February 2024: Good money after bad apples
Police chiefs clamour for more funding continues; West Midlands in epic battle over control for policing and crime functions
Dear StopWatchers,
From television documentaries depicting a gross lack of care and diligence from a professional standards department, to police factions warring with top brass, forces across England and Wales find themselves in ever more turmoil.
Not to worry though. Come the new financial year in April, they’ll have more money to do all of these things and worse.
Good money after bad apples
Last month, we raised the issue of police chiefs believing their perceived lack of resources to be a bigger issue for the future of policing than the institutionally racist practices underpinning their operations.
This short month saw more of the same, this time from Metropolitan police chief Sir Mark Rowley. In a London Assembly Police and Crime Committee meeting, the commissioner presented Met workforce numbers that he found ‘deeply concerning’ (Evening Standard, 21 Feb).
Where we anticipate being at the end of March is around 34,000 ie around 1,400 light.
We anticipate our projection for the next year based on current application levels, recruiting levels etc, unless we can make a sharp movement in that, is for that to drop by approximately another 1,250.
So we would expect to be at 32,750 roughly at the end of March 2025.
Now that is that is deeply concerning to me.
Rowley also claimed that the force would need 27% more in funds (£878m) to keep in line with spending per head population compared with a decade ago. It’s worth noting that using an austerity years baseline for comparing actual vs projected expenditure is convenient for any appeals made for more funds. Expect that percentage gap to be even bigger this time next year.
Another issue with the 27% figure is that it assumes there is a formulaic relationship between spend for every officer per head of the civilian population respective of Police Force Area, and not that the politics of funding public services has resulted in equations like the Police Allocation Formula being hollowed out by ring-fencing stunts, or that the retention of officers is an ongoing problem setback by scandal after scandal after scandal.
But if we always think the police are the solution to social challenges, then no amount of money will ever be enough for them, no matter the assurances from home secretary James Cleverly that the government has prioritised ‘giving police the resources they need to protect the public’. He told the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) their budgets will rise by up to almost one billion English pounds in 2024/25, marking an increase in the total settlement of ‘more than 30% in cash terms since 2019 to 2020’, all to support the uplift in police numbers (Gov.uk, 07 Feb). Sometimes ministers do put treasury money where their mouths are.
Cleverly also declared himself ‘a fan of PCCs, of the PCC model’ and that he was ‘very, very happy to give additional money’ to help support their personal security as a result… except where the job security of elected PCC for the West Midlands Simon Foster is at stake (Local Government Lawyer, 15 Feb).
The government laid legislation in parliament to transfer crime commissioner functions to the West Midlands mayor from May. Foster claimed that the incumbent mayor (Andy Street) had failed to secure a democratic mandate for the transfer of PCC powers following the outcome of a contentious consultation survey. This left him with no alternative ‘but to proceed with an application for judicial review’.
Perhaps a streamlining of the democratic mandate in metro mayor areas was overdue. Perhaps the government should have foreseen this potential conflict, being the same one that introduced the position of police crime commissioners back in 2011. Perhaps Foster felt scapegoated as a Labour Party PCC in an area where the mayor and 70% of MPs hail from the Conservative Party. Perhaps he was a target for his particularly vocal criticisms of police procedure, such as daring to say stop and search find rates aren’t good enough as the force slid into special measures. Any which way, it seems as though removing the politics from policing appears to involve some politicians removing other politicians of opposition parties from elected police roles.
Meanwhile, the good people of the West Midlands – along with many others – soon will receive a letter from their local authority justifying council tax hikes on the basis of having to fund cash strapped services. The problem is, even casual exposure to local media coverage gives the impression that the police deserve taxpayers’ money above other services, even as whole city councils fall into bankruptcy, which all feels less like a genuine policing by consent and more like a manufacturing of it.
Yet, the continuing stories of officer incompetence and worse forever leave us wondering what exactly is it we are paying for?
Deaths from police contact, cases old and new
Mouayed Bashir
Mouayed Bashir died following restraint by Gwent police in February 2021 in Newport, Wales. An inquest concluded finding his death was caused by cocaine intoxication, contributed to by Acute Behavioural Disturbance (ABD) following a period of restraint. The jury believed that police officers restrained Bashir for his safety and the safety of others, despite his ever deteriorating condition. They also believed there was insufficient knowledge around identifying some of the signs of ABD (INQUEST, 02 Feb).
Other news
National Black Police Association call for a boycott: The NBPA has called for ethnic minorities to boycott joining the Metropolitan police in protest at a ‘racist and vexatious’ misconduct investigation into chair of the Met Black Police Association (Guardian, 05 Feb).
In the first call for a boycott in 20 years, the association claims Charles Ehikioya has been targeted because he voiced concerns about the poor behaviour of senior officers and the racism he and his colleagues are suffering.
The NBPA claimed Ehikioya was racially abused in a WhatsApp group and, instead of treating him as a victim, was placed under restrictions that prevented him from being involved in any cases that involved discrimination and from attending meetings with the mayor’s office for policing and crime, as part of a deliberate and concerted effort to find dubious evidence against him.
Black teenager racially profiled by Met police officers: Eight Met police officers are under investigation after a 16-year-old Black boy was stopped and searched six times in five months. Each stop resulted in no further action taken (IOPC, 06 Feb).
Haringey Independent Stop and Search Monitoring Group complained to the force on behalf of the child and his mother in April and June 2023 and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) launched its investigation after it received a mandatory referral from the Met in September 2023. The complaints include allegations that there were insufficient grounds for the searches, racial profiling by the officers, unreasonable uses of force, a failure to consider the boy's welfare and inconsistencies in policing procedure.
Four of the searches involved Territorial Support Group (TSG) officers while the other two incidents involved local borough command officers. During the incidents, the child was told he was being searched on suspicion of drugs or theft, and reportedly matched descriptions of people carrying out robberies and knife crime in the area. Reviewing officers’ body worn video footage and written records made at the time, the IOPC identified evidence indicating potential breaches of the police standards of professional behaviour five of the six incidents. As a result, seven MPS officers are under investigation for potential gross misconduct and an eighth officer is being investigated for potential misconduct.
Thames Valley police will not ‘mark its own homework’: Assistant chief constable Dennis Murray promises Thames Valley force will not ‘mark its own homework’ when it comes to the disproportionate use of stop and search powers; Black people are up to five times more likely to be stop and searched in the region (ITV News Meridian, 06 Feb).
Following on from their Race Action Plan, the force claims it has made a bespoke plan which meets the needs of the Thames Valley community, which includes an independent scrutiny and oversight board comprising members from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
Officers ‘mockumented’ in reality TV show: Members of the Avon and Somerset Police Federation said they were ‘angry’ and felt ‘let down’ over the decision to participate in To Catch A Copper, Channel 4’s three-part documentary providing a behind-the-scenes look at Avon and Somerset’s professional standards department as they look into cases brought against their own officers (Evening Standard, 06 Feb).
The force’s chief constable Sarah Crew said: ‘I’d like to reassure everyone that when we entered into this relationship with the documentary makers, the federation were consulted, were fully supportive and involved throughout the filming, as you can see from the programmes that have aired. These conversations are important and they will be ongoing… the vast majority of reactions I’ve received directly, from members of the public, from people in positions of influence and power, and from the media, have been positive… [in] exposing, understanding and then addressing the barriers which are significantly impacting on people’s trust and confidence in us’.
Union-lite police body beset by ‘bitter infighting’: One serving officer has urged the home secretary to launch a public inquiry into the Police Federation, alleging that it is riven by ‘bitter infighting’ and ‘systemic bullying’. Watch his exclusive interview with Ria Chatterjee via the link below (Channel 4 News, 13 Feb).
Don’t call it a matrix: The Met police has scrapped its gangs violence matrix in favour of an existing Violence Harm Assessment (VHA), an intelligence tool used to identify and risk assess the most harmful and violent offenders in the capital (The Met, 13 Feb).
The scoring for the VHA uses academically tested methodologies developed by the Cambridge Harm Index and Office of National Statistics Scoring. It does not replace previous tools focussed on violent crime associated with gangs, apparently.
Ex-Met police officer convicted of multiple counts of rape: Scotland Yard has confirmed an ex-officer has been convicted of multiple counts of rape whilst serving in the force’s West Area Basic Command Unit. Cliff Mitchell was found guilty of 10 counts of rape, three counts of rape of a child under 13, one count of kidnap and breach of a non-molestation order following a trial at Croydon Crown Court (ITV News London, 21 Feb).
Mitchell had previously been subject to a rape investigation in 2017, which had resulted in no further action, the force said. Following his arrest, the case was reinvestigated which resulted in Mitchell being charged with an additional three counts of rape of a child under 13 and three counts of rape. He was suspended from the force after the allegations came to light and has since been dismissed.
Notts special constable sacked for viewing footage of dying victims: A special constable is understood to have viewed footage of officers and paramedics providing medical help to two victims of the Nottinghamshire attacks on a police laptop. They were dealt with at a privately-held ‘accelerated misconduct hearing’ chaired by chief constable Kate Meynell, and have since been dismissed and barred from working as a police officer (Sky News, 22 Feb).
Sky News reported that there is an also ongoing gross misconduct investigation into a member of staff who was arrested and interviewed after accessing evidence to which they had no legitimate policing purpose. Almost 180 police staff were found to have viewed material relating to the case, with 11 of them having no ‘legitimate reason’ to do so.
Racism, reinstated, shows leadership qualities: Met police detective sergeant Neil Buckmaster, dismissed in 2021 after a discipline panel found him guilty of gross misconduct for using racist terms during an online football game, has been reinstated and sent on leadership course (The Guardian, 26 Feb).
When the Guardian asked about Buckmaster’s continued services, the force said he had been dismissed but the police appeals tribunal set aside the guilty finding. A new misconduct hearing date was set but its directorate of professional standards reviewed the case and decided not to proceed.
The Met claims that the case added to the strength of the commissioner Sir Mark Rowley’s call for he rather than an appeals tribunal to have the final say over who works in the force, although we do not know what decision he would have made about Buckmaster, and the Met’s statement conceded that it was the legally qualified chair – the position Sir Rowley is reported to take issue with – who decided that Buckmaster should be dismissed without notice.
If it weren’t for you meddling protestors, we’d have solved institutional racism by now: A home affairs select committee claims that mass protests in London are a drain on police resources and put other priorities at risk (Guardian, 27 Feb).
Buying into what was termed by one person on social media as ‘abusive husband logic’, the committee said the size and frequency of protests over the conflict in Gaza have placed significant pressures on police resources as the Met police attempt to implement a ‘culture change’ and train thousands of new officers. Good to know that solving institutional rot in the force is a resource-dependent issue.
The committee proposed that the government should consider expanding the requirements for protest organisers, such as increasing the minimum notice period of six days, to enable the police to better prepare. God made the world in six days, so preparing for a protest in that amount of time should be a doddle… unless they are afraid that another world is possible.
Data protection… for the police: Changes to the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (currently at committee stage in the House of Lords) will eliminate the requirement for police forces to record the reason an officer has accessed a particular database (Statewatch, 27 Feb). This means that stories like the one in which a member of police staff was arrested for ‘carried out unauthorised searches on the police computer system to access records… when she had no legitimate policing purpose for doing so’, will no longer occur. #terribletech
Section 60 watch*
Avon and Somerset
Thames Valley
Reading (01 Feb)
Greater Manchester
Swinton (08 Feb) Hollingwood (08 Feb), Nelson (26 Feb)**
* This is not a comprehensive list
** Nothing was found on anyone searched, according to news reports
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