According to an article in the Guardian the police would quite like to less accountability if it’s all the same thanks – or as my friend on face book put it “Bastards, bastards, bastards, bastards…” (well you get the idea).
It would seem that The Met commissioner has been privately lobbying the home secretary to make it harder for people to sue the police in civil actions for technical breaches (now where have we heard that before?). They’d also like to be able to charge a fee for freedom of information requests, as they take time and are a nuisance and whilst they at it police officers and other staff should have to face more costs in employment tribunals and if they offer anyone a settlement and the person has the audacity to turn it down then they should “put on risk as to costs from the time that such an offer is made.” (Presumably that would be any offer).
Having recently learnt that ACPO are responsible for producing many of the guidelines on when the police are allowed to shoot us*, that “technical breaches” part is the bit that most worries me. We could easily have a police force that interprets the law according to documents written by a private for profit company (we already have this bit) with a much reduced risk of independent civil action calling them to account. Good job we can always trust them to properly investigate themselves to make sure they followed their guidelines properly.
One has to wonder how this got leaked and how much the commissioner is just chancing his arm, but how much consideration this gets from our ConDemnable leaders will be a potentially rather worrying litmus test of their (already suspect) attitude to restoring any measure of our civil liberties. The comment from the home office on the matter also hints at what could be a concerning smoke screen for the continuing reduction in liberties – pricing accountability and freedom out of peoples reach under the auspices of cuts and deficit reduction. I think I may have to ask my local MP their view on the matter.
* I realise this is probably old news, but the amount of guidance ACPO are responsible for on this surprised me, and makes me suspect that much else of our law is interpreted by the police though the same filter. The officer on the street probably doesn’t have much choice in the matter as if they don’t follow “official” guidelines and anything at all goes wrong they risk being hung out to dry.
