In the News From The British Dealer News

[Jaws]

Security and crime remain top of the agenda this week. Following our warning last week that police officers were facing possible charges over the real-world reality of the “tactical contact” policy instituted by the Met and endorsed by the Prime Minister, news has emerged that an officer has, indeed, been cited on a charge of gross misconduct.

As reported on our website on Tuesday, it is alleged the officer “breached the standards of professional behaviour in relation to use of force” in “manoeuvring his vehicle into the path of a moped … causing a collision”.

Tactical contact was introduced to help to combat the crime epidemic centred on stolen mopeds and the refusal of the criminals to stop.

The subsequent (and some cynics would say inevitable) pursuit of the police officers involved – there are eight cases involving 10 officers – will be followed closely as any unreasonable ruling will surely damage the efforts of law enforcement and take us back to square one. (It’s worth noting that offences by criminals using stolen mopeds have plummeted and crime in general has halved since the introduction of the policy and the increase in resources to fight crime in the capital.)

Hopefully an impending general election, in which crime and policing will almost certainly feature highly, will generate more political support for the officers than would normally be the case.

 

[Cougar377]

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...-news/police-dog-handler-used-animal-16217603

Well done Jerry, I say.

 

[andyBeaker]

https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...-news/police-dog-handler-used-animal-16217603

Well done Jerry, I say.

Well done Jerry, it looks like he did what he was told to do.

Will be interesting to see how this one goes - based on what has been reported it doesn't look great for plod......based on what has been reported.....

 

[Jaws]

Could be as told...
Plod are getting so pissed off with scrot's getting away with just about everything a lot of them are beyond frustrated

 

[T.C]

Unless something changes soon, we will be back to the bad old days of the 80's when we traffic cops in affect went on strike.

Back then, weuse to make the majority of crime arrests involving vehicles for obvious reasons.

Pursuits were banned. We were allowed to make one attempt to stop and if the driver ignored us then we had to pull back and discontinue any action.

What this meant was that despite being trained, we were not allowed to pursue or make any attempt to stop bandit vehicles otherwise we would be stuck on a disciplinary for disobedience to orders.

We also had a primary duty to protect the public.

It came to a head when a buddy of mine was parked up when a chap came running down the street and told my mate that his house had been burgled and his wife bludgeoned. The vehicle containing the offencer went past as the bloke reported the crime to my buddy.

Anyway, my colleague thought stuff orders, went after the villains, caught them, nicked them after a lengthy pursuit and was subsequently disciplined for disobeying a lawfull order.

The senior officer who stuck my mate on was a divisional guvenor (as in major wanker and not a traffic boss) and was only interested in what the CID superstars could do.

Said villains were sent down for about 15 years apiece so a great result. Mt buddy was fined a months wages and his service record became blemished.

Anyway, a few weeks went by and a raid was carried out on a local garage where the till was raided and the cashier was left badly hurt. One of our crews were quickly on scene as the bandit vehicle was making off. My colleague had to make the choice and said to the witness, "Sorry, it is more than my jobs worth to go after them!"

He was then stuck on a disciplinary for neglect of duty.

So we then said OK if thats how you want it, we will work to rule and made sure that every vehicle we stop is checked thoroughly, we will not go to any other commitments until we have finished whatever job we were on, and we will not patrol as such for fear of being required to attend an incident which would require us to make a decision about whether to pursue or not.

Suffice to say, the no pursuit instruction was quickly recinded and the arrest rate quickly climbed again.

It was made clear that Panda car drivers were not allowed to chase unless they had specific traing, for example they were ex traffic officers who had returned to division, but in the main only traffic crews were allowed to pursue.

About 10 years later they tried to re-introduce the rule and someone said quietly to the chief trying to introduce it "Remember what happened a few years ago?" It very quickly got swept under the carpet and the likes of TPAC were introduced, but by and large we were supported and backed up if occasionaly things did go wrong, and the issues back then were nothing like they have now.

If something is not done to support the guys there will be some serious reprocussions.