ?

Some have swelled the layers of the firearms response teams neatly hidden amongst the ranks of the traffic departments. Their numbers look great but they have less to deal with the major road networks and their own targets.

Some have formed into various crime, tactical or strategic legions of targetting squads dedicated to hitting the places that other beers cannot reach by way of the latest crime or other antisocial and trendy concern of the community, political agenda or media.

In real terms the Police Officers working what , for years, have been our core shift pattern, and providing the 24/7 response have fallen to a staggeringly low level.

The numbers of specialist support officers who perform the basic levels of specialist support to these 24/7 officers have had additional workloads placed on them because of the need to prove they are worthwhile, effective and efficient. This takes then further away from their core purpose of supplying a specialist support role to the 24/7 operation response officers.

The modern, business led, tactical and strategic phraseology dresses up business related protocols and evaluations to try to somehow justify the cost of the service we provide. The insistence on following the business and market trends to somehow provide a balance sheet of effectiveness that is understandable in the free trade or business environment but holds little sway with genuine and service provision.

Service is viewed through the balance sheet and the focus of the provision is lost on people who control what is provided under a cloak of corporate accountability and effective management of their business case strategies.

If a shop keeps selling out of baked beans the answer is to get in more baked beans to keep the punters happy. This is all about supply to your demand. A business scenario based on the need to make profit.

The Police are not a business. The Police are service providers. The Police Officers who work on the streets, in all their guises and specialisations, provide that service.

At the CTCC it would come as no surprise if we will be billing for specialist support soon. The Specialist Dog Support units will be billing our customers for our kind of specialist support. Our customers will not the public, or the victim. They will be the district of whatever geographical area might consider it necessary to call a dog handler to attend an incident that requires Police Intervention that has a business case for the need of canine support.

I can picture the scene……………………….Officer A, from Area K attends a domestic intrusion with accompanying theft of property marker. Officer A carries out an initial scene evaluation in accordance with the relevant tactical instruction policy. Officer A relays this information to a supervisor who further evaluates this to see if the criteria fall within the necessary band of specialist strategic support. Supervisor is able to produce initial evidence of a suitable business case for a request of a dog support team to attend. Communications are informed and given the appropriate coding to call for dog support.

Dog support is requested and arrival time estimated at 1.35 hours because of centralisation and travelling time. Dog support arrives, offers relevant specialist support and leaves without location of suspect although property possibly linked to domestic intrusion has been located and seized for possible Scenes of Crime Officer examination, subject to a likely business case accepted and approved for this to take place.

District K will be invoiced for Dog Support attendance, including travelling. District K will also face likely costs for Scenes of crimes examination costs.

Should offender be traced/charged/convicted then costs recovery arm of asset recovery unit will try to reclaim costs as part of compensation package. A form of debt recovery.

The future is bright…….the future is business…………and that is progress. That is the only thing that some people can understand. That will never change. Thats progress.

Not being a particularly great lover of the square box, I would like to recommend this program for a bit of a look. Four part docu-real life thingy shown on ITV with glimpses of how the canine support is utilised for a whole variety of reasons. Everyone knows the dogs can track, search and bite, but this will give a greater insight into all things canine as part of the specialist support our dogs provide to the front line response Police Officers on the streets for 24 hours of every day of every year.

I am recording it and showing it to the SMT of the CTCC so they get an idea of what dogs can offer by way of specialist dog support, hopefully they will then consider less reduction in numbers.

The troops will already know how we can help them, that is what matters.

If you missed it for any reason, forgot to set the times correctly on the vid, then you can watch it here. 

Enjoy.

Moving onto the three day rule reduction………now to be the three hour rule……………Guidelines ordering police to respond to emergency calls within three hours and to attend less urgent incidents such as burglaries within three days have been drawn up by the Home Office.

The astonishing proposals were designed as ‘national standards for local policing’ in England and Wales.

They laid down a three-hour target for officers to reach an incident which ‘requires policing intervention’.

What is an incident that requires Policing intervention ?

The leaked draft targets were to be included in the Government’s long-awaited Green Paper on police reform.

But after a barrage of criticism from the Opposition yesterday – which accused the Government of being out of touch with the public – Home Office officials insisted the targets will not appear in the final version of the paper when it is published tomorrow.

The apparent disarray follows Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s startling U-turn over proposals to force knife-crime offenders to confront victims in hospitals. That plan was floated and ditched within 24 hours.

The proposals for response times – part of a ‘Police Pledge’ to the public – appear to be so modest that they would be of little value as performance targets.

At present, each police force sets its own response target times.

The Metropolitan Police aims to attend 90 per cent of emergency calls within 12 minutes and 90 per cent of non urgent incidents within one hour, for example.

Here at the CTCC, the approach is far more pragmatic. If we have not got the officers to attend because they are committed elsewhere, them you will have to wait. And targets…………don’t get me going on these.

We have formed a steering group to set up a review panel who will oversee the set up of a tasking team who will have a series of meeting to discuss the proposals and evaluate a response by the end of the next fiscal review period where the implications will be discussed over coffee. The meetings will be minuted and forwarded to the steering group so they will be able to evaluate any variations in the short term trends of the developing incident attendance audits. Lunches, of course, will be provided, at a venue away from the CTCC HQ to allow for better free-thinking and better environmental tactical strategies to make a positive issue from this. There will be consideration to a secondary review over a possible re-organisation.

With the numbers of people in the country being killed or injured by the use of knives, the politicians and other prominent public figures come out and publicly portray the concerns of the nation at these worrying events. For the families and friends of those killed or injured, they also become victims, not of the knife wielding offender, but at the hospitalisation or even worse, at the loss of a family member or close personal friend.

The same old questions seem to ride out on horseback from the collective media or other social commentators dug up to offer their own form of specific expert view that covers their analysis of why these horrid events have occurred.

Exactly who is to blame?

This is always one of the first in a news driven society that often forms pre-judgemental answers in less time it takes to boil an egg. This makes a temporary change from the norm where you can learn what is happening, at great cost, in the nether regions of the globe but you don’t know what is going on in the next street.

The blame lies firmly at the feet of those who bear the weapons of this destruction. The knife carriers and gun carriers, those who see the wrong sort of sense in carrying a knife for themselves or for the use of others. Those who shield them and cover for them carry some of the burden of responsibility.

There will always be another attachment of blame, with claims of Government inaction, sentencing guidelines that fail to lock up offenders, the Police for not arresting the offender, the probation and associate groups for championing various policies or action that is perceived, by some, not to give serious enough regard to the people who see no wrong in the carrying of weapons.

You will not have to look back very far to see the same worrying comparisons at the rise in gun killings amongst the shooting culture that has taken a back seat to the perception of this knife related phenomenon.

The guns have not gone away, the number of firearms related incidents continue and testify to this. They have been temporarily overshadowed by the horrific increase in knife related killings. As something else rears its head the spectre of knife crime will settle down and become old news. Something else deemed to be more shocking and reportable will take its place amongst the headlines where old news is not good news anymore.

Amongst all of the finger pointing and accusations of betrayal or non-action, the breakdown in the family unit and social group changes get a mention but are not as much of a finger pointing priority as the other organisations who seem to be attributed with most of the fault, some of it correctly and some of it not.

Working with animals, as I do, I constantly draw comparisons with the evolution of things. As a result, it is no surprise when I look back at my own life experiences and see how things have changed with us humans, mostly for the worse.

True, we have enormous technological advancements, we even have put people on the moon, but how has this benefited our survival and evolution as a species?

Well it hasn’t. We have moved on from having to survive in the big wide world. We have moved on from having to get shelter, food and warmth as priorities and then spend the rest of our time seeking out a mate to continue our line. The most important thing was the survival of the group, us being a social group and that. Boundaries were set to establish the survival of the group. Rules were made that increased the chances of survival and social behaviour activities reflected this. The need to survive taught us skills that enabled our survival and we traded in our territory for a house. We replaced its boundaries with hedges and walls, we lost the skills to hunt or grow food. We lost the skills to survive by essential means and replaced the time these things took with acquisition of things to make our lives easier and to justify our perceived successes. We have replaced the things we needed to survive and get by on with visible signs that we are successful and trendy, the latest gadgets and gizmos, the latest name in clothing and footwear. If we can’t earn it, all to often we resort to stealing it as an easy and cheaper alternative. As a species our intellect has allowed us to be resourceful in more ways than one.

As a unit, or a social group, we disbanded and spread ourselves further away from our families to show our Independence from each other and lost the behavioural necessities that accompanied any successful survival. Some may say we have adapted, in fact we have. But we have adapted because the agreed principals of behaviour control have been lost by the families and social groups that are the first and most important line in any long term successful social development.

You only have to watch a wildlife documentary to see the social rules being played out, all for the successful  development and survival of the group. You will see rules enforced, accepted behaviour levels and strict punishment for those who cross the line. You will also see groups of immature and adolescents teasing and bullying the easy victims within safe boundaries. They don’t need copious amounts of alcohol or to possess knives or guns to do this. They set out basic survival needs to achieve the successful development of their social group.

They will have battles with neighbouring groups who stray onto their territory. They will chase off intruders. They will have the posturing and bravado from the adolescent males that the older and higher ranking of the group will put down with as much force as is needed to do so. Anyone who is too big for their boots will be driven out or will take over. The adolescents learn what is acceptable behaviour from their elders. If they are not taught it, they have no boundaries. The pushing of the boundaries of what is acceptable needs be reinforced over and again so that the rules are understand. To fail to do this is to fail to teach that an action that is breaches the rules comes with unpleasant reaction. If an adult shows no regard for other people, other people’s property and the value of another person’s life then this will be mirrored by the juvenile or adolescent. This will be reinforced through role play and peer pressure when the major influences move temporarily from the family to the adolescent group that allows for role playing at being an adult, or in their eyes how they see it, but without the other pressures and responsibilities that go with it. They can be like all the bad guys in the films and on the TV but without all the bad consequences. What appears important is not what comes from the parents and family but what their circle of friends think and how they behave.

We, as humans, the most intelligent and resourceful of animals on the planet, have advanced so far and created so much in a relatively short time, but risk more damage than just about everything else collectively put together. We have replaced what we need to survive with what we believe we need to justify something to ourselves, to prove some inadequate or unnecessary goal and acquire some form of social status to make us feel important to ourselves and our peers firstly and our families secondly.

As parents, there has been in some areas, an erosion of the responsibility for the behaviour and attitudes of children. Standards of respect and general behaviour standards have declined. All too often there is a shocking lack of interest in what their children are up to and a failure to take responsibility for them when they stray from the path of decent and respectful behaviour. As parents there is a lacking in understand all too often that if the rules are not set out clearly on a regular basis then there will be problems later on. Not to be violent, rude or abusive and not to steal someone else’s property were the mainstay of development.

As Schools, who had the tradition of supporting parents with basic rights from wrongs added to the everyday development of delivering education to the masses, the emphasis on targets and a lack of any meaningful discipline adds to the lack of responsibility for their actions far too many young people have. Children were taught not to be violent, not to steal and not to be rude. This backed up what was going on in the home. there were punishments to support these aims but not any more.

As Governments, there has been a decline in the aims of successive Governments with an ignorance of what should be a priority within the home boundaries being lost on scoring points to another political agenda. How any Government can prioritise abroad when it fails to sort out its own domestic front is beyond me.  

As Police, a service or a Force, we have replaced the time we took dealing with victims in a sympathetic and compassionate way and our investigation of even the most minor crimes with a system where a one sided view of good and effective management of time and resources are the order of the day. What was seen as a duty to do, to investigate crime, is not seen in the same way as it was. By investigating even the minor crime a message was sent out that offences were investigated, even with no prosecution. After all, we are the Police. This is part of what we did. Detections were important but not the business like, slide rule indicator of how efficiently the measure of performance is calculated. The priorities are to a whole range of things that have added a bureaucratic and statistical nightmare to our already overladen work daily list of things to do. We simply do not give people time because the burden of the workload does not allow for it. It does not take some elements of society long to work this out, from the hooded hoards to the courts where staffing levels and workloads are all too often an incompatible union. The Police officer on the beat, in the community, working a shift pattern covering all 24 hours of the day has been seen to be a waste of manpower and resources. The audit commission saw to that in the 1980’s. Funny how it has been back in vogue as part of the neighbourhood Policing philosophy lauded at promotion and selection boards across the land.

The traditional three areas of discipline, family, schools and the Police appear to have lost the battle in all too many cases. Cases where the children of those who have little or no respect for others grow up to be just as lawless as their parents in many cases. Cases where families put the blame on everyone else but themselves when things go wrong and refuse to see any wrong doing. Cases where one area of society blames another for its shortcomings.

A CCTV operator, a passing Police officer or teacher cannot take someone who is behaving badly home and send them straight to their bedroom as a punishment for doing something wrong. There are areas of parental responsibility that have been conveniently forgotten by some parents  because it is easier to do so. Subsequently it also easier to be in total denial of what their children get up to. They children are not there so it somehow not their problem. To deny there is a problem prevents you having to admit that you have somehow failed.

One minute the asbo stormtroopers of the Britannia Estate who have no responsibility for their actions, wreaking havoc on those who offer dissent are transformed into children who know no better because they have not had sufficient grounding in the rules of acceptible behaviour. What they haven’t got the skills and courage to do by themselves they simply add a few of their mates to get done, just to prove a point to someone. After all, they are adults. When it all goes a bit wobbly and they get caught, or sometimes even worse, they are just children who mean no wrong or didn’t mean for things to happen that way. Nothing could be further from the truth. I forgot, they have rights as well. Everyone has a duty towards upholding and complying with these rights but they have no responsibility for their own duty of social behaviour.

The illusion is created that no-one, and I mean no-one, seems to want to do anything positive about the state that behaviour of a minority has deteriorated over many years. From the binge drinking inebriates to the young people who think that they are hard and have respect because they carry a gun or a knife, those who believe that threats and intimidation are acceptable means of getting their way, shows a disappointing slide into a chaos that will continue to bring misery to far too many people because society turns its back and expects someone else to do the dirty work on their behalf. Things have to change, but I fear that for all the talk, it will be a futile effort.

It seems that some people take responsibility for their actions. Others do not take the same responsibility and little or no effort is made to correct this. 

Luckily there are still a vast majority of parents who bring up their families within reasonable boundaries, with reasonable levels of respect and behaviour.

Sadly there are families who do not have the same sense of duty and responsibility as the majority. These families have come from families who have had a variety of social, welfare and criminal backgrounds. They continue to instill similar values in their own children, these children have children and so on. The nanny state cannot instill the type of consideration and respect for others as well as the basics of right and wrong that parents could and indeed should be doing. By the time these children are 14, 15 or 16 it is too late, in most cases, to change how they learnt their rules for life. Normal acceptible rules of conduct, behaviour and attitude play little part in their world. Soemhow they, too, are made out to be victims.

I expect the Government will be making plans to do something about this or will be having another crackdown soon.

At the CTCC we have a new, very important and wonderful position that appears to be just what the Constabulary needs at the moment. At £60 + thousand a year, generous allowances and its own parking place, along with the comparable Ch-Supt  status, is it any wonder that any amount of applicants were in line for a seat on the gravy bus.

The Directorship of Citizen and Community Focus take all the front seats of the diversity bandwagon as it thunders along the dry and dusty track heading towards the pass. No ambush in sight, just a clear route ahead.

It appears that we welcome all sections of our diverse and wonderful community and we revel in the differences that a wide variety of culture bring to our shores, particularly within the Force area covered by the CTCC. So much so that we intend to hold a monthly celebration of the traditions and cultures of most of our temporary and permanent residents who hail from lands all over the world. I understand that a booklet is due to help me to understand all the differences betweencultures and to make me even more accountable than I already am. I believe we are up to February 2009 already and not running alphabetically. The printing costs alone stagger the mind, but I understand that no department or district budget will suffer as a result.

As an individual I am led to believe that I welcome all entrants to the boundaries of the CTCC, be they from Romania, Somalia, Ukraine, Albania, or anywhere else for that matter. I welcome the differences that they bring into my life. I know this because the carefully worded statement, prepared so not as to offend any person from just about any faith or country, tells me that this is my view. I am better for having this opinion on my behalf. Like with many others, I simply have no individual view when the organisation do it all so eloquently on my behalf. One might even suspect that an award could be in the offing for the organisation and its new high profile post holder before the end of the year. The monthly in-Force magazine has already hosted a full page article for the positive implications that will benefit the organisation. A number of photograph opportunities appear to have conveniently presented themselves. I imagine that next month’s issue will have a rather special instalment in its ‘a day in the life of’ series.

I must remember to mention this, one evening, to the lads from the Britannia Estate the next time we exchange some social chit chat. I feel sure they will be extremely understanding and not overlook the wider picture. 

Unfortunately for me, I live and work in the real world. In the real world, where not everyone is a nice and decent person, where there are travelling criminals that prey on easy targets, easy victims and are not held to account for their actions because their differences are somehow used, on occasions, not just to try to mitigate but to be a justification for the criminal acts they commit in the chosen country that has to accept them. In their worlds the Forces of Law and Order do not treat them with the comfort and welcome we have here. Their chosen victims do not have the affluent or luxury lifestyle and all its trappings that offers such a golden opportunity over here. We have enough criminals over here. We do not need any more from other countries to swell the offending ranks. Unfortunately we cannot send them back to their home countries as although they seem capable of surviving in the treacherous wilds of the UK, they would not be able to survive in the comfort of their home country or country of origin.

In the real world there exists a statistic that is unfortunate and blows a chill wind down the backs of the elected leaders and associated bands of do-gooders trying to show what a wide and tolerant country we are and at the same time, promoting the all encompassing multi-cultural harmony they believe exist somewhere in the things that spin around in their heads. They prefer to see victims of crime as mere statistics. In that way they do not have to personalise the victim but can regard them generally, lost within the greater vision of things as simply a statistic. 

I must try to remember this the next time I bump into one of those ‘victim’ people. When I explain they are sure to understand.  

I will not tell a victim that they are merely a statistic. For that is the way of the Government and their lackeys. The victims are individuals and they deserve to be treated as victims when they become the target of those who have not one ounce of respect for the individual victim or the laws of the new country they choose to commit their crime in.

As the CTCC actively cuts the amount of front line officers in an effort to save money and reduce its annual budgetary overspend, I dare say there will be less officers dealing with even more crime recording and those less officers conducting even less crime investigations.

Just what we need as the increase in knife related violence begins to hit the headlines. There will some form of crackdown soon.

Whilst visiting The Policeman’s Blog I found this little post from Mr C. called ‘What’s the course called?’

What is it in certain senior officers’ brains that stops them taking advice from a Constable?

Now a PC for over twelve years, I’ve been on many courses – gladly, most to do with frontline operational policing.

PSU, defensive search, numerous driving courses, drug dog, GP dog, explo dog, firearms support dog, firearms – to name but a few.

Add onto this experience with the military and a decent education, I tend to consider myself a pretty well-rounded, sensible-thinking kind of chap.

Despite all my knowledge and skills there seems to be a course that a number of Sergeants and nearly all Inspectors and above seem to have access to.

Once qualified, this course is designed to enable them to wait until a job is in full flow – and normally flowing quite nicely – before they throw their pennyworth in.

I’d say that more than nine times out of 10, their penny actually turns out to be a beautifully polished ha’penny – quite shiny but utterly worthless.

The effect normally ranges quite widely but will usually end up in the job not being sorted correctly, someone being hurt or a job taking several days to achieve the same result that was originally going to take 10 minutes.

Does anyone know the name of this course?

I would like to be promoted in the next few years, but I don’t want to make the mistake of signing up.

‘Mr C’

Amongst some of the comments, this seems to be the answer according to one reply…….

The course is called “Rank Equals Knowledge”

I have no idea who Mr C is and it could be that he drives a black van with a red stripe along the side, wears lots of gold necklaces and wants to give people who he deems to be crazy fools, lots of pain.

Muriel Smith is in her 80’s. She has left her house on the Britannia Estate to go to the Pheonix Club because tonight is bingo night and the chance to meet other older people and the younger ones who volunteer to help them socialise and forget about some of their problems. Tonight they have a chance to get £2 for a line or possibly £8 for a full house. She has a family, but they live elsewhere in the country. Her husband died a number of years ago. Apart from some friendly neighbours and her two times weekly friends at the Pheonix Club, she is alone. Somehow the telephone is not the same. She will have the opportunity to have a bit of a yarn about stuff and put a few things right, in a way that they do when they meet.

The Pheonix Club is a forbidding place. Within the graffiti splashed exterior one can lose oneself when inside as you look out through the mesh covered or barred windows and forget that anything horrible exists outside. There is nothing of value left inside. Even the cups and saucers are locked away in sturdy cupboards. They even bring in their own cakes and biscuits. Yet still the locals insist on burgling the place with a monotonous and persistence that could be what one might call a grounding in the fine art of entering as a trespasser with intent to steal. Yet there is nothing to steal, ever. The costs inflicted by the intruders cost the local authority a small fortune and there is always talk of closure. Presumably as someone else’s plan to turn in some income for the sale to boost the CV as well as the local authority coffers.

Muriel Smith enjoys the evening, doesn’t win a penny. But that’s not the point. She bids a hearty farewell to her friends and makes the short journey home. This is where her problems begin.

She opens the door, there is a sudden draught. This is odd. As she turns on the light she is confronted by most people worst nightmare. Perhaps she has come into the wrong house ? No, this is the door the key fitted, it must be hers ?

Absolutely nothing is in place. Absolutely nothing is where it was left. Then she can see nothing. She is simply unable to grasp what had happened. She begins to cry. As she moves about the house it is clear that she has had an unwelcome visitor. Room after room is the same. A bloody mess. Everything that should have been put away is now simply everywhere. Her life and all its worth contained in hundreds of black and white photgraphs strewn about with no concept of her achievements and her memories. Clothing, bedding, utensils and appliances dragged out from every cupboard, wardrobe and drawer and discarded with no thought for the consequences.

Then she sees that note. That note left by one of us.

Earlier a passer by had seen one of the Britannia’s finest lurking before disappearing around the back. We have had a bit of a run on dwelling breaks recently so as we were close, we got there quickly. I got there first.

I got pongo inside, bang to rights. He never saw me coming. He never saw my mate coming. He was in for a shock. We got him, his bag of booty from at least another four places. He was on bail for more of the same and never, and I mean never, have I smelt such a disgusting smell as when pongo has no trainers on. I am surprised that they don’t do some form of protest disintegration.

For both Muriel Smith and for pongo, this is where it begins.

This is where the great legal processes swing into action and the claims of the Government fade off into the ether. Pongo is innocent until proven and the wheels of justice, along with the collective protective efforts of the law come into place to protect the suspect. Mrs Smith………..well she just gets in the way and makes things a lot more complicated.

 Muriel Smith has her pension. She is worried about buying her food, paying for her heating and how she is going to afford to get a new window at the back. She is worried because she wants to tidy the place up and we have asked her not to. We have to give our SOCO a chance to get some further incriminating evidence whilst we get the chance. She is upset because she has been burgled. She is upset because she has visitors in her house and the place is a mess and somehow feels this shows us that she is an untidy person. There was nothing of any value to steal. The irreplaceable gold chain from her husband, the rings of an unimaginable sentimental value are still around her neck and on her fingers. Her money in the pot for shopping and in case she needs a few pounds for something unexpected is gone and the pot smashed on the floor.

 Pongo is incarcerated. Of course he has the full support of everyone in his bid for denial. He is the one with all the rights and protection. Pongo simply does not give a toss about anyone else. He cares little for himself. All that matters is his next fix and he cares not what he does to do this, the grief it causes and even sees himself as some form of victim, keenly supported by those who justify their positions in doing so.

Muriel Smith has nothing. She is worried because she has to deal with most of this alone. She will have friends and her family will visit. But she faces evenings and nights in a house, her house, where someone else has been. An unwelcome intruder. Her castle has been violated and her mind will play tricks and cause her untold misery and worry. Muriel Smith has to deal with her existence being in a house where she now feels vulnerable and alone.

Pongo has to deal with the wheels of the system trying to get him released on bail, again, because his freedom is paramount and although he is innocent until proven guilty, he has no burden of responsibility to carry for what he has done to Muriel Smith and all the others like her. There is something badly wrong with the system when the system gives more consideration to the offender than the victim. 

For one brief moment, when I was in the hallway of Muriel Smith’s house, I knew that suddenly the rules had changed and that pongo was suddenly in the position where responsibility for his actions had caught up with him. He could lie, cheat, steal and rob as much as he wanted to but then and there he was trying to deal with something he had not expected. 

He has only one regret, not that he was in someone’s house buglarising the place, but that he was caught.  I was there as a result of his actions and suddenly he was responsible in such a way that he never thought existed. He still had the aftermath and the total protection of the legal processes but for the look of absolute horror on his face, in my torchlight as I took away his night vision in the darkness of Muriel Smith’s house………money can’t buy that feeling. Pongo, me and my dog……………priceless.