Roll Up, Roll Up, Enjoy The Show

Last updated on June 6th, 2023 at 07:23 pm

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Well Twatter was awash with condemnation yesterday, and I have to say I’m hardly surprised.  It’s been a while since I saw such a ridiculous management decision, at least a week.

The Twattersphere was rent asunder by this headline in the Birmingham Mail

We hope you enjoy the show! Outrage as events company offers ticket to police misconduct hearing.

 

A West Midlands PC had fallen foul of his management and was due to appear on a Discipline Board for an offence of Gross Misconduct.  He deserved to be there, of that there is no doubt, and ultimately he was found Guilty and summarily sacked, no problem with that.

What attracted the ire of the Twitterati was the fact that West Midlands Police has taken the decision to ‘sell’ tickets for the ‘event’.  Actually they were free, but how can allocating tickets through a 3rd party Events Company ever be right for a Disciplinary Hearing??

Chief Inspector Darren Walsh, from the force’s Public Protection Department, said:

 

“Eventbrite is a free event hosting website that is used by many organisations, including West Midlands Police.

“The site provides members of the public with a self-service facility to manage attendance at meetings and other events. As such the site incorporates standard text which is designed to fit numerous world-wide events.

“While we recognise that the text in the email confirmations may not always be appropriate in cases such as disciplinary hearings, the alternative could involve creating a new hosting website at the taxpayers’ expense.”

And what was that email confirmation that Chief Inspector Walsh was referring to?

“We hope you enjoy West Midlands Misconduct hearing.”

 

 

I know that Cruella has decreed that Discipline Hearings must be held in public to ensure openness and transparency, although that does not seem to apply to certain senior officers who still enjoyed the privileges of as closed hearing, but nobody ever said that it should be a ticketed event.

Whoever was operating West Midlands Police Twitter Account yesterday had clearly lost the plot and tweeted

  Clearly missing the point that allocating, I believe 20, tickets for a disciplinary hearing is insensitive, demeaning and undignified.,  Whatever the officer is alleged to have done he is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect, not hauled in front of a 3 Ring Circus.

 

To his credit DCC Dave Tnompson later got involved and tweeted the following;

So I think it’s fair to say that the message has been received by West Midlands Police, a minor triumph for Social Media and Policing, but whoever thought that dishing out tickets was a good idea has obviously got their knitting out and reserved a front row seat in front of Madame Guillotine.  The result of the disciplinary has been completed overshadowed by the surrounding furore. PSDs everywhere please take note, that despite what you may thing even Police Officers have rights. At the heart of human rights is the belief that everybody should be treated equally and with dignity – no matter what their circumstances. This means that nobody should be tortured or treated in an inhuman or degrading way.

Hopefully West Midlands Police and PSDs everywhere have now got that message and we won’t be seeing such an awful treatment of a Police Officer ever again.

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4 thoughts on “Roll Up, Roll Up, Enjoy The Show”

  1. Absolutely appalled at the treatment of this officer. How can it ever be justified? Mrs May should hang her head in shame.

    1. Not many who would disagree with you, although much as I don’t like Mrs May I think the problem was more to do with West Midlands Police’s interpretation of the policy

  2. I too found the use of EventBrite curious. Yes DCI Walsh did note it was an existing free service and WMP did not want its own booking system set up. Which ignores the fact that WM PCC uses EventBrite, without such a system response ‘enjoy’.

    Why would anyone attending this occasion need to provide proof of ID? If it is a PUBLIC hearing, does the law (or Statutory Instrument etc) say proof of ID is needed?

    1. You don’t need to book a place for the Public Gallery of a Court, and no ID is required. I think WMP have completely lost the plot unless they’re trying to make some kind of point, in which case they’ve failed

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