Lets lower the risk of RE-OFFENDING (let's keep them locked up!)

Ok, so I sit there reading the latest news and chuckling away to myself somewhat amusedly.

"Offender Management in the Community" - what a load of shit!

The following rant is based on this story which talks about violent predators re-offending whilst being managed in the community by the Probation service.

And I quote:

A total of 1,414 registered sex and violent offenders were also returned to prison for breaching the terms of their release licences. A further 68 were sent back to prison for breaching the terms of their sex offences prevention order.

WTF????

So my thought on the matter is this.. You are a probation officer, a parole board officer, a politician, doesn't matter which, you are part of the system which is allowing these quite often violent and definitely predatory offenders out of the prison system to walk the streets amongst the good, law abiding, tax paying, hard working and honest citizens of this country..
Here goes:

If you are going to allow a violent or predatory offender out of prison EARLY and on LICENCE then the following CAVEAT should apply to all those who make the decision to allow them out of prison.

IF the offender RE-OFFENDS whilst on licence, on a SOPO, on the SOR, or while they should otherwise STILL be locked up in HM Prisons then the people RESPONSIBLE for letting them out to walk the streets should ALSO serve the sentence that is handed down to the offender when they are brought back in to custody.

So as a scenario (please remember this is purely fictional):

John Rapist is a violent predatory sex offender who raped a 17 year old girl after tying her to the childrens swings in the local park late at night on a Saturday in July 2006.

** John is 38 years old and has served a prison sentence earlier in his life for a similar offence, but it was only just short of being rape, he also has a criminal history going back to his teens. He has a nasty violent streak towards his victims and often beats them leaving the victims with permanent scarring. John was on the equivalent of the Sex Offenders Register when he was 27 for a period of 4 years. He has a history of re-offending and offending on bail. **

John gets convicted of the rape and is sentenced to 5 years in prison, he spends 18 months in prison and is released on a SOPO (Sexual Offences Prevention Order) and is forever more a RSO (Registered Sex Offender). He is also supposed to report weekly to the police station and to attend prevent classes which are a form of counselling in order to stop him re-offending. He is on Licence for a further 18 months, the other 2 years of his sentence seem to have vanished for some reason that no one can explain.

John is released from prison in December.
4 weeks after being released from prison he rapes another girl and her boyfriend, they were both 18 years old...
John is sent back to prison to serve the rest of his previous sentence and he is further sentenced to another 7 years.




Now here is the good part:

The people who allowed John Rapist to walk the free streets of middle England also get brought before the courts for releasing him on licence. At that time they are sentenced to serve 7 years inside for allowing a violent and predatory offender to be released early from prison while knowing that he was likely to re-offend.

Oh yeah, this sounds very 1984 or perhaps V, or may be a few other things.. It is however guaranteed to do one thing............... It WILL STOP people being released early from prison - a prison sentence should be carried out in full.
--- After all, will you still bend over backwards and let John Rapist or Billy Burglar or even Alex Arsonist walk free if you KNOW in your heart of hearts that he will re-offend and you will spend time in prison when he does?? Of course not!

Now they'll say we don't have enough prison spaces for them - SO??? BUILD ANOTHER BLOODY PRISON!




It is something to think about.

Now to really have some fun..

I have made a couple of changes due to the spammers in my comments section of this blog.
Firstly I should thank them because what happens is a lot more people come to look at my blog because Google searches he comments and indexes even more things because of the inane words used.
Anyway, because of them now every single comment will be approved prior to being publicly viewable.

Anyway, so I figured that because Clotty and Jacques Lefèvre (who believes himself to be some sort of 14th century French philosopher) have such an issue with Traffic officers I figured I'd write something for them.

Personally speaking even I would like to go to work in Traffic but many police forces across the UK are cutting back on Traffic departments because they need to save money - so it's really out of the question.

For me - I like traffic stuff, most of it is black and white, straight forward. For instance if you have a tyre which is down to the metal bands inside that is the offence, there is no excuse for it, you broke the law and endangered yourself and the public.
I like the challenges of working with traffic stuff. I also abhor people who drive on the roads in this and every other country like complete idiots with no regard for anyone but themselves - and of course the second they end up with someone shunting them because of their dangerous driving they become all defensive about it.

I want to stop those people because they are MURDERERS waiting to happen - well what else do you call someone with a 1.5 ton metal instrument being thrown around at 70 mph? After all a car is a lethal weapon isn't it?

This is why I like stopping cars.. because I want to stop this:

DERBYSHIRE
SUFFOLK
ESSEX
HAMPSHIRE

How many more does it take before people say - ahh, perhaps the police aren't persecuting the motorists, they are just trying to keep EVERYONE safe.

I'm sure the families of the victims from Derbyshire, Suffolk, Essex and Hampshire and every other county and indeed country where someone has died needlessly in a traffic incident are all in agreement that people who use the roads should obey the traffic laws because NO ONE should EVER have to suffer the torment of losing a loved one to something 100% preventable. And I'm sorry.. driving is a privilege, not a right.

I said it on one of the comments on one of my earlier stories. I've never yet met ANY driver who's never broken the law. Every single driver has done something on the road which is breaking the law.



Does driving 3 MPH over the speed limit make you a criminal?
In the eyes of the law - YES. Because you've broken the law the speed limit is just that, a limit.

Does failing to wear a seatbelt make you a criminal?
Same answer, yes you have broken the law so you are technically a criminal.

Does using a mobile phone whilst driving make you a criminal?
See the trend developing here?

I could keep going. It is like any other law. You steal and get caught you are a criminal, you rob, rape or murder and get caught and you are a criminal. So on that note.. how many drug dealers, robbers, rapists, murders, burglars and other criminals drive cars? (well I must say I've NEVER seen a burglar walking away with his loot back to his house on the other side of the country/county/city/town/district or whatever - it just doesn't happen).
A criminal is at their most vulnerable in a car and THAT is why they are actively sought there.

So let's analyse this a little further.
If you've just burgled a house - so you've invaded someones private residence, rifled through their intimate possessions and smashed the place up before leaving, you drive away... do you obey the speed limit, wear your seatbelt and not talk on the phone while driving your taxed, insured and MOT'd vehicle? NOT LIKELY.. you don't care about the Theft Act of 1968 which makes Burglary illegal (or any other act which mentions it either) and so you are unlikely to care about the Road Traffic Act of 1988 (or any other similar act which mentions the above) - so as a police officer if you begin by stopping cars with no tax, insurance, MOT or drivers without seatbelts or using mobile phones then you might just be lucky and be stopping a burglar with a car full of loot. Get the idea?







I know that Clotty and JLF aren't going to agree but I don't really care. Clearly there are far more intelligent people out there who read my blog and might just happen to agree but don't happen to comment.
How about a few more comments from some of our readers saying what you think... :-)

Look up there in the sky, is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO, it's....

Super Cop

I read with great interest about Sgt Livingstone who has managed to become the UK's Super Cop with the highest arrest record of any Police Officer..
Then I wonder about it and just how it's done.

Between April 08 and March 09 a staggering 524 arrests. That is IMPRESSIVE to say the least. BUT.. they then go on to say that's an average of 2.2 arrests a day. Well on my shift pattern that's 2.5 almost 2.6 arrests a day.. none the less lets continue looking.

You can only arrest people that quick if you have a fast custody procedure and you have prisoner interview teams to hand your prisoner over to - whatever system Suffolk uses is whatever system we should ALL use! Otherwise, 2.2 arrests a day would take you longer than you've got hours to work!

But the story further goes on to say that Sgt Livingstone is making more arrests per year than 58 police officers put together!! WTF? Ok, I personally have seen a Sgt arrest 2 people in one night.. it was quite funny as well.. and he also handed them over (to PC's to deal with). But to be honest it is rare in our force, in fact I'd say it's rare for Sgts to leave the station!!

Onwards and upwards.

524 arrests divided by 58 gives an average arrest rate for those "58 coppers" of 9.03 arrests per year. Huh?
Does this mean I'm some sort of super cop too then? Because I arrested around 90 people last year and charged (with Home Office detections attached) around 40. The other 50 either weren't charged with Home Office detectable crimes or they had no further action taken. But I know that most of the people I arrested last year were charged so I'd say only 10% were NFA.

So as I arrested around 90 people does that make me 10 X better than the average?
WHAT???? 10 X better than the average police officer?
Nah, I don't think so. It just means I was either deployed to the job first. Or that I was in the right area at the right time. Or perhaps that I was trying harder to get a few more arrests....... I know that I also didn't arrest a lot of people that I could have! For instance the S5 Public Order in the High Street where I told matey's mates to take him away before he got arrested.. that sort of thing.

I don't think it's all about just going out to arrest people. I think it's also about using common sense, using discretion, using judgement and reasoning skills and attempting to educate the public so that they don't end up being criminalised for doing or saying something stupid.

I'd like to think that there are a few nicer and luckier people out there because I didn't arrest them. And a few people who are still alive because I didn't give them a seatbelt ticket but gave them a telling off. etc.. it's all about education and safety in my book!

What am I?

Right, it seems that some of the miscreants who take pleasure in tormenting people via comments on police officers blogs like to take out their frustrations if they feel that the PC is a Traffic Cop.

Firstly let me set the record straight - YET AGAIN - but clearly these idiots cannot seem to work a simple blog and work their way backwards to see that time, and time, and time again I mention that I am a RESPONSE OFFICER NOT A TRAFFIC OFFICER..

So let's start from scratch for the whiney little tossers who clearly can't click back and read it for themselves.

I'm a Response Officer, Not a Traffic Officer.

That means I turn out to 999 calls. I go to the general dross of society when they feel that their other half (also general dross) has done enough to insult them and they want them "done" for it.
Or when their neighbour, a normal, tax-paying and contributing member of society has complained once too often about their loud music they call the cops saying they were getting threatened "innit" and expect them to be "done for it, yah!"

So basically I answer the call to ALL allegations of crime and ALL requirements for Police to attend. Which VERY OFTEN requires me to attend the scene of an RTI (Road Traffic Incident) or in more simple words for the dross, an accident.

So why do I attend? Because there is no traffic office on our division and they have to travel further to get to you than I do.. So if you are in your car, upside down, or laying at the side of the road having been ejected because you were a complete tossa and weren't wearing your seatbelt (but you will of course tell me you WERE) then I am the one who turns up first, puts out signs, puts out cones, calls for an ambulance, holds your bloody snotty hand and comforts you until the men & women (saints) in green suits strap you to a stretcher and prepare to take you to hospital.. and of course until Traffic Cops turn up to talk to you.... and summons you to court for clearly what is dangerous driving and not wearing your seatbelt.

Anyway.. so for the dross who like to comment on here, I go to accidents day in and day out.. It is a COMMON part of the life of a Police Officer whether they be a Response officer or a Traffic Officer or even a Beat officer, they are in a uniform and in a car and on a road they can and WILL inevitably end up at an accident putting out cones and signs.. and if they have sucessfully managed to avoid that throughout their career then they should be lined up and shot because it's bread and butter a part of our work.. it's the first part of the OATH that we swore. The first part of this being - UPHOLDING FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS.

1. The RIGHT TO LIFE.

This means that if you are injured in an accident or in MORTAL DANGER then ANY and EVERY Police Officer will do their level best to seek to maintain your right to life - even if that means putting their OWN life in MORTAL DANGER!

So shitbag, remember this next time you drive like a complete c*ck down the road and put everyone else in danger - when you stack it and end up rolling the car over on your roof it may just be in MY COUNTY and it may just be ME who has come to put out signs and cones and try to PRESERVE YOUR LIFE you little scum sucking wanker. So save your rantings on my forum, have some respect for the fact that today I might arrest you for a crime for which I have evidence against you but TOMORROW I may be the one holding your hand and comforting you while the Ambulance turn up while you are laying on the side of the road saying "I can't feel my lefts and my back feels funny......"
Oh yeah, I've been at that one - and the person who said that had an IPCC complaint against me.. but I maintained MY PROFESSIONALISM and dealt with him as was expected despite the overwhelming desire to walk away and ask for another PC to be deployed due to professional reasons.

The IPCC complaint was unfounded anyway and the shitbag made a full recovery after having his shoulder and collar bone operated on and his back put back in to place.. he was very lucky considering he was ejected from a moving motor vehicle at 40 - 60 MPH!

Think about it boys and girls, it could be you, it could be ME holding your hand.

Coning and Signing...

So when I arrive at an RTI the first thing I've got to take in to account is my own safety.. I stop my car at a pre-set and pre-specified distance away from the accident scene, this is for my own safety and yours if you are standing near your car in the lane of a live dual carriageway..
I then put on my yellow jacket and try to get out of the car without getting knocked down by the next car to come along and not see the shiny stripy police car covered in flashing blue & red lights that's entirely blocking a lane... and they swerve out of the way (despite having had well over 200 metres to change lanes based on the line of visibility in front of them)..

First things first, IS ANYONE INJURED? DOES ANYONE NEED AN AMBULANCE? check that, if nothing serious I start bunging out traffic cones around the scene of my accident whilst calling the control room for an Ambulance etc.. Reason for this is so that no one else becomes a needless casualty, specially me because I can't help anyone if I'm creamed by some ones Ford Galaxy or similar.

It's a dual carriageway so I have 6 - 8 cones to set out a 100 metre taper.. so I walk off to a 100 metre distance and start putting out cones from the edge of the carriageway to the line at the middle of the two lanes then the last cone or two between my car and the accident scene so that the fire truck or ambulance have a sterile area to pull in to..

What amazes me is that STILL even with a police car blocking a lane 50 metres from the accident (generally) and 100 metres of cones behind that and a clear view of the police car and cones for 100+ metres behind the accident and signs saying "POLICE SLOW" or "POLICE ACCIDENT" out another 50 - 100 metres behind this people STILL wait until the very last minute to merge out in to the other lane causing everyone else to brake hard or take evasive action, or for me to look up and think "OH CRAP" because running through my mind is the fact that someone is going to plough through all my cones, then my car, then me................. see a POLICE sign??? Please SLOW DOWN and LOOK at what is going on!!

WHY don't people read the road a little further than 50 metres in front of their bonnet?

Then when being waved out by another police officer they for some reason decide that means they should just STOP in the MIDDLE of the road bringing EVERYTHING to a halt. OMG how dangerous is that? I've seen it on so many occasions now that it scares me... even when passing through other counties I've been stuck behind someone who decided to do that..

Is it that when the blue lights flash drivers suddenly lose the ability to think? I don't think so because 99% of drivers do just fine and pass around the accident (rubbernecking as they go mostly) and then carry on in their daily lives.. but 1% seem to just lose the ability to pass by without scaring the life out of everyone standing inside of the cones.

Please, DON'T RUBBERNECK, Please MERGE OUT SOONER, Please, Please, Please, DO TAKE NOTICE OF WHAT IS GOING ON.. read the road, it's simpler.

I know however that even with all the precautions it's still one of the most dangerous places for me to be, or anyone else to be.. so for those IN AN ACCIDENT on any road, but most importantly on a dual carriageway, if you CAN get out of your car get out on the NEARSIDE closest to the grass on the side of the road and then STAND BACK AWAY FROM THE CARRIAGEWAY AND THE WRECKAGE!!
I had one person at an accident once say they were going to stay at the side of the car (nearest the LIVE CARRIAGEWAY) because of the animals in the car.. WHAT? NO.. MOVE AWAY FROM THE CAR AND THE ROAD!!
Please think about your own safety as well.. anything IN the car is going to stay there, even if there is someone stuck in the car they are safer there than YOU ARE standing BESIDE the car... so get off the road.

Oh well.. very next accident I go to will probably be exactly the same. I guess it's a problem with having a lot of dual carriageways passing through my patch in every direction. Single lane roads are great because we just shut them down but dual carriageways just scare me every time.

Just when we thought all was right with the world - A complete idiot break it again!

Ok, so usually the police get to sit back, try to do their job, avoid becoming bogged down in controversy and paperwork..
And by and large MOST of the police in the UK do... and we do our jobs very well as well.

And just when everything is looking alright with the world of policing and the public start to gain confidence in us actually getting things done again it all just turns completely to shit due to some complete ass in the MET.

Why is it that it always seems to be someone in the MET?

A PC driving a Response Vehicle who had just been trained to do so goes out and kills an innocent member of the public because he's driving like a complete lunatic!

Does the MET not check people out during the recruitment process to ascertain if they are suitable for the job they are doing? I thought this was why it took 9 - 12 months to get through the recruitment process!!! Do they not monitor new PC's or new Response Drivers? Does no one ever seem to have to be accountable in the MET until someone dies?

Sorry, I don't have the full story of this incident other than whats in the above linked article. I don't know the PC involved, or indeed anyone who works with him (unless one of my friends in the MET does know him, but I'm not aware of that), and I don't know the family of the lady who sadly had to die to bring this to the publics attention.. But what I do know is that one tosser doing something like this puts ALL OF US in a bad light and when I in the very rural Southernshire County manage to get asked if I'd killed any Grandmothers with my Response car I find it absolutely bloody astounding, shocking, and alarming.

FFS. How many people have to die because of someone who should NEVER have gotten through the recruitment process doing something absolutely bloody stupid.

/end rant for today.




PS. Sorry for the absence of posts recently. I've been a little busy at home..







BASED ON COMMENTS:

Ok, let me clarify.. I know that not every idiot police officer who does something wrong is from the MET. I know that my farce like every other one out there has it's fair share of them... But damn... it seems to be the MET at the top of the news polls every 3 or 4 weeks. It's a shame, but I know that's cos there are 35,000 officers, it's the biggest so it'll have the biggest proportion of screw ups... Its part of the territory for having the largest force in the country - or the equivalent of say 7 - 10 larger County forces all in one small space...

NO, I'm not bagging the MET itself or trying to generalise but is it possible that because they recruit so many people they aren't checking them all out properly, or perhaps not watching what they do properly??? I dunno, it might be that it's impossible to do that in such a large organisation so occasionally some unstable idiot slips through (point in case - that undercover reporter..)

I just felt that I had to vent because in my backwards neck of the woods I got asked by a MoP if I had killed any grannies lately whilst blue lighting to the nick to have a cup of tea.. and that annoyed me because as someone in the MET had done it every other Police Officer in the country got tarred with that big wide brush by the public...

I am also adult enough to realise that 99% of Police in the UK are all damned fine officers who go out every day and who do their level best to carry out the office of Constable putting their lives on the line in order to carry out their duties... but because I get generalised I thought I'd see how it worked the other way, and I get some great reactions by doing that..............

By the way, I do value the comments that are given back because it's nice to hear what others think.
No, I am not anti-MET.. I may just end up there some day soon.. and I know some very, very fine MET officers who love what they do and they do it very well... but that force just seem to be the ones in the media constantly.... when will WE the POLICE do something Positive in the media instead of letting the media slaughter us??? I think it's about time that we had some positive media coverage for once... the media coverage that shows us doing something GOOD, something BRILLIANT, saving lives, stopping criminals, putting bad people in prison, foiling big, nasty crimes... but no, that's just not going to happen is it? It's only when something exceptional happens that it hits the media.. and no one remembers the good things we do, only the bad.

And it's about time!!

As I was reading this story I was thinking that it's about high time that this sort of event happens more often..

The crux of the story in short is that a yob and his buddy went in to a phone shop and tried to rob them using a soldering iron that one of the employees had just been using.. as the yob tried to escape employees grabbed his leg as he ran out the door, they then slammed the door shut on the same leg leaving the knob there stuck in the door furiously trying to escape. (there is a great photograph of said overweight - non-working scum stuck in the door which was taken by a member of the public).

So my thought on this is to ask why more shops don't actually take a proactive approach towads their own security?

Is it because they are just scared of repercussions? Is it because they are scared of being hurt? Or what?

I had a report of an elderly shoplifter at a local "high quality" supermarchet in one of our local towns, on arrival a couple of minutes afterwards (after detaining someone who matched the description and then was found to not actually be the right person and so was subsequently let go with apologies) I spoke with the manager..

What followed was the information that at least once a week an elderly male - probably around 70 years old, walked through the shop dressed in the same clothes.. he would select items from the shelves and then walk out of the front door (having entered through the back door of the store). No one EVER attempted to stop or challenge the male!

CCTV was seized.
CCTV from the town cameras was seized and viewed... and showed the male going to one of the banks shortly afterwards.. (thus it may have been possible to identify the male from that).
Descriptions circulated amongst my colleagues, particularly the local PCSOs who are always out in the High Street and may spot the man.

Advice was given to the shop manager as follows, if the male comes in to the store again then whoever sees him should inform the manager who can call the police, a couple of the larger lads who work up at the cash registers should then approach the male together and ask him politely if he "wouldn't mind remaining with them please..." - and of course the police would already be on the way.
Of course the caveats were given - DO NOT PUT YOURSELVES IN ANY DANGER - DO NOT BLOCK THE EXIT (thus putting the suspect in fear and making him lash out to get out of the exit) - DO NOT OFFER OR USE ANY VIOLENCE - Simply be Calm and Polite but Firm.

As you might guess I asked the manager why no one had EVER done this before.. and the reply shocked me.. they are advised 'not to' by their head office!

So less than a week later I hear on the radio that this "high quality" supermarchet has detained 1 for suspected shoplifting. But I was committed on something else so another officer from late shift was deployed and went to arrest the shoplifter.. that officer also arrested him for my shoplifting job the week previous (thus stealing my detection).. On their arrival at custody I looked in to the holding cell and was shocked to see that this elderly male was wearing the same clothes as the week before - but this wasn't as shocking as the look of complete total and utter abject "failure" on his face. He knew his game was up....




So after all of the above.. this store now challenges people it believes to be shoplifting......... So do a few others that I've dealt with recently. So thankfully we are now catching more shoplifters... and it's a shame that ALL shops don't do the same.
You do NOT have to put yourself in any danger, just simply state to the person that you want them to remain with you. Explain that the police have been called, their face is on CCTV etc, etc.. as such, there is no point running and it's easier to get dealt with straight away than to be running for a long time and looking over their shoulders.



Every person should do their part and assist in the prevention and detection of crime. It would make this country a lot nicer to live in. All too often though people just ignore everything going on around them and as such crime rates go up as police become more and more embroiled in petty things that should NEVER have reached the police (like the neighbours barbeque smoke going through someone's washing on the line - you can imagine what I said right?).



As I've said to a couple of our local herberts of late.. There is ONE of them.. 145,000 of us!