You gotta Love Ken Livingstone. No, really.
He's appearing before the Metropolitan Police Authority on Thursday to petition against the "decision to cut 455 police officers".
He is presenting a petition in a slot under arrangements that were designed to help victims of serious crime or to raise controversial police tactics to have their say in front of the MPA. It was not brought in to facilitate political stunts.
But the key thing about all this nonsense about "reducing officers by 455" is that it is part of Operation Herald, which was approved in FEBRUARY 2008, when Ken was still Mayor and Labour's leader on the GLA Len Duvall was MPA Chair!
Operation Herald is designed to civilianise back office roles in order to get more warranted offices out on the front line. In fact Len Duvall chaired the commitee meeting that specifically approved this civilianisation of the back offices.
When Boris took over he took the view that this policy was perfectly sensible and carried on with it.
So Ken Livingstone is now petitioning against his own policy. The brass neck of the man.
No doubt Oona King will be watching events carefully.
6 comments:
'Politician in shameless stunt for political gain'
It's not exactly 'hold the front page!' is it?
Operation Herald should have happened years ago across the entire country. Gives the lie to those who say budget cuts mean fewer officers. No thery don`t. Not if the cops organised themselves better. This is one of the ways. What a chump Livingston is.
..and senior police officers are blatantly ignoring Teresa May's policy too.
She though she'd abolished the Polcing Pledge, yet my local force's website still highlights their commitment to it. They're not the only ones.
We're still under a Labour administration.
The 455 cut in police officers which Livingstone is petitioning against (stunt or not) is proposed in Boris Johnson's budget and is nothing to do with Project Herald.
Herald was indeed started before Boris was elected but will not lead to a reduction in officers as they will be re-deployed, not cut.
It is a programme to replace desk based officers with civilian staff which would have happened with or without Boris. His 455 cut is totally separate from it.
Disappointingly (though not surprisingly), Pravda, the People's State Broadcaster, a.k.a. BBC London's local n^Hviews this lunchtime featured the People's Ken making his complaint at the GLA, but of course with no mention of Operation Herald, Ken's part in initiating it or his resultant blatant hypocrisy whatsoever.
Amateur hour at the BBC N^HViews, again.
How wonderful that my previous sterling work as a Management Consultant has fallen on deaf ears.
FORTY years ago I did my first project on civilianising some tasks in the Police service.
That was repeated some 20 and 25 years later.
Looks like I wasted my time - and public money.
I have to say that in the intervening 40,25 and 20 years the amount of time that the warranted Police officers spend actually solving and prosecuting crime has REDUCED.
What changed? Well the establishment of the Crown Prosecution Service for one. WHAT a waste of time and money. (made a joke on a train about the "Criminal Protection Society". They weren't amused but I was right - and hey they were annoying me)
Previously Police Officers themselves prosecuted many low level crimes. Now they don't.
The CPS decide.
The 2nd thing is PACE. Sure it introduced some safeguards but also shackled Police officers.
So now we have Police Officers concentrating on the "easy" bits - driving offences and drunken behaviour.
I well remember, 40 years ago, seeing a hand crafted chart in a CID office which showed "detected" crime (that is prosecuted) and "undetected" (so far unsolved).
I would bet my whole worth that the proportion of "detected" and "undetected" has massively shifted to the latter for CID at least. Driving offences, drunken behaviour etc? Different scenario.
Disgusting.
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