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PostPosted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 19:41 
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Daily Mail

Quote:
Police 'persecute the middle classes' to hit Government crime targets
By DUNCAN ROBERTSON
Last updated at 11:23am on 15th December 2007

Comments (13)

The middle classes are being persecuted so police can chase Government crime targets, the head of the Police Federation says today.

Jan Berry says targets imposed by Whitehall have distorted police priorities, encouraging officers to arrest people for minor offences instead of investigating serious crime.

'There has been a sense of persecuting middle England in order to make the statistics look good', she said.

'We've got more people counting things than we've got out there doing things.I'm not against targets per se, but we have the wrong targets.'

Mrs Berry says police are concentrating minor offences speeding offences and public order offences when they should take into account the quality as well as quantity of crimes.

'If a murder has the same number as the theft of a Mars bar, then something's wrong in the system,' she says in an interview in The Daily Telegraph.

Mrs Berry's concerns follows an damning report published by the chief inspector of constabulary in September.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan found that police were too busy chasing children accused of playground fights to do their job properly and did not always act in the 'public interest'.

His report was scathing about the way police forces are obliged to chase targets for catching a fixed number of offenders each year, regardless of their crime

Government rules mean punishing a child involved in a schoolyard scuffle carries the same weight as arresting a burglar, rapist or killer.

Ridiculous examples given by rank-and-file police include the case of a Cheshire man who was cautioned for being 'found in possession of an egg with intent to throw'.

In Kent, a child was arrested for throwing a slice of cucumber from a tuna sandwich at another youngster.

Sir Ronnie's report said: 'The recording and level of investigation of a vast swathe of minor crimes is in my view a key area that needs to be re-considered.

''An emphasis on detection levels has undoubtedly to a degree produced the unintended effect of officers spending time investigating crimes with a view to obtaining a detection - even when that is clearly not in the public interest.'

He also said officers - bogged down by bureaucracy - tended to 'over-record and under-deliver' for fear of being accused of missing something.

They are so busy chasing targets, which can be achieved by pursuing minor crimes, that they do not always act in the 'public interest'.

The Government wanted police to bring 1.25 million offences to justice in the last 12 months. In fact, 1.43 million cases were bought to justice.

But it emerged last month that less than 1 per cent of reported offences last year ended in a prison sentence.

Out-of-court punishments account for more than half of all offences dealt with by the justice system last year, for the first time in modern criminal history.

The rise of summary justice at the expense of formal hearings in courts meant that 51 per cent of offences were dealt with by a caution, on-the-spot fine or cannabis warning.

Courtroom convictions as a percentage of all offences brought to justice in England and Wales have fallen by just under 20 per cent in five years.

The figures released by the Ministry of Justice show that convictions in court accounted for 49 per cent of all offences brought to justice in 2006-07, compared with 68 per cent in 2002-03.

Cautions increased by 17 per cent last year to 350,000, fixed-penalty notices issued by the police rose by 37 per cent to 201,200 and warnings for cannabis possession rose by 2,000 to 83,000. Fifty-two per cent of fixed-penalty notices were paid in full.


Just like speed cameras then?

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PostPosted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 21:54 
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... iew12b.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... tid=601371

Miss Berry form the police federation has stated in to-days Telegraph that the police are pandering to government targets. This is then alienating the middle classes who are being targeted by these targets. This section of the country would normally be supporters of the police and the aims of the police. Well to wake up and smell the coffee is fine but to do it when the coffee morning is over is a little bit late Miss Berry. It is your colleagues Miss Berry, who are doing the targeting and it’s your politically correct colleagues who were deafening the public with their silence on this targeting until now!!!

Targets, targets and more targets are the mantra of the government and senior police officers. This as all good managers know has several effects on the workforce. They either strive for the very best or they go for the lowest common denominator. Well we all know what the police have gone for. As Miss Berry, stated in the Telegraph the police target the easy to the detriment of the general public. The hardened criminals no longer fear the police so what do the police do they target the easy compliant public doing the normal things people do.

Commit Murder, rape, robbery, mug pensioners, stab teenagers, shoot teenagers, infest lives with vandalism, cause anti social behaviour and shoplifting you have rights but the easy targeted motorist has no rights. This thanks to the likes of Meredith Hughes and Richard Brunstrom who have declared war on the general public. We the British public are public enemy number 1 and have no rights thanks to the police and government.

How perverse of the police and government to deny the public the right to justice!!!
However, this fits in with the targets and makes good statistical reading (Tough on crime tough on the causes of crime).

Perception is everything these days. The perception rightly I believe is with chief constables like Meredith Hughes and Richard Brunstrom, making the public and the hard pressed motorist, public enemy number 1. Is it any wonder the public are sceptical of the police and have distain for Nu Labour?

These two self publicist chief constables target the motorist like Robert Mugabe wins elections, by hook or by crook. Then we have Ian Blair who has no credibility left with the public, who slithers on to our TV screens to tell us he knows better than all of us. How sanctimonious and predictable of a these senior police officers.

So it is no wonder the perception is that crime is an inconvenient sideshow for the police but the motorist is public enemy number one!!!

At this point I would like to know what is the motivation of the police conducting a covert speed trap on a clear dry summer’s night at 0300hrs catching a lone driver doing 35mph in a 30mph zone, and then smugly handing you’re just gotten fine and penalty points.

Then there is the question as to the getting photographic and video evidence from the police, if you have the audacity to question the speeding fine and points and the lies the police tell to screw the motorist for the £60.

I wonder how long it will be if the police get 42 day detention for terrorist suspects will some poor member of the general public who dislikes the way some snotty cop is dealing with them, be detained for 42 days for having 1984 in their briefcase

If the police are expecting the court of public opinion to support them in their pay dispute they have I’m afraid gone to the wrong address again.

If David Cameron, wants to get elected get rid of the police Political Correctness, stealth taxing speed cameras and force the police to abide by their own codes of practice and give justice to the majority not the criminal minority.

Signed fed up member of the majority middle class.


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