Perverting the Course of Justice: The Hilarious and Shocking Inside Story of British Policing - Inspector Gadget

It’s reassuring to know that when an emergency arises & you need the police they are always at hand to help out. Well that is at least what I thought until recently, thanks too government interference things have changed considerably over the years & this particular book highlights what police life is really like in modern day Britain.

‘Preventing the course of justice’ by Inspector Gadget (a pseudonym for obvious reasons) starts off ...
...second chapter you begin to realise how serious & frankly ridiculous modern police life has become. Today’s police forces are effectively working with their hand cuffs on & this book highlights the reality of it all.

Inspector Gadget who was or still is a real police inspector, he doesn’t pretend that the old system was foolproof, he isn’t racist, right wing or unwilling to embrace change. He is just become so frustrated with the way ... more

It’s reassuring to know that when an emergency arises & you need the police they are always at hand to help out. Well that is at least what I thought until recently, thanks too government interference things have changed considerably over the years & this particular book highlights what police life is really like in modern day Britain.

‘Preventing the course of justice’ by Inspector Gadget (a pseudonym for obvious reasons) starts off as being quite a light hearted read but by the second chapter you begin to realise how serious & frankly ridiculous modern police life has become. Today’s police forces are effectively working with their hand cuffs on & this book highlights the reality of it all.

Inspector Gadget who was or still is a real police inspector, he doesn’t pretend that the old system was foolproof, he isn’t racist, right wing or unwilling to embrace change. He is just become so frustrated with the way politicians who have little or no idea how the police force operate have messed up one of the most efficient forces in the world. They have turned it into a political correct, under staffed, over worked, target obsessed paper driven monster.

There are so many examples he highlights in the book but the one domineering fact that pops up chapter after chapter is the ridiculous amount of paper work each officer has to complete when they arrest just one individual. Completing the paper work & ticking boxes can take hours whilst your prisoner is sitting in the cell, of which incidentally he or she can choose from a menu & be offered cigarettes.

For each officer who spends hours in the office filling in paperwork means at least one officer less on the streets. He highlights one evening in a town with a population of around 300.000, with only a handful of officers working!!

It’s little wonder when you call the police for a minor incident they can’t get to you for a considerable time. They have to priortise all their tasks & leave the public waiting. As Inspector Gadget writes in his book the government came up with the answer……portable Blackberries. Now officers in certain areas can receive email on the street & are able to respond quicker & take notes quicker. Except in the real world it isn’t that easy, as he highlights on a sunny day you can hardly read the screens, you spend so much time tapping away on a tiny screen & response times are just as bad as before.

To add to his misery, more often than not the ‘low life’ who are arrested get off scot free thanks to lawyers who make it their main task to look for mistakes officers have made in their paperwork or any other technicality they can find. The ones that are brought to court usually evade sentencing despite having hundreds of previous convictions which makes a policeman or women’s job all the more frustrating.

They are some truly awful moments that he highlights in his book, the ‘low life’ they deal with on a daily basis wouldn’t think twice about sticking a knife into a police officer, male or female. If they get caught up in a fight with no back up it can be truly frightening as they believe a crowd of thugs wouldn’t think twice about seriously injuring or even killing an officer, especially when they are under the influence of drink or drugs.

He also highlights the lack of help from other professional bodies excluding the previously mentioned lawyers. Doctors & the health service can be another frustration for him & many examples are written about.
He recalls a man four officers arrested for shoplifting, this particular man was very violent & it took four officers to arrest him with blood streaming all over the place.

Once they were back at the station & the risk assessment form filling started & the prisoner was asked if he had any injuries or illnesses, he remarked he had hepatitis C. That is particular nasty & can be fatal to the arresting officers who came in contact with his blood. They were all rushed to hospital & prescribed drugs but they wouldn’t know for sure if they contacted hepatitis C for some time.

Inspector Gadget suspected the prisoner was lying & rang his doctor to find out for sure. Giving the serious nature of the incident he didn’t expect many problems. Unfortunately the doctors refused to give the information as it was own to patient confidentiality; a situation Inspector gadget highlights a number of times in this chapter alone.

In the end with no help what so ever from the medical profession, Gadget eventually persuaded the prisoner to come clean & eventually found out it was a hoax.

CCTV maybe all over our town centers these days but as Gadget explains they do little to help the police when it comes to proving a particular person broke the law. Despite clear evidence against a criminal, many get off scot free due to ridiculous technicalities.
As Gadget highlights the criminals know the system very well & they know how to avoid being charged.

Another incident he recalls was when a number of police tried to arrest a drugged up man who had went berserk in an old age pensioner’s house. For about 20 minutes he fought with a number of officers with a knife in one hand & small table in the other. All they had was little aluminum sticks & tins of CS gas to fight back with. He injured the officers quite badly despite stabbing himself in the leg, losing the sight in one eye & a fractured skull.

A dog team was called but he picked up the dog & threw it out the window! Fire armed officers arrived & asked for permission to arm but permission was refused. They self armed & fired a baton round but he managed to get hold of the baton round & used as a weapon on them.
Eventually he jumped out the window & knocked himself out & was then wrapped in emergency restraint belts & arrested.

Back at the station an enquiry started & a number of officers were suspended pending the investigation. A high ranking officer contacted Inspector Gadget & asked him why they didn’t use the shields & large batons from the back of the cars instead of these silly little aluminum sticks.
Gadget replied that the shields & batons were banned eight months ago because they made ethnic minority teenagers feel uncomfortable.

The high ranking officer was very surprised & asked who had given the instruction to ban them. Gadget replied ‘it was you sir who signed it off’!!
He didn’t know that it happened & didn’t know it was signed off in his name but credit to the officer he reinstated them. However it does alarm you on the decisions that are being made to appease minority groups.

It is a very absorbing book to read but it does sadden you on how bad the police force has become thanks in part to political interference, it saddens you further to think that changes for the better are unlikely in the near future & police numbers will decline as many potential recruits will avoid the force as a career simply because of what it has become.
 

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