Can the Met be trusted?

[Jdsk]

"CPS authorise charges against three police officers over WhatsApp comments":
https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/cps-aut ... p-comments

I think that this refers to the same case;

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the charges arose from an investigation into the phone records of Wayne Couzens, who murdered Sarah Everard.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60418556? ... gn=KARANGA

Jonathan

[Jdsk]

If we accept the implication that nothing will improve until others investigate police misconduct of every sort, then that's still suggests that simply replacing the outgoing commissioner with another will be unlikely to resolve all the perceived problems.

I don't think that I've seen anyone suggesting that replacing the Commissioner without any other changes will solve everything...

Jonathan

[thirdcrank]

But I've not seen anybody with the ability to make a change ie politicians suggesting anything else. Obviously, anything on here is just social media discussion, but it does touch on the much wider problems of what people expect from the police, and feel they are not getting.

One of the politicians who seems to me to have no proposals for change is Sadiq Khan, whose office (as in "position") as elected Mayor of London must be central to any constitutional change, such as your own point about separating national functions from the territorial policing of London. Indeed, apart from seeming to have no proposals for the future, my view from a couple of hundred miles away is that his apparently sudden intervention was political opportunism to raise his own profile.

Be that as it may, one of the big issues is the sheer size of the Metropolitan Police. Even hiving off the national responsibilities would probably leave it too large. Now, splitting it geographically eg north/south of the river or East/West End seems impractical, so the alternative seems to be splitting by function so that eg uniform patrol and detective roles were more clearly separate. The latter reorganisation might also help sort out national problems. eg dissatisfaction with police response leading to incidents like the farmer rolling the car or the death during a "citizens' arrest" and dissatisfaction with the investigation of crime. The safety of people on the streets, especially women, is also at the heart of this and whatever and IMO having comprehensive CCTV footage of what happened is a very poor substitute for preventing it happening.

[Hellhound]

PS: I've written to the Guardian to complain about the "... since... " title.

Do people really do that?

They do. But they are the kind of people if you met them in a pub, you'd take your drink and go and sit somewhere else

[Psamathe]

....
One of the politicians who seems to me to have no proposals for change is Sadiq Khan, whose office (as in "position") as elected Mayor of London must be central to any constitutional change, such as your own point about separating national functions from the territorial policing of London. Indeed, apart from seeming to have no proposals for the future, my view from a couple of hundred miles away is that his apparently sudden intervention was political opportunism to raise his own profile....

From what I've seen Khan asked Ms Dick to come up with a plan (a plan that should already have been 90% done given how long she'd been aware of these issues). Instead of coming up with a plan she quit. Khan asked her to attend a meeting to discuss her plan and instead of attending she resigned.

I don't see racism, misogyny, etc. as inherent in any large organisation but for ages I've been seeing Ms dick appear on TV and deny there are such issues (again she defends her police rather than addressing problems).

But I only hae enews reports and TV appearances - no nside knowledge.

Ian

[thirdcrank]

Let's accept that Cressida Dick has gone. I know she's staying for the handover and not taken her bat(on) home but in Monty Python terms, she's an ex-commissioner. One of the things about her I've already mentioned is that when she was sworn "In The Office of Constable" she would surely then have been seen as the ideal future senior officer by some of those who have most to say now (see 'Troilus' somewhere on one of these threads.) If I were to list the character requirements of a senior police officer, before the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job and the dorsal hide of a pachyderm, I'd put the leadership skills of Henry V as portrayed by the Bard (Troilus and Cressida again.) Perhaps the last was not her strongpoint.

To avoid misunderstanding I was referring to the title of the late Sir Robert Mark's autobiography:-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Office-Constab ... B002X0HCAQ

Robert Mark was referred to earlier in one of threads with some approval, and a link to a typically lazy copy-and-paste-from-wikipedia obituary. I said I wouldn't dig out my copy now but I've just done so. It's still well-worth reading on a number of levels eg not only a warts-and-all account of policing in the good old days of a clip around the ear for scrumping and "Just hand me the gun, sonny, and nobody will get hurt", but also his account of his methods in clearing out corruption which I doubt anybody would get away with today. And much more

=======================================================

Here's a current example of CCTV detecting a murder but failing to prevent it. Conviction last week but sentencing today (!8 Feb) Cycling forum interest from the baddies using a pedal cycle to stake things out; being Swedes, they thought it would be inconspicuous.

Flamur Beqiri: Swedish hitman guilty of doorstep murder

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60352830
====================================================
Update on this murder

Flamur Beqiri: Hitman who murdered reality TV star’s brother in gang war jailed for life

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslond ... uxbndlbing

[Slowtwitch]

I note that Boris has submitted the requested documents to the Met as regards attendance at parties and such. Not a day before he had to. Thus prolonging his dubious attempt to cling onto power by approximately one week, well done.

He says he will not reveal the responses he's made. Now, in not one for leaking of official documents, but I really do hope, and expect someone to leak this one.

Here's one in your eye, kid.

[Jdsk]

"CPS authorise charges against three police officers over WhatsApp comments":
https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/cps-aut ... p-comments

I think that this refers to the same case;

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the charges arose from an investigation into the phone records of Wayne Couzens, who murdered Sarah Everard.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60418556? ... gn=KARANGA

And charged with sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network:
https://news.met.police.uk/news/officer ... ion-442744

Jonathan

[Hellhound]

"CPS authorise charges against three police officers over WhatsApp comments":
https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/cps-aut ... p-comments

I think that this refers to the same case;

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the charges arose from an investigation into the phone records of Wayne Couzens, who murdered Sarah Everard.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60418556? ... gn=KARANGA

And charged with sending grossly offensive messages on a public communications network:
https://news.met.police.uk/news/officer ... ion-442744

Jonathan

What were the alleged grossly offensive messages and who did they offend?

[thirdcrank]

The report in the Daily Telegraph included this:

“Criminal proceedings are active and nothing should be published that could jeopardise the defendants' right to a fair trial.”

“Criminal proceedings are active and nothing should be published that could jeopardise the defendants’ right to a fair trial.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/0 ... h-everard/

(ie The same sentence was printed twice, presumably in error, but that does stress the point.)

[thirdcrank]

Met Police criticised over case of UK paedophile in Bulgaria

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60512439

This is about a paedophile convicted and imprisoned in England who failed to comply with his licence conditions on release in that he failed to sign the sex offenders register and unlawfully left the country. The Bulgarian authorities refused to return him to the UK and a prosecution for alleged offences in Bulgaria "collapsed when the (alleged) victims withdrew their statements following repeated protests from some members of Nadezdha's Roma community who demanded Erickson-Hull's release."

Scroll to the last paragraph and it turns out this is a trailer for a radio programme tonight.

File on 4: The Paedophile Preacher will be broadcast on Tuesday March 1 at 20:00 on Radio 4 or you can download the podcast onBBC Sounds

[thirdcrank]

Dame Cressida Dick: Sadiq Khan 'yet to meet' Priti Patel over new Met boss
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60583839

"Nothing to see here" as the saying goes.

[Jdsk]

New landmark report into future of policing proposes most fundamental reform for a generation

The Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales, chaired by Sir Michael Barber and carried out by the Police Foundation, contains 56 recommendations urging radical reform to police culture, skills and training and organisational structure.
These include:
Creation of a new Crime Prevention Agency.
Expansion of the role of the National Crime Agency so it in effect becomes a new FBI for the UK.
Introduction of a new licence to practice for all police officers that is renewed every five years and subject to strict conditions.
Merger of back office functions across the 43 forces that would save hundreds of millions of pounds.
Investment in front line policing, training and technology to modernise the service from top to bottom.

https://www.policingreview.org.uk

Jonathan

[thirdcrank]

I've been round the houses and back this morning trying to download the report itself, which seems to have been embargoed till 1000 today. There's a link on this page, which hasn't worked for me

https://www.policingreview.org.uk/#

======================================================
I've just tried again and the link on that page just takes me back to that page. There doesn't seem much point commenting on a media release about the summary of the findings of a report. In particular in relation to the Met, it's important to see if there are proposals for changing things like the blurred accountability, or if it's no more than polishing the brass knobs on the existing set-up.
===================================================
That link is now working connecting to a PDF of some 196 pp

https://www.policingreview.org.uk/wp-co ... report.pdf

And that seems to work as well

[reohn2]

Disgraceful:- https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... don-school