SPECIAL CONSTABLES AND THE MET.

 

by TheJusticeofthePeace @ 01. Oct. 2010. – 13:07:40

Later this month the Coalition will announce how U.K. plc is going to save itself from going into administration. In the usual manner of preparing the ground for the cutting process we have been hearing proposed scenarios which truly appear to be “worst case”. Within the criminal justice system some “cuts” will be more deep than others. 

Those familiar with the workings within magistrates` courts are well aware, and have been for some time, of the ever reducing efficiency of what can no longer be reasonably be called a system. 

In my court eg the shortage of ushers can cause serious problems. These unsung heroes and heroines are important to the smooth running of courts, especially trial and remand courts. They are to the courts as WD40 is to a squeaking door hinge……the item will function without the lubrication but will work slower, noisier and be a distraction to users. A few months ago my bench on being aware that we had no usher for our morning non CPS court refused to sit until one was provided. Court began at 10.30am! These people are, I believe, paid little over minimum wage. Vacancies are not being filled. 

Our CPS area is not top of the heap as far as the CPS Inspectorate is concerned. Vacancies there are not being filled so much work is delegated to lower level staff and those at the top have more work than they can reasonably cope with to the higher standards which operated perhaps ten years ago. 

Whilst in the past Legal Aid might have been a milk cow for a minority of lawyers who exploited the system to their pecuniary advantage it has now become a road to bankruptcy for a number of the ever decreasing legal fraternity which still undertakes such work. The quality of second applications for legal aid initially refused by legal advisers has in my opinion fallen considerably judging by those I have considered in the last few months; another pointer to the probable lower level within the organisation of the writer cf a few years ago. 

And so to the police; our first defence against criminal behaviour. Today October 1st not one of the police forces in England and Wales is accepting applications for new full time entrants. However twenty, just under half of forces, are recruiting special constables. Successful appointees will not be paid but of course their training costs are considerable. For the specials themselves it has always been a large shiny gold star on their C.V…….much the same as J.P. I suppose. It has also been a helpful stepping stone to a career as a professional police officer. The Metropolitan Police has now taken this career progression a stage further and announced that henceforth the only way into the force is via becoming and working successfully as a special. I must applaud this innovation. Although it has been precipitated by the dire financial position in which all public services find themselves it is putting into practice what has been common for the networking middle classes and business and professions since the year dot;- the unpaid intern or for the working class; the apprenticeship. Prior to and even for a few years after World War 2 the host lawyer, accountant or even barber would not only not pay a wage to his teenage aspirant but would expect a stipend for his troubles.

With the police service steadfastly refusing to return to officer entrance at inspector or above and requiring all ranks to begin at the bottom sifting applications to full time professionals from a cadre who have had twelve or more months on the streets part time must surely provide the force with an opportunity to weed out those who would be deemed unsuitable before they can do real trouble to themselves and us; the public they must serve although of late the service part is often lost in translation. Well done the Met! 

CARDBOARD POLICE - ESSEX NO! HUMBERSIDE - YES!

 30. Sep. 2010. @ 12:00:13 by TheJusticeofthePeace

There are some occasions when the phrase, “words fail me” sums up a reaction to what has been read, seen or heard. Bloggers by their very nature can`t afford to sit motionless at the keyboard paralysed into silence by the sheer lunacy of what information passes before them.

Exactly three weeks ago I mentioned in passing that Essex Police had abandoned the placing of cardboard cut outs of police officers outside shops and petrol stations around the county in an attempt to dissuade offending. Common sense, a faculty increasingly in short supply owing in part to the multicultural implications expressed at the top levels of what is common to eg a British born Caucasian might not be common to a foreign born person of a different ethnic origin, should have indicated the futility and contempt in which such actions would be held. The bosses in the county of the Capri and white stilettos have at least seen sense….eventually…….. and have removed such pantomime figures. 

One would have thought that that attempt at reducing criminal behaviour would not be repeated except perhaps at a Punch and Judy show on the beach at Weymouth if the “protect our children from violence” brigade have not banished it as “corrupting and liable to incite domestic violence”. But the example or lesson has not been learned by police in Hull. A BBC report of that force`s assertion that cardboard police have reduced crime makes interesting reading. I am not a statistician but to state that because two events happen simultaneously one is the cause of the other is sheer nonsense. But this is more than mathematically induced rubbish. It will bring the force into contempt when this play school experience is abandoned in the face of public ridicule. Police have through their own actions lost the position of respect they once held. Instead of looking for short term publicity when financial constraints are squeezing budgets dry Hull police should treat fellow citizens with respect and abandon such an idiotic practice.

LET SLEEPING JUDGES SLEEP WHILST J.P.s ARE FIRED

 28. Sep. 2010. @ 11:22:44 by TheJusticeofthePeace

Professional people must jump hurdles of varying heights in order to be entrusted with the tasks and duties they have voluntarily offered to perform for those who directly or indirectly pay for or receive their advice and/or services. Only in the most heinous circumstances do those individuals receive the ultimate sanction for departing morally or professionally from their chosen path. Mass murderer Harold Shipman was a known drug addict and was supposedly rehabilitated and allowed to continue to practise as a physician. When it comes to members of the judiciary misbehaving, a casual onlooker might opine that the higher up the ladder of seniority the alleged “justice” is standing the greater the saturation of redness must appear on his hand before action is taken. 

Magistrates [and others] in my opinion operate within what is arguably the most politically correct organisation in the country……Her Majesty`s Court Service and under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice. The well known and accurate description; “justice must not only be done it must be seen to be done” is not merely a snappy phrase; it gives meaning to a necessary pillar of a free society.

Within the Office of Judicial Complaints it seems there is no such consideration as “three strikes and you`re out”. It is more a matter of slip up once however minor and out you go. That philosophy certainly does not operate amongst other professional supervisory bodies. 
Then pity or castigate John Harrison ex J.P. on the Lancaster Bench who last week was thrown out for nodding off whilst chairing an assault trial. It seems that judges can fall asleep during a trial, admit such and continue on the bench. Such was the situation with His Honour Judge Michael Coombe [now deceased] who fell asleep during a robbery trial in 2002. Although convictions against the defendants were held at appeal in 2004 three of them had their sentences reduced. And his is not the only example. In 2001, Judge Gabriel Hutton was disciplined for falling asleep during a rape trial. In 1999, Judge Victor Hall was 'severely reprimanded' after he was convicted of drink-driving. 

It seems that the propensity to conceal judicial incompetence at the higher levels like all such attempts at cover up from Watergate onwards will lead to more revelations. 

Sleeping judges are a not uncommon consequence of advancing age, stuffy courtrooms and listening to sometimes boring people talking boring nonsense. But they are not sanctioned in the manner of magistrates. 

So for any colleagues especially those sitting in afternoon sessions……….an inability to have time for more than a cup of tea and a sandwich as opposed to a three courser and wine as our senior colleagues at Crown Court can avail themselves is no cause for despair. The motto is no second chances; keep awake or be fired! 

MAGISTRATES CAN BE INQUISITORIAL IN THE INTERESTS OF JUSTICE

 27. Sep. 2010. @ 11:39:30 by TheJusticeofthePeace

In France and other jurisdictions where the justice system is inquisitorial as opposed to the adversarial system in the U.K. there is an office of investigating magistrate. And as it says on the tin that person takes an active role in the investigation and court proceedings. Judges and J.P.s take an impartial role in the presentation of a criminal case and its defence. There are, however, occasions in a magistrates` court where intervention is not just allowed but necessary in the interests of justice. Frequent examples which come to mind are where a witness is being badgered by a lawyer prosecuting or defending or where the lawyer is insensitive to a witness`s ability to comprehend a convoluted question whether that lawyer`s insensitivity is by accident or design. The cause for intervention in such cases is relatively simple to make. But matters are never always so straight forward.

Many non Crown Prosecution Service offenders are brought to a magistrates` court. Examples are RSPCA, TV licensing, transport companies [fare dodgers], trading standards [fly tipping, health and safety etc ] , local authorities [council tax defaulters] etc etc

One afternoon about a year ago to the day I was sitting on one such prosecution. The prosecutor in her opening told us that her only witness, the investigating official, would read his five page statement and she would be relying on a bundle of over 200 pages as her evidence. We duly heard the official and a brief glance at the bundle showed that in addition to the official`s statement it was divided into three complainants` statements, the defendant’s interview, documents directly connecting the offender with the alleged offences and his various bank accounts over the specified period. Defence council had little upon which he could defend his client during cross examination of the official. His client who was not the sharpest knife in the drawer duly did his best under cross examination which was not approaching a Perry Mason standard. We retired to read the bundle telling those involved that we might have some questions for the defendant.

Much of the material in the bundle was totally unhelpful and unnecessary. We had to hunt for the pearls that the prosecutor had told us would be the basis for her case. We duly did find documents which appeared to link the defendant with the offence. Our concern was that they although they had been exhibited neither lawyer had pin pointed them. We decided that in the interests of justice we could not adjudicate without further knowledge and more answers. Thus we questioned the defendant in detail overruling objections from his counsel.

He was found guilty. At the post court review our legal adviser anticipating the tone of the discussion assured us that our inquisitorial approach was, in this particular case, perfectly lawful. He agreed that the prosecutor was failing in her duty when she attempted to rely on a huge bundle without further probing. He added that he would have intervened if we had been overstepping the mark.

Chairmanship of a magistrates` bench is an art not a science although the drafters of the so called competences required and the resultant appraisals techniques would seem to argue otherwise. J.P.s` awareness of when sensitive questioning of a witness is useful is not in the instruction manual but it is in the interests of justice.

IT`S TIME TO END DEFENDANTS` RIGHT TO CHOOSE

 26. Sep. 2010. @ 14:01:12 by TheJusticeofthePeace

On Nov 21st last year I commented that it was time to say goodbye to either way offences. It is not a view commonly held by lawyers. In no way of course am I suggesting that consideration of financial incentives by possibly extending the life of a hopeless case is in the minds of criminal practitioners. They are concerned with the inalienable right of trial by jury. Aside from practical objections the logic behind this assertion has always been misplaced. If the “right” is inalienable the offence should be indictable so that there is no doubt the defendant will be able to have his “right”. This is clearly nonsense and requires no further discussion. The unquestioning “right” logically should mean that summary trials are also against this “right”. And the most obvious reason to consign this so called “right” to the scrap heap is the fact that District Judges [MC] and their predecessors Stipendiary Magistrates have presided for decades as sole arbiters of fact finding and also as sentencers. Rarely is there a criminal lawyer who favours the abolition of either way offences. 

In not so many words that opinion is voiced by judges at crown courts more often than is reported. One such report in Carlisle last week sums up neatly the anomaly of either way offences. The defendant was charged with theft to the value of £30 and elected trial by jury instead of summary trial at magistrates` court. Doubtless his legally aided lawyer had given him his best advice throughout such that he changed his plea to guilty on the day of his trial. 

This time of deficit cutting must be the opportunity to pull the teeth of the Law Society and the Bar and end this anachronism of either way offences although with so many lawyers in parliament who regularly fail to oversee the passage of contentious or badly drafted legislation I have my doubts. At a minimum the mode of trial should be available solely to the bench or District Judge who can accept or reject jurisdiction. 

Cost cutting is often an excuse to fly in the face of good practice. In the case of either way offences being abolished or at least the defendants` choice being abolished the opposite would hold true……..good practice would force out bad.

ASBOs - THE END

 25. Sep. 2010. @ 15:35:44 by TheJusticeofthePeace

Anti social behaviour is getting out of hand. In plain English that is the opinion of somebody who ought to know; HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Denis O’Connor. And “hand” is the operative word. The hand is used for control whether by finger wagging or application to the side of the head by a policeman in the 1950s. 

Since the liberating 1960s revolution control and its bedside companion authority have been eroded. Teachers, park wardens, bus conductors and the next door neighbour etc have steadily had their ability to exercise mild restraint over anti social behaviour eroded in the rush to remove all barriers between the government and the governed. The discretion of police officers in their application of the law has been all but removed. At all levels police backsides are being covered by an ever increasing paper trail. It cannot continue.

Robert Peel set up the first professional police force in the world in London in 1829 with its prime principle or directive “to prevent crime and disorder”. Although Theresa May is scrapping The Police Pledge” looking through the Met`s eleven pledges on its website not one can be loosely translated as being equated to Peel`s Principle. The police have forgotten why they are needed. There`s much more chance of an individual being mugged, harassed, assaulted, robbed or burgled than being a victim of a dozen 9/11 atrocities. David Cameron is advocating local this and local that for local people. He should take a further step and investigate splitting our police into the French style of local and national. 

ASBOs were sired by Tony Blair out of Labour whilst in opposition and became law in 1998. They are entirely negative insofar as correctly written they prohibit activities as opposed to encouraging any beneficial behaviour. An ASBO is a civil disposal breach of which is a criminal offence punishable by a rarely given maximum of five years` custody. 17,000 have been issued since 1999. 2008, the last year for which figures are available, had 2027 issued; the lowest yearly total since their introduction. The conclusion is that police are not pursuing miscreants or the yobs are improving their behaviour. I know which possibility I hold responsible for the decline. 

About half of ASBOs are breached and about a third are breached five or more times. Research has indicated that in general those who breach court orders eg driving whilst disqualified are much more likely to go on to commit very serious offences cf the general population. With ASBO breachers about one quarter proceed to serious offending. The Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke wants to dispense with short sentences and punish/rehabilitate in the community. Theresa May, Home Secretary, has declared ASBOs are past their sell by date. Magistrates know only too well unless there are resources available to turn {mainly} young lives around from disordered to ordered the outlook is bleak indeed. 

A recognition by Sir Denis that the target culture so beloved by Labour when in office and shown to be responsible for much that is wrong with the NHS must be replaced by pro active policing where it matters most is welcome on the basis of better late than never……..on the streets on Friday nights, outside schools at 4.00pm and regularly patrolling singly instead of in pairs which is beginning to be the norm. Let the Mayor of London buy another 6,000 bikes for bobbies; that would be better for Londoners than any number of 3 litre BMWs.

A problem cannot be resolved until it is recognised as such. This is a beginning.