Inspired by an article relating to deaths in America resulting from contact with the Police, and egged on by at least one former colleague, I decided to accept the challenge and have a look at what the picture looks like in England and Wales.

There’s any number of categories, but I decided to concentrate on 2 main areas; Death by Shooting, and what is loosely termed Death in Custody.

It’s totally fair to state that Policing in the UK and that in the USA follow two very different models, and there are a huge number more firearms held both lawfully and unlawfully in the USA than there ever will be here.

So, I looked at the data and some very inconvenient, pesky facts soon began staring at me from the screen.  I can only repeat that the numbers are far, far smaller than the equivalent numbers for America, but a pattern is a pattern surely?  The first thing to look at was Fatal Police Shootings.

I don’t really have to say much about these do I?  Numerically, the largest number of persons shot dead by Police were White, and the Under 21 sector doesn’t feature at all.  The facts would appear to indicate that young black men are not being shot dead in disproportionate numbers by Police. Only one of the above persons was female.

Moving on, Deaths in Custody, what does that look like?

My inescapable conclusion is pretty much the same as it is for Shootings, numerically the largest ethnic group is Whites, and the Youth are nowhere near as highly affected as the Middle Aged.  Males outnumbered Females by approx 7:1.  However, how do these figures stack up against the Population as a whole.  Unfortunately the numbers for shootings are so low that they probably are not worth comparing but the chart looks very similar to the Death in Custody figures, so maybe the percentages are not too different.  I could not find a dataset that exactly matched the IOPC data above, and they do not appear to publish that info, but I did find a relevant set of data elsewhere which should give us a reasonable idea as to whether there is any disproportionality at large.

So there you have it Ladies and Gentlemen, White folk are the biggest group here, 85% of Deaths in Custody and 86% of the population, as proportionate as you could possibly get.   The Black population do seem to be slightly over-represented, but not the crazy figures I have heard elsewhere.

IN CONCLUSION

Numerically you are far more likely to die after contact with Police or shot by Police if you are white.   The figures is the figures, the Black population are at a slightly raised risk but this is a complex subject and the reasons for that could be many and various.  My best suggestion is that an Armchair Academic with too much time on their hands does a proper, comprehensive study and publish the results without fearing what they might show.

Last Updated on June 30, 2020 at 12.19.

It isn’t very often that I rely on the Daily Mail for my source material, but on this occasion I was delighted to find Mainstream Media highlighting an issue I had identified and pointed out months ago.

The full headline reads

A third of police officers will have less than three years’ experience by 2023 as forces scramble to replace officers who have left since 2010

Well now, we all know why officers have been “leaving” in droves since 2010, the legacy of Camoron and Dismay.

Back in September 2019 I wrote this

Policing Experience – Is There Another Crisis Waiting To Happen?

I won’t replicate it here, you can follow the link and see what I made of it, together with the odd pretty chart. I often get told that I am being “negative” because I don’t believe that Boris’ 20,000 extra recruits will save the day. My estimate was that we need to recruit 40-45,000 to make an overall increase of 20,000 due to the numbers leaving, at approx 7,000 per year. The Mail believes that we need to recruit 53,000 overall to achieve that goal.

One thing that is for certain, this is the direct result of the actions and policies of Camoron, Dismay and their respective governments, INCLUDING Boris, who consistently voted in favour of the cuts, and never forgetting the Tory MPs who actually cheered when the vote was passed totally stuffing the pay of Police, NHS and the like. They actually cheered.

I have said it before and I will no doubt say it again, the Conservatives under Camoron and Dismay inflicted untold damage on the Public Sector. Come the General Election the population were so blindsided by Boris and Brexit that they voted the party of cuts back in with an increased majority. Let that sink in. As far as they are concerned their previous actions have been validated.

Last Updated on May 5, 2020 at 11.21.

I have tried my best not to write about #CoronaVirus, but I have failed. Too much has changed, some things might never be the same again and some things are just totally unimaginable.

I’m not going to get involved in the arguments about PPE for NHS staff, much has already been said and I will that debate to people who know better than I, although I fully understand ehy the NHS personnel are wanting it.

I recently went to see my GP, I got through the telephone inquisition and was granted an appointment. When I arrived I was allowed through the ‘Fort Knox’ airlock and into the building. I was the only patient there. The Waiting Room, normally heaving at 9:30, was empty apart from me. Within seconds my doctor appeared and called me in. I was confronted by a man, dressed head to toe looking like he was just prepped to carry out a heart transplant.

I wasn’t there to discuss anything vaguely similar to CoronaVirus, but I do understand why he was so attired, and I don’thave a problem with it per se, but it did get me thinking.

There he was, gloved, gowned and masked to the nines, just in case I was infectious. As I said, I don’t have the slightest problem with that, but, how many Police Officers are out on the streets every day interacting with the public on any number of levels, with what protection exactly? Some very horrible people have already been arrested and imprisoned for spitting or coughing over Police Officers, PCSOs and others. What protection did they have? Every day, somewhere in the UK, a Police Officer will be rolling around on the ground with a violent suspect. Almost every day a Police Officer someehere will be giving First Aid to a stabbing victim or similar. With what protection?

I fully realise that Police Officers, and many others, can’t actually do their jobs dressed up like Robocop or whatever, but, they go out there and they do it anyway because that is the mark of our brave ladies and men, and we should be proud of them and grateful that they do it. Instead a small but vociferous section of our population moan like drains because someone has had their beach barbecue put out or someone else has been moved on from a park bench, and, heaven forbid, possibly given a ‘ticket’.

The Corona regulations and the accompanying restrictions on all of our movements have been in force for long enough now. Everybody should know what they are and how they affect them. Break them at your peril but stop bitching about being caught and ‘told off’. Nowhere near everybody gets a ticket, most just have things explained to them and sent home. If you can’t take that I have no sympathy. Occasionally the Police Officer may be less than 100% polite, but again, I can see why that may be the case. I’m not saying it’s OK, but just think what else they may have had to deal with that day, or how many before you had had to be moved on, then be grateful that you have not been dealt with by one of our European neighbours. These are far from ‘Normal’ times.

Finally, our government announced yrsterday, a £60,000 ‘Life Insurance’ payout for NHS workers dying as a direct result of CoronaVirus. Even my daughter, who works for the NHS, questioned why they were being singled out. Any number of other Emergency Service or Key Workers are extra vulnerable to CoronaVirus. Are they any less worthy? I’m not totally sure where I stand on the principle of the £60,000 payout, but I’m quite clear in my mind that it is potentially unfair to only grant it to NHS workers, many others are also vulnerable and with less protective equipment.

My my, times have really changed in a very short space of time, and I have no idea when, if ever, things will return to normal.

Last Updated on April 28, 2020 at 15.07.

It’s been one of those weeks for Policing. Having got bored of attacking the Police for being over-zealous in enforcing the government’s lockdown, a certain sector of the public have moved on and resurrected Police Racism again.

In London two incidents flooded the Twitter waves

The first related to an operational matter whereby a disinterested observer just assumed that there was a bit of Institutional Racism going on and took to Twitter without waiting to establish the facts.

The second was a so-called journalist who took a photo in a park and immediately cried racism. When a Local Councillor got an explanation from the Met and passed it on, the author still didn’t have the decency to retract or delete her Tweet.

Imagine my delight when I found a couple of good news stories that received nowhere near as much traction as the so called ‘Racism’ tweets did.

Firstly, a young WPC in Rochdale (yes, I did type WPC, no I won’t apologise for it). Any OCU Commander should be extremely proud to have her on under his/her command. An absolute credit to the Police Service, and a thoroughly deserved Commendation.

Not only did Michelle help a vulnerable lady,

On some of her days off she went to the supermarket and bought shopping for them using her own money which she then delivered.

She also baked scones for them, cleaned their kitchen, did their washing and made their beds as well as cooking them a meal amongs other household tasks.

She chose not to tell anybody at work what she had done. A true credit to her profession, and certainly worthy of recognition in an age when it’s fashionable to bash the Police.

Finally, and certainly not least, today I discovered Chaz Singh (@PlymouthChaz) who had tweeted to tell the story of how he had been stopped by the Police, breath tested, and allowed to carry on his way (because it was negative 😂😂)

Now Chaz is a man who is quite obviously not white, middle class British. He decribes himself as #thatmanwiththeturban. I immediately loved his attitude. He was open about the fact he had been stopped and the reasons for it. Not only that but he went on to publicise the fact and his positive reaction to it, even including the Chief Constable and the Local Paper in his Tweet.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/plymouth-politician-thanks-police-breathalysing-4066739?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

Reading of Chaz’s experiences also prompted the following complimentary Tweet

If only more people were willing to publicise their positive experiences like Chaz did. Far too many just want to bitch and moan, or even, and much worse, just make shit up. Tweeting about things that either didn’t happen or the author has no personal knowledge of the event they are negatively publicising. The job of the Police is difficult at the best of times, virtually impossible during the current crisis, and still people seek out opportunities to knock them

Don’t be like Jessica and Rikvah, be like Michelle and Chaz

Last Updated on April 22, 2020 at 12.21.

Before I get carried away and rant TOO much I would just like to say that I actually hope that I am wrong.

Following the downfall of the disastrous Theresa May and her infamous Cuts we inherited Boris Johnson as PM, almost by default as nobody else seemed very willing to challenge him.

In he came, full of promises and “Let’s Get Brexit Done” (that’s Boris for Strong and Stable) and quicky won over the public with all his rash promises. First he promised 20,000 ‘extra’ Police Officers. This is something that would appeal to all right-minded people. Why would we not want more Police Persons?

Following swiftly on the heels of the 20k pledge we had a promise to build 40 ‘new hospitals’, well, maybe 6 if we’re lucky.

Hold your breath, here comes another one. 50,000 ‘extra’ Nurses.

We currently ‘lose’ about 7-8,000 Police Officers per annum due to Natural Wastage, so are these 20,000 ‘extra’ officers ‘extra’ to what we currently have, effectively replacing those who will leave in the coming 3 years, or are they truly additional, in which case how the hell can we recruit and train more officers in 3 years than we ever have done before? 40,000 recruited and trained over a three year period when Cruella and co have already been instrumental in dismantling our training infrastructure.

The above chart clearly shows that never, since 2005 if at all, have we ever recruited more than approx 9,000 officers in a single year, so how will we cope with circa 40,000 across 3 years with a reduced capability?

40 new hospitals? Where is the money coming from for those? We can’t even get the two hospitals that Carillion left half-built finished. How will we pay for them, who will build them?

50,000 extra Nurses? Boris has now backtracked and that has been downgraded to 31,000. I don’t know enough about the NHS but I suspect that they will also struggle to recruit an extra 31,000 Nurses in short order.

Fast Forward, we have now had another General Election and Boris and the Conservatives now have a workable majority in Parliament.

Call me cynical, but maybe now the mask has slipped.

I’ll leave it for someone better qualified to commentate on the NHS promises, but I will address the Policing issues.

The government recently announced an increase in expenditure on Policing of up to £15 Billion. Gosh, that’s a lot, where is it going?

Is it just me or has the word ‘extra’ been omitted from the first item? And I do assume that all of these officers, 20,000 or 40,000, ‘extra’ or not, will have to either be graduates or sign up to an Apprenticeship programme?

If you want to know where the remainder of the £15 Billion is coming from, look no further than your Council Tax Precept. PCCs have been invited to raise the Policing Precept to pay for extra officers. Not such a generous government offer after all maybe?

But at least the new look government hasn’t put any conditions on the increased funding.

Kit Malthouse, Policing Minister, said the public “need to see results” for the £1.1 billion extra that police have been awarded for 2020/21. He said that they must slash their backroom staff to put more officers on the frontline and improve their use of technology to combat the surge in violent crime.

This will be tricky as those cuts have already been made.

“Lives are being lost. Families are being devastated. Communities are being torn apart. We must bring an end to this violence. This is the public’s money and they need to see results for their investment,” said Mr Malthouse.

“So it’s only right the Government holds them to account and we expect to see measurable outcomes from this generous settlement.”

This view is totally right and proper but does he not realise that is what the Police WANT to do? They certianly don’t need League Tables and Powerpoint Charts.

With Blair Gibbs, that well known Horseman of the Policing Apocalypse, inside Number 10 as one of Boris Johnson’s SPADs it will only be a matter of time before numerical targets are reintroduced into Policing.

The Times has already reported, on 5th January, that the Government are planning on bringing in a Target Culture again.

My opinion on that is predictable

All in all it seems that this version of a Conservative government hasn’t really changed much from Cruella’s regime, just a few more platitudes and empty promises.

Finally, NONE of Boris’ promises regarding Policing even begin to address the dwindling numbers of PCSOs and Support Staff, both culled under Theresa May.

Every person who voted Tory in 2019 did so knowing full well what the Conservatives had done under Theresa May. Most of Boris’ current Cabinet voted IN FAVOUR of those cuts and even cheered at the results of some of the votes.

Empty words and vote-winning rhetoric or truly the beginning of better times? We shall see.

Last Updated on January 24, 2020 at 12.51.