UK Policing - in brief
01 July 1995
UK: ROBOCOP - Automatic Police Station: To reduce costs but still furnish a minimum of necessary services, such as protection for threatened individuals, the British police in Byfleet, Surrey, opened last month the first unmanned, automated police station. A video link to the main station in Woking permits the police to watch the outside and inside of the Byfleet office and activate the security system to let someone enter. Once inside, the person can explain their case in video-conferencing with the Woking police station. The lights, heat and tea pot are turned on for the visitor when they enter.
Intelligence, no 269 July 1995.
UK: "Roots of disorder still flourishing in inner London": Mr Tony Speed, the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police told a public order training course in Hounslow that the underlying causes of "disorder", urban deprivation, still existed: "The conditions that prevailed in the early 80s, which were generally blamed for the widespread urban disorder remain". He went on to say that extreme right-wing politics and environmental activists were potential causes of public disorder. Bramshill Police College training centre has been running new courses for senior officers to deal with public order. These include "scenarios" such as protest marches about "contentious issues" and a course of dealing with "spontaneous disorder" and "flashpoint street disturbances". Police Review, 7.7.95.
UK: Greater use of informants: In 1993 the Audit Commission's report, "Help with Enquiries", recommended the greater use of pro-active techniques to target known or suspected criminals by the more co-ordinated use of informants. The report urged this new initiative largely on the ground of "cost-effective" policing when resources are short. An article in Police Review, "Nods and winks" says that: "Informants have the capacity to penetrate criminal networks to a much greater extent that other methods of surveillance". It goes so to say that this is a relatively inexpensive way of gathering intelligence: "Rewards include cash payments, favourable representations on bail and sentencing decisions and non-enforcement of minor criminal actions". Police Review, 4.8.95.
Neckholds: unacceptable "risk": The Home Office Minister David Maclean told the House of Commons that following the number of deaths in custody: "The expert opinion was that a neck-hold exerts any pressure on the carotid artery - the artery that carries oxygenated blood and nutrients to the head - or any hold that compresses the airway, involves, except in extreme circumstances, an unacceptably high element of risk". Despite this admission about present practices by police officers Mr Maclean could contend that: "given the number of people who pass through police hands each year, it is an actuarial inevitability that some will die while they are in police custody". He was responding to a debate called by Harry Cohen MP concerning the number of black people who dying in custody: "There should be a ban on neck-holds and an inquiry into medical care arrangements in prisons, police stations and psychiatric institutions". CARF no 27; Inquest.n