A "third tier" to UK policing

News 15 12 2009: A "third tier" to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />UK policing. Under the Home Office Community Safety Accreditation Scheme local authorities or private companies are given limited powers such as handing out on-the-spot fines for offences for disorder, truancy and littering, stopping vehicles for roadside tests and confiscating alcohol. There are now some 1,667 so-called "accredited persons" in England and Wales - the equivalent of a small police force however they are not directly accountable to a chief constable or the public. Simon Reed, vice chairman of the Police Federation, said: "It seems like we are starting to get almost a third tier of policing. It is not quite a private police force but it is another tier and what control do we have over these people?. "They have got these powers and who are they accountable to? That is our concern and, quite rightly, the public should be concerned about that as well.". A Home Office good practice guide at the time even admitted they are doing the jobs the police do not want to do.

 

Opinion: As early as May 2008 it was reported that some Police Constabularies would not be pursuing Whitehall Targets in a need for a return to “common sense policing” however, given that the UK be a Financial Hub investing heavily offshore in chasing profits to which it now be in a Financial Mess, the Government and Local Authorities now face the task of re-financing themselves in order to fill their current black holes. Strangely many Councils failed to heed the “warning bells” not to invest in Icelandic Banks however many continued to do so up to a few days before they collapsed (News 26 03 2009). With such debt in the balance and unemployment a problem needing remedial action are we now to become a Nation of “watchers” watching “watchers” as Local Councils devise new means whereby Broken Societies be broken further through Council Anti-Social behaviour tactics towards their paymasters. Interestingly too is that almost £1,000,000,000 of taxpayers money, between 127 English Local Authorities, was invested in Icelandic Banks which could have provided New Business opportunities on home soil after advice from the Gov’s Business Secretary which taxpayers fund too and provide expenses for.

 

Old News:

27 12 2007 Police staff disc found at dump. A police chief has apologised after confidential staff data was found in a dump. The personal information included names, addresses, telephone numbers, ranks and qualifications such as firearms or drug-testing skills of Devon and Cornwall Police employees.

 

08 05 2008 Plans to tackle anti-social conduct Officials from housing benefits officers to TV licence inspectors are to be enlisted in the fight against anti-social behaviour, under plans unveiled by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. In a keynote speech in London, Ms Smith called for "better joined up working" by the police, local councils and other statutory authorities to expose the wider criminal activities of the most persistent offenders. Smith said. "The Government is firmly on the side of communities where people have had enough and there will be no escape for persistent offenders.

 

12 05 2008 Councils using lie detectors. After successful trials at seven councils, anti-fraud minister James Plaskitt announced last week that the scheme would be extended. The technology is already being used to identify people making fraudulent benefit claims and to spot people who are "pulling a sickie" from work. Now employers have given a cautious welcome to the idea of using the Voice Risk Analysis (VRA) system to identify people who may be lying.

 

31 05 2008 Police force to use “common sense”. A leading police chief has given notice his force would not pursue "misleading" Whitehall targets, but allow officers to better prioritise their time. In a move which is apparently backed by three other constabularies, the head of Surrey Police said he wanted to return to "common sense policing".

 

14 06 2008 Stop the bin inspectors and get fined £5000. The fines could be levied on anybody who bars entry to their property or obstructs a town hall official, or who "fails or refuses to provide facilities or assistance or any ­information". Householders who refuse to let council inspectors look into their rubbish bins could be fined up to £5,000 and earn a criminal record, The Sunday Telegraph has learned.

 

19 07 2008 Police advise member of the Public to dispose of a murder weapon. A police force has launched a review after a member of the public was told to dispose of a knife found days after the murder of a father of three. The finder of the weapon said that the Police operator was very dismissive to his astonishment. He was then told to dispose of the weapon because there was no “free patrols”. It took another call before a CID Officer turned up!.

 

23 07 2008 Apology to pool photo pensioners.Southampton City Council has apologised to Betty Robinson, 82, and Brenda Bennett, 69, whom were taking pictures of a parks deserted paddling pool. They were ordered to stop by a female worker over fears about child protection. Mrs Robinson said: "It's pathetic, bureaucracy gone mad.". "I said is it because we might be paedophiles?. "We are just a couple of old ladies who wouldn't hurt children and we are certainly not paedophiles.".

 

25 07 2008 Handyman fined for smoking in van. A painter and decorator who received a £30 fine for smoking in his own van has warned that British civil liberties are "going up in smoke".

 

03 08 2008 The £110 fine for overfilling your binHouseholders are to face on-the-spot fines of more than £75 and up to £110 for overfilling their bins, the Government has instructed local authorities - a more severe penalty than the £80 fine that police often hand out to those guilty of drunk and disorderly conduct and shoplifters. Offences for which the spotfines can be imposed include leaving a wheelie bin lid ajar, putting the bin out on the wrong night or leaving it in the wrong place.

 

7 10 2008 Icesave savers will have to claim. Internet bank Icesave has advised that it will freeze all customer accounts and that they will have to apply for compensation. Icesave's parent bank, Landsbanki, is one of Iceland's many troubled banks. It is estimated that this will affect some 350,000 savers in the UK and Netherlands with deposits in the region of some £4,500,000,000. For UK customers up to a threshold of £50,000 per person their savings are backed by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) however the Icelandic regulator will be liable for the first £16,300 of that figure. The UK economy is heavily reliant upon the financial services industry and its financial product marketing.

 

22 11 2008 Ministers 'set to ban happy hour'. Ministers are set to ban happy hours in pubs and clubs as part of a crack down on binge-drinking, it has been claimed.

 

26 03 2009 Councils ignored Iceland bank risks.Local authorities "negligently" deposited almost £33 million in Icelandic banks in the final days before their collapse, the local government spending watchdog has said. One authority failed to open an email warning of the ratings change, another was using out of date information, while a third exceeded its own limit for deposits in a single bank. In total some £32.8 million was deposited between the downgrading of the banks' rating to "adequate" on September 30 last year and the collapse of the Glitnir and Landsbanki banks on October 7. The biggest investor, according to the Audit Commission, was the South YorkshirePensions Authority which deposited some £10 million on October 2, followed by Kent County Council which made two deposits totalling some £8.3 million on October 1 and 2. The others to make deposits during that period were North East Lincolnshire Council (some £4.5 million), Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council (some £4 million), Restormel Borough Council (some £3 million), London Borough of Havering (some £2 million), and Bridgnorth District Council (some £1 million). In all, 127 English local authorities had a total of some £954 million deposited with Glitnir and Landsbanki when they went into administration.

 

16 04 2009 A 69 year old tourist told to delete pictures – Anti-terrorism. Like most visitors to London, Klaus Matzka and his teenage son Loris took several photographs of some of the city's sights, including the famous red double-decker buses. More unusually perhaps, they also took pictures of the Vauxhall bus station, which Matzka regards as "modern sculpture". But the tourists have said they had to return home to Vienna without their holiday pictures after two policemen forced them to delete the photographs from their cameras in the name of preventing terrorism. Matkza, a 69-year-old retired television cameraman with a taste for modern architecture, was told that photographing anything to do with transport was "strictly forbidden". The policemen also recorded the pair's details, including passport numbers and hotel addresses.

 

11 06 2009 Iceland bank crash councils rapped."Complacent" councils which invested millions of pounds with Icelandic banks just before they collapsed have come under fire from MPs. According to the BBC,a Commons select committee report says there were plenty of warning signs about the shaky state of the deposit-takers. The report says that some of the warning signs emerged as far back as 2006. Kent County Council was left facing the biggest shortfall of any UK authority, with some £50 million invested with three Icelandic institutions. In March a report by the Audit Commission said a number of local authorities had "negligently" deposited money in Icelandic banks in the final days before their collapse. It found that seven English authorities, including Kent, breached official guidance and their own treasury management protocols in continuing to invest in Iceland after the banks' credit ratings were downgraded below acceptable levels.

 

11 09 2009 Vetting database - £170m. The Government's controversial vetting database will cost the British public at least £170m, The Independent can disclose. The Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS), which comes into force next month is intended to prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults and has already cost the Government £84m to set up. Now, public bodies such as the NHS and the Prison Service will be forced to spend millions of pounds registering their employees on the scheme, at a time when their budgets have already been squeezed. Anyone who wants to work with children or vulnerable adults must pay a mandatory, one-off registration fee of £64. Almost all of the NHS's 1.3 million employees will have to join, leaving the organisation facing a total bill of about £83m. Prisoners are also classed as vulnerable adults, so the country's 40,000 registered prison officers will also need to register. The Prison Service has agreed to meet their registration costs, which amount to more than £2.5m.

 

13 10 2009 New tough targets to deal with yobs.Police and councils will be set tough new targets on dealing with anti-social behaviour, Home Secretary Alan Johnson is due to announce. Mr Johnson will write to chief constables and council leaders insisting that they do their job.Mr Johnson said on Sunday: "We're not looking to introduce new legislation. We're looking at making the existing measures work better." Since 1997, the Government has passed a wide array of anti-social behaviour laws, but the focus shifted away from the problem when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.

 

02 12 2009 A photographer taking pictures of Christmas lights was questioned by police under anti-terror laws. Two Police Community Support Officers (PCSO) stopped him to ask why he had been taking pictures and if he was a professional photographer. He enquired why they wanted to know and was told it was to do with counter-terrorism legislation. The PCSOs demanded his personal details, including his name and address insisting that they had to take his details because they had stopped him. A Sussex Police spokesman said they spoke to Mr X because they were concerned he was taking too many photographs in a busy shopping area. Under the 2002 Police Reform Act, PCSOs have the power to demand the name and address of a person suspected of committing a criminal offence or for antisocial behaviour.

 

17 12 2009 Uk Councils seek return of money from Iceland. Local Council Authorities had some £900m ($1.5bn) of deposits in the country when a trio of its banks closed. Iceland's financial institutions collapsed in late 2008. It soon came to light that local authorities and other public bodies across the UK had invested substantial amounts of money in Icelandic banks. One in four local authorities had invested in Icelandic banks by the end of 2008. The total amounted to more than £929m.