It's been busy........

What’s been happening?

Well, it’s a few months since my last blog and I can only apologise that I have been so tardy.
However, I have been finding that after completing 8 or 9 hour shifts where I am completing paperwork after paperwork, that I really don’t feel like sitting at the keyboard yet again when I get home.

SO what’s been happening?

Well, the easiest answer is lots!

I have started to find that the paperwork is becoming a bit easier – although I still find it overwhelmingly tiresome and repetitive. It seems like there are loads of things that are duplicated, that could be minimised with decent IT systems that would talk to each other. I have also started to think that the police are being used as typewriter monkeys for the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) and the courts, as so many MG (manual of guidance) forms need to be completed just so a well paid lawyer can look at the case and decide just how ‘good’ they feel about the case and what the chances are that the case can be proven in court.

I have also seen people who have received quite nasty assaults and I have stated in my notes that the assault amounts to ABH (Aggravated Bodily Harm) or GBH (Grevious Bodily Harm), but instead the CPS know that they will definitely get Common Assault proven, and so downgrade the charge.

This is one of the hardest parts, as I have to go and tell the victims that the trauma they have gone through is only going to be dealt with by a far lesser offence, and many times Common Assault can be dealt with by a fine and a suspended sentence, or maybe just a fine, or sometimes just a caution.

I understand that prisons are full and I understand that there are times when a bit of leniency can help to prevent turn a ‘one-time-offender’ into a ‘persistent-offender’, but the CPS aren’t really looking at it like that. In this modern day, they too have targets and cost restraints. They have to be ‘accountable’ for their actions. If they can get 16 common assaults through the books knowing that 100% of them will be positive for them, rather than 8 out of 16 ABH assaults that are positive, then they have a 200% better track record, and less cost per crime than they would have had.
This will mean that justice is ‘seen to be done’. The public will look at the massaged reports on the news that the ‘detection’ rate for crimes is very high, and the CPS will be able to say that they have a high success rate for all crimes that they pursue, and justify their pay rises etc.

I have just read back the last paragraphs, and realise that I am coming over as a cynic. This is not the point – I feel proud about the job I am doing and I feel strongly for the rights of those that have been brave enough to come forward to the police to make a complaint against others, knowing full well that they may receive further harassment and abuse due to their actions. I also feel annoyed that I may have to fill out 16 full files, just to have 8 of them go through – downgraded to a lesser charge, just so another department can ‘look good’. The public do realise that the police are on their side, they do understand that the CPS have their hands tied to a certain extent, but the plain truth of the matter is that the offenders also know that they can ‘get away ‘ with it – which sends out completely the wrong message.

Well, I’ve started to write again, I’ve had a rant. I’ll try and put a few stories in over the coming weeks of events that have happened to me that I have found interesting, moving or funny (or even all three)........