News and views from People for Proper Policing North Wales (PPP)
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Youths and elderly unite on Anglesey
This story verbatim from the NWPF website. Jan 4th 2010.
A project on Anglesey that’s aimed at helping to break down the barriers between the younger and older generations in the community has been hailed a success. Over the last few weeks youngsters from Benllech, Moelfre and Pentraeth Youth Clubs have been meeting up with the older residents by visiting care homes and community groups in the area. PCSO Iona Beckmann said: “Intergenerational projects help to reduce the fear of crime amongst the older generation.
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Driving course could have saved my son,
Oct 22 2009 By Carl Butler, Daily Post
THE father of a teenager killed in a crash is backing a new road safety campaign that could have saved his son. Lee Palmer, 19, of Ffordd Dwyfor, Greenfield, suffered multiple injuries when his car hit a wall & telegraph post near his home on December 10 last year. Lee had previously had crashes in two other cars. All drivers aged between 17 & 25 involved in a collision which didn't result in serious injury or prosecution will be given the chance to have nine hours IAM road training.
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Learning about the dangers of illegal drugs
This story from North Wales Police website. Learning about the dangers of illegal drugs and the work of the police and other agencies in the fight against illicit substances is just some of the information that will be presented to pupils in the counties of Wrexham and Flintshire this week. Inputs will be given by the force’s Schools Liaison Officers at a variety of schools across the two counties as part of the activities arranged for National Tackling Drugs Week June 8-15th.
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Deadly Mates Posted Friday, April 03, 2009 by ACC Ian Shannon
We can all remember (yes, even me) the feeling of invincibility that we had in our youth. That belief that we could do anything; that fortune was on our side and the promise of the future was almost tangible. This is a precious part of growing up but all too often these things are dashed on our roads in a horror of twisted metal. Most police officers and most of our colleagues in the other emergency services will have seen this at first hand and dealt with the aftermath.
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Sexual Assault Referral Centre
A NEW Sexual Assault Referral Centre is set to open in North Wales. Feb 18 2009 Daily Post
North Wales Police Authority has authorised the majority of the £700,000 funding for the centre which will open in Colwyn Bay. It will specialise in investigating sex crimes and providing support for victims. Detective Superintendent Alan Green, Head of the Force’s Public Protection Unit, said: “In the past when people have been the victim of a serious sexual assault, they would have been taken to various locations around North Wales
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AN OUTRAGEOUS ARREST FOR SPEEDING
14th November 2005. A mother-of-four was locked up in a Scottish cell and deprived of contact with her family before being driven to Scunthorpe to stand trial on Saturday - for a two-year-old speeding offence.
Michelle Keating (43), from Aberdeen, was caught speeding on the M180 in 2003 while rushing her husband to work at Humberside Airport. She received notice of police action against her and filled in the appropriate forms to send to the authorities, admitting the offence. She then heard nothing about the matter ...
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Pensioner dies of heart attack
By James Tozer Daily Mail 16th January 2009
A frail pensioner died of a heart attack after being driven to a cash machine by a bailiff who had ordered him to pay an overdue speeding fine. Andy Miller, 78, had been released from hospital only days earlier after a stroke left him in a coma when the debt collector turned up on his doorstep and demanded £350. When the retired pub landlord said he did not have the money on him, he was driven to a bank by the bailiff, but before he could withdraw the cash he collapsed and died.
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Children hospitalised after taking drugs soars
By Daily Mail Reporter and Matthew Hickley 15th August 2008
The number of children taken to hospital because of drug use has soared since 1997. Hospital admissions to treat overdoses or drug-induced mental problems jumped 43 per cent among the under-16s. In the population as a whole, admissions doubled from 19,000 to 38,000 in a decade. Critics said the figures showed startling numbers of younger schoolchildren are drifting into drug use. Among 15-year- old boys 42 per cent admit having taken illegal drugs.
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Young Drivers adult's responsibility
How to make novice drivers crash … By Stephen Haley
There are some reckless young tearaways on our roads for whom there is no excuse. Many of them cast their mayhem wider into a criminal lifestyle. Fortunately they are few. Through honest eyes, the main reasons for the carnage among novice drivers are rooted in what adults do. We deny youngsters healthy encounters with risk, give them a distorted picture of adulthood, and withhold skills we know they need to have. In our nurturing of future generations, this is simple neglect.
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Five Thousand New Prison Places Is Just A Start
The Tories' Shadow Police Minister Nick Herbert was on Simon Mayo's BBC Five Live show today. Herbert is an articulate, intelligent and cogent politician who I suspect will go far; he's certainly a lot sharper than the muppets he's up against.
Herbert was on to talk about his party's new plan to sell off dilapidated old prisons and replace them with new ones paid for with the proceeds. He reckons this will provide 5,000 new cells.We can argue all day about punishment vs rehab.
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Motorcycle training courses available for the public
This bulletin courtesy of the NWPF website. In an effort to reduce the number of motorcycle casualties, the North Wales Police Driving School is offering motorcycle courses to members of the public. The training will be provided by police advanced motorcycle instructors, who are also registered with the Driving Standards Agency to provide post test motorcycle training.One & two day courses or a week’s course are being offered & are available on the following dates: 17th-20th March, 2nd-4th April,28th Apr.-2nd May.
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Harsher sentences for crimes against elderly
Prosecutors fear that up to 500,000 elderly people could be the victims of street crime, bogus traders and abuse in their homes, and that only a few of the crimes ever come to court. They said that crimes against older people are vastly underestimated because many victims do not report them through fear or embarrassment. The draft CPS policy is the latest in a series on hate crimes including racist, religious and homophobic offences. When similar policies have been launched, the number of reported crimes has increased.
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CRIME AND THE ELDERLY
A public lecture by Mike Brogden, Professor of Criminology, Queen's University, Belfast. Given at New College, 1st February 2001
Whereas Sir John Stephens (Frontiers of policing, Viewpoint 411, pp2-3), had things to tell us that were spectacularly shocking, Mike Brogden's lecture shocked quietly – for, as he said, crime against the elderly is not, on the whole, seen as much of an issue. Unlike crime against younger adults, or, even more so, against children, it is banal, boring, and usually unspectacular.
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Road safety lessons for Borras, Wrexham youngsters
SCHOOL children are to be given some handy road safety tips from volunteering police officers. Pupils from Borras Infants school will be receiving some expert training from two local PCSOs as they take part in a Kerbcraft road safety project for the next twelve weeks.
Kerbcraft is a successful UK nationwide scheme that commenced in the spring of 2002 and is now funded for Wales by the Welsh Assembly.
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School knife detector plans backed
Plans to install airport-style metal detectors at some of the country's toughest secondary schools in a bid to curb knife crime among pupils have been welcomed by teaching unions. The measure is expected to form the centrepiece of the Government's new action plan for tacking violence which will be unveiled next month by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.Ministers were said to be particularly keen to encourage use of detectors in the worst affected cities - Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London, where 27 teenagers were murdered last year
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Drugs both legal and illegal are really big business in more ways than one.
A complex system includes the Supply, their use and abuse and all the charities, quangos and pressure groups surrounding the issue. The following website refs. are from only a brief search of the internet and they are NOT all what they seem to be. Please view and form your own opinion. With Brunstrom in charge of drugs policing the situation has deteriorated dramatically and the culture is now entrenched in every NW town and village.
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Recreation and adventure for young people in North Wales
Deputy Chief Constables BLOG Wed, 24 Oct 2007
Something that strikes me, as I travel around North Wales, is that the perennial cry of aimless youth and indifferent parents "there's nothing to do round here" just doesn't hold water. There are simply fabulous opportunities available for all types of recreation, supported by top notch facilities.
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NOVICE DRIVERS
Select Committee on Transport Minutes of Evidence. A Memorandum submitted by the Department for Transport, following the inquiry into novice drivers. It provides an overview of the issues that the Committee has indicated it would like to investigate. The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) has been fully involved with the preparation of this Memorandum.
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Smoking just one cannabis joint raises danger of mental illness by 40%
From the the Daily Mail …There are great risks in smoking cannabis, a new report has revealed.
A single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 per cent and taking the drug regularly more than doubles the risk of serious mental illness. Overall, cannabis could be to blame for one in seven cases of schizophrenia and other life-shattering mental illness, the Lancet reports.
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Families speak of loss at cycling tragedy inquest
Families of all four cyclists who died in the Rhyl Cycling Club tragedy today spoke publicly for the first time about their loss. A four-week inquest into the deaths of the cyclists on January 8 last year near St George opened in Abergele this morning.
The inquest jury also heard for the first time how cyclists had fallen only minutes before due to icy conditions – and that they were well aware of how much ice was in the area.
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Teenager died in mystery accident. Apr 21 2007 by Carl Butler, Daily Post
A TEENAGER who was a week away from starting his apprenticeship as an electrician died when he lost control of his car on a bend. But a Wrexham inquest heard yesterday that the accident last September was not caused by excessive speed. The inquest heard Iain died of a fractured skull on September 3 when his Ford Ka came around a bend on the A539 country road between Overton and Ruabon and went broadside into an oncoming Renault Megane.
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Drivers and child passengers playing Russian roulette.
Leeds road safety team and West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue recently demonstrated what can happen to car occupants who don’t wear seatbelts by simulating the extrication of a ‘victim’ from the wreckage of a head on collision. The extrication helped launch a month long campaign and provided the backdrop to a media launch announcing recent survey results. The road safety team says the results revealed that hundreds of West Yorkshire drivers are playing ‘Russian roulette’ with their own lives and those of their child passengers.
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An elderly lady resident of North Wales writes to the PPP
Under New Labour directives, British police forces have become famously target-driven, meaning that pay is to a large extent related to performance. What does performance mean, exactly? Does it mean reducing crime rates, as the admirable South Wales Chief Constable Barbara Wilding would interpret it? Or does it mean number crunching securing convictions, that is? People in North Wales have started to notice just how many convictions occur towards the end of any calendar month or is this just our fevered imaginations at work?
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Bikers parade to pay tribute to our fallen troops
AOL news Sunday, 14 March 2010.
15,000 bikers have roared through a market town on Mothering Sunday to honour troops killed in Afghanistan in the biggest ride of its kind. Crowds gathered along the High Street in Wootton Bassett to hear the roar of over 10,000 motor bikers with about 5,000 pillion passengers pass the war memorial on route. The ride, believed to the biggest of its kind, has raised more than £100,000 so far for the charity Afghan Heroes.Wootton Bassett Mayor Steve Bucknell said the majority support the bikers
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DFT Safety Message
SAFETY MESSAGES 'POINTLESS': REPORT … Wednesday 20th December 2006 Story Courtesy of Safe Speed http://www.safespeed.org.uk/ and Piston heads http://www.pistonheads.com/news.
Research finds drivers are in touch with reality… unlike the Dft
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