Any person who makes an application to join the police force will be faced with a number of tests in order to discern whether or not they have the right kind of attitude to work as an officer. This will involve a multiple choice test which is said to be pretty straight forward and it is easy to read between the lines for each question and work out what they are looking for. Furthermore, there are dozens of websites on the internet whereby you can find invaluable information on how best to approach and complete the test.

Then, you have interviews and role-play situations which are all aimed at catching you out, if you are not the right person for the job. But really, only the most stupid would crumble on an interview day and most people really would manage to hold it together for just a few hours if a whole new career was at stake.

It is a fact that far too many wrong candidates make it through the selection process and become police officers. Personally, I have known three people to become police officers and two out of these three were not right for the job – in my opinion. Even before they applied, I could see that they would be ‘power mad’ and that this may not translate well as a police officer. But they clearly must have blagged their way through the overall selection process, as they were welcomed into Devon and Cornwall Police with open arms and this is said to be one of the toughest forces to join.

I think this may actually be a problem from the start – generally people who have a thirst for power are keen to become police officers. Now, all police forces and their officers would attempt to deny this until the cows came home, but let’s face facts here, this is absolutely the case. Meek, timid and shy people are never going to cut the mustard as a police officer and all forces will always be staffed by ambitious people who are not afraid to push themselves to the front.

One way forward here might be to toughen up the application tests and processes and recognise the fact that most applicants are willing and ready to dupe the assessors as far as possible to secure that new, dream job. For goodness sakes, there are umpteen websites available now where you can completely cheat your way through this application process – as there are for many other important roles of employment in our country.

Of course, though, the application process will find some excellent people who are definitely right for the role as a police officer. Therefore, for the majority of applications, the wheat would be separated from the chaff. However, a far tougher application process, with many days of role-playing and tests would be better in determining the right people for this important job in the future.

However, the argument against the DNA database and the police’s use of this system goes further than this. You see, it is not simply a matter of arguing over the DNA records that have been retained from people who have gone on to be convicted of a criminal offence; instead, the strongest argument relates to the fact that an estimated one million records are still on file for people that were proven to be innocent.

The European Court of Human Rights has even had to intervene over this issue and has ruled against the police and UK Government – forcing them to implement legislation that will entitle people who were arrested (and had their records taken) the right to insist that these are destroyed.

Worryingly, the United Kingdom has the largest DNA database in the whole world – when you compare the number of records on the system against the overall population: this is currently ranking at around 8% of the total population. The country that has the second highest record (per capita) on their national database, is Austria, with only 1%. Of course, in terms of numbers, you would probably have already guessed that The US has a system with the largest number of records on file.

Ever since 2004, the police were fully entitled to record the fingerprints and DNA details for anyone who was even suspected of having committed an offence – and, man, have they done just that! It is now thought that there are around 5 million records on this database; a million of which are estimated to belong to people who actually transpired to be innocent of the offence they had been arrested for.

Whilst the police will vehemently argue that this DNA database is essential to helping them prevent and detect crimes, it would appear, alas, that statistics are not tending to back-up such assertions. Indeed, any figures that can be derived from the use of this national DNA database seem to suggest that this system has very little impact on helping to reduce and solve crime.

So, not only have one million people in this country had their DNA record taken from them unlawfully, but all of the records that are already on the system do not seem to be of much use anyway. This really does seem to be a case of ‘Big Brother Gone Too Far’ yet again.

At the end of the day, though, other people may have opinions over this DNA database that are even more extreme. Who is to say that a person convicted of any offence should have their DNA file kept on record? Or, if this is the case, surely these people should be entitled to have their file destroyed after a pre-determined amount of time has elapsed and they have managed to stay out of trouble.

There is no denying the fact that the state and police have managed our DNA database in a very arbitrary manner. They definitely have infringed on the privacy of around one million citizens in this country too far and more legislation and far better privacy laws (at the moment these are pretty non-existent when compared to other countries) must be adopted for the future.

Let’s face facts here, many people believe that some of our county forces are pathetically small and it cannot be cost-effective for them to be in existence in the first place. There may only be a couple of towns or cities within their boundaries (and even these may not exactly be sprawling metropolises) and the overall population of the county may be quite low.

Many of these forces would have been created several decades ago, at a time when the world seemed much larger than it is today. Nowadays, if you contemplate a road trip across the country, you could literally be passing through dozens of separate police force areas and not only is this costly, but very confusing as well.

There is a high degree of concern in that if policing were to be moved to a more regional level, this would mean that the police would inevitably fall out of touch with the public it serves. This is complete nonsense! If you browse all of the police forces’ websites, across the whole of the UK (not just England), you may as well be looking at one police force overall. They all pretty much say the same things. The same issues are of concern to the public within each of these force areas and the police are subject to the same statutory duties.

The fact that this type of policing can work very easily has already been proven in the Devon and Cornwall police force. This is one of the largest police force areas in the country and covers two of the biggest counties. As I come from Devon originally, I can assure you that there are absolutely no concerns over the police failing to rapport with and understand local communities. From Penzance to Axminster, everybody shares the same police force and officers will still work within specific sections of the force area anyway, so any such fears of failure to understand local communities are easily eliminated.

Collaborations between police forces on a regional level are already starting to take place. For example, the five police forces of the East Midlands have already created an agreement whereby they share certain services and inevitably save a lot of money in the long run. Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire have realised that this is the only way of ensuring that precious funds are preserved to be spent in more important areas.

The National Health Service has already moved the ambulance service to a regional level and this happened many years ago. This appears to be working perfectly well and there do not seem to be any calls for the service to return to a countywide operation.

Many people feel that it is simply a matter of time until policing is moved to a regional level. The fact of the matter is that countywide policing really does seem a little outdated in this day and age. What on earth is the point of a police force that has one city with around 100,000 inhabitants (or less) and then the rest of the population tends to live in more rural communities? This is expensive and therefore not providing taxpayers with value for their money.

The former Labour Government were responsible for the decision to hand the £80 million worth of communication equipment over to the police forces across the country. It was then up to the relevant force to utilise this equipment as cost-effectively as possible, however, according to a report from The National Audit Office (NAO), only around 20% of police forces had managed to achieve a result that provided the taxpayer with any value for money.

The report went further in establishing that this investment was a total disgrace from start to finish. In the beginning, the equipment was not distributed to police forces correctly: some forces did not have enough equipment to go around, whereas some other forces had more units of equipment than there were officers working for them. So, at this point, it is fair to say that there was a problem with the Government’s distribution of the communications equipment.

It doesn’t end here, either, as once the police forces had received the new equipment, there was a massive failure to utilise it correctly. The majority of force areas had not achieved any cost saving for this equipment to date and about the only positive to come from this £80 million was the fact that police officers were out of the office for an average of 18 minutes per shift – wow!

When you think back five years, to when this £80 million was thrown at the police, the Labour Government were under pressure to ensure that police officers spent much less time being bogged-down by the endless paperwork that was known to be a part of their job. So, to keep the public sweet and take the pressure off, they came up with this idea to provide officers with Blackberry mobile phones and other communication devices. However, they completely failed to conceive an effective distribution policy and guidelines on how to use this investment, and then the majority of police forces failed to implement correct procedures that would make the very best use of this expensive equipment.

When you think about the fact that there are people suffering with cancer that are being denied drugs that would extend their life expectancy because it is considered too expensive by their local health authority, this tends to put this shameful investment into complete context. Both the Government and failing police forces should feel thoroughly ashamed of themselves for having wasted such a huge amount of our money!

In fact, perhaps this money should be recouped from the forces that have proven themselves to be the most useless with this equipment. A further cut from their budgets, at such a time, would definitely provide a massive wake-up call and should make them think more seriously about how they will utilise public funds in the future.

In a year where the 43 police forces across England and Wales saw huge cuts to their budgets, could we have dared hope for any other direction for such complaints statistics? After all, officers are under increasing pressure nowadays to police communities as cost-effectively as they possibly can. The public’s expectations have not been lowered in line with the 20% cuts that have been generally imposed on each police force. Therefore, when evaluating this 4% statistic in these terms, surely this rise is not as bad as it could have been.

However, there are certain police forces that are bucking this trend so dramatically, it proves that even at a time where huge budgetary cuts are imposed, this is no excuse for an inferior level of service from the police. Both Avon and Somerset and Leicestershire Police have seen significant falls in the number of complaints that have been received regarding their officers. Moreover, praise has been awarded through the IPCC for the length of time it has taken to deal with complaints fully.

Avon and Somerset Police were further praised for the fact that they were able to resolve complaints against officers at a local level on far more occasions than most other police forces. In turn, meaning that less complaints would have escalated to the level of reaching the IPCC for their consideration.

Many people believe that just because a police force – or any public body for that matter – has had their budget cut so significantly, this does not mean to say that we need to batten down the hatches and prepare ourselves for a lower level of service. At the end of the day, this article is dealing with complaints that have been received through the IPCC regarding the behaviour of police officers and there would never be any excuse for such a professional to be anything other than courteous and exemplary in their duties to the public.

So, this basically means that a cut in budget should not have any impact on the behaviour of police officers in their duties whatsoever. Indeed, this is a point that was raised through Avon and Somerset Police themselves. Whilst maintaining staff moral amongst officers may pose more of a challenge at the moment, this is something that must be addressed by each and every police force in England and Wales. Where officers are not inclined to display the highest level of professionalism at all times, it really is quite simple: time to terminate their employment with the force and replace them with one of many individuals who is ready to get their teeth into a new career.

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To start this discussion, we really do have to face facts and acknowledge that no public body in our country is anywhere near perfect! When thousands of people work for any kind of organisation, there will always be an element of human error. Furthermore and especially where the police force is concerned, the wrong type of person will be recruited as an officer from time to time: an individual who is too gung ho and ‘jobs worth’ perhaps, or simply does not have the right attitude for such a role of responsibility in the first place. No matter what our attitude is toward the police, this is something that simply cannot be denied or ignored.

 The riots back in the Summer of 2011 made many of us question the current levels of respect for the police. When tens of thousands of anarchistic rioters were purposefully disrespecting the police and carrying out criminal damage and even looting shops – it is clear to see that these individuals had zero respect for the police within their communities. However, some might argue that this was more of a rebellion against the executive of this country – the government; especially in light of the fact that the coalition have been forced to introduce a swathe of cuts to control our economy and we all feel as though we have so much less money in our pockets than we did only a few years ago.

Then, we need to look at the actual areas where these riots tended to take place. The main areas were in and around communities where it is known that there are strong multi-cultural factors at work. Often, such communities feel as though they are specifically targeted by their local police force; indeed many might go as far as stating that they feel victimised at times.

Some people believe that the lack of respect for the police in these areas of the country may even stem from the fact that there are large populations of immigrants in these neighbourhoods, who have come from other countries where the local police forces would have been downright corrupt. It would be nigh on impossible to teach these people any degree of respect for the police in their new country, when they may have lived in complete fear of the law enforcement officers that were at work in their previous homeland.

Do we now live in a country where the previous class divides are no longer prevalent? Absolutely not! Anyone who would dare to seriously suggest such a thing (and some idiots have in the past!) would have to be on very strong hallucinogenic drugs to even make such an observation. The class system is still in play across the United Kingdom and it will always be. This is also very pertinent when it comes to the levels of respect for the police and this in another fundamental criterion for why the August riots tended to be concentrated in certain areas of the country.

By and large, it may well be fair to say that the police force enjoys a level of respect that is far higher than it was in the past. They work hard to engage with different areas of the community and there is a much stronger requirement for the police officers to deal with everyone in a fair and polite manner at all times. There will always be the people who break the law and have done wrong in the past that will never have any degree of respect for the police – but many would argue that their opinion is invalid.

Realistically, we need to appreciate the fact that the police force does an excellent job in our country and that they can certainly take some of the credit for helping the United Kingdom become one of the most envied nations in he world for its tolerant and open-minded attitude. After all, why on earth are people from all other countries of the world literally breaking their necks to move here?

We all heard the news a few weeks ago when it was reported that many non-EU nationalities had managed to slip under the radar and entered our country. These individuals may well have come from countries where it is already known that there are frightening problems with organised and drug-related crime. Such examples include South American nations, west Africa and some Caribbean countries.

If this is the case, and it definitely seems to be highly likely, this must be classified as a fundamental failure on behalf of our Border Agency to protect us within our own country. Moreover, with more and more undesirables entering the country, many police forces would admit that they are facing increasing problems through large international gangs, and in many cases, this problem is actually getting out of hand.

All police forces across the UK have had to tackle substantial cuts to their budgets over the past couple of years. This has come at a time when these forces actually need a lot more money in order to provide the level of policing that is required within our contemporary society. It does not take a genius to work out the statistics here: if a police force has faced a budget cut of around 20%, they will not be able to provide the same level of service they were before and they will inevitably have less money to spend on the growing problem with large and organised international gangs.

International gangs do not just hale from the non-EU countries; worryingly, as the Eastern European nations have joined and been allowed the same freedom to roam as other citizens of the Union, it is becoming increasingly evident that international criminals are coming from these countries. The Baltic states, Romania and Bulgaria are all identified as being parts of the European Union where we are seeing people moving to the UK and undertaking crime.

One of the biggest crimes being committed by the individuals and gangs from these countries is people trafficking. This is a crime that seems more reminiscent of Dickensian times and we definitely have the legal obligations of the EU to thank for the fact that our police are really struggling to tackle this inhumane practice.

The UK Border Agency can make every effort to ensure that the undesirables from non-EU countries are prevented from entering the UK. Net immigration figures are astronomically high at the moment, and internationally, we are always seen as a soft target for people looking to come here for a new life. Alas, it goes without saying that a percentage of these people are going to move to our country and continue to practice the same illegal activities that they were in their previous homeland.

As far as the EU is concerned, most people would agree that there is no other way forward here other than to pull out of this union as soon as possible. Our police forces really are bearing the brunt of the legal obligations that are imposed upon us by the treaties of the EU and as things currently stand, as a country, we are not coping with these increasing threats to our security.

 There is an understanding of the fact that it is up to the police to prove a person’s guilt whenever they have been charged with an offence. After all, we are all aware that one of the most fundamental principles of our legal system is that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, if the job of the police is inhibited by a defendant refusing to answer questions and provide any assistance in the enquiry, surely this would make it far harder to gather sufficient evidentiary support to forward to the Crown Prosecution Service and proceed with a case in the courts.

 Whilst this was certainly the problem faced by the police in the past, mercifully, these cocky criminals will often not be aware that new laws are now in place to attempt to address this dilemma. Yes, everyone does have the right to remain silent during any interviews carried out by the police, but now adverse inferences can be drawn by doing so, if and when a case may be put to a jury at crown court. What’s more, it would be the responsibility of a judge to inform the jury of this vital new legal stance.

 Basically, what this all means is that if a defendant has refused to help the police in their enquiries when it comes to light that they were holding back vital information that would have helped in the case, this can and will be held against them.

 Many people will agree that something had to be done over defendants adamantly refusing to answer any questions during police interviews. Personally, most law abiding citizens would agree that if a person is genuinely innocent, they will want to do all that they can to assist the police and answer their questions truthfully. After all, surely this would help to arrive at the fact that they are innocent more quickly.

 If and when a person is charged with a crime and taken to a police station to be questioned, they will have the right to legal representation and this will be provided free of charge if the defendant cannot afford it themselves. It will be the responsibility of the solicitor to advise their client of this new law when it comes to remaining silent and this should lead to more cooperation between the accused and police; however, this may not always be the case.

The new law whereby adverse inferences can be drawn by a defendant remaining silent through a police interview is actually a little more tentative that it was initially intended to be. When it first came into law, hopes were high that police interviews would turn out to be more successful than they had been in the past.

 As this law is not producing the standard of results that were initially hoped for, many people now argue that things need to be taken even further. Some are even saying that the fundamental human right to remain silent should be withdrawn if and when a person is expected to assist the police with their enquiries – whereby any refusal to answer questions should automatically be viewed as an admission of guilt.

 This may well be going too far, however. One thing is clear and that is something had to be done to address the unhelpful position that was assumed by so many criminals during police interviews. The law has been addressed once in this regard, but it seems highly likely that it will be looked at again in the near future.

It is fair to say that the English riots were the worst case of disorder to hit the United Kingdom in around 30 years. The last time riots were as serious as this was probably back in Brixton during the 1980’s. Further, many people are blaming the present day prevalence of social media sites for having incited riot action in many other cities across England.

The first riot broke out in the capital following the shooting of a man in Tottenham, North London. At first, this was a peaceful protest, but there was certainly an element of hardcore rioters present that were intent on turning this demonstration into a full-blown riot situation. At this time, the police were most criticised for the fact that there were not significant numbers of riot-trained officers present. News stories showed us how people turned to looting at that time and we saw them walking straight past police officers, with their ill-gotten-gains, and they were completely unchallenged as they did so.

So, following a night where the policing could have best been described as ‘flaccid’ – and that is definitely being kind! – the police monitored Twitter and Facebook and managed to ascertain that more riots were being planned for the following night; moreover, other police forces (e.g. Greater Manchester, West Midlands and Nottinghamshire) all worked out that riots were being planned within their own force areas.

This led to a massive presence of police officers on the streets where riots had been planned and the overall handling of this second night of riots could not have been any more different from the first. Yes, they were on a much more massive scale and the number of rioters taking part increased exponentially from the first night, but all-in-all, a message was being sent out to the general public that the police were capable of handling the situation and were doing their utmost to re-take control of our country’s streets.

Ostensibly, it would appear that the police are starting to learn a vital lesson where the handling of riots are concerned: there needs to be a definite balance where the use of force is concerned. Crucially, all police officers need to remember that all of their actions will be watched by the people of this country and that they are not above the law. They can and will be charged under criminal law if they use too much force against citizens and this has already been seen through recent cases that have been brought before the courts.

Have you been enraged through the fact that the banks were the main players in the frightening downturn in the international economy and then they continue to greedily claw in massive bonuses? This is certainly enough to make the blood boil of even the most level-headed of citizens. However, alas, it would appear that this bonus culture does not end here, as it has been announced recently that now even the Chief Constables of several police forces in England and Wales have been furnished with bonus payments that equate to many thousands of pounds, on top of their already respectable salaries.

Let’s look at the facts here: all police forces are facing gargantuan cuts in their budgets after the Government was forced to implement a package of austerity measures that are all aimed at getting the country’s financial standing back on track. Unfortunately, this has meant that hundreds of officers and support staff from every force are facing redundancy, as these cuts to budgets are having to be realised.

So, many people believe that it is in very bad taste that several Chief Constables and deputies across England and Wales have been awarded bonus payments of up to £17,341 individually and around £130,000 nationally.

Looking at this top statistic to start, the figure of £17,341 is said to be the additional bonus payment that has been awarded to the Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police. Bearing in mind that this position already attracts a very respectable annual salary of £155,000 and the fact that this force is facing cuts of around £40 million to its budget and around 200 staff are facing redundancy. When you evaluate such a bonus payment with all of these other negatives in the background, it really does leave a very bitter taste in the mouth!

These bonus payments are actually more commonplace than you might think, as forces as far apart as Dyfed-Powys and Lincolnshire are known to have paid Chief Constables and even deputies such additional remuneration packages, with all of the forces having to deal with massive cuts to their budgets and always a threat of dozens of staff facing redundancy within their force area.

People have been drawing a comparison here with how salaries and bonuses in the private sector are awarded and the majority of the controversy comes from the fact that all police staff salaries are paid for out of the public purse. It is the fundamental responsibility of any police officer – and at any level – to ensure that crime is tackled and reduced as far as possible in their force area and bonus payments should not be allocated for doing the job they were hired to do in the first instance.

It really is bad enough that we have to tolerate the nauseating and arbitrary payments of bonuses through the immoral banking giants, but the citizens of this country should not have to learn that their top public servants are cashing in as well. Reading between the lines, when undertaking the research for this article, one common excuse for such bonus payments to top police officers seems to have been the fact that the relevant police force was legally obliged to pay such a bonus to their staff and there was no real way of reneging on this.

This may well require new legislation or policies to be introduced as soon as possible. It is simply unacceptable that police forces are having to save many tens of millions of pounds in their budgets and are having to let so many of their staff go and then additional bonuses are being awarded to the people at the top of these forces – for goodness sakes! What kind of message does this send out to the more subordinate staff within the force?