-
More TASER use Consequence of Arming More Officers With TASERs say Sussex Police
On the 27th of March 2014 the UK Home Office released police TASER use statistics for England and Wales in 2013. I have made the statistics available in a spreadsheet 2013 saw four forces issue TASERs to non-firearms officers for the first time. These forces were Cambridgeshire, Essex, Sussex and Thames Valley. All UK police […]
-
Submission to Home Affairs Select Committee Inquiry on Police and Crime Commissioners
The Home Affairs Select Committee has been holding an inquiry into Police and Crime Commissioners. As far as I can see they’ve never published a specific call for contributions from the public, but the committee’s home page links to guidance for those submitting written evidence. While the investigation’s webpage states: “Inquiry status: oral evidence concluded” […]
-
Hostile Response From Cllr Martin Curtis to My Submission to Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Panel
During the public participation slot at Cambridgeshire’s Police and Crime Panel on the 5th of February 2014 I sought to raise my concern that the panel were allowing the Police and Crime Commissioner to decide which of his decisions he was putting to the panel for scrutiny. I suggested this wasn’t a desirable state of […]
-
Independent Member of Cambs Police and Crime Panel Says I Should Have Raised Concerns About the Panel’s Operation Sooner
I used the public participation agenda item at Cambridgeshire’s Police and Crime Panel on the 5th of February 2014 to raise some concerns about how the panel was operating, and to make some suggestions for the future. Link to my full submission I noted that the panel had, to-date, allowed the Police and Crime Commissioner […]
-
Cambridgeshire Councillor Buys His Own Speed Camera
Councillor Michael Shellens (Liberal Democrat, Godmanchester and Huntingdon East) told Cambridgeshire County Council’s Safer and Stronger Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee on the 19th of December 2013 that he has bought his own speed camera. Councillors were responding to a public question on parish councils and the ‘speed watch’ scheme which sees volunteers using speed […]
-
Cambs Police and Crime Commissioner Costing More Than Police Authority
Cambridgeshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Graham Bright has released details of how much he has spent running his office in his first year. The commissioner spent the astronomical sum of: £885,312.99 on his office between November 2012 and November 2013. This figure was not pro-actively released by the commissioner, but obtained via a Freedom of […]
-
Police At Duggan Inquest Say Law Prevented Them Writing Things Down
Inquests ought be open, public, processes for learning about how and why someone died so we can try and prevent something similar happening again. One thing which has struck me from the currently ongoing inquest into the death of Mark Duggan, who was shot by the police in London on the 4th of August 2011, […]
-
Not All Armed Police Officers in the UK Carry TASER as Alternative
TASER armed officer in the UK An inquest is currently underway in relation to the death of Mark Duggan who was shot and killed by police in London on the 4th of August 2011. The transcript of the inquest hearing on the 8th of October 2013 revealed how the Met Police’s elite firearms units use, […]
-
Responding to Consultation on Police Stop and Search Powers
The Home Office are currently running a consultation on UK Police stop and search powers. I have responded to say: Police Ought Be Clear and Honest About their Powers Following the Home Secretary’s announcement of the launch of the consultation in the House of Commons MP Julian Huppert asked: Does she agree that when the […]
-
Police Claim People Accept Bike Theft in Cambridge
On the 5th of September 2013 I observed Cambridge’s West Central Area Committee where councillors have the opportunity to hold the police to account for their performance and get to democratically set the local police priorities. During the policing agenda item the following exchange occurred: Cllr John Hipkin (Castle, Independent): There’s this kind of culture […]