Riots and Hypocrisy Part 2

After my last post it occurred to me that I was concentrating entirely on the hypocrisy of the rich and powerful. It might be worth remembering that such double vision is rife among other social classes as well.

Over the last couple of days I've been talking to a former Nottingham resident in his mid 40s. He's been condemning the rioters in florid terms with a tasty bit of racism thrown in. Sending people back on the 'banana boat' was one of his solutions.

Thing is, this person used to work for Nottingham City Council's street cleansing department. He has repeatedly and proudly regaled me of all the things he'd nicked from the stores during his time there, in fact he's shown me a few of the goodies as well. He tells me that it's rife and tolerated by management, although this could simply be to try and claim some legitimacy for his actions.

Obviously I can't identify him and it's perhaps worth saying that he's not the sharpest tool in the box so it might be asking a bit much to expect him to see any connection between robbing taxpayers in this way and those who loot shops. Certainly he sees no problem with telling me, a Nottingham council tax payer in years past, about his escapades despite directly contributing to my taxes increasing.

Of course he's not alone. It quite likely is rife at NCC. I suspect if you challenged any of those doing it they would respond with tales of how management treat them badly (and if it were a worker in the Woolsthorpe depot they'd have a point), poor pay etc. These are valid issues. Looking wider how many of the rest of use are quite happy to justify our own casual lawbreaking? Speeding kills children but anybody caught is full of righteous indignation about how the police should concentrate on 'real criminals'. I've sat in pubs while blokes come in selling knock-off cigarettes which deprives the exchequer of much needed taxes. I've argued online on photography forums with a serving police officer justifying his use of overseas ebay sellers which falsely mark £1500 lens packages with 'no commercial value' in order to avoid import duties. This is a key selling point of these merchants, they even offer a guarantee that if you are clobbered with duties they will refund them, confident that Customs and Excise only have the resources to check a tiny minority of packages.

Think about the levels of hypocrisy on that last one. A publicly employed law enforcement official using a service which illegally deprives the UK government of taxes and helps to put UK companies out of business.

The fact is that society is riddled with 'respectable' crimes, crimes that aren't 'real crimes', crimes that 'don't really matter' and that we 'shouldn't worry about'. We're all guilty of it. Yet we all excuse it when it's us that do it.

Of course when it's 'them', 'over there', those who aren't 'one of us' it's different, out come the pitchforks. Some of the magistrates salivating over 'making an example' of the recent troublemakers would do well to subject themselves to close examination of their own lifestyles and bear them in mind before throwing away the key.

CCTV's Role in Reducing Crime

It is very good news that crime has been reduced so much on the Bestwood Estate. The BBC are reporting police figures showing a 46% drop in crimes in the area. Somebody is clearly doing something right.

NCC routinely claims that CCTV is some sort of panacea against crime so you'd presume that it has played a significant role in the reduction of crime in Bestwood. And yet Bestwood has one of the lowest rates of CCTV implementation in the city, with just 4 cameras at the least count.

Radford & Park  and Dales wards have the highest numbers of CCTV installed. Radford & Park did see significant drops in dwelling burglary and violent crime between 2007-8 (-20.6% and -10.1%) but Dales saw increases in both (+14.6% and +0.2%). By far the highest incidence of violent crime is in Bridge Ward (mostly the Meadows) but this area is way down the league tables of CCTV provision, surely if the powers that be had any real faith in CCTV's use in crime prevention then Bridge Ward would be a veritable forest of the things.

Now I do appreciate that I'm not comparing like with like here and to tell the truth I have nowhere near the skills to carry out a proper analysis of the relationship between CCTV and crime prevention. But proper research has been done and the case is far from convincing. For me, a layman's view of the above doesn't inspire me with confidence that NCC's CCTV strategy is doing much to cut crime. Bearing in mind the cost (c £8m between 2004-9) we need to work out whether they're just not doing it right or it just doesn't work.

Working For Your Constituents

It's always heartwarming to see councillors stand up for their constituents, especially when that assistance transcends the fact that the constituent concerned is serving a 35 year stretch in one of Her Maj's finest establishments.

And so my cockles were warmed, nay toasted, to see Cllr Brian Grocock, duly elected member for Bestwood ward and the current Lord Mayor, representing a constituent's interests responding to a piece reported in the Post today.

You might have heard of Cllr Grocock's constituent. He's a misunderstood Robin Hood figure, no angel he'd be the first to admit but he loves his mum and always looked out for the old folk and local teenagers. Sometimes to the point of providing lucrative employment opportunities for the latter.

Among those who misunderstand our humble folk hero is Notts Police who helped to arrange for his long term stay in his new accommodation but not in the way that Cllr Grocock normally helps his constituents to find somewhere to live.

Anyway, the rozzers seem to be thinking that this chap is still involved in nefarious activities organised from his cell, as do a former Notts Chief Constable and a local community worker.

Enter stage left Cllr Grocock who's here to tell us that these fears are are all stuff and nonsense and that his constituent is being much maligned. After all, what do the police know, they only had a specialist unit investigating the alleged felon, his family and his associates (some of whom have also spent time in the clink but I've no truck with guilt by association on this blog) for several years? Clearly Cllr Grocock knows best and that anybody who thinks they are currently suffering at the hands of this chap and his associates must be imagining things.

I'm so glad that responsible and knowledgeable public figures like Cllr Grocock are here to combat the needless panic and alarm spread by the police and to stand up for his constituent's good name.

At least, I presume that's his motivation for speaking out, can't think of anything else...

A Good Day for One Nottingham and the Crime and Drugs Partnership (sorta)

A bit late again I know but that's what breaking your ankle and winding up in hospital for 5 days does to you.

Anyway, as I'm sure most readers will have heard, Councillor Jon Collins has been appointed Chair of the Notts Police Authority. Many will not see this as a good thing.

It wasn't an entirely easy ride for him though, the Post reports that he only won by 10 votes to 7 and that the election only went ahead after Bassetlaw Tory Councillor Mike Quigley pulled out at the last minute leaving it between JoCo and independent member Alan Street.

It's this business of Quigley pulling out at the last minute that fascinates me as it smacks of it being a tactical move in order to assist one of the other players. The question is which side was he hoping to help by not potentially splitting the vote? The fact that he's a Tory would suggest that the opposition to Collins' appointment persuaded him to pull out. The fact that he ended up as a Vice Chair suggests that his withdrawal was requested by the eventual winner.

Still, there was clearly a significant minority who didn't want Collins in the post which might not bode well. On the other hand, they're all professionals and I'm quite confidant that no grudges will be held and everyone will get along famously from now on.

What this means is that we now have a pretty much wholesale transfer of top end management from the Crime and Drugs Partnership to the Police Authority. The CDP was supposed to have been the strategic driving force behind reducing crime in Notts but hasn't done particularly well, as this article in the 'Post' explains (worth reading some of the comments too). Now the people who failed in the CDP are in charge of the NPA and we're all expected to believe that this is some sort of solution.

Still, look on the bright side. JoCo has relinquished the reins of 'One Nottingham' and the CDP so he can devote time to his new role. Rumours that Nottingham's supplies of party-poppers, streamers and Champagne have been cornered by the staff of those two organisations are, well, pretty much confirmed from what I hear.

CCTV Camera Numbers

Another interesting snippet via 'What Do They Know', a list of the numbers of CCTV cameras by ward in the city.

We last looked at CCTV when JoCo nodded through a new installation in Forest Fields in defiance of local views or any meaningful democratic input.

There are some interesting numbers in there. Both Wollaton wards have only 3 cameras each and they are only used for traffic management. On the other hand, Radford and Park has 361, all but one of which are used for 'crime prevention'. Other high scorers are Dales with 257, Dunkirk and Lenton with 236 and St Ann's with 114. Clifton South has none.

I can't help noticing that the high scorers tend to have relatively large ethnic minority populations...

The response also reveals the running costs of the CCTV systems and the rather salient fact that NCC currently has absolutely no strategy for CCTV, they just make it up as they go along presumably.

What about Bestwood you ask? Have a guess. Couple of hundred maybe? No. Bestwood has FOUR cameras. Just four. That's Bestwood, the home of a major Nottingham crime family, that was the scene of major riots when the leaders of that family were jailed, the area of the city that was said to have been abandoned by law enforcement agencies as that family took over the estate.

Such a gang of criminals would obviously have been keen to avoid CCTV being set up on their patch. Makes you wonder if they had any influence with anybody.