British Policing (catch all)

[davidbfpo]

This is the title of a piece on Kings of War and is written by a recently retired senior UK police officer:http://kingsofwar.org.uk/2015/11/ccl...-the-militia/?

The introduction by an Editor starts with:

Today in CCLKOW we are reorienting you to the homeland and the problems of interoperability between police and the armed forces. Even without the Paris Attacks earlier this month, the subject of mastering the ‘JIIM’ environment is critical, both in military operations at home and abroad. To discuss this, I am very happy to bring to you a special guest writer, Ian Wiggett, recently retired as an Assistant Chief Constable from Greater Manchester Police. It should be understood, then, that this piece is written from the British perspective, which includes a significant difference with respect to the use of force by the police, particularly as concerns the generally disarmed stance. Nevertheless, the issue of integrating a military response to an attack to the homeland matters even to the US.

[davidbfpo]

In April 1989 @ Hillsborough soccer ground ninety-six Liverpool FC supporters died in a crowd crush and this week after a two-year long coroner's inquest it was determined by the jury:

The inquest’s verdict, when it finally arrived, represented the most thorough vindication imaginable for the families of the dead and an equally damning indictment of South Yorkshire Police. The jury supplanted the 1991 verdict with one of unlawful killing, laying blame squarely on the police in the process.

The disaster, let alone this week's verdict, has always aroused passion and controversy.

This article is the best description I've read this week:http://www.theguardian.com/football/...lasted-decades

The local police force, South Yorkshire, now faces an uncertain future and civil legal action is likely - against them and the West Midlands who conducted a post-match investigation.

The part played by 'police culture' is presented by an academic and a former Met Police Commissioner in this short article (a good part of which I disagree with):http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpo...-cop-culture/?

[davidbfpo]

In March I attended a small conference @ Warwick University, for a conference Policing and Public Confidence:

It brought together a diverse group of researchers, policing professionals, and people from the world of policy. Each has an interest in understanding relationships between the police and the publics they serve.

Videos are now available for each session:http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wb...vents-features

This summer is the 35th anniversary of the Brixton riots @ London and the 5th anniversary of another, wider bout of rioting.

Rather unusually IMHO both establishment and critical voices were heard, without rancour and it included some surprises - notably Det. Insp. Hart on Confidence and Threats to Life, whose research found there was no evidence for the methods being used:

There is no structured teaching in key-decision making roles in the police on 'threats to life' incidents. My experience is that threats to life incidents are looked at very subjectively, and massively different to the people we interviewed.

[Bill Moore]

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews...ers/ar-BBt5qvb

The Government has announced plans to recruit 1,500 extra firearms officers in the wake of the Paris and Brussels terror attacks. But there are already at least 300 vacancies across England and Wales as numbers of authorised officers have fallen to the lowest level for seven years.

Mr White said: "Before we even start talking about recruiting the extra 1,500, we are struggling to fill the vacancies we have currently got because of the lack of understanding and protection that officers would have if they have to discharge their firearm.

[davidbfpo]

An interesting article about the man and a film made now. I am not sure about the motivation here.

It is now five years since the mainly English urban rioting, which started in Tottenham, north London. Nearby is the Broadwater Farm Estate, where in 1985 another bout of rioting started.

A big "take away":

No police came. It just escalated. It just got worse and worse until the riot police came out there trying to clear the streets. You’ve got angry people trying to fight back. That lasted for about 13 hours.

Link:https://www.theguardian.com/society/...ts-mark-duggan

[davidbfpo]

Chris Hobbs is a retired London police officer who has an irregular column on policing and other law enforcement issues. His latest column is entitled 'Dallas, Nice, Baton Rouge, Munich: The UK’s Emaciated Blue Line Braces'.

A "taster":

Make no mistake, every single officer in this country, most of whom perform duties unarmed, would be mentally rehearsing their actions if and indeed when, they are confronted with similar scenarios in our cities, towns and resorts. Their collective view is perhaps summed by the legendary serving police blogger ‘Inspector Gadget’ who tweeted; “UK cops watching armed police on Sky News rushing to contain the Munich scene thinking what in God’s name would we do here.“

See:http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/chri..._11207372.html

[davidbfpo]

Policing in London is quite different to the rest of the UK, including other big cities and with so many armed incidents, plus the threat of attack, Metropolitan Police officers have long argued - without success - that they should all be armed.

Now their professional body, not a trade union, is holding a ballot:

Questions being put to officers in the survey include:

• Whether they would want to carry a Taser or firearm at all times while on duty
• If they think there should be more firearms officers in London
• If the thought of carrying a gun would make them leave the job

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-38547203

Within is this, which I'd not spotted before:

But a recent poll in the wake of the Berlin Christmas market attacks found 58% of the public believed officer should carry guns.

Actually the cited polling was after the Paris 2015 attacks!