Richard Taylor

Tag: Police

  • Tactical Safety Responses Gains UK TASER Authorisation Despite Links to Struck-Off Pro-Tect

    On the 7th of December 2010 the Home Affairs Select Committee questioned Home Office civil servants, primarily Graham Widdecombe of the Policing Directorate, about the award of an “authorisation” to handle TASER weapons to a company called Tactical Safety Responses Limited. In the UK TASERs are treated as prohibited weapons under Section 5(1)(b) of the […]

  • Home Affairs Select Committee Session on TASERs

    TASER Preferred Target Areas Shown In Blue (Source: TASER International Training Bulletin 15) A couple of days ago Cambridge MP Julian Huppert forwarded me a press release from the Home Affairs Select committee alerting me to a one-off evidence session on the use of tasers by UK police forces to be held on Tuesday the […]

  • Burglary and Robbery to be Dropped as Police Priorities for Cambridge

    Last week I observed councillors, including Cllr Geoff Heathcock, the Liberal Democrat who has announced his intent to stand for the position of Cambridgeshire’s elected police commissioner in 2012, give their approval to a process which is set to see burglary and robbery dropped as city wide priorities for the police in Cambridge. Cambridge’s city […]

  • Cambridgeshire Police Authority Meeting September 2010

    I attended the meeting of the Cambridgeshire Police Authority held on the 30th of September 2010. It was held at police headquarters in Huntington; I had to show my passport before I was allowed in. After a briefly welcoming the new Chief Constable, Simon Parr, to his first police authority meeting the first item taken […]

  • Cambridgeshire County Council – October 2010 Full Council

    Lunch menu from the Cambridgeshire County Council meeting on the 19th of October 2010. (I did not have permission to photograph the meeting itsself) On the 19th of October 2010 my local County Councillor, Rupert Moss-Eccardt, invited me to observe a full meeting of Cambridgeshire County Council from the floor of the chamber and to […]

  • East Chesterton Residents Terrorised by Thuggish Parents

    Two residents of Evergreens, a cul-de-sac off Green End Road, in Chesterton attended the North Area Committee on Thursday the 30th of September 2010 to speak during the police priority setting section of the meeting. They described the shocking behaviour of some parents who park in the cul-de-sac while dropping their children off at the […]

  • Cambridgeshire Police Drop Plans to Issue TASERs to Non-Firearms Officers

    Earlier today, in response to a public question I asked at a full meeting of the Cambridgeshire Police Authority, it was revealed that Cambridgeshire Police are no longer planning to issue TASER weapons to non-firearms officers. I have been campaigning and lobbying against the previous government’s proposals to arm all frontline police officers with TASER […]

  • Police Not to Enforce New City Centre 20 MPH Limit

    Confusing new speed limit signage in Cambridge. (Now fixed thanks to FixMyStreet). In Cambridge City Centre a 20 MPH speed limit now applies to all roads, apart from Victoria Avenue, within an area bound by the inner ring road (East Road though Lensfield Road to Fen Causeway) and the River Cam. The inner ring road […]

  • Transparency Changes Outcome of Police Priority Vote

    Coleridge Road, Cambridge. A fantastic example of why transparency is good for democratic decision making occurred at the Cambridge City Council’s East Area Committee on the 19th of August 2010. Green Party Councillor Margaret Wright had proposed a motion removing an existing police priority aimed at reducing speeding on a range of target roads across […]

  • Untouchable York Street Drug Dealers Bantering With Police

    Contents of a needle exchange kit. Image: Todd Huffman (licence) Cambridge City Council’s East Area Committee on the 19th of August 2010 was told of problems of drug use and drug dealing in the area around the York Street playground. Police Sergent Kay Stevens painted a picture of dealers running rings around the police and […]