Stealing the limelight
The Home Office has attracted its fair share of attention this week with announcements on organised crime and immigration, attempting to shore up its reputation on law and order, not to mention fight off the threat of UKIP on reducing the number of migrants.
The Home Office has attracted its fair share of attention this week with announcements on organised crime and immigration, attempting to shore up its reputation on law and order, not to mention fight off the threat of UKIP on reducing the number of migrants.
It has had to dodge a few banana skins while it danced in the limelight, announcing a shift in focus to new types of crime that are rarely reported, while also maintaining that crime continues to fall.
Its attempts to act tough were slightly undermined when the Advertising Standards Authority told it not to use again the poster van ads that encouraged illegal immigrants to volunteer to go home.
Apparently, the Home Office used duff statistics in the ad, something many of us who see our data quoted in the media or parliament in dubious ways are used to. What was amazing though was the judgment dismissed complaints about the 80s-style BNP-esque language it contained.
Meanwhile, in what one SOCA officer described to me as the lunatics taking over the asylum, it seems policing has regained control over national crime fighting.
The long awaited step from the National Crime Squad to, well, a modern day National Crime Squad, seems long overdue. And Regional Crime Squads, er sorry, I mean Regional Organised Crime Units, are also getting a little boost of cash so we have the best of both pre and post-1998 worlds.
I couldnt help but notice how much the NCA logo is similar to the gov.uk website logo, only in reverse. Or should it be that the gov.uk logo is reversed either way it was highly symbolic.
As two former chief constables sit on top of the new organisation, their line of accountability goes directly to the Home Secretary. No chairmen, no boards of governance and, not that they miss them, no police and crime commissioners to steal their media presence.
I wonder, between the Home Secretary and Mr Bristow, who will be the first to regret there isnt someone else to take the flak when it all goes horribly wrong and the media look for someone to blame?
Yours,
Stitch
stitchley@policeprofessional.com
@SOStitchley