Category Archives: Policing

Britain, Government, Policing, Society

Is the role of policing to serve us?

POLICING

IN far too many countries, the word “police” is not a reassuring one. Even in civilised European nations the police are regarded by many law-abiding citizens with dislike and mistrust. In less happier societies around the world, corruption and brutality are horrifyingly normal among police officers.

However, the police of this country have been different from the start because Britain was slow to allow the creation of a police force at all.

Many in Parliament had looked across the Channel and saw gendarmes as an army of oppressors, a force to impose the will of the State. It was only through the enlightened brilliance of Sir Robert Peel which persuaded citizens to change their minds.

He devised a wholly new sort of police. They were to be unarmed and unassuming, their uniforms non-militaristic. Their job was to prevent crime and disorder.

Their methods were persuasion and the cultivation of public confidence, so that an alliance and bond of trust formed between the public and their police force.

Peel’s 1829 principles were codified by Charles Reith in his 1948 history of our police. They advise officers “to recognise always that the power to fulfil their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions, and behaviour”.

The principles urge them “to maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public the police”.

For, as Peel pointed out, the police are only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which every citizen should perform when he or she can.

A large part of these rules can be summed up by saying the police are paid to serve us, and not to boss us about.

Yet, today, there are far too many instances of police nationwide departing from these guiding principles. For example, citizens who might struggle to get police attention for a crime who then find officers on their doorstep because of something they have said on social media.

In such egregious but increasingly common cases, have police forgotten their job and invented new tasks which the public suspect of being mistaken and oppressive?

The time may have come for a new Royal Commission on the police, the first since 1962, so they can be guided back to the dutiful path that Sir Robert Peel wisely set for them.

Standard
Government, Policing, Scotland, Society

Cybertraining for all police officers in Scotland

CYBERCRIME

EVERY police officer in Scotland is set to receive specialist cybertraining to boost Police Scotland’s ability to tackle “new and complex crime types”.

The force is stepping up its war on cybercriminals amid a shocking explosion in the number of Scots falling victim to digital offences and the revelation that almost no crime is now without some form of “cyber element”.

A crack unit of 29 digital forensic experts is being recruited to strengthen the ability of the force to gather evidence in an increasingly digital world.

Reported cybercrime has nearly doubled in a year as more people than ever shop, bank, date and socialise online. The latest Annual Police Plan has named “tackling crime in a digital age” as a priority.

A senior officer in charge of cybercrime has urged the public to be vigilant. The officer said: “Anybody can be a victim of digital crime. We increasingly live our lives in a digital space, whereas traditionally that would have been a public space or a private space. It’s now online where the majority of activity is happening. We are seeing a tripling of reports in the last few years. We know that is only the tip of the iceberg. There are now very, very few inquiries and investigations the police are involved in that do not involve some form of cyber element.”

The pandemic is believed to be partly to blame for the exponential rise in digital offences, with more people communicating online due to Covid-19.

In 2020-21, an estimated 14,130 cybercrimes were recorded by Police Scotland – an increase of 95 per cent from 7,240 in 2019-20.

Cybercrimes include offences committed over the “dark web” – “hidden” internet sites only accessible with special software – and sophisticated large–scale frauds.

However, it also covers dating site cons, where crooks pretend to seek romance in order to trick people out of cash or personal details, online shopping scams and fraudulent “bank” emails trying to lure recipients into divulging their passwords.

It can also include sextortion, where criminals disclose or threaten to disclose an intimate image of someone online, and child abuse.

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) – which oversees Police Scotland – is planning a new programme that would involve extra basic training for 14,000 police officers and 2,000 additional staff, with “in-depth learning” for 3,000 personnel. A further 400 people will get training on subjects including the dark web and cryptocurrency.

Digital forensic experts are being recruited to extract evidence and data from electronic devices during investigations into a wide range of crimes, as well as providing expert advice, specialist recovery services and reports for court.

The Annual Police Plan states: “It is anticipated that demand on policing will continue to increase in complexity in terms of advancements and reliance on technology resulting in increased cyberthreats and cyber crime.”

Standard
Legal, Policing, Scotland, Society

Nine police officers are attacked on duty each day

POLICE SCOTLAND

NEW figures published show that police officers were subjected to more than 800 assaults over the course of just three months.

An average of more than nine assaults were inflicted every day on serving officers during the first quarter of this year.

During this period, 860 attacks were committed, with an average of five working days lost for every assault.

This was slightly down from the 1,031 over the same time period in 2020-21, which was a significant rise from 764 assaults in 2019-20.

Injuries such as stabbings with needles doubled in 2020-21, and injuries during an arrest rose by 12.5 per cent.

In 1919 Magazine, the policing magazine, which focuses on Scotland’s justice and social affairs, an experienced Police Scotland officer said: “The main underlying cause of violence against police is lack of police officers. You’re lucky if you’re sending two cops to go to a call where historically there might have been four, five, six in two or three cars.”

In the first quarter of the year there were five cases of officers being injured by needles.

The most common injuries were bruising and inflammation with 233 cases, followed by 222 cases of exposure to a hazardous substance, and 133 reports of a cut or laceration.

Last year, a thug was jailed after choking an officer and rendering him unconscious. Colleagues feared the officer had been killed after the assailant attacked him at a disturbance in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire. A total of 225 working days were lost over the three-month period. This is in comparison to 910 days lost due to potential or confirmed exposure to Covid.

The statistics come from a health and safety report, sent to the Scottish Police Authority’s People’s Committee last month. This report highlights a series of incidents.

It includes a case of an officer attending a violent domestic incident in Glasgow where a man was brandishing a knife close to paramedics. He swung the knife at officers when they tried to engage with him and struck one on the chest.

The report raised the “continued increase in police officer and police staff assaults” as an area of “concern”.

A senior police officer said: “Officers and staff work with dedication and a commitment to helping people, and violence against them is deplorable and unacceptable.

“It is simply not part of the job, and it will not be tolerated.

“It causes physical and psychological harm to dedicated public servants and there is also a cost to the public purse through days lost to ill-health or personal injury claims.”

Those who carry out serious attacks on police officers can face up to life imprisonment under common law offences.

There are also specific offences relating to police assaults in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act and Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act.

The Scottish Government said: “No one should be the victim of abuse or violence at work, and assaults on police officers are completely unacceptable.

“The health and safety of police officers is a matter for the chief constable, who has made a commitment for 2021/22 that he will continue to take action to reduce the impact on officers and staff of violence in all its forms.”

Standard