The business tagline of Cleveland Police is “Putting People First” but, irrespective of the mostly inane words and wasteful expenditure of public money in formulating these stupid corporate messages, the question has to be asked… Which people are they actually putting first? The public they supposedly serve or the self-serving management of the organisation?

As one of my Twitter followers and colleague put it recently when commenting upon our police and society (on a slightly different but related subject), it really does appear to be yet another clear case of… “One for one and none for all.”

Due to the ongoing investigations into the management of Cleveland Police, their Police Authority and the associated issues involving Chief Constable Sean Price and his Deputy etc, it’s not appropriate to make specific comment in relation to them as individuals. That said, this appears to be yet another example of the rot embedded within the higher echelons of the British Police service.

Force ‘screened out’ a third of crime reports: MORE than one in three crimes reported to Cleveland Police were “screened out” without further investigation last year. Thousands of crimes reported to the force were left on file over the course of 2010/11. Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show the force screened out 15,920 offences from its system over the period – 37% of all of those reported…(gazettelive.co.uk)

Steve Bennett, a retired West Midlands Police Officer, author of the Thin Blue Line Blog and a person who’s knowledge and expertise I value highly, commented on the malaise that is the recording of British crime statistics. When discussing the matter and this recent snippet above he said…

If I were working for the HMIC, Cleveland is the first force I would start with… Meteoric reductions in crime and increases in detection straight out of Grimm Fairy tales! As if 28% national detection weren’t bullshit enough, Cleveland rarely drop below 40%. If it were you or I running the show, we would want to prove (1) that the detection are genuine and if so, (2) how can we replicate this across the country… (Steve Bennett)

Related articles

• Why won’t the police tell journalists what is going on? (guardian.co.uk)
• Police ‘screen out’ 1 in 3 crimes (mirror.co.uk)
• Police ‘screening out’ one in three crimes (telegraph.co.uk)
• Cleveland police chiefs arrested (independent.co.uk)
• Chief constable and deputy arrested over corruption allegations (telegraph.co.uk)
• You: Cleveland police chiefs suspended after arrests (guardian.co.uk)