Policing Pledge

Checking the DirectGov site for a reference to the once widely publicised "Policing Pledge" this is what you find.

First :-

The Policing Pledge is a national set of promises to the public which every police force has signed up to.

Then this explanation :-

The policing pledge is a set of promises from the police to you about the services they will provide. All 43 police forces in England and Wales have agreed to keep those promises so the same set of promises apply wherever you are. Find out more about what that means to you.

... followed by ...

What the pledge promises

Through the national policing pledge, every police force promises to listen to you and your neighbours, and to act on any problems you raise with them.
The pledge promises that:

police will treat you with dignity and respect at all times

emergency 999 calls will be answered within ten seconds, and that help will be sent immediately

if you call 999, you’ll be told when help will get there, and it will be there on time

police will handle non-emergency calls quickly

if you need to make an appointment to discuss local crime problems, you can

neighbourhood policing teams will spend at least 80 per cent of their time on the beat in your neighbourhood

your neighbourhood policing team will keep you informed about what they are doing about local issues and priorities

The pledge also says that if you're unhappy with the service you've received and you report that to the police, police will get in touch within 24 hours and discuss the situation with you. They will give you the opportunity to talk about it with someone from your local police, in person.

 To read the "... full national policing pledge ..." click here (pdf)

Here's a little story from Merseyside ...

Lee Fairbrother, 26, who had consumed a cocktail of drugs and alcohol, was spotted by two officers on the M57 near Aintree in Merseyside in July 2007.

They decided not to stop because they had not been trained to deal with motorway incidents

Maybe it would also be worth finding out how a Police Officer could forget where (s)he was, because :-

the officer reporting the matter gave inaccurate information - saying Mr Fairbrother was near junction 1 when he was actually 14 miles away, near junction 7

The coroner is, of course, being realistic, the inquest is of an an incident almost eighteen months ago, and of course since then things have changed for the better.

Haven't they?

Speaking after the hearing, Ch Insp Chris Markey said: "Since this tragic incident some changes have been made and the motorway is now patrolled by North West Motorway Police Group.

"Motorways can be a dangerous and difficult environment to police.

"It is because of these reasons that only trained and specifically equipped roads policing officers are deployed to incidents on the network, a practice that is also adopted in most forces in the UK."

So maybe Police officers will use a motorway to get from a ->b and, because they are "not trained to respond to motorway incidents", they will drive straight past any problems they might notice - because they've been told to?

It would seem so, if this is anything to go by.

The two officers were not trained to stop on the motorway so hence they didnt ok they got the location wrong and should of made the comms op aware of its urgency but they did what they were supposed to if they had stopped and something had happened they would be in the firing line!

It is the victims fault he got drunk and decided to take a walk home via a major motorway and paid with his life my thoughts are with his family but this should serve as a lesson for all motorways are for cars not for pedestrians!

It's hard to see how that opinion ties in with what's written in the "pledge".

Thankfully there's also this :-

me my self whould have stopped but thats me.

The "Police Pledge" is not new news, it is not a new promise, and there is a copy of this so-called "pledge"on the Merseyside Police site, it's here. The same words are carried on all force sites. This "pledge" is meant to apply evenly to all, not to be interpreted differently by different individuals and different regional forces, but it would seem that it is.

We're getting so used to empty words from those who are paid out of the public purse. It's more than worrying to learn that those who are trained and paid to, well, to Police the law and keep us safe, even when we've been a bit stupid, have been ordered to walk away and do nothing in certain circumstances because doing otherwise means, maybe, putting themselves at risk.

But, at least the Police do their job properly, on the whole. **

Don't they?

Another couple of little stories, also from the BBC.

This one

Kent Police have admitted they broke the law when they stopped and searched some people at Kingsnorth Climate Camp.

This isn't actually referring to "some people" - which suggests adults, it is referring to two eleven year olds who were searched and DNAd - as reported earlier

The stop and search of 11-year-old twins at the Kingsnorth Climate Camp was unlawful, Kent police have admitted at London's High Court.

There's also this one

A group of G20 protesters are to sue the Metropolitan Police after all charges against them were dropped.

..........

** The Rigbytown Police, when we see them, have been efficient, polite and friendly.