9 April 201217 December 2022 4WardEverUK

Metropolitan police ‘buried’ report in 2004 warning of race scandal

originally by: The Guardian
published: 6th April 2012

A secret Metropolitan police report warned police chiefs that they needed to take tougher action to stop officers discriminating against black people, and that a failure to do so would threaten a breakdown in community confidence.

The report, obtained by the Guardian, warned top officers that innocent African-Caribbean people were being stopped too often by officers, who wrongly “racially stereotyped” them as criminals.

The report was by Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat candidate for London mayor, who was then a Met commander. He says his bosses ignored the warnings made in 2004 and buried the report.

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.