London's Metropolitan Police Houses A Bunch Of Criminals Who Are More Interested In Harassing Journalists Than Chasing Criminals
from the Keystone-Kops-UK dept
The International Business Times has just published a useful set of crime stats -- the number of criminal offenses committed by UK police officers over the past five years. So far, regular criminal activity still outpaces criminal activity by police officers, but this fact is a little jarring.
One police officer is arrested each day on suspicion of criminal offences in the UK, according to data from 43 polices forces across England and Wales.IBT says 1,629 officers have been arrested over the past five years -- roughly 300 a year. 500 of those have been convicted or suspended. A majority of the arrests apparently stem from sexual offenses.
But perhaps the most criminal-laden police force of all is the Metropolitan Police. When not abusing the law to investigate journalists, this police force engages in a significant amount of criminal behavior. Roughly half of the arrested officers over the past five years came from the Met.
The Metropolitan Police saw 781 officers arrested, and 146 convicted or cautioned, during the period the figures covered. The rate means 1-in-40 of the Met's officers were arrested in the last five years, and 1-in-200 were convicted of a crime.1-in-40. That's an amazingly high ratio, considering these officers are (supposedly) in the business of law enforcement. They could possibly be as bad than the people they police. The Met's crime stats show reportable criminal offenses occurring at a rate of one offense for every 12 London residents. However, it's very likely that several of these reportable offenses were committed by the same people, which would bring the rate of criminal-to-noncriminal London residents within shouting distance of the Met's horrendous 1-in-40 rate.
It's not that we expect our police officers to have a more refined moral compass than the general public… oh, wait, WE DO. One-in-forty is a terrible ratio for people who took a job that explicitly expects them to not only enforce the law, but follow it as well.
And, on top of that, the Met is apparently far too busy using the UK's terrorism laws to conduct surveillance on investigative reporters to devote much time to its other, less questionable duties.
According to the Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, the Met is also the worst-performing force for solving burglaries from people's homes in 2013-14. The Met caught offenders in 11% of burglaries, against a national average of 15.5%, according to the HMIC.The lesson is: if you don't want the Met on your tail, you're better off breaking into houses than filing FOI requests.
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Filed Under: criminals, london, metropolitan police, police
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Add to that the hero worship the average person stupidly seems to have for police. Eventually people will either have to fight back against corruption or roll over and die.
To those that say there are good cops, if you have police turning a blind eye to their fellow officers crimes, then they are not good cops.
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In this case they are not turning a blind eye.
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Your father sounds like an honorable man, and he may have had much greater influence than he realizes. Who knows how many others teetered on the fence of a bad decision, but made the right one because they admired your father's integrity?
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Ratio
What's the ratio in the US?
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Luckily, the U.S. has GOOD cops. The conviction rate is 0%
**SNARK**
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Police Misconduct
http://www.policemisconduct.net
and
http://www.killedbypolice.net
Just looking through these two sites will dishearten the lightest of moods.
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Crime rates
If anything the police should be held to a much higher standard and the police should be punished harder, those found guilty of a crime like rape or abuse of a citizen they are supposed to be protecting should be punished with sentences that ensure the other police are too scared to commit even the most simple of crimes.
maybe the supposed justice system should start looking at the problems in the metropolitan police and doing something to stop the high levels of crime against their citizens.
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Ofcourse its not an excuse but its understandable, when the worst criminals are allowed to get away just because they want to avoid a media shitstorm.
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yeah but NO
Definitely think you're being a bit doomsday glass empty over this
This is a good thing to see, not bad. Bad would be... people with extra ability to break the law, being arrested at lesser rates than average people.
1.1m people were arrested - 2013
About 60 million in England wales
Generally 1:60 arrest ratio
Factor in the added stress from dealing with the worst acting people in the public, while at work, then trying to live your public life (example going out for a drink to have some asshole start shit). Along with the added power granted. I'd say 1:40 for the MET, is probably too low. ibtimes has used selective facts that are misleading. Mixing up arrests, convictions, crimes, crimes solved etc... and comparing them. Then you played along. Comparing how the police spend their resources is valid though, just not the way it's presented by ibtimes.
Arrest ratios. (1:40 MET) (1:60 General Population)
Good to see, it should probably be 1:30 for MET arrests considering reality.For a minute there, ibtimes was calling for less officer arrests or something. NO, it's good that they are arrested more. Doomsday averted.
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Correction
i compared 5years to 1year - ibtimes give me a job?
a) 1-in-40 of the Met's officers were arrested in the last five years
b) 5m-in-60m of the public were arrested in the last five years (guesstimate from Guardian, 1 year arrests, 2013 )
So... 1:40 versus 1:12. It's the opposite to good from viewpoint of you'd expect officers to get arrested more due to what I've already outlined. Your criminal laden police force doomsday was averted, but look, they're only getting arrested at about 1/4 of the rate compared to the population. A new unarrested criminal laden police force could be the actual doomsday worth exploring.
1:40 versus 1:12 looks pretty good for the police officers for the other viewpoint too. Reality is probably in the middle where 1:25 arrest rate for officers, over 5 years, is the norm.
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You're not comparing like for like; I'd suggest working population, which mars your conclusion somewhat.
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Great story, but...
1 in 40 arrested, 1 in 200 convicted. That means... 0.5% of the police have been convicted of a crime in 5 years. The normal crime rates in the UK suggest that more than 3% of the population commit crimes "of note" (ie, not jaywalking). The police force is, even at it's worst, 6 times better than the population at hand.
It should be noted that the IBTimes also uses a very slippery set of conditions to reach their numbers. Particularly, they take any internal suspension during investigation as a form of guilty, which it most certainly is not. "Out of these, 500 were convicted of offences, or suspended from duty on suspicion of committing offences."
Like I said, I know you want to all be upset at authorities, but these numbers just don't add up to anything to be outraged about. Police are remarkably human as well, and they are not perfect. A very small percentage over a long period of time committed crimes. It happens.
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Re: Great story, but...
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Seriously, the police are X times less likely to be convicted of a crime - yet much more likely to get arrested, suspended, or investigated for crimes. Nobody is claiming they are perfect, they are human, However, considering the temptations of power, the contacts that they make, and so on... it's pretty remarkable.
The numbers presented by themselves without comparison look like "holy sh-t!"m but then when you realize that the population is something like 6 times as likely to commit a crime, you realize the police aren't doing so bad.
The general population might have more to complain about if they themselves weren't quite so often committing crimes.
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And ending off with a jab at the free speech you hate so much. Classic Whatever. How many times has it been this month? Shouldn't you be disappearing until the end of the year for jumping in so often? Guess someone let all the insightful votes go to their head and needed some idiocy to balance things out.
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On the other hand he's just as idiotic.
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Yes, and heinous crimes they are too.
http://www.threefeloniesaday.com/Youtoo/tabid/86/Default.aspx
Ever wonder if these statistics take into account the rather large number of people who accept the plea deal simply to avoid the potential huge sentence even though they committed no crime? It's a bitch not being able to afford a lawyer.
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Re: Great story, but...
Does that include drug related crimes? Because the war on drugs itself is very controversial.
Gang violence, for instance, is often a result of the war on drugs. Many would argue that the government should stop creating such victimless crimes because they end up resulting in violent black markets with victims. Should victimless crimes and the violence the war on drugs creates really be blamed on citizens or the government for creating such very questionable laws. Laws that hugely inflate the cost of drugs and create the possibility of them being contaminated with other dangerous substances and that inflated price causes more and more people to have to steal (and perhaps commit violent acts in the process) in order to get a hold of drugs and they result in violent black market gags that cause more problems than the war on drugs solves.
Should those responsible for breaking victimless crimes be labeled criminals or is it the legal system at fault for finding ways to label people that shouldn't be criminals as criminals and creating black markets of violent criminals.
When you say "crimes "of note"" please be more specific.
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Devolution Inaction
As a nation becomes a police state, the police become noticeably more criminal and stop upholding the law.
Hooda thunk it!!!
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Re: Devolution Inaction
It looks like the police have gotten more criminal these days because we've got a tiny bit of oversight going with people using their phones to record the police committing crimes, and the internet to keep track and compare notes. Plus, the police mostly used to go after poor people and people who were not white, and now that the middle class has been destroyed, they are going after lots of white people who are shocked that they're being treated like the underclass, like "them", the ones who deserve to be treated badly by the police by virtue of a lack of funds or skin color. They are always shocked when they find out that they are "them" now.
I remember my father and his fellow mechanics talking about how if their car got towed to the yards, they could kiss their expensive toolboxes (and anything else of value) that they kept the trunk because everyone knew the police would steal whatever they could get their hands on as long as they had plausible deniability.
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Peace Officers keep the peace by catching criminals and preventing some crimes through their presence.
Law Enforcement Officers enforce the desires of whoever is in charge of making the laws, even if the laws are being written by corporations whose sole desire is profit.
These are not the same and the difference is very observable.
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Maybe someone forgot to tell them the second part.
It's not like it's obvious for everyone that enforcing the law implies that you set a good example yourself.
(And I'm only half-sarcastic here, watching all the real-life examples of abuse of power everywhere.)
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They will not let anyone have an unauthorized cookie - but they feel entitled to take how ever many they please for themselves.
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perhaps if there was copyright on sex, the figures would be better. the UK police seem to be able to help FACT or whatever organisation, or the police forces from other countries, like Sweden, for example when there is a copyright issue suddenly launched on to the unsuspecting World!
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No surprise there...
Had my place broken into ~2yrs ago and the thieves attempted to use one of the credit cards at an ATM up the road from me at a bank that has external CCTV, not to mention the other businesses that ahve CCTV, or the goddam traffic monitoring cameras in the area, all of which would have gotten a clear shot of the perps.
What did the MEt do with this info? Nothing, case was filed as unsolvable. Too fucking lazy to ask for a screengrab of whoever used the atm, nor to check their own damn cctv.
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I guess the blanket of surveillance cameras isn't for solving or preventing crime, then.
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Perhaps its to stop crimes against another part of society then.
Wonder who that might be eh.
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