The United States Department of Defense has created a Social Media Hub for military related issues

Who will sieze the moment and create one for UK policing?

Policing minister Nick Herbert will be undertaking a live online Q&A at 11.00 BST on Monday 2 August on the Number10 website to answer your questions on the Government’s plans to change the face of policing over the next five years. Earlier this week, the Government launched the consultation Policing in the 21st Century: Reconnecting Police and the People, which contains proposals for ways to make police in England and Wales more available and responsive, more accountable, more effective, and better value for money (allegedly).

You will be able to submit questions during the Q&A directly into the discussion or via twitter (see. told you should be on Twitter! – find me at twitter.com/openeyecomms)

They will be using the CoveritLive platform, which I have previously seen used very effectively by a Neighbourhood Inspector in Cumbria (in conjunction with the local newspaper). Worth joining the chat just to check out the possible use of the platform as a means of encouraging local involvement and engagement.

I’m grateful to Sussex Police’s Robin Smith (twitter.com/ChSuptSmith), who ran his own live online ‘Virtual Town Hall’ session last year, for bringing this to my attention.

The proposals include:

• overhauling the Licensing Act to give local authorities and the police much stronger powers to remove licences from, or refuse to grant licences to premises that are causing problems
• allowing councils and the police to permanently shut down any shop or bar that is repeatedly selling alcohol to children
• doubling the maximum fine for those caught selling alcohol to minors to £20,000
• allowing local councils to charge more for late-night licences, which will help pay for additional policing
• banning the sale of alcohol below cost price

The necessary forms to offer your view can be found here

Essentially, I use three key channels to reach my police and public sector audience.

The blog, for those longer pieces that require a view or a bit more thought. This is emailed to those people, like you, who subscribe.

The ‘interesting things’ section of the www.openeyecommunications.com website. This is regularly updated with things that catch my eye, but that I don’t want to write a longer blog piece about. This is not emailed out. It’s regularly updated, but you have to visit the site to see the items (go and bookmark the page now!).

Twitter, for those shorter, more immediate items, that I think will add value to the people who ‘follow’ me and want to stay in touch with what’s happening in policing and the public sector.

Increasingly I am also using twitter to replace texting. As more and more friends and colleagues sign up to twitter, it’s becoming easier to direct message them on twitter than to email or text. This allows me to arrange meetups, offer advice and stay in touch easily and for free!

If you had been following me on twitter (twitter.com/openeyecomms) you would have seen these (and many more) items over the last week:

Is Regulation A19 set to become the most used bit of legislation in UK policing? http://ht.ly/2gbMZ #police

How to interact with your community. Great work by #police“@psniards: 57 off the 3,000 facebook followers mark.

Humberside #Police defend a ‘don’t report a crime under £20 immediately, keep a diary’ scheme for shopkeepers http://ht.ly/2fCvp

It’s unlawful for Female Genital Mutilation to be done anywhere in the world on UK permanent residents, any age (14yrs imp) Prosecutions = 0

Female circumcision will be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays http://ht.ly/2gbHG

The most violent place to #police in the UK? Strathclyde. 3,800 cops assaulted there last year (more than th Met or PSNI) http://ht.ly/2gbDV

Restorative justice could lead to ‘rehabilitation revolution’. Criminals could cut jail sentences by saying ‘sorry’ http://ht.ly/2grUt

RT @TheIndyNews: Police bail man who leaked VIP protection costs http://bit.ly/9iUAHX

RT @Police_Oracle: #Police South-East Police Authorities Round On HMIC: Chairs issue joint statement http://bit.ly/dnFHfF

Is ‘restorative justice’ moving up the criminal justice agenda. Sure looks like it http://j.mp/c9YJPT #police

Check out what the US Department of Defense is doing with its ‘social media hub’. Should UK #police do similar? Oh, yes! http://ht.ly/2fMfU

Scottish #Police in turmoil as Supts Assoc criticises Chief Officers over approach to budget cuts http://ht.ly/2eUHL

If you’re not on twitter yet, go do it. It’s really easy to get started.

If you can’t open the links in this email, you can do so on my website or by going to twitter.com/openeyecomms

Looking forward to tweeting you soon! (Please pass this on to a friend)

Two police forces have begun trialling the sophisticated programme, which has echoes of the Tom Cruise film Minority Report, where psychics are used to stop criminals before they commit a crime. The system, known as Crush (Criminal Reduction Utilising Statistical History) evaluates crime records, intelligence briefings, offender profiles and even weather reports, to identify potential flashpoints where a crime is most likely to occur.

The “predictive analytics” technology has been credited as a key factor behind a 31 per cent fall in crime and 15 per cent drop in violent crime in Memphis, Tennessee. John Williams, of the Memphis Crime Analysis Unit, said: “This is more of a proactive tool than reacting after crimes have occurred. This pretty much puts officers in the area at the time that the crimes are being committed.”

The software has been developed by IBM.

story from the Telegraph

Justice Minister Crispin Blunt, speaking at NACRO, gave his first public speech this week on the direction and reform of the criminal justice system.

In the speech he called for more restorative justice and recompense for victims; improved rehabilitation of offenders; smarter sentencing; more decision- making at local level; increased voluntary sector involvement and more effective community sentences.

Detailed plans in the speech include:

• reviewing sentencing policy and providing more effective community sentences, such as more robust community payback
• introducing a Green Paper in the autumn which will reassess the effectiveness of indeterminate sentences (IPPs), bearing in mind the growing IPP prison population
• exploring the use of more restorative justice across every phase of the criminal justice process
• allowing for deductions from prisoners’ earnings in properly paid work to contribute towards victims’ services
• empowering local agencies (including criminal justice, health and Jobcentre Plus) to work together in tackling social issues faced by many offenders
• devolving funding and decision-making to local groups with more emphasis on voluntary and third-sector led services
• opening up competition in penal services and paying providers by results and,
• providing support for skills development in prisons.

Looks pretty much like RJ is moving swiftly up the agenda (That’s gotta make Sir Charles happy!).

So. Well done once again to the TV Probation Trust. Everyone else. Time to take a good look at how you are using RJ and whether it currently has a clear place on your partnership agenda?

A large advertising sign in a Tokyo subway station has been fitted with cameras that “read the gender and age group of people looking at them to tailor their commercial messages”.

So, a female teenager might see the latest fashion item and a teenage boy might see the latest bit of technology (I know that was stereotyping but…), whilst an elderly person would see something appropriate to their perceived needs.

How long before some genius links the age & gender capability to a bit of facial recognition software and the relevant criminal database. As you walk past…”Welcome Mr Alderson, there is a warrant for your arrest. The police have been alerted to your presence here. Please contact the nearest police officer immediately”

Scary…

This was formerly a shared responsibility with the Department for Culture Media and Sport.

Minister for crime prevention James Brokenshire said, ‘We continue to be concerned about the number of alcohol-related incidents and the drink-fuelled violence and disorder that blights many of our towns and cities.

‘The government believes that the power to make licensing decisions needs to be rebalanced in favour of local communities, so that they can decide on the night time economy they want.

Stronger powers

‘We have already committed to overhaul the Licensing Act to give local authorities and the police much stronger powers to remove licences from, or refuse to grant licences to, any premises that are causing problems.

‘We will toughen the sanctions for those premises found to be persistently selling alcohol to children and will allow local councils to charge more for late-night licences, which in turn will raise money for extra policing. We will also ban the below cost sale of alcohol.

‘This move will not only help reduce duplication of effort but will mean just one department is responsible for enforcement and licensing policy, allowing for a more consistent approach to tackling this issue.’

Apparently ‘Structural Reform Plans are the key tool of the Coalition Government for making departments accountable for the implementation of the reforms set out in the Coalition Agreement. They replace the old, top-down systems of targets and central micromanagement’. There, now you know.

The five priorities for the Home Office are:

1. Enable the police and local communities to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour
Enable police forces and local communities to deal better with the anti-social behaviour and crime that blights people’s lives

2. Increase the accountability of the police to citizens
Make police forces more accountable to the communities they serve through oversight by a directly elected individual and transparency about what the police are doing locally to tackle crime

3. Secure our borders and control immigration
Limit non-European Economic Area migration, establish a Border Police Force to secure our borders and end the detention of children for immigration purposes

4. Protect people’s freedoms and civil liberties
Reverse state intrusion into the lives of law-abiding citizens by scrapping ID cards, bringing common sense into the employment vetting process and restoring rights of non-violent protest

5. Protect our citizens from terrorism
Support cross-government work on Counter Terrorism, prevent the spread of extremism and confront extremist groups

However, and it’s a massive however, all of this is subject to the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review process due to be completed by the Autumn. Reality: no money = no can do all these things.

However, looking on the bright side, the structural plan does outline the hoped for timescales for all this stuff. So, in the spirit of being helpful, I thought that I would try and put a little time line together for you. So, here goes…

By end of:

July 2010

Undertake a review of Olympic Security preparations

Aug 2010

Review current measures for the detention of children for immigration purposes

Sept 2010

Develop and consult on proposals to consolidate anti-social behaviour tools and powers to reduce complexity and provide effective interventions for police, local authorities and social landlords

Consult and develop proposals to overhaul the Licensing Act 2003 to strengthen local authority and police powers to remove licenses from, or refuse to grant licenses to, any premises that are causing problems

Consult and develop proposals to replace Police Authorities with directly elected individuals, who will be subject to strict checks and balances through locally elected representatives

Autumn 2010

Develop plans to deny public funds to any group that has recently espoused or incited violence or hatred and proscribe such organisations, subject to the advice of the police and security and intelligence agencies

October 2010

Develop options to pare back the police inspection and targets regime, especially targets and data requests imposed on the police by the Home Office

Introduction of temporary ban on legal highs

Consider changes to security and counter-terrorism policies and systems as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review under the direction of the National Security Council

November 2010

Develop options to ban below-cost sale of alcohol, working with other government departments

Trial police powers for charging minor offences, before launching a national roll out

Develop plans to extend the collaboration between police forces to deliver efficiencies by sharing certain functions between forces in the same area

Remove Stop and Account recording and reduce Stop and Search procedures

Support the Ministry of Justice in developing a rehabilitation Green Paper, including options for sentencing reform

Review counter-terrorism legislation, including Control Orders, and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA)
Publish proposals for the storage of internet and e-mail records, including introducing legislation if necessary

Develop proposals on how best to extend the UK’s ability to deport foreign nationals who threaten our national security

December 2010

Develop proposals with the police to strengthen arrangements to deal with serious crime and other crimes that cut across police force areas

Develop options and a strategy for drugs misuse, covering prevention, enforcement, treatment and reintegration (including rehabilitation), working with other government departments

Support the police in publishing local crime data every month in an open and standardised format, so that the public can get proper information about crime in their neighbourhoods and hold the police to account for their performance
Support the police in holding regular police ‘beat meetings’, supported by monthly crime data, so that residents can hold them to account

Develop changes to the criminal records and vetting and barring initiatives

January 2011

Full review of the remuneration and conditions of service for police officers and staff, alongside the Spending Review

First areas publish local crime data in an open and standardised format
Beat meetings take place using local crime data

Review of the ‘prevent’ strand of the counter-terrorism strategy with a clear separation between ‘prevent’ (Home Office lead) and ‘integration’ (Communities and Local Government lead)

Revise the ‘CONTEST’ counter-terrorism strategy

March 2011

Strengthen the UK’s protection against and ability to respond to a terrorist attack, including enhancing the nation’s resilience

April 2011

Ensure hospitals share non-confidential information with the police on knife and gun crime and other serious violence, working with the Department of Health
Improve the recording of hate crime by setting up systems to provide a consolidated set of data of hate-related offences, published in an open and standardised format

Draft a cross-government strategy to prevent violence against women

August 2011

Make changes to pre-flight checks to identify people who pose a potential terrorist threat and prevent those who pose a severe terrorist threat from flying into and out of the UK

November 2011

Introduce new system of temporary bans on new legal highs while health issues are considered by independent experts

Legislate through the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill

Outlaw finger-printing of children at school without parental permission, working with the Department for Education
Further regulate CCTV, including Automatic Number Plate Recognition, to ensure that its use is proportionate and retains public confidence
Adopt protections of the Scottish model for the DNA database and publish guidance on the application of rights to remove DNA from the database
Restore rights to non-violent protest, in particular by reviewing the current legislation governing protests around Parliament and making necessary changes

(FYI – In the main I have excluded the asylum and immigration issues from this list)

Hope the list is helpful to you. I’m off for a stiff drink…

Ben’s premise is that just as people are trained as first aiders (First Aid courses apparently started in Woolwich, hence the title), so they could be trained as community responders to tackle anti social behaviour.

The rationale is that in these difficult financial times, and against a philosophy of ‘co-production’ of outcomes,  a community oriented, skills based, training programme which addresses effective ASB interventions, is designed by professional experts, is simple, so that almost anyone can master it, is aimed at adults and which appeals to civic or humanitarian motives, has merit.

Ben argues that three core skills should be taught:
Basic skills in self-protection and restraint ( It is important to know what physical steps to take to minimise the risk to oneself or others when confronted with a violent or potentially violent situation, including knowing how to position oneself to affect an escape, and how to defend oneself or others if attacked).

How to ‘read’ a situation, to appraise when it is appropriate to walk on by, when it is safe and appropriate to intervene, or when the police are
called for.

Training in conflict resolution: skills for mediation and restoration. People who take a community safety course should leave knowing how to defuse an argument, forge an agreement, and, where appropriate, elicit an apology.

Have a read and see what you make of the concept. The reality is that, as budgets and workforces shrink and expectations continue to rise, policing agencies ARE going to require greater public involvement in delivering effective outcomes. This may not be the complete solution, but it’s certainly worth a read.

The full essay/report can be found in the Agency Reports section of this site here