Posts Tagged ‘police’
Dubai unveil police Ferrari
April 29th, 2013 • 11 CommentsThe British police force have had a series of boring cars done up like pandas as they try and catch villains, but in Dubai, they’ve won everything hands down by unveiling a Ferrari FV as their new squad car.
That’s in addition to the Lamborghini Aventador that officers already use. Oh, and the Chevrolet Camaro SS, a Dodge Charger and a BMW 5-Series that they have too. They’re just showing off aren’t they?
Police chief Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim said: “Dubai is a unique city and everything in it should reflect its uniqueness and for that reason police will add a Ferrari sports car to its patrol fleet. We have been pleasantly surprised by the reaction of people to the Lamborghini, so we said a Ferrari would be a good choice too.”
Police release footage of tailgater swine
February 8th, 2013 • 21 CommentsThe roads, as we all know, are teaming with arseholes. With that in mind, the police have launched a new road safety campaign in a bid to stop inconsiderate drivers. Operation Safeway looks to target motoring bullies who tailgate and drive too close to other drivers.
They’ve released a video of some berk in a van who gets as close as 30cm away from the back of an unmarked police car.
Police will employ these cars and motorbikes fitted with video cameras, in a bid to tackle offending drivers, such as the one shown above, who was recorded travelling at 70mph, tailgating like a madman, flashing his lights and taking both hands off the wheel to make ‘gestures’ at the officer driving the car.
Sgt Simon Willsher from the police said: “Many drivers do not realise that they can be prosecuted for inconsiderate driving when it also careless driving. For example, if someone is tailgating because they aren’t paying attention and don’t think about stopping distances they can go on a National Driver Alertness Course without going through court or having penalty points on their driving licences.”
“If, on the other hand, they are tailgating because they are impatient and trying to bully people out of the way they can be prosecuted for careless driving.”
Suspected baddies nabbed in cops’ ‘free beer’ honey trap
November 12th, 2011 • 10 Comments
We all like free stuff, and there’s no one who likes free stuff more than criminals. However, in Derbyshire recently, their yearning for free stuff has been the undoing of some nineteen suspected criminals, who were lured into a state of arrest with the promise of free beer.
Derbyshire Constabulary lured the suspected baddies into their arrest net by sending them letters, inviting them to ring a ‘marketing company’ and claim a ‘free crate of beer’. You can see where this is going can’t you?
Once they rang the ‘marketing company’, the hoodlums were put through to Chesterfield police station and arrangements were made with them for the delivery of their ‘free beer’. Once the police knew where they would be and when, they merely turned up with their special metal arresting mitts and threw them into the backs of some panda wagons.
Chief Inspector Graham McLaughlin, who was in charge of the ingenious operation, smirked like a bastard as he said: “These suspects are people who have managed to evade arrest for some time, so we have used different tactics to find them. It has been very cost-effective as it can take a lot of time and money to track people down. We use a variety of methods to arrest those suspected of committing criminal offences and we will continue to use new tactics when necessary.”
Hurrah for the police! Down with crime! Let’s all have some beer!
[Guardian]
Police launch new and improved crime map online to prey on your fear
October 28th, 2011 • 4 Comments
The police’s crime map website, launched in February, has been very very popular, bagging itself hundreds of millions of hits. And now, they’ve expanded it to allow the public to compare the performance of their local force with others.
This means that you can search by postcode to see info about the crime going on outside your house, just so you can really live in abject fear. Constantly.
If you want to round up mates and chase specific people with pitchforks, then you’ll be thrilled to learn that the expanded site allows you to identify hotspots and find crimes and incidents by individual street.
And the Home Office aren’t finished yet!
“We want to reduce the threshold and publish crime information for key locations such as football stadiums, parks and supermarkets so the public has access to an even greater level of information,” said a spokesman.
Its been promised that, as of next May, we’ll be able to see the fall out from a crime and track its progress through the criminal justice system.
The policing minister, Nick Herbert, says:
“The addition of further crime categories and easy access to police force performance data will give people the information and power they need to hold their local forces to account and ensure that crime in their area is driven down”
“Ahead of the introduction of elected police and crime commissioners, crime mapping is just one way in which the government is empowering communities and strengthening the link between the police and the public.”
Driver keeps his cool as police give fridge the boot
August 26th, 2011 • 3 Comments
Local police in Canada apparently considered this to be an unsafe arrangement. Adventurous, perhaps – but unsafe? Pussies.
Brian Harvey turns filmmaker as Southern Electric give him a pre-paid meter
August 17th, 2011 • 17 CommentsWho wants to see former East 17 star and baked potato fan Brian Harvey going toe-to-toe with a van load of coppers and some officials from Southern Electric after the latter have entered his home in an attempt to fit a pre-paid meter? Of course you do.
Armed with a video camera, Harvey seems to have one or two reasonable grievances, including just why the presence of half a dozen Met officers are needed to enforce what he says is a civil matter.
Best of all – the video is being hosted on David Icke’s YouTube account. We’re through the looking glass here people…
Government yoink personal data from mobile operators
August 11th, 2011 • 3 Comments
It will come as no surprise to you that the police and government are guilt-tripping/forcing the hand of mobile operators to start handing over personal details to them so they can try and catch some of those dastardly looters and rioters that you may have seen on the news recently.
Everything Everywhere, the umbrella company who own Orange and T-Mobile, have confirmed that they’ll be working with police to help catch the ne’er-do-wells through the data of their mobiles.
T3 report that the police are invoking the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which means they can ask Everything Everywhere to hand over information on phone calls made by rioters, including where the calls were made, who the calls were made to and who the phone is registered to.
Of course, they’ll have to go wade through a whole host of people who had nothing to do with the riots, but not to worry.
Everything Everywhere are not the first mobile service provider to offer assistance to the police, with BlackBerry being the first of the big guns to announce that they would also be turning over data to the police concerning users who had been using the encrypted BlackBerry Messaging (BBM) service to organise the rioting.
What will the government do with data that doesn’t having any bearing on the riots? Only time will tell, but it doesn’t feel like this is the last we’ll hear of this story.
London Met to erode civil liberties by tracking everyone
May 11th, 2011 • 6 Comments
Hey! Got a criminal record and live in London? You’ll love this news then! See, those great guys at the Metropolitan Police (y’know, those guys who shoved a guy over ’til his brain died? Yeah, those guys) have decided to buy software which will map suspects’ digital movements!
This Geotime software will collect data from social networking sites, satnavs, mobile phones and even bank transactions in an attempt to map every stinkin’ move a suspect will make in real life and the digital realm.
The Guardian report that the Met have confirmed they’ve purchased this software that they’ve refused to rule out its use concerning public order disturbances, which means that, should you get nicked at a protest having done nothing wrong, they still might stalk you.
Sarah McSherry, a partner at Christian Khan Solicitors who represents several protesters in cases against the Metropolitan police, said: “We have already seen the utilisation of a number of tactics which infringe the right to peaceful protest, privacy and freedom of expression, assembly and movement. All of these have a chilling effect on participation in peaceful protest. This latest tool could also be used in a wholly invasive way and could fly in the face of the role of the police to facilitate rather than impede the activities of democratic protesters.”
All this comes on the back of news that the police force has kept a detailed record of the political activities of an 86-year-old man on a secret database, despite the fact he has no criminal record. He’ll be seeing them in the high court.
Do you live outside London and now having a good laugh at the poor, tracked saps? Careful. Sadly, the Ministry of Defence is also weighing up whether to us Geotime.
For fuck’s sake.
TomTom sold your satnav data to help police set up speed traps
April 28th, 2011 • 18 Comments
TomTom has apologised for selling customer data from your stanav which the police then used to set speed traps.
The company confessed that they’d been giving data to Dutch police who used it to target drivers.
TomTom chief executive Harold Goddijn said the company sold the anonymous data believing it would be used to improve safety or relieve traffic bottlenecks.
“We never foresaw this kind of use and many of our clients are not happy about it.”
“We make this information available to local governments and authorities. It helps them to better understand where congestion takes place, where to build new roads and how to make roads safer.
“We are now aware that the police have used traffic information that you have helped to create to place speed cameras at dangerous locations where the average speed is higher than the legally allowed speed limit. We are aware a lot of our customers do not like the idea and we will look at if we should allow this type of usage.”
Many UK based customers aren’t too thrilled about this, with some quoted on social networking sites saying that they would ‘Never use TomTom again.’ Will we see a similar apology from the UK wing of the company?
Over 3,000 sites suspended by Nominet and the Police
April 7th, 2011 • 6 CommentsWe’ve stumbled across plenty of illegal websites in our time, especially where criminals are posing as online retailers in order to skim credit card details. How easy is it to close down these operations once they’re reported to the authorities? Very easy, it seems. Perhaps a little too easy, according to some.
UK domain registar Nominet has revealed that it has taken down over 3,000 sites – at the request of the Police. What’s concerning some parties is that this is happening without any procedure or requirement for proof, only the say so of the authorities. Worse still, there’s a suggestion that if Nominet don’t comply with requests to suspend websites, the organisation will be considered liable.
While it’s all too obvious when a site is up to no good, there are plenty of shades of gray, and innocent parties are getting caught up; out of 12 complaints made about instances of websites been taken down, nine were upheld. Moreover, seizing domain without the need to provide evidence hands the Police an unprecedented amount of power.
While the authorities are defending their tactics by claiming to go through all available channels before contacting Nominet (such as hosting services and owners directly), it’s still unclear why the Police should be able to see sites taken down without the need for a court order.
As the Open Rights Group says: “Legal processes have immense advantages, such as being open, transparent, and making sure the accused can be represented, knows what they are being accused of and being able to defend themselves.”
Every little helps, unless Tesco throw it away – then it’s theft
February 11th, 2011 • 18 Comments
Tesco continues to expand and make tens of billions in profit from UK consumers, and they’ve doneso by following their own motto – every little helps. Or perhaps it’s where there’s a will, there’s a way. Or maybe finders keepers, losers call the police and have you arrested.
And so we cross over to the Tesco store in Great Baddow, Essex, which recently suffered a power cut, leading to thousands of pound’s worth of frozen goods going to waste. According to The Telegraph, supermarket staff binned up the food and left it in the street for collection.
A nearby shopworker, Sasha Hall, helped herself to items from the rubbish, and was more than a little surprised to be arrested at her home hours later for theft-by-finding. Hall was allegedly handcuffed and took to a nearby station for questioning. “Tesco clearly did not want the food,” said Hall. “They dumped it and rather than see it go to waste, I thought I could help feed me and my family for a week or two.”
A week or two? Yessir – the woman apparently helped herself to £200 of food, so hardly one or two items spilling out a rubbish bag. She has now been charged with theft-by-finding. That aside, did Tesco really need to involve the police with the theft of their rubbish from the street?
New national crime figure website could have us all hiding under our beds
February 1st, 2011 • 21 Comments
Some crime, yesterday
Ever find yourself locked in your own home, terrified to go out in case you’re stabbed, knifed, bludgeoned, tripped or violated on and around the head and neck? You’re probably a Daily Mail reader then.
Now you can get a genuine insight as to just exactly how frigging scary it REALLY is out there in your locale thanks to a new internet website that has been bunged out by The Coalition Government. All you do is pop in your postcode and sit back while your mind boggles at the chaos that has been going on around you over the past month.
You’ll also get nice pictures of the nice coppers who are in charge of your manor along with info about upcoming neighbourhood policing team meetings and intensive vigilante training courses.
It’s almost like Google Street View but without the nice photographs, leaving you to imagine a rampant wave of law-breaking madness going on all over the place instead. Information on crime is broken down into six categories – burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other crime and anti-social behaviour.
In order to test it out, we put ‘That London’ into the site’s search engine and within seconds, steam began to ooze out of the side of our computer as it struggled to come to terms with the sheer magnitude of anti-social madness that blights our nation’s capital.
Conversely, we then put in the postcode of Bitterwallet’s underground HQ and the only result that came up was two examples of indecent exposure. Ahh, we remember that afternoon well, even if Mof himself doesn’t.
While breaking a bottle of champagne over the side of the website as she launched it, Home Secretary Theresa May said that people had lost confidence in national crime figures, and the maps would give real facts and make police more accountable. But some critics have said that it could create a climate of fear in some areas or a climate of smugness in others with the risk that house prices could plummet in crime-addled parts of the country.
Go on, off you all go to while away an hour or so of your day pissing about with it…
Police seize thousands of scam letters, much to the annoyance of fraudsters
January 25th, 2011 • 5 Comments
The police have completely made up for their kettling of students by arresting a bunch of bits of paper.
That’s right folks! Our police force nabbed thousands of scam letters which were going to try and lure stupid British people into handing their money over to fraudsters.
Investigators, thrilled that they got to shout ‘book ‘em Danno!’ at some envelopes, said that the items were designed to encourage people to invest in fraudulent schemes linked to lotteries, shares and inheritance claims.
Make your own jokes up about the legit versions of the above being borderline fraud in the first place.
PA report that the very clever officers at Scotland Yard’s economic and specialist crime command (they probably don’t get to wear those hats and baton people) intercepted this nasty mailshot, which will have probably been binned by most, as part of a long-running inquiry.
Usefully though, the police have stopped loads of us getting irritating junk mail. So that’s nice. While they were at it, they closed down a bunch of rented post-boxes which are used to dupe simpletons into believing the companies are reliable and based in That London.
Apparently, those who reply aren’t called ‘simpletons’, rather, they’re called ‘suckers’. Those who respond to the first letter, known as a “tempter”, are added to a “sucker” list which is then traded among criminals. Astonishingly, the police believe that up to £3.5 billion is stolen from Britons every year via mail scams.
Detective Superintendent Mark Ponting, of the Metropolitan Police, said: “The individuals behind this type of crime are cynical and pernicious, making their living by targeting and exploiting some of the most vulnerable and needy people in our society.”
The police cracked this dastardly scam with the help of Royal Mail and Spring Global Mail.
Bitterwallet’s How To… appeal parking tickets
November 17th, 2010 • 12 Comments
Long-term readers might recall our rather excellent guide on dealing with private parking fines, in which we recommended ignoring both the ticket and all subsequent correspondence. Sadly, that’s not really a viable option if you’ve been fined by the council or police. In this guide, we’ll look at how to contest non-private tickets that you feel have been issued unfairly.
Who the hell left this on my windshield?
Is there anything more annoying than returning to your car to finding parking ticket? Well, maybe a few things, but it’s still fairly rubbish.
The first step is to identify who issued the ticket. It should be clearly stated, but do be careful; some private companies will sneakily use the term ‘Penalty Charge Notice’ (that’s what the councils call ‘em), or even print an abundance of shields in an attempt to appear all scary and cop-like. Unlike those from private companies, official council and police tickets state that they’re issued under an act of parliament.
The registered owner is responsible for official tickets, as opposed to the driver, unless it’s a hire car, in which case the firm will either forward the demand to you, or pay it themselves then send you an invoice (possible including a cheeky admin charge). As such, if you get a parking ticket while driving a hire car and intend to dispute it, it’s a good idea to let them know as soon as possible; payment of the fine will negate the option to appeal.
Should I appeal a parking ticket?
If you’ve clearly made a hideous mistake, there’s little-to-no sense in appealing. In fact, in order to guarantee the half-price rate, it’s best to pay up within the first 14 days. Sometimes the reduced rate is available for a further 14 days if your initial appeal is rejected, but there’s no hard-and-fast rule.
On the other hand, if you’re sure you’ve been screwed, stick to your guns; a whopping 70% of cases brought to the Industrial Tribunal are awarded in favour of Joe Public.
You definitely should not pay the fine if you intend to appeal, as doing so is an admission of guilt. Unless, of course, you’ve been clamped or towed, in which case you need to pay ASAP to avoid incurring further charges. You can still appeal once your vehicle has been released (more on this below).
As well as the usual gripes, like missing signs and faded lines, there are mitigating circumstances that can have your ticket over-turned. For example, you were:
• broken down
• tending to an emergency or clearing an obstruction
• dropping someone off at hospital
• too ill to move the car
• at a funeral, or recently suffered a bereavement
• on holiday, during which time the parking restrictions were amended
If you have any evidence of the above (e.g. doctor’s note or death certificate), be sure to include it with your appeal.
You might also choose to appeal if your parking ticket fell off. Technically it’s your responsibility to make sure it’s visible at all times, but you might get lucky.
It’s a good idea to take photos of the scene, even with a mobile phone. Relevant snapshots include:
• unclear signs
• unclear or faded road-markings
• lack of signs
• the position of your car
What are the grounds for appeal?
The available grounds for appeal can vary, depending on whether your ticket falls under civil or criminal law. Councils generally issue Penalty Charge Notices (civil law), though a few use Excess Charge Notices (criminal). The police’s Fixed Penalty Notices fall under – you guessed it – criminal law.
For criminal law tickets, it’s best to contact the issuer to clarify the procedure for appeal. It’s usually much the same as the civil route, but with slightly different timescales and amounts.
For tickets issued under civil law, you can choose one of the nine categories listed on the Traffic Penalty Tribunal website. The most common is ‘The alleged contravention did not occur’, which covers disputes about signs and markings.
Read the rest of this entry »
“Ryanair treats customers like cattle” shocker
June 25th, 2010 • 19 Comments
Why is it always Ryanair? The news websites are getting over-excited with talk of mutiny on board a Ryanair flight, and given that it occurred at Prestwick in Glasgow, there may be a grain of truth in it. It all kicked yesterday of because of the bi-monthly French air traffic controller’s strike, which in turn delayed a Ryanair flight to Girona, due to depart at 2pm.
By 6pm the flight was still sat on the ground; Ryanair staff refused to let anybody leave the aircraft, or even open the refreshment trolleys, citing regulation that prevented them from doing so until the plane was airborne. Desperate passengers then contacted the police, who subsequently bought chocolate and water and boarded and handed it out.
A Ryanair spokesperson mewled:
“Ryanair asked passengers to remain on board while awaiting take-off authorisation, to minimise passenger inconvenience and avoid a further delay or likely flight cancellation,” a spokesman said.
“While the aircraft was on the ground passengers on board were allowed to use mobile phones and toilet facilities, and as per legal restrictions, the bars on board remained closed.”
Why would the cabin crew have to roll out the refreshment trolleys? Strange that the legal restrictions prevented staff offering passengers bottled water for free, but not opening the aircraft doors and allowing others to board and do so. It sounds more like a fundamental failing of an airline that’d rather see its customers suffer before giving anything away.
