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I recall a while back popping up to the local A &  E asking to borrow a nurses uniform. We decided it would be a good idea to do a fun run dressed as nurses. While I was in the bowels of the hospital trying to locate an NHS dress that would fit a 17 stone 6′ 3″ bloke, we stupidly asked to borrow a stretcher too.

After about a quarter of a mile of running whilst transporting an over-sized teddy on a stretcher, we quickly realised that the fun part of fun-run was something of a misnomer. Why do these ideas seem so good at the time?

Five miles later fun was about as far from my mind as shoving half a ton of broken bottles up my backside. Still, it was all for charideee.

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The voluptuous female struts her stuff bereft of clothing – apart from said trainers – on billboards across the country this month.

What has a gorgeous, naked woman got to do with this blog? Not enough, but you may well ask.

It seems the Institute of Advanced Motorists are gravely concerned. They say the adverts are certain to cause serious or possibly even fatal accidents as male drivers crane their necks for a close look.

They appear to disregard the danger to lesbians.

Peter Rodger, head of driving standards at the IAM, said: “Some of these ads will be more distracting than others, and some will be placed where the effect is particularly significant. They all add to the clutter pulling your visual attention away from the road and adding to the information you need to process as you drive along.”

I can think of worse sights to leave the world by.

We have the same problem in the control room.

There are ways times when, for various reasons, controllers or call-takers raise their voices the whole room hears everything. Sometimes its simply a case that the caller is in an environment, like a busy pub or club they just cant hear you. Other times its down to the calltakers getting frustrated.

Then there are the ones who are just plain loud. They might be taking a report of a lost cat I can still hear every word despite them being 30 yards away.

As far as Im aware, our telecommunications equipment is good enough to pick up the human voice from a distance of a couple of inches, so why they have to talk like they dont actually have any telecommunications equipment is beyond me.

It can be a source of amusement too especially when the calltakers questions are answered not by the caller but by people all over the control room.

I remember one girl in particular was clearly having a frustrating time with a caller who was probably drunk belligerent. She got louder louder, asking the caller various questions which werent being answered. As is do often the case, everything went quiet just at the time the calltaker, who had by now lost all sense of professionalism, shouted down the phone, “I’M TRYING TO HELP YOU, YOU MORON.”

Yep, FIVE WHOLE YEARS of blogging. While other police blogs have come & gone, 200 Weeks has stayed the course, bringing you insights & opinions on police & policing in the UK & beyond, together with thoughts on matters not necessarily related to policing.

And to top that, in a couple of weeks I’ll have published a blog entry every single day, rain or shine, work or rest day, for THREE YEARS.

1,294 posts have appeared over the past 5 years.

My thanks to all my regular readers, especially the ones who leave comments on my posts. I hope you fancy staying with me over the next year.

]]> 14 200 http://200weeks.police999.com http://200weeks.police999.com/?p=3241 2010-08-23T23:06:05Z 2010-08-27T12:05:32Z

Police were called to the Stapleford area of Nottingham to reports of males riding mopeds up & down the road.

When officers approached, one of the males became aggressive. A struggle ensued during which an officer was assaulted. The officer discharged his Taser but it missed & hit the girl who was standing behind the offender.

The male was subsequently arrested.

The girl was taken home & examined by a doctor who found she had not suffered any ill effects. Police have apologised to the girl.

To cut to the chase then, is this sufficient reason to deny police the use of Taser? Doubtless certain groups individuals will be using this as yet another example why police should not be trusted with yet another weapon in their arsenal.

Life is a series of risks, police work is no different. I’ve never believed that something should be banned just because the risk of misuse means someone might get hurt or even killed. I think it’s more a question of balancing the potential outcomes & trying to minimise the risks.

If risking the deaths of a certain amount of people to save the lives of many more people is an option open to you then I’d take the risk. But lets be clear, talking about Taser is not talking about life & death, despite what the anti campaigners might say.

Is it worth the risk of Tasering the occasional innocent person in order to protect people who might otherwise be at a far more serious risk? Unquestionably yes, apologise, make reparations, amend training accordingly but don’t ban it because of some errors.

No matter how good the training & equipment, we will always make cock-ups. It’s a question of whether those cock-ups outweigh the good the equipment provides.

He is now preparing to sue prison authorities for failing to protect him from racist abuse.

He began his sentence in Wandsworth but was transferred to Edmunds Hill Prison in Suffolk. He was sent to Prescoed Open Prison in Wales after being assaulted.

It’s interesting how someone of his previous police ranking found it easy enough to ignore the rules & laws when he saw fit but now chooses to try  & use those laws to obtain financial compensation as a result of someone doing something less serious than his own transgressions.

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