Three more letters from this week’s Surrey Advertiser regarding Michael Nicholson’s original letter: Graham Richings. 
See also here - http://blog.old-and-bold.info/?p=2340 and here - http://blog.old-and-bold.info/?p=2479
Out of 13,157 police officers tested for illegal drugs in the past two years, just 27 were positive, according to Jane’s Police Review magazine.
The Metropolitan Police carried out the most tests, 2,154, and recorded the most positives, 11. Drugs detected included cannabis and cocaine.
Most were subject to random tests, although a small number were targeted following tip-offs.
Police chiefs say officers are disciplined if caught taking drugs.
The lead officer on counter-corruption with the Association of Chief Police Officers, Mike Cunningham, said: “Where any officer is found to have taken drugs they may face disciplinary and criminal proceedings.”
One Pc in Kent resigned on the day of their test, the magazine reported.
‘With cause’
During the period between September 2008 and September 2010, nine of the police forces who carried out tests reported at least one positive result.
At the Met – by far the largest force in the UK – 20 officers were tested “with cause” – following intelligence indicating possible substance misuse.
Of those 20, 11 tested positive.
The remaining 2,134 officers tested at the Met were chosen randomly – and of those, only one tested positive, for cocaine.
Only certain types of police officer can be subjected to random tests. These include those who use firearms and those who may be required to drive above the speed limit during the course of their duties.
Greater Manchester Police – the UK’s second largest force – tested 1,164, the majority without cause, officers and found that none were positive.
Surrey Police carried out the second highest number of random tests after the Met – a total of 1,315 – and again none were positive.
South Wales, Tayside and the Police Service of Northern Ireland all recorded three positive tests, two were reported in Humberside and Devon and Cornwall, and one each in Avon and Somerset, Merseyside and South Yorkshire.
Eight UK forces did not test any officers during the period – Bedfordshire, Central Scotland, City of London, Dumfries and Galloway, Gwent, Northern, Strathclyde, Sussex.
Graham Cassidy, secretary of the Superintendents’ Association, said forgoing tests would have a negative impact on public confidence in policing.
“For the public to have doubts that officers are not drug free because a force was not doing tests would be unfortunate.”
Tasers
The Met said officers who had tested positively were no longer employed by the force.
Pete Smyth, chairman of the Met Police Federation, said there was a “very small” issue with drugs within the Met.
Following a review of the testing last year, the eligibility could be widened to included officers who deal with explosives or Tasers, or who carry out any kind of driving.
Chief Constable Mike Cunningham, the Association of Chief Police Officers’ lead on counter corruption, said: “Where any officer is found to have taken drugs they may face disciplinary and criminal proceedings.”
Steve Smith, deputy general secretary of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said he believed all new police applicants should be tested for drugs and those who fail should not be offered a job.
“That will stop anybody who may have a drug problem from coming in and it would also ensure that police officers are clean from day one,” he said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12324973
Drivers and front seat passengers must wear seatbelts under a new law which came into force at midnight.
The Department of Transport says 30,000 people a year are killed or seriously injured in road accidents. It hopes the compulsory wearing of front seatbelts will save 1,000 lives a year.
Evidence suggests six out of 10 drivers currently ignore advice to belt up in the front.
Police are being urged to take a softly softly approach to start with – but drivers could eventually be fined £50 for not wearing their seatbelts.
Resisting the belt
The row over making front seatbelts compulsory has been going on for 15 years and there have been 11 previous attempts to make it law.
Critics have accused the government of operating a nanny state and some drivers have complained their personal freedom is being infringed and they find seatbelts uncomfortable.
The government has been urging drivers to check the position of their seatbelts and make the necessary adjustments before today’s law came into effect.
Junior Transport Minister Linda Chalker said: “Nobody likes being told to do something when they haven’t seen for themselves the sense of it.
“You can remain in control of a vehicle when you don’t get knocked out. If you are held in your seat by a belt you have more chance of stopping your vehicle careering into another vehicle containing other people.”
She dismissed claims some people would suffer worse injuries through belting up, saying the evidence suggested only a tiny proportion of front seat passengers would suffer worse injuries if they were restrained by seat belts.
There will be some exceptions to the new law. Taxi drivers will be exempt because of the possible threat to their safety from dangerous passengers. Drivers of electric delivery vehicles such as milk floats will also be exempt.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/31/newsid_2505000/2505871.stm
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In Context
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Figures showed 90% of front-seat passengers began routinely wearing seat belts after it became compulsory. In 1991 it became compulsory for adults to belt up in the back seat. Figures showed an increase from 10% to 40% of backseat passengers wearing seatbelts
Research in 1998 showed 160 lives could be saved a year through belting up in the back – this included 40 drivers or front-seat passengers killed by an unbelted passenger in the back. A high-profile advertising campaign, launched in July 1998, showed a mother being killed in a car when she was hit from behind by her unbelted child. Figures for October 2000 showed the wearing of rear seatbelts had increased to 59% of adults and 91% of children. |
Drug cartels attempting to smuggle marijuana across the Arizona-Mexico border are believed to have turned to catapulting their illegal haul over the fence.
US National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the International Border fence last week.
Tucson TV station KVOA reported that Border Patrol agents working with the National Guard contacted Mexican authorities, who went to the location and disrupted the catapult operation.
The 10 foot tall catapult was found about 20 yards from the US border on a trailer towed by a 4WD, according to a Mexican army officer with the 45th military zone in the border state of Sonora.
The catapult was capable of launching 4.4 pounds of marijuana at a time, the officer said.
Soldiers seized found 35 pound of marijuana, the vehicle and the catapult device, the officer said.
(See also – http://blog.old-and-bold.info/?p=2622)
<—– Check sound is turned up..
A series of shootings has left 15 officers dead in January alone – with 11 killed in one 24-hour period alone.
The US Department of Justice said it will study whether the behaviour of officers, deficits in training or financial cut-backs could have contributed to the number of fatalities.
The crisis has been highlighted by extraordinary CCTV footage from a police station in Detroit showing a man opening fire on officers, injuring four.
The gunman, who was subsequently killed, struck because he was angry at a search of his home.
The shootings have taken place across the US and follow a dramatic rise in the number of officers killed in the line of duty last year.
I have never seen anything like it… We must do everything in our power to stop these senseless and heinous crimes against our law enforcement personnel.
Craig Floyd, chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund
Officer David Moore died after being shot in the head during a routine traffic stop on one of his first day shifts with the Indianapolis police department.
His mother Jo said: “What he didn’t realise is that the day shift is more hazardous because, when something happens on day shifts, it’s usually pretty ugly. Unfortunately, he met evil.”
She said her son’s organs were being donated: “Someone’s getting a darn good heart.”
Craig Floyd, of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, said: “I have never seen anything like it. These violent events have been detrimental to America’s peace officers.
“We must do everything in our power to stop these senseless and heinous crimes against our law enforcement personnel.”
The attacks, along with shootings earlier this month in Tucson, Arizona, have thrown the focus on the easy availability of firearms in the US.
The mass shooting in Arizona sparked heated gun law debate in the US
It was noted that US President Barack Obama avoided the subject in his State of the Union address.
The right to bear arms, enshrined in the US constitution, remains an issue that divides Americans.
Some officers have voiced concerns that they are increasingly being “outgunned” by criminals desperate to avoid jail and armed with more high-power weapons – but unions point to a more familiar theme.
Rich Roberts, spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations, said: “There’s so much violence on entertainment media, internet, movies, TV, that people are less sensitive to it and more inclined to be confrontational.”
The number of safer neighbourhood police in London may be reduced by almost half, the Metropolitan Police has said.
The Met said the “assumption” was the number of sergeants working on these teams would be cut from 630 to 330 by the end of 2013.
Supervision costs for safer neighbourhood teams may be reduced by £15m a year by 2014, the Met added.
London Assembly member Joanne McCartney said the cuts were a “real blow.”
Community support
The Labour London Assembly member added: “Losing this many officers from the streets of London brings home the reality of the government’s cuts.”
A statement issued by the Met Police said the plans were still in the consultation phase which would continue until February 2011.
“It is the current intention to reduce the supervision cost in SNTs (Safer Neighbourhood Teams) by £15million a year by 2013/14 by reducing the number of sergeants by 300,” the statement added.
“However this is a planning assumption and will be directed by final analysis and must reflect operational delivery.”
Safer neighbourhood teams are currently made up of one sergeant, two constables and three police community support officers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12315878
Police forces which fail to protect victims of anti-social behaviour could face being sued for compensation.
Government proposals will give members of the public the power to launch legal action if it can be proved that officers or other public bodies have let them down.
The move, to be unveiled next month by Home Secretary Theresa May, was drawn up following the shocking case of Fiona Pilkington, the mother who killed herself and her disabled daughter Francecca in 2007 after being hounded by yobs outside their home in Leicestershire.
Under the plans, people who claim that they have not been given adequate protection from gangs or nuisance neighbours will be able to complain to newly-elected police crime commissioners.
The Government last year introduced plans for the US-style directly-elected officials, who will have the power to appoint and dismiss Chief Constables. The commissioners will answer to a new Police and Crime Panel comprising council chiefs and members of the public.
If a complaint is upheld, victims will be entitled to a pay-out. Under the reforms police will have a ‘duty’ to investigate any report of anti-social behaviour, however seemingly petty, as long as at least five separate households have complained about the same issue.
They could also face action if they fail to investigate any anti-social behaviour that has been reported a minimum of three times.
It is not clear at this stage how the cases would be funded and from what budgets any compensation would be paid. The Government believes that the moves will end the uncertainty about who is responsible for dealing with the blight of nuisance gangs.
An inquest into the death of Mrs Pilkington and her daughter heard that her local council and Leicestershire Police had failed to save vital information about the family, including their disabilities and the abuse they were receiving.
Last year a report by police watchdog HM Inspectorate of Constabulary found that police officers did not turn up to 23 per cent of anti-social behaviour complaints.
The new Police and Social Responsibility Bill will include measures that will allow neighbourhoods to act collectively to deal with anti-social behaviour, with the safeguard of ‘redress’ through the civil courts if their pleas are not acted upon.
As part of the new proposals, there will be a more detailed Government and police website that will show where crimes have been reported and committed in each neighbourhood so that members of the public can see the movement of crime in their area.
This would involve having access to up-to-date incidents that have been reported by the neighbourhood.
A source said last night: ‘The idea of these reforms is to be seen to give the power back to the victims of crime, especially anti-social behaviour. The public have lost faith in the authorities in the way they have dealt with anti-social behaviour. It has spiralled out of control.’
A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The current tools and powers for dealing with anti-social behaviour are too bureaucratic and don’t work effectively. We will soon be consulting on new proposals to tackle it.’
The owner of a dog which savaged two police horses has been charged in connection with the incident.
The 34-year-old woman, who has not been named, will appear before magistrates next month to face a charge of having a dog dangerously out of control in a public area.
Police horses Bella and Biscuit were injured in the attack while on patrol in Chelmsford in Essex earlier this month.
A spokesman for Essex Police said: ‘Both riders, PC Frank Pallett and PC Sarah Fiske, were thrown from the horses but were uninjured. The woman has been released on police bail to appear before magistrates in Chelmsford on February 9.
Bella needed stitches for puncture wounds to her shoulder and body and Biscuit suffered a deep cut to his leg and needed stitches from hoof to elbow. Both horses are now recovering well from their ordeal on January 12.
Their handlers gave them a week off to recuperate.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/once-id-been-on-fire-a-few-times-the-fear-wore-off-2197780.html
Kevin Rawlinson spends a day training with the Metropolitan Police’s riot squad
The petrol bomb exploded half a yard ahead and the flames billowed towards me.
They came around and under my shield and swept up towards my face. I did not see who threw it, I had been transfixed by the flaming bottle as it flew through the air; this was, after all, my first time being petrol bombed.
As the flames came up to my chest, I desperately tried to remember what I had been taught. Was it: “Hold your breath, cover up, then move through the flames before you breathe?” Or was it: “Hold, cover up, then take a breath before walking through the fire?”
It had only been moments since the instructor was taking me through it but, while the man next to me fell face first into the fire, I was suddenly unsure. I took in a lungful of fumes and realised I had got it wrong.
In the past few months, I have seen the student demonstrations turn violent while standing on the protesters’ side of the barricades; yesterday I found out what it is like on the police officers’ side. And today, I will once again be face to face with the men and women of the Metropolitan Police’s Territorial Support Group (TSG), or “riot police” as they’re more commonly known.
“Are you nervous?” I was asked when we lined up at the Met’s Specialist Training Centre in Kent to collect our gear. “Nah, not really,” I lied. The grin on the instructor’s face confirmed he didn’t believe me. “We’ll get you on the qualifying run and see how you do then,” he said.
TSG officers are expected to complete the 500m run once every five weeks. They carry a helmet, stab vest, shoulder and forearm armour, shin, thigh and groin guards as well as steel-toed boots and, of course, a 5’6″ riot shield. They are expected to do the run in less than 2 minutes and 45 seconds.
After enduring 2 minutes of pure hell, I was running on fumes to get over the finish line. I felt I was suddenly about to be reacquainted with my breakfast. The heat under the equipment, even on a cold January morning, was indescribable and the condensation on the helmet’s visor made it difficult to see.
After a breather, I was held by the hand as unit 905 – to which I had been assigned – practised simple commands. “Forward,” I was told, means walk briskly in formation; as opposed to “Go,” which means run.
“This is easy,” I thought. But, as the instructors began hurling bricks at us, I began to forget which was which.
During the recent anti-fees protests, police officers have faced barrages of bricks, stones and bits of wood. They have even been attacked with fencing. Happily though, they have not faced petrol bombs.
Nevertheless, officers must be trained for any eventuality and I was going to have to face the flames.
The first one to come my way on the petrol bombing range was worrying. Once I had been aflame three or four times, the fear wore off, however, and I began to trust the protective clothing.
Later came a full-scale “incident”. My partner screamed in my ear to lock my shield into his while our supervisor bellowed orders.
And, as the petrol bombs exploded at our feet and the police dogs’ saliva dripped to the floor as they strained at their leads, barking ferociously, I realised we weren’t playing any more.
Next to me, as we picked our way around the mocked-up village, was an officer who was nearly hit by the fire extinguisher thrown from the roof of 30 Millbank. Behind me was the officer it hit as it bounced.
“One of the strengths of the TSG,” an instructor told me, “is that they train together, stick together and work together as a team.”
As the remnants of a petrol bomb burned around my feet, I could feel the heat through my clothing. I began to back off and to look down to see if I was on fire but my partner demanded that I “stand my ground” and “look forward, face the threat”.
As he did so, I realised he was relying on me not to mess up as much as I was relying on him to hold my hand.
They have worked as a team in the past and will do so again today, come what may.
While many have justifiably criticised the police reaction at past demonstrations, as my partner put it: “It’s not us who decide what powers the police have, we just stand where we’re told to stand and wear what we’re told to wear.”
WARNING – This is a shocking video of a shooting in a Detroit Police Station. Four Officers injured and the gunmen killed. It takes some believing that somebody could just stroll in and conduct so much carnage in so short a time space. Our thoughts are with the injured officers with hopes for a speedy recovery. This is too close to home for me as my eldest son and family live not far from Detroit….
“The graphic surveillance video of Moore’s ambush on the Detroit Police Department’s Northwestern District station Sunday was released Friday, bringing into the public’s view the attack that left four officers injured and Moore dead.”
He appears calm as he walks into the police station, as if he belongs there.
He steps past vending machines, to the far side of the horseshoe-shaped front desk from the door. Lamar D. Moore is just out of the frame when he fires his first shotgun blast. Officers hit the floor and smoke curls into view.
The graphic surveillance video of Moore’s ambush on the Detroit Police Department’s Northwestern District station Sunday was released Friday, bringing into the public’s view the attack that left four officers injured and Moore dead.
It’s a video that shows a sudden, gruesome attack on police by a gunman implicated in an alleged sex crime and kidnapping. It also shows the heroics of Cmdr. Brian Davis, who engaged Moore in a point-blank shoot-off.
All four officers are recovering from their injuries.
“There were tremendous acts of heroism that rarely individuals get a chance to see,” Detroit Police Chief Ralph Godbee Jr. said in a video message. “Detroit police officers in action.”
It’s a normal Sunday at the Detroit Police Department’s Northwestern District station.
Cmdr. Brian Davis has come in to be briefed on a shooting.
He walks past shoe shiner Modreci Draper, who was there shining shoes for officers, and stops to talk with Sgt. Ray Saati behind the front desk counter.
As Officer David Anderson is standing near Draper, talking to Officer Theodore Jackson, the shadow of a man approaching the front door stretches across the floor of the lobby.
A gunfight is brewing.
And it’s all caught on video surveillance, released Friday by the Police Department.
Lamar D. Moore, a man implicated in a sex crime and kidnapping, launches a brutal attack on officers, injuring four.
From a camera view just over the desk, Moore is seen approaching the side of the desk farthest from the front door. Anderson walks over to Draper, who told the Free Press on Thursday that when he leaned down, as can be seen in the video, he was wiping salt from Anderson’s shoe.
More Video’s and info here - http://www.freep.com/article/20110129/NEWS01/101290414/Detroit-police-release-video-ambush-station
DETROIT (WXYZ) – Everyone inside Detroit’s Northwest District Headquarters are applauding the actions of Commander Brian Davis and everyone else involved in Sunday’s shootout with gunman Lamar Moore.
“Everyone acted the way they were supposed to act,” said Sergeant Victor Jones.
The surveillance video of the shooting was released for the first time late Friday. Most of the Detroit Police Officers got the chance to view the video during roll call.
“You revert back to your training that you have. Assess the situation, and once you assess the situation you take cover. If you have to return fire, return fire. And just your normal reaction comes back from the academy, that we see at the range, or from military back training,” said Sergeant Jones.
This isn’t the first time a Detroit police station has come under fire. Sergeant Jones was there in 1998 when Marvin Terry walked into the 9th precinct on Gratiot and opened fire. Terry walked into the station bouncing a basketball and started shooting at police officers at the front desk. None of the officers were injured in the ’98 shooting and shortly after the gunman died. Sergeant Jones says the security is the same today as it was back then and that something needs to change. But he was happy to see the new metal detector up in the lobby at the precinct and hopes that the city continues to do even more.
“It was a shocking surprise. It’s a good idea. It’s a good start,” said Sergeant Jones.
A total of 15 police stations will close across a police force area, it has been announced.
Northern Constabulary said the closures would not have an impact on policing in the areas involved and officers will still be available in the communities.
The decision to close the 15 was agreed at a meeting by the Northern Joint Police Board at the Highland Council headquarters in Inverness.
The closures were first formally considered as part of “efficiency measures” at a board meeting in November.
The proposal suggested closing a total of 16 police stations at Scalloway and Dunrossness on Shetland, Stromness on Orkney, along with Barvas, Carloway, Ness and Tarbert on the Western Isles and Broadford on Skye.
Bettyhill, Lybster, Evanton, Cromarty, Spean Bridge, Drumnadrochit and Ardersier will also be shut.
An agenda note for Friday’s meeting said: “Potential savings of £245,117 are possible in respect of the operating costs at these locations and capital receipts have been estimated at £2,210,000.”
A decision on the last of the 16 stations, in Beauly, will be taken at a later date.
A spokesman for the Scottish Police Federation’s northern branch said: “It was unfortunate but inevitable that measures such as station closures were necessary.
“We support the chief constable in his efforts to ensure the numbers of frontline officers are maintained at the highest possible levels to ensure the public of the Highlands and Islands continue to be provided with the high quality of service it receives.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5i2xijH6WhubxGt94m2Vb8dVgkWkw?docId=N0424251296244067463A
ESSEX Police Authority has voted against introducing the enforced retirement of officers after 30 years’ service.
However, the authority and Chief Constable Jim Barker-McCardle have not ruled out introducing the controversial measure in the future.
At an authority meeting on Thursday, members unanimously voted against invoking “regulation A19″ en masse as a cost saving measure, but reserved the right to apply it in individual cases, “where circumstances in relation to the capability of an officer on the 30 plus scheme require it”.
Chief Con Barker-McCardle said: “We would have succeeded in saving some money, but at the same time we would have risked losing from the organisation a significant number of very experienced and highly-skilled officers.”
The consideration of the measure has played a key part in the deterioration of relations between the authority, sets and monitors the budget, and Essex Police Federation, representing officers.
Relations hit an all-time low last week when the federation’s board delivered a motion of no confidence in the authority.
The bugbear was an advisory from the Association of Police Authorities (APA) about a review of pay and conditions, currently underway.
It read: “We caution against the reviewer’s use of, and reliance upon, both the expression and the concept of fairness as an approach to determining appropriate recommendations for reforming pay and conditions within the police service.”
Federation Chairman, Tony Rayner said: “This is not about overtime, pay, or allowances. This is about the refusal of the authority to give a simple answer to a direct question over whether or not they agree with the APA that there is no need to be fair to police officers when determining our pay.
“The Police Federation in Essex will have no formal dealings with the Authority until such time as they restore our confidence by disassociating themselves from the outrageous position adopted by their umbrella organisation.”
Prince Charles was keen to have a royal prefix for the Metropolitan police in the late 1970s, according to newly-released Home Office files.
Prince Charles was behind an abortive scheme to rename the capital’s force the “Royal Metropolitan police”, according to newly released Home Office files.
The commissioner of the Met at the time, Sir David McNee, became so enamoured with the idea of an honorific title that he repeatedly lobbied Whitehall mandarins and the home secretary.
In an attempt to redirect royal zeal, officials suggested that one of the princes might become a police cadet instead.
The documents, released to the National Archives at Kew this month under the 30-year rule, date from the late 1970s when the police force was facing damaging allegations of widespread bribery and corruption.
The notion surfaced in October 1977 and McNee, made commissioner that year, called on Sir Robert Armstrong, permanent under-secretary at the Home Office. “When the commissioner came to see me this morning, he said the Prince of Wales had recently expressed to him the view that the royal family should do more to demonstrate support for the police,” Armstrong’s note of the meeting records.
“In this context the commissioner wondered what the Home Office would think of a proposal that the Metropolitan police should be given a royal prefix and should thus become the ‘Royal Metropolitan police’.”
It was royal jubilee year and Armstrong was initially non-committal but said “we might end up with a Royal Thames Valley constabulary, a Royal Norfolk constabulary and a Royal Northern constabulary”.
An official in the police department was instructed to review the request. The reply referred to “the Prince of Wales’ suggestion on which the commissioner was understandably keen” but concluded “to put it mildly, this is not something we could commend”.
The official cautioned that jealousies would be aroused between police forces, and it would compromise “an essential feature of the police in Great Britain that they are a people’s force and not a crown force”.
The existence of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the letter warned, was “not a happy precedent”. Perhaps, the official added, other options could be pursued such as a “Royal College of Police Studies” or “one of the royal princes becoming a police cadet”.
Despite such discouragement, McNee did not waver. The commissioner, “nothing if not tenacious”, as Armstrong commented, “hears but does not accept the main argument of principle that, by accepting the title ‘royal’, the Metropolitan police” might undermine “the high degree of public confidence it enjoys”.
The following summer Armstrong wrote to the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Philip Moore, and mentioned a conversation they had had about it “on the yacht” [presumably the royal yacht].
Armstrong repeated the arguments against renaming the force the “Royal Metropolitan police” and said: “I am canvassing the possibility that the Prince of Wales might give his patronage to the establishment of” a Police Foundation.
Moore, in a letter from Balmoral dated September 1978, replied that the Queen was glad the proposal “has been given such careful consideration and would not wish to dissent from the conclusion you have reached”.
Undeterred, McNee used the election of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government as an opportunity to renew his claim.
Armstrong, in the process of being promoted to cabinet secretary, expanded his objections in a vehement memo dated July 1979. McNee, he wrote, “has been encouraged by members of the royal family in pressing this suggestion: Prince Charles and others have expressed their admiration for the police, and the wish of the royal family to give it as much support as possible”.
He said the establishment of Operation Countryman – a wide-ranging investigation into police corruption – made it even more implausible. “No less than 64 officers of the Metropolitan Police … are under investigation on allegations of serious corruption,” Armstrong noted. Charges were about to be brought. “It would not be a very happy background to the acquisition of the title royal.”
Frustrated, McNee appealed directly to the then deputy prime minister and home secretary, Willie Whitelaw. The Met, he insisted in a three page letter, has had a “special responsibility” for the “monarch and royal family” since the coronation of William IV in 1831.
Since then they had policed “five further coronations, four state funerals and a score and more or royal weddings”. More than 150 officers were deployed on royal household protection duties, he pointed out. Adopting the title would “raise the morale of all officers”.
Whitelaw was not convinced. Prince Charles became patron of the Police Foundation that year. More than 400 officers lost their jobs as a result of Operation Countryman; only a handful were ever charged.
• “[The police] see themselves, and want others to see them, as deriving their authority and their acceptability to the public, not from the Crown but from the people whom they represent.”
Sir Robert Armstrong, permanent under-secretary, Home Office August 1978.
•”The duties of the Metropolitan Police to The Sovereign are unique, historic, substantial and extend througout the force. .. The award of the title Royal to the Metropolitan Police would be an honour done to the police service as a whole…”
Sir David McNee, Met Commissioner, October 1979.
•Geoffrey Dawson, editor of The Times during the 1926 General Strike, called for all county police forces to be designated ‘Royal’ in recognition of their service. In 1973, the London branch of the Superintendents’ Association petitioned for the Met to be renamed the ‘Royal Metropolitan Police’.
•The Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) was remodelled under the peace process in 2001 as the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) – a title placing the force in a less partisan, constitutional position.
•The Treasury argued that the Royal Mint and the Royal Observatory deserved their honorary elevations because they had been founded under “active royal patronage”.
•The decision to endow the Radar Research Establishment at Malvern with the prefix ‘Royal’, following a visit by the Queen in 1957, was viewed as a “slippery” precedent. A suggestion that the Meteorological Office (now the Met Office) should become the ‘Royal Meteorological Office’ was rejected in 1961.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jan/23/prince-rename-metropolitan-police
http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8144154
POLICE officers in Dorking could be working out of council offices from this summer, it has emerged.
An announcement on the plans is expected to be made next month, but an agreement has been reached and Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) is already preparing for the police to move in.
A consultation about the idea of selling off police stations and housing officers in alternative venues such as shopping centres, community halls or council bases was held across Surrey last year.
Surrey Police regards its current estate as out-of-date, overly expensive to run and not conducive to modern policing.
It suggested people were supportive of moves to bring more officers onto the streets at the expense of some police stations.
One of these police stations has been identified as the Dorking facility in Moores Road, and officers based there have backed a relocation to the MVDC offices at Pippbrook.
Only a few respondents to the consultation, held between July and September, insisted they needed to be at a police station when meeting officers.
Almost 1,000 people responded, and community halls and shopping centres came out as the most popular places to meet police, along with speaking to them while they are on patrol.
Coffee shops and leisure centres had also been suggested, but they proved unpopular in the consultation.
The exercise appears not to have altered the police’s original hopes to move to Pippbrook.
MVDC has budgeted for the police move in its plans for the new financial year from April, published this week, and the police have said they expect to make an announcement on the plans next month.
Cllr Ben Tatham, portfolio holder for finance and assets at the district council, said: “MVDC and Surrey Police have reached an agreement in principle for a future co-location of the two authorities at Pippbrook.
“Negotiations are currently ongoing, but it is hoped the move can be completed in summer 2011.
“Given both authorities’ commitment to the residents and businesses of the district, MVDC welcomes the opportunity to share space at Pippbrook and encourage an even greater and closer level of collaborate work in the future.
“The move into one building will also make better use of the public estate, providing greater value for money for taxpayers.”
Gavin Stephens, head of neighbourhood policing at Surrey Police, spoke of some of the advantages the relocation would bring.
“Sharing buildings with other local authorities will enable more joint activity in tackling local issues, particularly antisocial behaviour,” he said.
“Similar co-locations have proven highly successful in Runnymede and Woking and we have always been clear that co-location is at the core of our estates plan.
“We hope that the move will go ahead later this year.”
People in Leatherhead are set to be left without any front-counter services at all. The town’s police station in Kingston Road receives an average of just nine visitors a day.
For counter services, people may be forced to travel to Reigate, Epsom or Dorking.
The police believe not having to retain old buildings across the force could save it £2.4 million each year and allow the recruitment of 200 extra officers.
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2086509_dorking_police_set_to_move_in_summer
EGGHEADS – BBC 2 Monday 17th January 2011 at 6pm
Professional toastmasters were invited by the production company to take part as a team of challengers for the BBC2 programme ‘Eggheads’. If you are not familiar with the concept, I will leave you to watch it any weekday evening at 6pm. We had 6 volunteers, representing three different toastmaster organisations. I am a member of the National Association of Toastmasters and three of my colleagues joined me (one was a reserve) together with two from other organisations.
We went for an audition at BBC rehearsal rooms in London and were picked to take art in the programme.
On 22nd February 2010 we all flew to Glasgow for the recording in the BBC studios there. Four programmes were to be recorded on the same day. We were invited to our own green room where food and drink was laid on and there we were briefed by the same production team we had met at the audition. The wardrobe department representative inspected our uniforms and took a couple away to have the travel creases pressed. We were then called two at a time to the make-up department where we were creamed and dusted. Then we changed into our uniforms and were taken back to make-up for a touch-up. Back to the green room to wait our turn. We were the second team to be recorded that day.
When our turn came, we were taken to the set in a studio, fitted up with microphones and given our seats at the familiar desk. We were then asked to look at a camera and announce our name, age and occupation. I was the oldest but we all had the same occupation – professional toastmaster. Then in came the Eggheads, Daphne, Trevor, Chris, Barry and CJ. We had a chat across the studio with them. This was only the second time that a team of challengers had appeared in uniform. The first were Red Arrow pilots in their red flying overalls.
Then in came the chairman, Jeremy Vine. He shook hands with us all and chatted while technicians sorted the lights and cameras. At last the show started and he announced that we were playing for £3,000. Our first round was on books and paintings and our first contestant knocked out his Egghead. After that it was all downhill. Only two of us left. The next subject was music. My colleague said to me, “I’m not doing that, I know nothing about music.” I said, “Nor do I, my subject was going to be TV and Films or Geography!” He was adamant so I volunteered and chose CJ as my opponent. We were taken to another studio where we sat a few feet apart facing separate cameras. On the programme it looks as though you are sitting behind your team.
I got two of my three questions right but CJ got all three of his correct so I was knocked out. Our lone survivor then had to face the four remaining Eggheads for the General Knowledge round. What was the result? Well needless to say we did not come home with the prize money. The 30 minute programme had taken an hour and a half to put together. We had our photograph taken with the Eggheads and Jeremy Vine got changed and got a taxi back to Glasgow Airport where we headed straight into the bar and worked off the stress of the day before flying home.
It was an interesting day and fascinating to see how a programme that I certainly watch a few times during the week is put together. Have you ever noticed how there are no gaps in the teams when one of the team members has left to go to the other studio? Taking out the empty chairs and moving everybody to fill the gap all takes time and then all moving back again when the team member returns. Then there is the bit at the end when we all sit silently while the chairman is filmed saying all the bits that can be threaded into the recording.
Taxis to and from the airports, the airfares and all other expenses were all claimed and paid by the production company. In return we all signed secrecy documents that meant that I could tell you none of this until the programme had been shown n 17th January, eleven months after we recorded it!
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Jon Danzig is an award winning medical journalist and formerly an investigative journalist at the BBC. He has many years experience in the world of writing, broadcasting, magazine editing, photography and film making. (Click on any link to read full article.)
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