Walls came tumbling down.

There I was, watching the news with the update covering the recent earthquake in Haiti.

This is nothing short of a catastrophe for the inhabitants of this country. As my geographical brain engaged I thought, this is a part of a larger Island with the Dominican Republic. My map search confirmed this. 

I wondered, has there been any damage, fatalities and destruction there as well ?

Not according to the news, only Haiti had suffered as a result.

Is this some form of spin?  Perhaps Dominica has been completely unaffected? Even after such a devastating earthquake.

The green line south of Port-au-Prince shows the fault line where the 7.0-magnitude quake was centred. The epicentre was 10 kilometres beneath the surface. (U.S. Geological Survey)

The island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, sits on the Caribbean plate, sandwiched between a major fault line to the north and another to the south.

PC Fran Croucher – another story.

A female police officer has been beaten unconscious and kicked during a routine stop-check on a Transit van that had its rear number plate missing.

Pc Fran Croucher was attacked by two of the van’s occupants after she ordered them to pull over in Crockenhill Road, Swanley, Kent, at about 8.30pm on Thursday night.

As she was inspecting the van, two of the people who had been inside punched and kicked her before getting back into the vehicle and driving away in the direction of Bromley.

When another patrol arrived at the scene, they found PC Froucher unconscious on the ground. She had suffered cuts and bruises and was taken to hospital where she was treated and later discharged.

Kent Police described the assault as “unprovoked and vicious”, and said they were looking for a blue Transit van that had three men inside.

This shows how effective and productive a single crewing policy has been to allow for the best use of resources.  The efficiency savings must also enhance the business case produced by someone who has not got the same workplace environment as those who patrol single crewed in the communities across the land.

The really big problem is that when things get a little bit dark and one officer has to deal with an incident involving more than one person, which is on a regular basis, problems occur and there is not always backup close by.

Again, a little different when you consider the workplace environment of those at the sharp end and those who make or enforce the policies from on high.

Another stunning endorsement from those who see the world from a business case perspective, knowing that most of the time we make it work and some of the time it all goes wrong. When it goes wrong, what happens to the duty of care in the light of the weight of a business case. 

Perhaps it is a bit early to pre-judge what went on, the arguments and uninformed viewpoints.

I have been a Police Officer for long enough to know that this occurs on a regular basis, with small consideration to the welfare or possible risk to officers all over the country until such time that something like this happens and the shock, horror, dismay rises above the parapet for all too short a time. Then everything settles down as though nothing ever happened. Until the next officer is attacked for doing their job, for dealing with the section of society that has no regard for law, no regard for anyone else apart from themselves and because the odds are stacked so much in their favour.

The policy makers need to think about this from behind their desks or when they have their meetings in their offices.

The Chief Constable of Kent Police has made an appeal on her behalf.

There has been an update to the above story and all might not be as first reported.

Kent attack claim police woman arrested

A Kent policewoman who said she had been beaten unconscious and kicked during a routine stop and check operation has been arrested. Pc Fran Croucher was questioned on suspicion of misconduct and has been suspended while inquiries continue. Kent Police appealed for information after the incident in Crockenhill Road, Swanley, on 14 January. Pc Croucher said she had been attacked during the routine search of a van which had a missing rear number plate. She was taken to hospital and later discharged. In a statement, the police force said: “An officer has been interviewed by the force’s professional standards department as part of an investigation into an alleged assault. “The officer is suspended from duty while the investigation continues, and has been bailed pending further inquiries. “No further comment will be made while the investigation continues.” It will be interesting to await the outcome of this one.

One Way ticket wanted.

A leisurely cruise through the interweb, a look at a couple of blogs and I was aware that Gadget has another valuable piece of input into one of the tabloid press offerings.  The lawless trend will not come as any  surprise to Police officers up and down the country. It will probably not be of any concern to Jack Straw as he will assume that all Police officers are safe and warm within the confines of their Police Stations drinking tea in their comfy canteen chairs trying their best to avoid doing any work.

The reality is that most stations have lost their canteens and might be fortunate enough to have a small kitchen to make a brew when they get a chance to come, that is if someone hasn’t nicked the last of the milk or left an empty container with only a couple of drops inside.

What got me interested in the Sun was the article concerning the alleged hate preacher Anjem Choudary, who is apparently planning a protest march in Wootton Basset by the  Islam4UK group, carrying coffins to symbolise thousands of Muslims killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Choudary is, apparently, in housing with his family claiming benefits from a country that he clearly has no affinity with and allows him to operate his own religious or political agenda under the social financial umbrella of the tax payers of the country he has an issue with.  If that is not biting the hand that is feeding, I don’t know what is. 

Perhaps a one way ticket to a destination of his choice would save everyone a shed-load of money in the long-term.

Residents of Wootton Bassett have turned out more than 100 times in the past two years to pay their respects as the bodies of fallen British heroes are taken from nearby RAF Lyneham to a morgue in Oxford.  I suspect that they will not be very happy about the views of Anjem Choudary.

The Sun reports that Moderate Muslims have urged police to stop the protest to prevent a backlash by right-wing British groups. Also Wootton Bassett’s Mayor Steve Bucknell said he was “dismayed” by the planned march, saying: “We will do whatever we can to persuade the authorities that it will be a very bad idea to allow this march.”

Police confirmed they were aware of the planned protest and said they would take all steps necessary to maintain the peace.

Quote of the Day

 

HT- Iain Dale.

The last Straw.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, has accused police of preferring to sit around in a “warm police station” rather than going out on the streets to fight crime. He doubts that the Police are overworked.

This, apparently, is his view  as reported.

I have yet to find a station where this piece of imaginative and free thinking takes place.

I have found plenty of stations where many officers have to spend much of their duty time gaining access to a computer to input statistical information for the recording of a whole variety of targets, to complete other documentation in this paperless office that eats away at so much of our duty time, to fill in countless forms due to the increased burden of bureaucracy that officers face.

This attack from the Justice Minister comes at a time when the Police Service is facing ever-increasing challenges, with ever-increasing demands for ever-increasing service provision with ever decreasing resources. All at a time where our political masters have made such incredible cock-up of so many things yet seem to be so totally unaccountable.

I wonder what this is going to try to deflect from or overshadow and exactly where it is going to lead to.  

How long has the current government, including mr Straw, been in a position to change things, reduce red tape, reduce targets, reduce the signals down the food chain and really increase officer time out on the streets ?

The problem also exists that when the reducing numbers of available officers have to deal with an increasing demand, this takes more and more off the streets to deal with the arrests, investigations, witness and victim support, scene preservation, evidence trail, associated transport demands, refs breaks if lucky, access to computers to begin to complete necessary paperwork, remembering to book and book off, remembering to update individual status when despatched, arriving at incident, committed time, non-available time due to essential commitments, completion and therefore available for deployment again. The list is endless. Add to this where officers carry sometimes several jobs because of the need to show them committed to attend so that one department can meet its targets at the expense of another failing to meet its own. 

The Police have become departmentalised and fragmented individualised entities that compete with each other to hit their own targets at the expense of another area or department within the organisation.   This appears to be based on business strategies without the full recognition that we provide a service and do not sell a product.

To infer, no matter how veiled and camouflaged in rhetoric, that Police officers prefer to stay in the station or hide behind red-tape shows how little some politicians understand  about the art of Policing and how little respect the role of the Police officer holds for them.

For a government in power for so long, to have done so little to improve this situation, a look in the mirror is needed.  I doubt a reflection of conscience would appear.  Another small insight as to exactly how the government regard the policing part of the public service sector.

Perhaps if all the officers who completed some of their paperwork after their duty time finished, a better understanding of how unworkable the system is would be seen but still ignored.  Also the  dedicated and committed efforts to make the imposed system work might be recognised by those with the vision to see what goes on.