I guess it must have some interest for them in light of the debate in the Commons with regard to Police 'leading beyond authority' in the Damian Green affair, so I am republishing for the benefit of those who missed it first time round.
What is the ACPO? Like most of you, I just thought it was a talking shop for Senior police officers to co-ordinate how they approached various bits of legislation.
WRONG !!
Here is how the ACPO describe themselves on their website.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is not a staff association (the separately constituted Chief Police Officers' Association fulfils that function). ACPO's work is on behalf of the Service, rather than its own members.
The Association has the status of a private company limited by guarantee. As such, it conforms to the requirements of company law and its affairs are governed by a Board of Directors.
It is funded by a combination of a Home Office grant, contributions from each of the 44 Police Authorities, membership subscriptions and by the proceeds of its annual exhibition.
ACPO's members are police officers who hold the rank of Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable or Assistant Chief Constable, or their equivalents, in the forty four forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, national police agencies and certain other forces in the UK, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, and certain senior non-police staff. There are presently 280 members of ACPO.
The Association has the status of a private company limited by guarantee. As such, it conforms to the requirements of company law and its affairs are governed by a Board of Directors.
It is funded by a combination of a Home Office grant, contributions from each of the 44 Police Authorities, membership subscriptions and by the proceeds of its annual exhibition.
ACPO's members are police officers who hold the rank of Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable or Assistant Chief Constable, or their equivalents, in the forty four forces of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, national police agencies and certain other forces in the UK, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, and certain senior non-police staff. There are presently 280 members of ACPO.
By creating the ACPO with limited company status, they very cleverly exempt themselves from the Freedom of Information Act (2000), as out lined very clearly by this statement from the ACPO FOI manual. (attached)
ACPO Disclaimer
ACPO is a private company and the Office of the Information Commissioner has confirmed that the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to the Association, since Schedule 1 of the Act does not include a definition which covers ACPO.
ACPO is a private company and the Office of the Information Commissioner has confirmed that the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to the Association, since Schedule 1 of the Act does not include a definition which covers ACPO.
Further, the ACPO Memorandum and Articles of Association state:
The Statement of Purpose for the
Company is:
“The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is
an independent, professionally led strategic body. In the public
interest and, in equal and active partnership with Government and the
Association of Police Authorities, ACPO leads and coordinates the
direction and development of the police service in England, Wales and
Northern Ireland. In times of national need ACPO, on behalf of all
chief officers, coordinates the strategic policing response.”
Got that. In equal and active partnership with Government. A limited company, sitting outside of the terms of the FOI act, acting outside of any judicial oversight, which sets policy and issues directives to the Police forces of the UK equal to Government.
So lets look at some of things that ACPO are actively doing, being equal to Government.
In 1999 it set up a subsidiary company, called ACPO CPI Ltd, through which it sells products, training and consultancy to the building and home security market.
Nothing wrong with that you may think, until we discover that this same company ACPO CPI Ltd will be managing the accreditation of private companies under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme. This is the scheme that has hit the headlines this week with charges of the Home Office creating a Stasi type organisation in the UK.
In the ACPO document, (CSAS, Private Sector Companies) they show:
Managed on behalf of Forces and Chief Officers across England and Wales by ACPO CPI Ltd, a company owned by the Association of Chief Police Offices for England and Wales.
They also go on to state:ACPO CPI Ltd, a company owned by the Association of Chief Police Officers acting on behalf of every Chief Officer in England and Wales, has been nominated by the Association of Chief Police Officers to undertake the assessment of private sector companies seeking approval and then make recommendations to Chief Officers as to whether, in a particular force area, a private sector company should have their staff accredited.
It should be clearly understood that ACPO CPI Ltd is not responsible for granting or refusing accreditation. ACPO CPI Ltd undertakes the examination of a company and then makes a recommendation to the Chief Officer responsible in the force area in which the application for accreditation has been made. It is each Chief Officer who individually decides whether to grant approval or not.
But bearing in mind, the same Chief Officers are also owners/ members of the ACPO, and therefore owners of ACPO CPI Ltd, it is unreasonable to assume that they will refuse any application recommended by themselves.It should be clearly understood that ACPO CPI Ltd is not responsible for granting or refusing accreditation. ACPO CPI Ltd undertakes the examination of a company and then makes a recommendation to the Chief Officer responsible in the force area in which the application for accreditation has been made. It is each Chief Officer who individually decides whether to grant approval or not.
So now we have a situation where Chief Police Officers have formed a limited company, that company sets policy for all the Police Forces of the UK except Scotland, controls the force of PCSO's working alongside sworn police officers, and is now in the process via a subsidiary limited company of setting up private forces via an accreditation scheme sanctioned by the Home Office encapsulated in the Police Reform Act 2002.
Is this the creation of a private policing operation in the UK, completely outside of judicial oversight, whilst our sworn Police Officers are stuck behind desks filling in forms.
To make matters even worse, Chief Officers have completely washed their hands of any responsibility for the conduct of these private companies, the IPPC is excluded, instead, leaving any complaints by members of the public to be dealt with by those private company's own complaints procedures.
The attached document CSAS updated, Private Sector Companies, outlines the powers which are granted to these private operators, including handing out FPN's in contravention of the
It is clearly extending and enhancing the role of Big Brother government into the Policing of the
In reading this document, it is also very clear that a primary role of these operatives will be to gather, collate and share intelligence with police forces, and to have police forces share information with them.
Accredited Persons may be regarded as an integral part of the community and because of their role can, if developed properly, contribute to NIM Level 1 intelligence gathering.
So its not about Community Safety (we have police officers for that), it is about the beginning of a private police force, a private militia, a Stasi. But what makes it even worse is that it will all be under the control of Senior Policemen behind a shield of limited companies.
The final document is ACPO CPI - RSAS. A presentational document setting up the same CSAS scheme on Railways, further undermining the authority of the sworn officers of the British Transport Police.
The item within this document that drew my attention was on Page 7, where one of the supposed benefits to the ACPO of this scheme was that of 'Legislative protection'.
Think back to that bit about equal to Government. ACPO recommends to government, government write the laws to suit ACPO aims.
Reading through these documents, which are all in the public domain, but as the saying goes 'hidden in plain view', it is becoming quite clear that the setting up of a Police State is very well advanced, but in such a way that Politicians and Chief Constables can deny.
By taking the route that the ACPO have, putting everything behind a shield of limited companies, exempt from the Freedom of Information act and operating outside of judicial oversight, we are right to assume that the Police State are the unwritten objectives.
This is what is known as 'Leading beyond Authority', the doctrine taught to so many police and political leaders by Common Purpose. Now your seeing it in action, and its ugly, offensive and dangerous.
They wrap it all up as being for our safety, but when Public Servants operate in such an underhand and secretive way, we can only assume that they do have something to hide, and an awful lot to fear.
I cannot see that any of this is for the benefit of the public, instead what I see is that it is about power and control over the law abiding citizens of the UK, to make us fearful of authority.
To quote Richard Littlejohn
Look, before some of you start saying something must be done about
drunken behaviour, vandalism, littering and graffiti — I agree.
But it should be done by properly trained, properly accountable police officers.
The way that the ACPO want to police is not how the public want to be policed, this is not how we expect to be policed. We expect our public servants to act within the bounds set by our constitutional laws, and in particular the Bill of Rights 1689, which effectively makes everything that the ACPO and the Home Office are doing in the manner above criminal and possibly treasonous activities.
Updated:
As for the widely held view that Jacqui Smith is setting up a Stasi, which the ACPO deny, it may be worth noting that I have it on good authority that whilst studying for her PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) degree at Hertford College, Oxford it was East German rather than British politics that she concentrated her efforts on.
Update 2:
Section 42(1) of the PRA 2002 states that an accredited person exercising their powers
under the Act shall produce their designation in written format if requested.
Section 42 (2) also states that accredited persons cannot validly exercise their accredited powers
under the Act unless they are wearing a badge as specified by the Secretary of State and a uniform determined or approved by their Chief Officer.
Section 42 also states: Any person who with intent to deceive:- (c) makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he has powers as a designated person or accredited person that exceed the powers that he actually has, is guilty of an offence and shall be liable, on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or both.
UPDATED: 31st Aug.
See also ACPO making money from Police Certificates.
To close the loop, it appears that the 3rd member of the Triumvate, the Association of Police Authorities (APA) is also a limited company, which means that they also sit outside of the requirements of the FOI Act and any judicial oversight. Their Articles of Association attached.
Or the NPIA who I wrote about in April 07.
ACPO are the driving force behind the requests for Detention without Charge (45days, 90 days etc)
and the ACPO is behind a massive PR campaign called Citizen Focus also known as Customer Satisfaction, falsely designed to make you feel safe even if you are not. Don't take my word for it, listen to a copper.
Its easy to see why so many real police men and women, sworn officers, are feeling so hacked off at whats going on, so frustrated.
Overall, to all intents and purposes, it now means that all Policing in England, Wales and NI is now outside of Parliamentary control. Something that Damien Green's arrest and the search of his Parliamentary office has proved.
Leading beyond Authority. (Google it, look it up, then you will understand the society behind it)
UPDATE 4/12/08
For those who are reading this article from forums (AARSE & Police Forum in particular) please remember that the powers that be have planted COI trained personnel to 're-educate' you should you read or debate articles that are not 'on message'.
Please also note that I am detailing primarily the ACPO not Police Forces when I say they are outside of the FOI Act.
So, when you are told, nothing to see here, move on, just remember who is telling you that.
Did I just make that up? No, I wrote about it in November, and you can find it announced on the Publicservice.co.uk website. (which is added to the files below just in case it should 'disappear').
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/news_story.asp?id=7509&topic=e-government
Does it feel like 1984 to anyone else?
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