Policing - new material (87)
01 July 2009
Policing with the Community: an inspection of Policing with the Community in Northern Ireland. Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland March 2009, pp. 70. This report looks at Recommendation 44 of the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland (The Patten Report) published in 1999. The recommendation stated that, “Policing with the community should be the core function of the police service and the core function of every police station.” While arguing that there has been “substantial progress” in implementing Patten’s recommendation, it also finds that: “work remains to be done to fully embed PwC [Policing with the Community] as the core function of the police service and the core function of every police station.” Available as a free download at: http://www.cjini.org/CJNI/files/cc/ccae1ea9-133f-4199-8c29-0ff8b48206b6.pdf
All-seeing Eye, Gary Mason. Police Review 8.5.09, pp. 41-42. Discussion of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology, described by ACPO’s John Dean as “the finest intelligence-led tool that we have in policing at the moment”. This is because ANPR cameras are controlled by the police (and not privately owned or operated by local authorities like CCTV) and the “system is virtually instantaneous.” Primary used in counter-terrorism operations, Mason looks at its potential application as an “everyday policing tool”.
Generalized tonic-clonic seizure after a taser shot to the head, Esther T. Bui MD, Myra Sourkes MD and Richard Wennberg MD. Canadian Medical Association Journal Volume 180, no. 6 (March 17) 2009, pp. 635-626. This article reports on a Canadian police officer who was hit mistakenly by a Taser shot fired at a suspect: “The taser gun had been fired once, sending 2 barbed darts into his upper back and occiput. Within seconds the officer collapsed and experienced a generalized tonic-clonic seizure with loss of consciousness and postictal confusion. This report shows that a taser shot to the head may result in a brain-specific complication such as generalized tonic-clonic seizure. It also suggests that seizure should be considered an adverse event related to taser use.” According to Police Review (21.8.09) the number of combined Taser uses across the 43 English and Welsh police forces has risen from 2,056 (22.4.04 to 29.2.08) to 4,818 (22.4.04 to 31.3.09)::
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/reprint/180/6/625?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=taser&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=date&resourcetype=HWCIT
Ethnic Profiling in the European Union: pervasive, ineffective and discriminatory. Open Society Justice Initiative 2009, pp. 200. This report examines ethnic profiling as used by police officers in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands in both conventional policing and counter-terrorism. It finds that generalisations about race, ethnicity, religion and national origin are commonplace in targeting who to stop, search, raid or place under surveillance. It concludes that the practice is in violation of European law and international human rights norms, but is also “an ineffective use of police resources that leaves the public less safe. The damage from ethnic profiling – to the rule of law, to effective law enforcement, to police-community relations and especially to those who are targeted – is considerable.” Open Society Institute: www.soros.org
Policing in Northern Ireland: Positive Action and a Cohesive Community, Maggie Beirne, Runnymede’s Quarterly Bulletin no. 358 (June 2009), pp. 9-10. Freelance consultant on equality issues, Maggie Beirne, examines the ongoing progress being made to create a more diverse and representative Police Service of Northern Ireland since the Patten Commission introduced 175 recommendations in September 1999. The article focuses in particular on the positive outcomes of “50:50 recruitment” – a decision to recruit an equal number of Catholic and Protestant applicants that has seen the percentage of serving Catholic officers rise from 8% in 1998 to 23.7% as of mid-February 2008. The Runnymede Trust can be contacted at info@runnymedetrust.org, or at http://www.runnymedetrust.org
Hillsborough: The Truth P. Scraton. Mainstream 2009 (3rd edn). The definitive analysis of the Hillsborough football disaster, its aftermath, and the extensive legal processes that followed including the Home Office Inquiry, the inquests and the private prosecution of two senior police officers. It identified and exposed serious flaws in the government inquiry and the inquests and revealed how police statements were ‘reviewed’ and ‘altered’. The new edition includes recent interviews with bereaved families, reflecting on the impact of their continuing campaign for ‘justice’ and on the wider significance of a specific case currently before the European Court.