Twiki speaks

Was driving back hom on Sunday evening when a strange event happened - I found myself agreeing with David Blunkett.

At last, the police have managed to come with something even the bearded former home secretary thought was too much.

Apprently, the police want to use high-powered microphones alongside cctv cameras. They can't pick up ordinary conversations apprently but can distinguish whether a person is talking in an aggressive tone.
Brilliant, it means we don't need to fear terrorists anymore, unless, of course, they're not talking agressively.

I am wondering whether police are playing a game among themselves of how many ridiculous suggestions they can come up with before the government says no.

'90 days without having to charge anyone.' That's a good one. They'll never swallow that'

'No-one can protest without giving the police good notice. And then we can disperse them if there's more than two people.' Brilliant.

It is amazing how the police have been desribed as 'institutionally racist', had a programme where officers have been seen to be racist, have the crappest relations with newspapers and therefore poor relationships with communitites, increase their share of the council tax every year and still get away with it.

I have no idea how much I pay for the police every year (generally includes a bit extra for when I've been caught speeding again. Anyway, I digress) but I know even less of what I get out of it as the police are so unwilling to publish any meaningful statistics.

The last time I remember it happening was when the police gave local crime figures and clean-up rates to an area forum in Bucks. The sergeant admitted the clean-up rates were very poor and he then got bollocked when this was reported. Next time the forum was on, there were no crime statistics given. Genius. We keep getting told that we crime isn't as common as we think. The only problem is that police are unwilling to give us actual statistics because their clean-up rates are so poor.

(add disclaimer here. Most police are doing a great job in trying conditions with a lack of rsources to do the job properly and if I wanted protection,t hey'd be the first to put themselves on the line etc)