Virgin Media funded police overtime

Policing in the UK has come under intense scrutiny after it emerged that company Virgin Media funded police overtime in return for the Met to probe an expensive commercial fraud case.

As the police face budget cuts and a recruitment freeze, it is understood that 30 detectives were sponsored by Richard Branson’s firm, with the company agreeing to support an additional overtime cost incurred by the Metropolitan Police.

The payments were intended to enable police to investigate a fraud case that had been costing the cable company an estimated £144 million a year.

According to the contract between Virgin Media and the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), “the MPA accepts from the donor the unconditional offer of cash donations of every 25% of any money returned to Virgin media under a compensation order following successful asset recovery work”.

A spokesman from Virgin Media told Yahoo!
News that there was no issue with the payments
and that the terms were fully detailed and disclosed in court.

The extra police work, which cost a total of £5,060, led to the successful prosecution of three men involved in an international set-top box scam that manufactured, imported and supplied set-top boxes from South Korea to UK dealers – allowing viewers to unlawfully access cable TV.


Such payments are legal under the Police Act 1996 – which states a police force may provide “special police services” to “any person” subject to payment. But the issue of private policing against regular and more important police work has been called into question by critics.
In fact, after the lawyers of one of the now-jailed defendants Munaf Ahmed Zinga argued that the private prosecution should not have gone ahead in the first place because the payments should have been considered illegal, Judge Inigon Bing instead ruled they were “above board”.
A spokesman from Virgin Media told Yahoo! News that there was no issue with the payments and that the terms were fully detailed and disclosed in court. 


He added: “The payments are not as secret as the media are making out today. Corporations pay the police for services all of the time.”


However, some think very differently. Speaking with Yahoo! News this morning about the issue of private policing, London Assembly member and a member of the Police and Crime committee Jenny Jones strongly opposed the payments. 


She said: “It’s outrageous. The police have always taken out private contracts for policing special events like football matches, concerts or celebrities. But when it’s a public order issue, it’s outrageous that they can use up police time to work on Virgin, regardless of whether it’s a priority or not.


“Instead of hiring detectives to gather evidence and building a case first, it is understood they hired out officers to do extra work in police overtime when there are more important things at stake like rape and child abuse cases to take care of.”


Civil liberties group Liberty similarly questioned the ethics of private policing and suggested that Virgin Media case seemed to “give wealthy victims of crime greater sway than poorer victims”, ‘The Daily Telegraph’ quotes.


Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: “Times may be tough but that's no excuse for turning the police into hired guns for those wealthy enough to pursue crimes against them. 


“Taking a percentage of a victim's remuneration is bad enough but even worse is the thought of those in greatest need of protection being turned away in favour of those who can afford to pay.”


The revelations come after the World Society of the Protection of Animals (WSPA) contributed a “significant amount of money” to directly fund the Met’s Wildlife Crime Unit. It is the first time policing in the UK has ever been funded by a charity.

The Green Party's Jenny Jones added: “The Wildlife Crime Unit has been going for 12 years. There were plans to cut it as it was not a policing priority like other elements of core policing. But, wildlife crime should be considered a core area of policing which the Met should be paying for.


“When it comes to funding, the charity money should always be seen as an extra investment in terms of increasing the unit's output and effectiveness.”


Sergeant Ian Knox, of the Wildlife Crime Unit, said: “The extra funding will pay for more staff so we can be more proactive in targeting criminals who seek to exploit animals for financial gain.”
©Yahoo!News

Police chief hails cannabis find

A senior police officer has praised the discovery of a cannabis factory containing plants with a street value of £200,000.

Officers found cannabis worth up to
 200,000 pounds in the Antrim raid

Cannabis plants, cultivating equipment and other drugs paraphernalia were found in a police search of a property at the Belfast Road area of Antrim on Saturday.

A 33-year-old woman was arrested at the scene and is assisting police with their enquiries.

Area Commander Chief Inspector Natalie Wilson said: "This discovery has taken a large quantity of potentially dangerous drugs off our streets.

"We remain totally committed to tackling the scourge of illegal drugs and we are working to disrupt the activities of the gangs involved in their sale and supply, limit the amount of misery they are able to inflict on communities, and ultimately by putting them behind bars.

"We will continue to address the issues of illegal drug use and supply with the support of the local community."

Sun executives and Police Office arrested over illegal police payments

Detectives on Saturday searched the offices of Rupert Murdoch's The Sun and arrested four journalists and a policeman in a widening probe into the bribing of police for information.

The development finally drags Britain's biggest-selling newspaper into the turmoil at Murdoch's empire, after its stablemate the News of the World was shut down in disgrace in July amid a scandal over phone hacking.

Four journalists and a policeman in a
widening probe into the bribing
of police for information.

Police said they made the arrests after information was provided to police by Murdoch's US-based News Corporation -- in what commentators said was a clear effort by the company to detoxify the brand.

The BBC and the Guardian newspaper named the arrested Sun journalists as former deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, former managing editor Graham Dudman, current crime editor Mike Sullivan and current head of news Chris Pharo.

In an email to staff, Tom Mockridge, the chief executive of Murdoch's British subsidiary News International, said Saturday that the company had provided legal support to the arrested men.

"Despite this very difficult news, we are determined that News International will emerge a stronger and more trusted organisation," Mockridge wrote in the email, a copy of which was obtained by The Guardian.

"We must all support Dominic (Mohan, the editor of The Sun) who will be leading his staff to deliver, as always, a great paper for Monday and going forward."

A 29-year-old from the force's
Territorial Policing command was arrested .

Scotland Yard said in a statement that in dawn raids it had arrested two men aged 49 and 57 at their homes in Essex, and a man aged 48 at his home in London.

A 42-year-old man was later arrested after attending a police station.

They were held on suspicion of corruption, aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office and conspiracy in relation to both these offences.

A 29-year-old from the force's Territorial Policing command was arrested at the London police station where he works on suspicion of corruption, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy.

"The home addresses of those arrested are currently being searched and officers are also carrying out a number of searches at the offices of News International in Wapping, East London," a police statement said.

"Today's operation is the result of information provided to police by News Corporation's Management and Standards Committee.

"It relates to suspected payments to police officers and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately."

News Corp. confirmed that the other four men arrested either worked or used to work at The Sun.

It said it had set up the committee after the phone-hacking scandal "to undertake a review of all News International titles, regardless of cost, and to proactively cooperate with law enforcement and other authorities if potentially relevant information arose at those titles."

"As a result of that review, which is ongoing, the (committee) provided information to the Elveden investigation which led to today's arrests."

Thirteen people have now been arrested under Operation Elveden, the police investigation into allegations that journalists paid officers for information.

It was sparked by concerns about the working practices of the British press after the News of the World scandal and runs alongside Operation Weeting, the probe into phone hacking under which 17 arrests have so far been made.

The scandal at the News of the World erupted in July when it emerged that journalists had listened to the voicemails not just of celebrities and politicians but also a murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler.

Amid public outrage, Murdoch closed down 168-year-old weekly.

The scandal also prompted Prime Minister David Cameron to order a wide-ranging inquiry into the practices and ethics of the press, which began hearings at the end of last year.

The Sun has daily sales of more than 2.5 million. It is known for its racy celebrity-driven content and colourful headlines, but also for self-proclaimed influence with the electorate.

Ahead of elections in 2010 it dropped its support for British prime minister Gordon Brown's Labour party in favour of Cameron's Conservatives.

Current Sun editor Mohan told the phone-hacking inquiry earlier this month that he had no knowledge of phone-hacking at the paper, adding that the daily could be a "powerful force for good."

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved

The number of police officers has fallen to its lowest level in a decade.

The number of police officers has fallen to its lowest level in a decade

The number of police officers has fallen to its lowest level in a decade as a police chief warned cuts had left his force "on a metaphorical cliff edge".


There were more than 6,000 fewer officers in England and Wales at the end of September last year compared with the year before, more than 9,000 fewer police staff, and more than 900 fewer community support officers.


But the number of specials - unpaid volunteers - rose by more than 2,500, the Home Office figures showed.
The figures were published as Gloucestershire Chief Constable Tony Melville became one of the most senior officers to speak out against the Government's budget cuts, warning his force was "in the middle of the perfect storm".


"Never before in my 34 years of policing have I experienced an issue which has galvanised staff and officers in the way that this has and I feel compelled to respond," he said.

There were 135,838 officers in the 43 police forces in England and Wales at the end of September 2011

"We are cutting much, much deeper than was ever intended or required by the CSR (comprehensive spending review). So in a small force, a series of local decisions have combined to take us to a metaphorical cliff edge much more quickly than others."


"These are astonishingly hard-hitting words from a chief constable who has been put in an impossible position by the Government," said shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper.


"David Cameron and Theresa May are letting down communities and turning their backs on the police. They should be battling to cut crime, but they are just cutting the police instead. The Prime Minister's decision to cut policing too far and too fast when many crimes are increasing is putting communities at risk."


But Policing Minister Nick Herbert said: "The strength and quality of frontline policing cannot, and should not, be measured simply in terms of officer numbers. What matters is not the total number of officers employed, but how officers are deployed.


"The best forces had twice the visibility and availability of those at the bottom of the table. So spending isn't the sole issue."

©Press Association

Poll reveals child neglect worries

Both professionals and the public feel powerless to help in suspected cases of child neglect, campaigners have warned.

More than half of social workers and a third of police officers felt powerless to intervene while less than two-thirds of the public who had concerns had told someone else, surveys showed.

Action for Children called for the Government to increase families' access to support and encourage parents and the public to act early on signs of neglect.

Dame Clare Tickell, the charity's chief executive, said: "Neglect corrodes childhoods, robbing the most vulnerable children of hope, happiness and life chances.

"All our findings point to the stark reality that neglected children and their parents are being identified, but neither the professionals nor the public feel empowered to help or intervene, particularly at the early stages.

"When it comes to child neglect the reality is we are only tackling the tip of the iceberg, and there are many thousands out there in desperate need. We are currently missing critical opportunities to help and putting valued professionals in an impossible position."

Less than two-thirds of people
who have concerns about
child neglect have told
someone else, according to a poll

Professor Corinne May-Chahal, co-chairwoman of The College of Social Work, added: "The point at which social workers can intervene in cases of neglect is too high. This high threshold allows the challenges families face to deteriorate to the point where they need urgent help.

"Even when a child has been identified as being neglected, social workers struggle to get them the support they need due to a lack of time or resources. The system, in its current state, falls short in providing the safety and security neglected children need."

A YouGov poll of almost 300 social workers found 51% felt "powerless" to intervene in cases of child neglect while a survey of almost 250 police officers found 36% felt the same.

More than half (52%) of over 2,000 adults polled said they had had concerns about child neglect, but just 62% had told someone else, with the others worrying about a lack of evidence and more than a third wanting more information on who to contact.

£2.4m police bill for site eviction

The police operation to clear the UK's largest illegal travellers' site cost almost £2.4 million.

Essex Police confirmed the figure for the policing side of the clearance of Dale Farm, near Basildon, in October.

It had originally been estimated that policing could cost up to £10 million but the final bill is less than a quarter of that.

The clearance operation at
Dale Farm cost Essex Police
more than two million pounds

A report will be presented to Essex Police Authority's finance committee next week and a full breakdown of costs is expected later this month.

Basildon Council has not yet confirmed its costs for the operation, which includes paying a team of bailiffs.

It had set aside £8 million for the eviction - bringing the total forecast cost to £18 million.

Reports locally last week suggested the final cost would be £4.2 million. The council refused to confirm this but said it expected to be "under budget".

There were violent clashes as Essex Police led the operation to clear protesters from the six-acre site before council-employed bailiffs completed the clearance. The operation followed a decade-long row over unauthorised plots.

The Home Office had pledged to pay up to £4.65 million, or half of the policing cost. The Department for Communities and Local Government also contributed £1.2 million towards the eviction.

The remainder will come from policing and council budgets

Met awaits 'kettling' appeal ruling

The Metropolitan Police will learn whether they have won their appeal against a High Court ruling over "kettling" tactics used during the G20 demonstrations in 2009.

The ruling, after officers were said to have used "unjustified force", led to a call from human rights lawyers for an "immediate change to police attitudes and tactics".

The decision did not outlaw kettling, when demonstrators are contained or corralled inside police cordons and prevented from leaving, but the police expressed concern when the High Court handed down judgment in April last year. They said that its adverse findings could have an impact on their ability "to prevent disorder within protests".

Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, sitting in the Court of Appeal with Lord Justice Hughes and Lord Justice Sullivan, will decide whether the High Court was right on the law.

The ruling was won by Hannah McClure, a student, and Josh Moos, a campaigner for Plane Stupid, who challenged the legality of "violent" restraint methods used against them when they were contained by officers at the Camp for Climate Action in Bishopsgate in the City of London on April 1, 2009.

It was the same day newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson died after being struck by a police officer at a separate G20 protest at the nearby Royal Exchange.

The police said the extended kettling was necessary to keep violent demonstrators at the Royal Exchange from "hijacking" the more peaceful climate camp, attended by up to 5,000 people.

Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger will rule on 'kettling' tactics

The High Court ruled that there had been no evidence of an imminent breach of the peace to justify the kettle, when a tight police cordon was thrown round the climate camp demonstrators from just after 7pm for more than four hours.

The judges criticised "unduly inflexible" arrangements for releasing people. Mr Moos said he became dehydrated after being refused permission to leave. The judges specifically condemned the police over the way officers armed with batons and riot shields pushed a 15-deep crowd of demonstrators back 20 to 30 metres. Sir Anthony May, president of the Queen's Bench Division, and Mr Justice Sweeney agreed that "unjustified force" had been used.

When the Metropolitan Police Service announced an appeal they made it clear the judgment did not outlaw kettling, and containment tactics would continue to be used "to prevent serious disorder and violence".

©Press Association

EX-POLICEMAN HELD IN HACKING PROBE

A former Scotland Yard officer was arrested today over allegations of unauthorised leaks to a journalist.

The 52-year-old man is being questioned on suspicion of misconduct in public office after being detained at his Berkshire home by officers from the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Evidence was sent to the police watchdog from Scotland Yard detectives investigating corruption surrounding the phone-hacking investigation.

The former officer is being questioned by IPCC investigators at a Thames Valley police station.

A spokeswoman for the watchdog said: "A 52-year-old man, a former Metropolitan Police Service officer, was arrested by the IPCC at his home in Berkshire this morning on suspicion of misconduct in public office and Data Protection Act offences.

"The arrest is the result of information passed to the IPCC by the Metropolitan Police Service team investigating Operation Elveden and relates to the alleged passing of unauthorised information to a journalist."

Nine suspects have now been arrested as part of Operation Elveden, which was launched after officers were handed documents suggesting News International journalists had made payments to officers.

Sir Paul Stephenson, the then Met commissioner, said in July that evidence from the publisher suggested a small number of officers were involved.

Last month, a 52-year-old woman, understood to be a member of the force's specialist operations branch, was arrested on suspicion of receiving illegal payments.

Others questioned as part of the inquiry include former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson, former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, the paper's former royal editor Clive Goodman, and a 63-year-old man whose identity has not been disclosed.

Mrs Brooks and Mr Coulson are both former editors of the News of the World, which was closed in July at the height of the hacking scandal following revelations that murdered teenager Milly Dowler's phone was involved.

The final total of people whose phones were hacked by the News of the World will be about 800, the force believes.

The scandal has led to the closure of the News of the World after 168 years, prompted a major public inquiry, and forced the resignation of Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul and assistant commissioner John Yates.

The officer has never filled a position within the very top ranks at Scotland Yard, a source close to the investigation said.

©Press Association 2012

FAKE BOMB BREACHES OLYMPIC SECURITY

Police carrying out security tests ahead of the Olympics managed to smuggle a fake bomb on to the main site, it was reported today.

A dummy device is believed to have made it past security staff at the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, on at least one occasion as security measures were scrutinised.

A spokesman for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) refused to comment on the incident but added: "Testing is standard practice in all major security operations.

"Such tests have a key role in developing our capability to ensure that London 2012 is safe and secure and that we are best prepared to detect potential threats before and during the Games.

"Members of the public with tickets should be reassured that such exercises are being staged to ensure their safety, our number one priority."

The Metropolitan Police also said it would not comment on the security breach.

London 2012 has been put at severe terror threat level, the second highest classification.

The Olympics is a symbolic target and this year's Games also marks the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics where the Black September terror group killed 11 Israelis.

Risks from protest groups or natural disasters are also part of the detailed safety planning.

Last month the Ministry of Defence confirmed that 13,500 military personnel, more than the 10,000 that were deployed to Afghanistan, will be part of the 23,700 security force for the Games.

The deployment across all military services includes 3,500, rising to a peak of 7,500, who will provide venue security.

Around 5,000 servicemen and women will support the police and other civil authorities, providing specialist capabilities such as bomb disposal and dog teams.

Another 1,000 will provide logistical support.

There will also be a 1,000-strong unarmed contingency force for deployment in the event of an "Olympics-related civil emergency".

The overall 23,700-strong security force will include a mix of military, private security guards and at least 3,000 unpaid London 2012 volunteers who will be used at the start of the security process.

PA 2012