When the crime is to speak out
Discussion
[By Daniel Foggo, Sunday Telegraph 24 Apr 2005)
Picture this: you are a retired senior policeman who has information that gun crimes are going unreported because some of your former colleagues are not registering them. You report what you know to a Sunday newspaper, and the next day two detectives knock on your door.
At first you might be impressed by their prompt reaction. But then you discover that your visitors are from the "professional standards" unit (the subdivision of every force that polices its own officers) and have no interest in the truth of your claim. What they want to know is which serving policemen have spoken to you.
They are not concerned that shootings are spiralling out of control while being deliberately unrecorded in order not to spoil the crime figures: no, they want to discipline the officers for speaking out of turn.
This is what happened to former Detective Superintendent Peter Coles last Monday. The day before he had been quoted in this newspaper saying that gun crime in Nottinghamshire, where he was once head of the CID, was under-reported. Criminals turning up in hospital with gunshot wounds were often reluctant to involve the police, which led officers to treat the incidents as "no crimes", Mr Coles said.
One of the few things that will make police forces stir these days, as Mr Coles discovered, is the slightest hint that their officers are talking to outsiders about embarrassing matters. Going "off-message" is now as much frowned upon by the police as it is by their New Labour paymasters.
Take the crime statistics. Under Labour, they are used to convey an expedient message of the rosiest hue. It would not help senior officers' careers if they were to speak out about the glaring gaps in the Government's compiling methods. So the prevailing face of most forces is one of sanguine denial.
Nottinghamshire police's particular problem is that when their primary dissenter broke ranks last month it turned out to be their own Chief Constable, Steve Green. He admitted to me that his force was reeling under the murder rate and was going to have to "farm out" inquiries to other forces.
His reaction when we published the story was stupefying and gives great insight into the fear that going "off-message" engenders even in chief constables. His press office, who had helped arrange the interview with me and agreed the areas that Mr Green would discuss, announced that the Chief Constable had been "blackmailed" into giving the interview. This was utterly untrue and inherently preposterous. Yet in making the claim, the police tried to deflect attention away from the significance of what Mr Green had actually admitted - that his force could not cope with the slaughter on its streets - by suggesting that the more important issue was that he had been compelled against his will into saying what he did.
I have since been informed that Nottinghamshire police's professional standards team has been trying to access my phone records and those of a colleague to find out which officers may have spoken out. This kind of behaviour is not unusual. Police forces now consider whistleblowing as a form of corruption that should be rooted out. The officers concerned may be revealing matters that are in the public interest, but this is not a consideration.
Three days after the knock on Mr Coles's door, Nottinghamshire police revealed their latest crime figures, which showed a more than 10 per cent drop over the year. Naysayers, such as Mr Coles, who claim that the statistics are inaccurate, are not appreciated at such a time. As he is retired, the force cannot touch him but they can, and will, pursue anyone who might have given him information.
Getting to the truth behind the statistics and spin of crime figures is becoming increasingly difficult. Rare chinks of clarity, such as Mr Green's interview, are quickly covered over. A fortnight after talking to The Telegraph Mr Green admitted that his interview "was not my finest hour".
I beg to differ. It was probably his most conspicuous act of public service.
So watch it our Bib, don't go 'off message'!
Streaky
Picture this: you are a retired senior policeman who has information that gun crimes are going unreported because some of your former colleagues are not registering them. You report what you know to a Sunday newspaper, and the next day two detectives knock on your door.
At first you might be impressed by their prompt reaction. But then you discover that your visitors are from the "professional standards" unit (the subdivision of every force that polices its own officers) and have no interest in the truth of your claim. What they want to know is which serving policemen have spoken to you.
They are not concerned that shootings are spiralling out of control while being deliberately unrecorded in order not to spoil the crime figures: no, they want to discipline the officers for speaking out of turn.
This is what happened to former Detective Superintendent Peter Coles last Monday. The day before he had been quoted in this newspaper saying that gun crime in Nottinghamshire, where he was once head of the CID, was under-reported. Criminals turning up in hospital with gunshot wounds were often reluctant to involve the police, which led officers to treat the incidents as "no crimes", Mr Coles said.
One of the few things that will make police forces stir these days, as Mr Coles discovered, is the slightest hint that their officers are talking to outsiders about embarrassing matters. Going "off-message" is now as much frowned upon by the police as it is by their New Labour paymasters.
Take the crime statistics. Under Labour, they are used to convey an expedient message of the rosiest hue. It would not help senior officers' careers if they were to speak out about the glaring gaps in the Government's compiling methods. So the prevailing face of most forces is one of sanguine denial.
Nottinghamshire police's particular problem is that when their primary dissenter broke ranks last month it turned out to be their own Chief Constable, Steve Green. He admitted to me that his force was reeling under the murder rate and was going to have to "farm out" inquiries to other forces.
His reaction when we published the story was stupefying and gives great insight into the fear that going "off-message" engenders even in chief constables. His press office, who had helped arrange the interview with me and agreed the areas that Mr Green would discuss, announced that the Chief Constable had been "blackmailed" into giving the interview. This was utterly untrue and inherently preposterous. Yet in making the claim, the police tried to deflect attention away from the significance of what Mr Green had actually admitted - that his force could not cope with the slaughter on its streets - by suggesting that the more important issue was that he had been compelled against his will into saying what he did.
I have since been informed that Nottinghamshire police's professional standards team has been trying to access my phone records and those of a colleague to find out which officers may have spoken out. This kind of behaviour is not unusual. Police forces now consider whistleblowing as a form of corruption that should be rooted out. The officers concerned may be revealing matters that are in the public interest, but this is not a consideration.
Three days after the knock on Mr Coles's door, Nottinghamshire police revealed their latest crime figures, which showed a more than 10 per cent drop over the year. Naysayers, such as Mr Coles, who claim that the statistics are inaccurate, are not appreciated at such a time. As he is retired, the force cannot touch him but they can, and will, pursue anyone who might have given him information.
Getting to the truth behind the statistics and spin of crime figures is becoming increasingly difficult. Rare chinks of clarity, such as Mr Green's interview, are quickly covered over. A fortnight after talking to The Telegraph Mr Green admitted that his interview "was not my finest hour".
I beg to differ. It was probably his most conspicuous act of public service.
So watch it our Bib, don't go 'off message'!
Streaky
chris watton said:They'll probably turn BLiar's Evidence and inform on you for every petty-fogging thing you do that is against one of the myriad criminal offences BLiar and his cronies have introduced these past years - Streaky
But of course it's not a police state.....
Reads like an Orwellian novel doesn't it Streaky. Have to disagree slightly though, it started in the Thatcher era and has continued ever since, longer maybe if the truth be known, for I'm making NO political statement here, only an unbiased view of the truth as I see it.
It's creeping control and corruption.
I fear for the future, one major thing MUST be done in our government and soon. Remove the party whips, make them illegal. They turn democracy into dictatorship. Like school bullies, they roam the corridors of government seeking out those with a mind of their own and the interests of their constituants at heart.
Break the unrestricted power of those at the top whatever the party and complain about them, and their activities!
In this respect: It's better to vote for an "Independent" as long as they don't take the main party whip.
>> Edited by 8Pack on Monday 25th April 01:51
It's creeping control and corruption.
I fear for the future, one major thing MUST be done in our government and soon. Remove the party whips, make them illegal. They turn democracy into dictatorship. Like school bullies, they roam the corridors of government seeking out those with a mind of their own and the interests of their constituants at heart.
Break the unrestricted power of those at the top whatever the party and complain about them, and their activities!
In this respect: It's better to vote for an "Independent" as long as they don't take the main party whip.
>> Edited by 8Pack on Monday 25th April 01:51
8Pack said:It started in earnest as late as the 1945 Government of Clement Attlee with the nationalisation of public services (not that I'm saying that was all bad, BTW). He was a student of John Ruskin and William Morris ... men whose ideals have been basterdised by 'New Labour'.
Reads like an Orwellian novel doesn't it Streaky. Have to disagree slightly though, it started in the Thatcher era and has continued ever since, longer maybe if the truth be known, for I'm making NO political statement here, only an unbiased view of the truth as I see it.
It's creeping control and corruption.
WRT to "control", James Madison (4th President of the USA) wrote: "I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
And when it comes to "control", Aesop said: "We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."
Regardless of what has gone before, BLiar has presided (deliberate choice of word) over the greatest damage ever done to democratic government in this country. The Civil Service, the police and the judiciary have been politicised. Parliament has been effectively neutered and where it still has any teeth, simply bypassed. Parliament and the People have been continually and maliciously deceived. Lives have been squandered and livelihoods ruined. Industry has been hamstrung and all but crippled by ever higher burdens of taxation and red-tape. Control over our island borders has been ceded to Brussels (along with so much else), yet an iron fist closes ever more tightly over the indiginous population. Our once admired electoral system - the model for so many - has been reduced to a greater farce than the 'hanging chads' fiasco in Florida; and when BLiar says that: "Overall, the postal voting system is no more prone to fraud than other electoral systems.", we can only assume he is thinking of those that re-elected Robert Mugabe and George W Bush. A key anti-fraud was deliberately and studiedly removed by New Labour - one can easily surmise the reason, especially when the vast majority of postal voting fraud investigations to date have involved New Labour politicians.
This government (I will not grant the current ragbag of charlatans the honour of a capital 'G') has not targeted any one section of industry or the community, it has showered its misery over everyone, like an itinerant and indiscriminate farmer muck-spreader. It's purpose appears to be little other than to totally subjugate the population and to allow the basic cultures of these islands to be swamped by others and legislated out of existance.
I believe that, if the true history is ever told (something that grows less likely with every day that BLiar can arrange to have the record shredded), this will be the most corrupt government that the United Kingdom has endured in the last 700 or so years.
Streaky
[With NO apologies for the rant]
streaky said:
[With NO apologies for the rant]
None needed me owd flower.
streaky said:
This government (I will not grant the current ragbag of charlatans the honour of a capital 'G') has not targeted any one section of industry or the community, it has showered its misery over everyone, like an itinerant and indiscriminate farmer muck-spreader.
I would argue that it is fair to misquote George Orwell and say that "All have been showered equally but some have been showered more equally than others."
Lets face it Prescott bought the votes of all those millions of civil servants by announcing that the proposal for retirement age of 65 is to be withdrawn. That will cost councils, and therefore council tax payers approximately £1bn over the next three years.
Streaky said:
I believe that, if the true history is ever told (something that grows less likely with every day that BLiar can arrange to have the record shredded), this will be the most corrupt government that the United Kingdom has endured in the last 700 or so years.
Hear hear! Not that you and I will ever find out.
Mind you I liked the comment in one of the papers the other day concerning the independant candidate standing in Sedgefield.
Comment was that should Blair lose the down side was that should Labour be reelected the PM would be a short ill-tempered fat man from Hull.
FiF
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