29 November 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Police taser man carrying toy gun

originally by: The Guardian
published: 24th November 2011

Metropolitan police officers fired a Taser nine times at a man sitting on a train in the belief he was carrying a weapon in his briefcase. The use of Tasers on a train comes as the commissioner of the Met police, Bernard Hogan-Howe, faces questions over his suggestion that more of his officers should be armed with the weapons.

Hogan-Howe said this week he wanted to see more Tasers in response cars and Scotland Yard has confirmed work is going on to review the availability of Tasers for its officers. Hogan-Howe was challenged about his statement about Tasers by members of the Metropolitan Police Authority on Thursday.

1 October 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Rethinking the police

all credits: The Telegraph
published: 28th September 2011

When the last full-scale review of policing took place, officers did not have radios and there were more than 100 forces in England alone. The 1962 Royal Commission on the Police was established to conduct “some fundamental rethinking about the purpose of the police and how this purpose can best be served in our own generation”. Has the time come for some more “fundamental rethinking”?

There has been plenty of piecemeal reform over the years; and there is soon to be more upheaval with the introduction of elected police and crime commissioners and the creation of a National Crime Agency. But the feeling that there is a deeper malaise – a crisis of confidence – is hard to shake off.

31 August 201116 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Corporate homicide law extended to prisons and police cells

originally by: The Guardian
published: 28th August 2011

Police forces, prisons and youth detention centres face prosecution for corporate homicide from this week if an individual dies in their custody.

In the 10 years between 1999 and 2009, 333 people died in or following police custody, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. Ministry of Justice figures show that last year there were 58 self-inflicted deaths among prisoners in England and Wales.

Until now, the prison service, police forces and immigration units have not been subject to the new Corporate Manslaughter and Homicide Act, and there have been no successful prosecutions of police or prison officers, individually or at a senior management level, for institutional failures that have contributed to a death in custody.