Bribery, The Government And Police Officers

Picture the scene.

Police officer accepts a bribe for destroying evidence - Public out-cry, officer suspended, officer and person offering bribe taken to court, both found guilty, both get banged up.

The Labour party accepts a bribe for a gong, lordship or whatever - Public out-cry, minister suspended, minister and person offering bribe taken to court, both found guilty, both get banged up.

Apart from the obvious discipline code breach, both in my humble opinion at the very least fall under the juristiction of the Misconduct in a Public Office or perhaps even the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889.

Quoting the Solicitor-General back in 2003 - Under the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889 both the offer or the acceptance of a bribe amounts to an offence. Corruption strikes at the heart of public confidence in administrative and judicial affairs. In all such cases where there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a conviction, a prosecution will normally take place unless the public interest factors against proceeding with a case clearly outweigh those in favour.

Now you decide which scenerio is reality and which scenerio is imaginary!

Police Chiefs Fear Whitehall Control

The century-old tradition of independent policing in Britain is at risk of being 'corrupted' by political interference under plans to give Whitehall greater control over forces, according to one of the country's most senior police officers.

In a strongly worded attack, Colin Cramphorn, the chief constable of West Yorkshire, said that government attempts to control senior officers risked 'going too far'.

Although Home Secretary Charles Clarke's drive to reduce the 43 forces in England and Wales to a number closer to 20 has encouraged a vigorous debate, Cramphorn fears more damaging elements of the government's restructuring plans remain largely unrecognised. He said legislation before Parliament would see the new police authorities 'wholly subservient' to Clarke.

In comments that signal a change in escalating tensions between the police and the Home Office, Cramphorn said: 'The order-making powers for the secretary of state would mean he can write the rules to suit himself. These arrangements will provide ministers with the order-making powers which will allow them to dictate completely to the police authority how, what, when and where its business is conducted.'

To read the full article click police fear Whitehall control.

Diversity Targets 'Unrealistic' Say Police Chiefs

By 2009 7% of all police forces were supposed to be Asian or black.

At present 3.5% of Britain's 140,000 officers are from ethnic minorities.

The Association of Chief Police Officers says the law does not allow them to recruit Asian and black candidates fast enough, and that their attempts to get the law changed to allow positive discrimination have been rebuffed.

Cheshire's chief constable, Peter Fahy, and Acpo spokesman on race and diversity issues, said: "We have to hold our hands up. What the police force has failed to do is get across the business and operational case for diversity. We've lost the diversity argument with our own staff, the popular press and public overall. They see it solely in terms of political correctness."

Mr Fahy said the Home Office had accepted in principle the new police plan. Every year forces will now aim to recruit a similar percentage of recruits from ethnic minorities as exists in the working population of areas they serve. Ethnic minorities are 7% of Britain, but make up 8% of the "economically active" population.

To read the full article please click Diversity Target 'Unrealistic' Say Police Chiefs

Uniforms Are Sexy - It's Official!

According to The Sun, 'uniformed' workers are sexy!

The paper recently ran an article on a two page spread highlighting an online dating site called Uniform Dating.

Matthew Hall a customer service rep at Uniform Dating is quoted as saying 'Men and women in the uniformed services are seen as attractive by the opposite sex, both by each other, and by those who just like the idea of dating someone in uniform. Sometimes the professions give those making contact a feeling of security'.

The site amongst others also caters for military singles whom seem to be using the site whilst posted in some rather dangerous places in the Middle East!

Andrew Perkins, 34, who was in the Royal Military Police for 12 years, and is currently a security consultant in Iraq is quoted as saying: 'People have preconceived ideas about dating those in uniform - either good or bad. With this web site they will know what they are getting. There is a respect thing between people with these jobs because they understand what the other does and can accept the strange working patterns'.

Perkins has friends serving in the Gulf who he says have been using Uniform Dating to make contact with people for potential dates on their return home goes on to say: 'Having a relationship is a major thing among lads in the military, and when you only have a few weeks home at a time it is good to be able to make contact before you come back'.

So there you have it, now there's no longer a need to be lonely after nights.

Get yourself on Uniform Dating and sort your life out!

Sixty Police Officers Assaulted Every Single Day

A police officer is assaulted every 24 minutes across the UK, a total of 60 a day, new figures suggest.

According to the Jane's Police Review survey, there were 21,845 assaults on officers in the year 2004-05.

Among the 49 forces which provided data last year there were was a rise of 547 assaults year-on-year.

Paul Lewis, the Police Federation's health and safety committee secretary, called the figures "horrendous".

And Catriona Marchant, Police Review editor, called them "shockingly high".

She said, "Courts need to deal severely with offenders who assault officers, and send out a strong message that attacking a police officer will not be tolerated by society."

Soft on crime update

Soft on crime has now been listed in Wikipedia as an 'accomplished Googlebomb'!

Soft on crime initially started in the police forum a few months ago, after disgruntled forum members decided The Labour Party had tied the hands of police officers with recent legislation that appeared to favour criminals.

Soft on crime has been adopted by numerous police bloggers and site owners, but we need to keep this going if it's going to stay in the search engines.

If you have a police related website, blog or forum please take this up and support the cause.

If you post to blogs, forums etc please add Soft on crime to your signature line.

Jobs for retired and ex police officers

Loads of decent looking jobs for ex and retired police officers have been posted since I've been away on the ex police job site.

As selection of these for this week include :-

Security Cleared (MI5) South
Security Trainer UK
Security Consultants (£30K+) South
Security Cleared Scheduler South
Info Security Compliance Officer (£55K+) Mids
Info Security Specialist Mids
Risk Manager South
Report Compiler South
Cell Site Analyst Mids
Ex-Police Officers Required (Numerous Roles) Nationwide
Enforcement Officers (Ex-Police Preferred) Nationwide
Civilian Investigator North

There's loads of others, but these have been sent to me today via their jobs alert email.

Check out the jobs site for retired police officers.

Back from Leave!

Hi All,
Just come back after spending a couple of weeks away sunning myself!

Strange things have happened whilst I've been away, loads of my blog posts had been suspended due to one of the robots employed by google being a little over zealous with blog contents.

Oddly it wasn't the contentious posts regarding arming the police, positive discrimination or even Sir Ian Blair causing the problems!

Anyway, I'm back and on the look out for quality police related snippets, rumours and revelations.