More Jobsworths

August 27, 2008 Civil Liberties, General News, General Rants, Political 8

I find this worrying.

Despite lacking formal police training, hundreds of civilians have been made part of the “extended police family” by the Home Office under little-known legislation.

They have not been asked to wear any special uniforms to identify themselves, but must wear only a badge that can be as small as 73mm x 80mm.

The disclosure that hundreds of civilians have been given enforcement powers drew accusations that the Government is encouraging the spread of unaccountable policing.

Unaccountable policing is exactly what it is. Little jobsworths given power they do not deserve to hold will, inevitably, abuse that power.

The Home Office revealed yesterday that more than 1,600 non-police officers have been given enforcement powers under its so-called Community Safety Accreditation Schemes.

Is it me, or does that sound a little too much like the committee for public safety? Well, I suppose it does go hand in hand with a reign of terror.

A total of 1,406 staff from 95 “approved organizations” including local councils and private companies have been given enforcement powers.

Jesus! An army of jumped up jobsworths.

Dominic Grieve, the Conservative shadow home secretary, said the scheme was the latest example of the unjustified extension of surveillance powers under Labour.

Nice to see that Dominic has a grasp of the classic British understatement.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Community Safety Accreditation Schemes enable Chief Constables to designate limited powers to employees of organisations who contribute towards community safety.”

It is the committee for public safety…

Accredited Persons have a key role to play in the delivery of Neighbourhood Policing and are an important part of the extended police family.

Oh well, that’s all right, then. Nothing to worry about. No jumped up self-serving little bullies issuing fines on the spot for minor misdemeanours just because they can, at all, then.

Tags: , , ,

8 Comments

  1. ”Despite lacking formal police training, hundreds of civilians have been made part of the “extended police family” by the Home Office under little-known legislation.”

    Well, actually, as you’ve already pointed out, I wouldn’t be so keen on that ‘formal police training’ – it doesn’t seem to be all it’s cracked up to be…

    JuliaMs last blog post..Freedom Of Speech: If We Don’t Protect It, We’ll Lose It To People Like This

  3. JuliaM – indeed I have. But this is worse, far worse. It scares me. From piss-poor training to no training. Ye Gods!

    Obnoxio – the irony has not escaped me 😉

  4. LR

    Don’t worry. On “Today” this morning Danny Shaw (some creep from the BBC which couldn’t even be bothered to get a beard from the Home Office to mask the BBC’s joy at this HO “initiative”) informed us that 1,400 isn’t much. After all, as Danny told us, it’s only up from less than 1,000 a couple of years ago and, spread over the UK, it’s hardly worth bothering with – and anyway “they’ll all have a badge”!. So that’s alright then.

  5. “…anyway “they’ll all have a badge”!”

    Perhaps the BBC could dig out its stock of Blue Peter badges for the occasion. It’s about all this lot are worth…

  6. Perhaps I am getting a little too cynical but the only power that these jumped up clowns (no disrespect to Obnoxio, of course) have is to issue fines. They can do absolutely nothing about the kinds of things that people really care about such as burglars and muggers but they can fleece the public for even more money just at a time when HM Government has run out. Or maybe not cynical enough. Creating a new breed for petty bureaucrat to line the government’s pockets and irritate the public (and also rip up the Bill of Rights since you can bet these will be ‘on the spot’ fines that are against Bill of Rights protection from fines and forfeitures without trial) is exactly the kind of thing that this government seems to love.

    chris stranges last blog post..I’m Sparticus (again)

Comments are closed.