Many or most of you will have heard of Police Now. How many of you knew that they are a registered charity?
For the benefit of those who may think that Police Now is a strange example of a Registered Charity;
How is all that money made up and accounted for you may ask
Hmmm, Income exceeds expenditure two years running
To be honest, I have no idea if income exceeding expenditure is a good thing for a charity, I do know that it’s not good to be overdrawn, but 28% unspent and the best part of £2 Million just sat in the coffers.
So, what exactly do Police Now do for us?
Who are Police Now?
Where are Police Now? Strangely, only in England, our Welsh Cousins seem to miss out on this valuable opportunity.
I was beginning to wonder if it was good value having a charity with 28% of its funds uncommitted, but panic ye not, I have found the answer
They have several vacancies if you fancy somewhat of a change
All of these vacancies appear to be additional to the existing ‘team‘ that you can meet here.
All of which left me thinking. Is Police Now ‘Value For Money’? Could it not be done better by having in-house training delivered by seasoned street-cops who have been properly trained as trainers? Do they really need nearly a third of their funds as ‘Reserves’? (my word not theirs). Will the above listed vacancies take up their £2 Million surplus? Probably not. Why do we need a charity to deliver Police Training? Why no Police Now presence in Wales? So many questions, I’m sure you can think of more. Answers on a postcard please to the usual address.
I freely admit that I’m a bit daft when it comes to economics beyond my home environment, but I have taken more than a passing interest in Police Funding.
As I understand it , it goes something like this
Tories under David Camoron and the delightful Theresa May savagely cut Police Budgets.
Since 2010 more than 21,000 Police Officers have been culled, not to mention Police Staff and PCSOs.
Those oh so generous Tories announced that there is extra funding available to reinstate dwindling Police Officers but ‘Extra’ funding can be made available by PCCs increasing the Policing Precept.
This is where naive, dumb old me gets vexed.
I have no objection, in principle, to paying a little bit more Council Tax to pay for more Police Officers. However my objections to the Tories’ suggestion are
I suspect that it would take a LARGE increase in Council Tax precept to fully restore the 21,000 posts culled by the government, and rebuild or buy new Police Stations, vehicles etc to make the Service efficient again.
When the government got rid of 21,000 officers, Police Forces were forced to sell off approx 650 Police Stations (or at least close their public-facing front counters etc) and other miscellaneous buildings, Police Forces found themselves unable to respond to quite serious crimes in a timely fashion, were we given a reduction in our Council Tax because we were paying for less? I must have missed that.
In short I feel that we are being had over. Mainly Conservative Police and Crime Commissioners are blindly following Cruella’s diktats, cutting resources to the bone then telling us we can have some of it back again but we’ll have to pay for it. WE’RE ALREADY PAYING FOR IT.
Yes I do want to see more Police Officers back on our streets, but the politicians and PCCs need to be honest with us and either ask us if we’re prepared to restore the Police Service to its original status, or stop rolling over and agreeing to everything Cruella dictates. This is what happens when you inject Party Politics into Policing.
My thanks to @julieanneda for bringing this article to my attention. Our Home Secretary Sajid Javid has finally got off his arse and done something about the rapidly escalating Knife Crime sweeping the country. He is apparently proposing Knife Crime Prevention Orders.
What are the main features of these Orders?
The measures will place curbs on suspects, such as limiting their use of social media to stop gang rivalries escalating online.
A breach of the order, which can be issued to anyone aged 12 or over who is believed by police to routinely carry a blade, will be a criminal offence that could result in up to two years in prison.
The knife crime prevention orders could also include restrictions relating to social media use. That should be particularly effective. Anybody prepared to carry a blade and stick it into another human being will definitely stay away from Twitter and Instagram if they’re told to.
The Home Office has also announced a £500,000 fund to help trading standards teams secure the prosecution of retailers who repeatedly sell knives to under-18s. I can’t help but think they’re targeting the wrong people here. Yes, it is wrong, they should definitely not be selling blades to youths, but they might eventually work out that they could just take one out of the kitchen drawer
Youths subject of such an order could be required to abide by curfews and geographical restrictions, and attend knife crime awareness courses. Knife Awareness Courses might work to a degree, education is never a bad thing, but curfews? In my humble opinion curfews only work in company with a programme of Curfew Visits designed to make sure that little Johnny is actually abiding by his curfew. Knock on his door and speak to him, don’t just take it for granted that he will abide by it. This won’t happen though for two reasons
Some Human Rights lawyer somewhere will decide this isn’t a fair tactic (I don’t see why not).The government has culled 21,000 officers so the Police Services no longer has the resources for proactivity such as this. This is what a Conservative government under Theresa May looks like.
John Apter, the national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales said Javid had missed the opportunity to significantly reduce the problem.
“The government is simply tinkering around the edges of this highly complex and very serious issue. While I cannot fault Mr Javid’s intentions I do not hold out much hope that these measures will have the dramatic impact I am sure he is hoping they will.”
Sarah Jones MP, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on knife crime, said:
”Knife crime is an epidemic which the government has failed to grip. Ministers have listened to our calls to intervene with young people at an earlier stage – but this proposal is flawed.
Analysis commissioned by the Guardian also showed that searches of black people were less likely to detect crime than those conducted on white people, and most stops found no wrongdoing. I would love to see that piece of work.
A weak proposal in my opinion. Street criminals now have no fear of being arrested. They know that resources are stretched and their chances have improved.
A Met study of average wages found that black and Asian police officers working in London were paid £1.80 an hour less than their white colleagues last year, compared with £1.52 in 2017. All 37 senior officers on salaries of £100,000-plus were white, it found, while ethnic minority officers received fewer and smaller bonuses than their colleagues.
The report, which looked at the pay of 37,257 Met employees, of whom 6,349 are Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME), found the gap was even worse when all staff – not just police officers – were taken into account. On average, it said, BAME staff receive £2.05 less per hour than the average white member of staff, a mean pay gap of 9.67%.
Within the Police Service nationally (that includes the Met Robert) Police Officers and Police Staff are ALL paid the same according to Rank or Grade and length of service. There may be minor variations for certain skills payments or London Allowance etc but there is ABSOLUTELY NO variation for ethnicity or gender.
The payroll computer is absolutely blind to race and gender. Pay-scales are freely available on t’interweb and nowhere do they state “subject to race or gender”.
This article and its insidious, divisive headline serve no purpose whatsoever apart from driving a wedge between Police and Community, including potential BAME applicants who might be deterred from applying by this headline.
Both the Police Federation and the Commissioner should be taking the Grauniad/Observer to task and seeking a retraction and apology.
Sadly some of the Twitterati have already been taken in and claim to believe this story, and have already invoked the obligatory outrage, as illustrated in this thread;
"Black and Asian officers in the UK’s largest police force are paid almost £2 an hour less than their white colleagues, new data from the Met has revealed."#InstitutionalRacismhttps://t.co/mHRNgkze8i
A mild reply to the tweetist above (well, I thought it was mild) got me Blocked
You believe this drivel (or pretend to) because it suits your agenda. Police Officers across the country are paid by rank and length of service ONLY. Race and gender do not make any difference to the payroll computer
Just as I was beginning to calm down yesterday, I stumbled across this that raised my vexation level back to ‘CRITICAL‘ again,
Under the Tories’ Austerity Programme, while you were having your wages frozen, pension contributions raised, pension benefits slashed, our beloved MPs have benefited from Pay Rises totalling 17.7% since 2010. Don’t feel sad for them though, if they are a Minister, or member of a Committee they will get even more, so it’s not all bad.
I shall no doubt be labelled a ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ but so what? I’ve been called worse, but, unlike some, I haven’t made a fuss about it.
The unthinkable occurred to me this morning, a semi-flippant comment of mine actually got me thinking. A whole host of things have changed since 2010, and maybe they’re all linked. I know full well that I’m not going to get any support from MSM for today’s blog, but hey, what’s new?
In 2010 the face of British Policing, in England and Wales at least, changed forever when David Camoron became Prime Minister and Theresa May his 1st lieutenant as Home Secretary.
Forgive me if my chronology is a bit out, or if I miss out a step, but my grey cells are quite fatigued these days.
The Tom Winsor Independent Reviews of Police Officers and Staff Remuneration and Conditions. Many front line troops believe that this report was poorly researched, deeply flawed in certain areas and not subject of any meaningful consultation or negotiation. It was more a sort of a diktat that bore all the hallmarks of a David Camoron speech.
David Cameron clearly stipulated back in 2006 that we needed reforming for reforms sake and now he has conned the police service and the public by masking his reform package and selling them as independent recommendations
Just the beginning, the Police Service has been unsettled, and, rightly or wrongly, their anger is directed towards Tom Winsor and away from Camoron, where it rightly belonged.
Austerity. Under the guise of a now discredited Austerity programme Theresa May announced that it was NECESSARY to reduce Police Budgets. The Institute of Fiscal Studies released a report into the #Cuts which, entirely coincidentally, was co-authored by Professor Richard Disney who assisted Tom Winsor to produce his Independent Reviews.
Since 2010 Police Officer numbers in England and Wales have been slashed by >21,000 officers, thousands of Support Staff, PCSOs and even Specials have declined. Yet with so many fewer officers they are expected to deliver a world-class service in the face of increasing demands. In short, those left behind are burning out, expected to deliver an unattainable level of service.
Appointment of Tom Winsor as Chief Inspector HMIC, a role previously reserved for ex Chief Constables. A man with no previous experience of Policing, a former Rail Regulator, is now head of the Inspectorate of all things Policing. If it was not predicted that would cause unrest amongst the troops it well should have been.
Stop and Search curtailed. Theresa May, as Home Secretary, made it abundantly clear that Stop and Search needed to be curtailed or she would introduce legislation to curtail it. Political interference in operational policing at the highest level. The result?
Astronomical levels of knife crime and knife-related murders as people carrying knives recognise that there is much less chance of those weapons being detected.
Direct Entry Inspectors and Superintendents. A controversial subject and has caused much heated debate on Twitter over the past few days. Members of the DE Scheme should not really be openly abused on Social Media, after all they did not invent the scheme but they have taken advantage of it. However, when they claim that after a mere year they are equally well-qualified as traditional Inspectors and Superintendents, but surely this simply cannot be true. Like it or not they are interfering with the career aspirations of serving Sergeants and Chief Inspectors who have worked hard to get where they are. It is hardly surprising that DE Entrants are regarded with suspicion and hostility.
Police Now. Another seemingly pointless, alternative, method of recruitment. I have yet to engage with anyone who fully understands why this scheme exists and why it needs to be a Registered Charity.
Aims & activities
Police Now’s mission is to transform communities, reduce crime and increase the public’s confidence in policing, by recruiting and developing outstanding and diverse individuals to be leaders in society and on the policing front line. Police Now, an innovative scheme aiming to transform challenged communities and develop a new generation of inspiring leaders from a diverse range of backgrounds.
Who the charity helps
The general public/mankind
One more thing seemingly designed to unsettle, or divide, the Police Workforce.
Direct Entry Detectives. The slashing of 21,000 officers has had serious knock-on effects further down the line and there is now a serious shortage of Detectives.
In a first for UK policing, Londoners will now have the opportunity to join the Metropolitan Police Service directly as a detective constable, working in investigative policing immediately after initial training.
Once again we see the potential for turning officer against officer. There will be hard-working officers wanting to become tecs but being held back by a shortage of Response Officers meaning they can’t be released. Resentment will undoubtedly surface sooner rather than later.
Throw items like cutting Police Dogs and Horses, plus the unfathomable decisions regarding the Police National Air Service into the mix and you have a deeply troubled workforce. Criminals are not stupid. They know full well there are 21,000 fewer officers on the streets. That, plus the curtailing of Stop and Search greatly improves their chances of ‘getting away with it’.
I could go on, but my quill is getting weary.
The greatest wrong-doing in all of this is the total reluctance of the majority of NPCC officers speaking out against any of it, some even going as far as promoting parts of it as good practice.
Congratulations are due to Theresa May. It has every appearance that she has perfected the art of ‘Divide and Conquer’ Way too much resentment and in-fighting now exists within the dysfunctional Police Family. Instead of pulling together, good, loyal, well-meaning officers are being distracted by the results of political interference.
Last night I succumbed, I gave in, I shouldn’t have done and I am truly sorry.
I reacted to a post on Twitter. When will I ever learn?
After decades of people in high places teaching us that it is wrong to generalise and stereotype any section of the community I stumbled across a post using the hashtag #ACAB (All Coppers Are Bastards), and stating categorically that British Police are Racist Police.
The author, Mr Stafford Scott, has been highly vocal in his criticism of the Police and if you check out his timeline you will see that he does enjoy a bit of stereotyping, frequently calling upon the Macpherson Report to back up his assertions that the British Police are Racist.
I could hold back no longer, I was vexed, so I entered the fray, hopefully without the use of insult or stereotyping
@ResponsePS Looking forward to seeing the suggestions that Mr Scott and the organisations he represents will put forward to counter the unacceptable levels of knife crime and murders. You criticise others what do you advocate being DONE. Don't just talk
There followed a lengthy exchange back and forth where I asked Stafford what suggestions he had for stopping the killings and he just responded with more stereotypical allegations of Racism within the Police and mis-application of the Macpherson Report. Macpherson did NOT state that the Metropolitan Police were all Racist, he stated that the Metropolitan Police were Institutionally Racist, which is quite different.
Even Lee Jasper, an unlikely ally in anyone’s books, took Stafford to task and told him that some of his references to Macpherson were wrong.
Again brah keep up. I said we increased numbers by 100% never mentioned McPherson and in any event he didn’t recommend any figure. You doing the moonwalk brah…😂😂😂
Eventually, after several requests for Stafford to provide some practical suggestions as to how best stop the killings I gave up and bid him goodnight. That was the last I heard from him.
However, this morning I found this response on my timeline from an account I have never heard of before, in a very similar manner as Stafford’s stereotyping previously
Killing/maiming adults & children with chokeholds, fists, batons, boots, vehicles, tasers and guns (+ arresting/imprisoning the survivors for "assault on police") doesn't count? How about "unintentionally" lethal "care" of mental health service users?
Yet one more example of someone more intent on criticising the Police than helping to solve the problems.
Stafford, Lee Jasper, “clinical wasteman” (whoever that may be) and anybody else can all have their opinions on the Police Service, fair or unfair. That is a discussion for another day surely. Surely the priority has to be to stop the killings and the stabbings, of children by children.
As I pointed out to Stafford, it is not the Police who are killing the children, so any criticism of them is arguably less of a priority than finding a way to stop the killings.
I’m sorry Stafford, but I remain to be convinced that the use of #ACAB and labelling all Police Officers Racist will save one single life.
Stafford Scott has given us a fine example of a Community Spokesperson (he claims not to represent any organisations although his bio implies differently) who cannot, or will not, come up with a single practical suggestion to try, instead blames everything on “the Racist Police”.
I don’t, and I can’t agree, but I’m always happy to hear, and promote, any practical suggestion that Stafford or his supporters can put forward. My ONLY priority is to stop the killings.
I don’t mean to be condescending to anybody, we can all do the maths, but this is absolutely disgusting.
Hidden within an article about Performance Related Pay within Policing is the little gem that Staffordshire Constabulary have, over a period of years, been reduced from 2,400 officers to 1,600.
Please forgive me for “stating the bleeding obvious” but that is a reduction of 800 officers, or exactly ONE THIRD of their previous establishment.
How on earth are they expected to achieve anything with a whole third of their officers culled?
Figures like these above make it abundantly clear that this is NOT about efficiency, or professionalism. This is setting the Police Service up to fail, nothing less.
There can be no possible justification for cuts of this magnitude and it is time for Theresa May, Amber Rudd and Sajid Javid to finally be honest, threat the British Public with some respect and be honest about what they have done, instead of insisting that “Crime is Down, Police Reform is Working”. This is not Reform, it is Annihilation.
The slow death of the Police Service and other Public Services cannot be denied, however that is linked to something equally, or far more, important, the death of Democracy itself.
Those of you who have followed my posts for some time will not need reminding that over a period of time Policing, and other Public Services, have been politicised. On a more discrete level this probably began many years ago but the current incarnation of Conservatives have taken it to a whole new level. No pretence of discretion here, just blatant political interference in full view, with the hope, if not the expectation, that the public will either not notice or can be easily fobbed off.
The coalition government of 2010 saw one Theresa May at the helm of the Home Office. Stories of her, and her department’s incompetence are many and easily found on t’interweb, but I will confine myself to the ones that are most relevant to me and this post.
Edward Crew (an ex Chief Constable) and Professor Richard Disney of Nottingham University.I find it slightly unusual that Sir Edward and Professor Disney both received the appropriate recompense for their labours whilst Mr Winsor did not. Neither Mr Winsor nor his employers, White and Case, claimed the estimated £125,000 fee for Mr Winsor’s work on the reports.No doubt there will be some who don’t find this unusual in business, but I wouldn’t have turned it down.
The final straw, for me at least, was the intervention of Mrs May in the local PCC Elections here in DeadBadgerShire, ordinary members of the puiblic, including people who had never shown any political allegiances before, were bombarded by email purporting to come from Mrs May encouraging voters to vote for their Conservative candidate. Interference in an election? Disadvantaging Independent Candidates? You decide.
In more recent times Theresa May has been found to have been in Contempt of Court, Contempt of Parliament (twice I think) and has now been accused of attempting to get her own way on Brexit by effectively running down the clock in relation to her proposed ‘deal’ on Brexit, again interfering with the Democratic Process for her own ends in my opinion.
There are undoubtedly many similar events in other Public Services and I would welcome their addition in the comments below. Mrs May bangs on about protecting democracy, but her actions suggest the complete opposite.
There surely cannot be a person over the age of 14 or so who is still unaware of the seemingly uncontrollable epidemic of stabbings and Knife Crime sweeping the country. Not one person surely? In London alone there is a knife-related murder or serious stabbing almost every day. Only recently a young teenage kid was literally disembowelled on the streets of our capital.
Politicians of all hues and senior Police Officers pronounce that this is completely unacceptable (it is) but what are they actually DOING about it?
Mainly nothing. A lot of hot air gets spouted, think tanks go into overdrive trying to come up with the next big ‘thing’, senior Police Officers will have meetings and pronounce that ‘extra’ officers are being thrown at the problem, the government will assure us that new ‘technology’ is on the way. The main problem is that there are NO extra extra officers, there are, in fact, 21,000 fewer officers.
Meetings are a very small part of the solution, but to come up with the promise of ‘extra’ officers is an insult to both Police and Public alike. Every one of these ‘extra’ officers is either working what should have been a Leave Day or they have been abstracted from other duties, thereby creating a shortage somewehere else.
Almost every serving or former Police Officer that I know, together with a significant number of Members of the Public have a damn good idea what is causing the problem and how to begin addressing it.
Every knife used in an attack on the streets has been carried through the streets by somebody. Whilst it is being carried it is vulnerable to being found by Police, and the ‘carrier’ arrested, but NOT if the Police Officers have one arm tied behind their backs.
Currently there is no ‘fear’ on the streets. The government, in the shape of Camoron and Cruella, have savagely decreased the number of Police Officers, including the Front Line that they claim to protect. Cruella herself issued an instruction to Police to drastically reduce the number of Stop Search carried out. Since her edict both crime in general, and stabbings in particular have increased, despite what the Whitehall Mandarins might tell us. Home Office figures show it thus
Assaults in England and Wales
Not a pretty sight.
My proposal to turn the tide would be to bring back Stop and Search. Lawfully, Ethically, Respectfully, but Determindly.
Once the grounds for the Stop/Search have been established (and they MUST be) it should be conducted positively and efficiently, and properly recorded.
“People will get Stop/Searched who are totally innocent” I hear the cry. Yes they will, that is almost inevitable, but the damage can be minimised by the manner in which it is conducted. Officers could stop me ten times a day if it prevented one more youth getting butchered. I have nothing to hide, nor do most other folk. Yes, it is inconvenient, and can often delay us, but which is worse? Getting a tad miffed about being stopped and searched by a polite Police Officer who explains why you are being Stopped and Searched, or one more teenager getting disembowled within sight of home?
Last year’s IPSOS/MORI poll showed that ost of the population still have a reasonable amount of trust in the Police. FAR, far more than politicians of any kind.
In view of which Theresa May, why not start the process of rebuilding the Police? Allow people to feel safe on the streets once more. Instil fear of being caught and meaningful consequences into the hearts of those carrying knives, or weapons of any kind.
How can you help? How does your country need you?
You can help today by simply writing a letter or email to your local MP, or the Home Secretary, or the Prime Minister or your local Police and Crime Commissioner voicing your support for some Positive Action and the reinstatement of the Police Force. Surely no politician can ignore a mailbox overflowing with letters. Police and Crime Commissoners are up for re-election soon, and who knows when the next General Election will be, but maybe not too far away. They will all be looking for YOUR votes.
From an operational point of view a short, sharp period of Shock and Awe will remind a certain faction that they do not rule the streets, although they currently think that they do, and they are getting away with it.
Apologies to all those who have seen this on Twitter but I’m too incandescent to drop it just yet.
My ire was sparked by a discussion on Facebook and a retired ‘old sweat’ DS could not believe that Police Apprentice was now an approved entry route with a commencing salary of £18,000 with no actual guarantee of a job at the end of it. OK, I accept that many will find employment in the muddy field at the end of the rainbow but nothing is guaranteed.
Even being an Apprentice Police Officer will inevitably involve antisocial hours, a higher than average risk of physical injury, frequent verbal abuse. You might even get to experience the delights of giving evidence at Court if you’re really lucky.
Complaints if you do the job properly. The current trend seems to be not to attack the evidence any more in a Not Guilty trial, but to attack the officer and his or her integrity. What they can’t dig up they will make up. All very stressful, and for what? £18,000, and at the same time you have to qualify for a Policing Degree at the end of it to even stand a chance of a job.
This programme covers a breadth, depth and range of professional education for the police constable not present in any previous constable training programme. This is a professional degree very much founded on effective professional performance with academic achievement. The police constable apprenticeship standard has been developed along with a police constable assessment plan, which sets out the occupational profile for the role of police constable and provides further details such as knowledge, skills and behaviours.
The apprenticeship will cover areas that are critical to effective policing in the 21st century, such as evidence-based policing, supporting vulnerable people, dealing with cyber crime and crime prevention. An equivalent apprenticeship framework has been developed for Wales.
And all for £18,000 a year?
OK, so you don’t like those prospects, who can blame you? What other options are available?
Every now and again an advert comes out for a Barista at the House of Commons, that can’t be bad surely.
2 years ago indeed.co.uk published this
How much does a Barista make at House of Commons in the United Kingdom?
Average House of Commons Barista yearly pay in the United Kingdom is approximately £22,174, which is 28% above the national average.
Salary information comes from 29 data points collected directly from employees, users, and past and present job advertisements on Indeed in the past 36 months.
Please note that all salary figures are approximations based upon third party submissions to Indeed. These figures are given to the Indeed users for the purpose of generalised comparison only. Minimum wage may differ by jurisdiction and you should consult the employer for actual salary figures.
Tell me again why you want to be a Police Apprentice?
Sadly the bald figures above are not the end of the tale.
The salary levels of House of Commons baristas have been known and publicly available for many years. Did that encourage NPCC, College of Policing etc etc to fight for a higher rate of pay for Apprentice Police Officers? Oh no it did not, indeed the NPCC published a 24 page report justifying the £18k starting rate.
I note that the author has not identified himself or herself, but whoever the author is should be truly ashamed. This is a total disgrace, written in the full knowledge of other salaries ‘out there’. Any senior Police Officer who had a hand in devising or implementing this scheme should be drummed out of town.
It absolutely makes me furious that such a scheme has been devised or implemented by Police Officers of any rank, a total betrayal of (erstwhile) loyal officers.
I am not ‘anti-reform’ but I am opposed to the reform being driven through by the Tories without any regard for the consequences. They state that our Police Officers should be more professional and have more of a professional standing then they pay them less than someone who makes coffee for privileged twats at Westminster. Please tell me how this is even vaguely sensible.
resentment and in-fighting now exists within the dysfunctional Police Family. Instead of pulling together, good, loyal, well-meaning officers are being distracted by the results of political interference.
The author, Mr Stafford Scott, has been highly vocal in his criticism of the Police and if you check out his timeline you will see that he does enjoy a bit of stereotyping, frequently calling upon the Macpherson Report to back up his assertions that the British Police are Racist.
