Police officer dies after arrest

From The BBC

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a policeman died on duty in north-west London.

The 48-year-old police officer collapsed trying to arrest a man following a domestic incident at Brinkburn Gardens in Wembley.

Police were called to the address at about 1745 GMT on Boxing Day.
A post-mortem examination will be carried out later to establish the cause of death. The man arrested is in his 30s.

Other deaths

Home Office minister Tony McNulty said: "I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of a police officer while on duty with the Metropolitan Police.

"Events such as this highlight the dangers that our police officers face every day when protecting the public."

The Association of Chief Police Officers also offered its condolences.

Two other police officers have died on duty this year.
On 6 May Pc Richard Gray was shot by a man after attending a domestic incident in Shrewsbury. The man then committed suicide by shooting himself.
In June 36-year-old Pc Jonathan Charles Henry was fatally stabbed in Luton. A man is awaiting trial accused of his murder.

My sincerest thoughts and condolences go out to our colleague's family and friends at this difficult time.

Petition Your MP!

A letter template has been created by the Metropolitan Police Federation Constables Branch enabling you to send this letter to your local MP. you can use the link www.theyworkforyou.com and fill in your post code to see who your MP is. There is a link on that page enabling you to send the MP an email. My MP replied personally by letter when the POLFED asked us to petition the MP's at the start of all this.

This is the letter, please feel free to copy and paste it

Dear [MP]

RE: 2007 Police Pay Award

I am writing to you as a serving police officer to express my anger and
disgust at the underhanded behaviour displayed by the Home Secretary in reaction
to the decision of the Police Arbitration Tribunal to award police officers a
2.5% pay increase.

It appears that Jaqui Smith has performed a far from magical sleight of
hand in which the 2.5% will not be back dated to lst September but instead will
be paid from the 1st of December, thus representing an insulting 1.9% increase -
a lower award than any other emergency service or public sector body in England
and Wales.

What justification can there be for this action? If ACPO and the APA
think that 2.5% is affordable and should be backdated to 1st September then why
doesn't the Home Secretary?
Has she forgotten the unique status of police
officers who have forfeited the right to strike in order to serve the public? In
the absence of this right, we don't even havearbitration that is binding on the
Home Secretary. Is she unaware that police officers face a level of restriction
in their private life far exceeding that of any other publicsector worker?

Can she not understand the increasing level of danger police officers
face each day? To compare us as she has with other public sector workers such as
teachers and nurses shows a high degree of either misinformation or
ignorance.

I wish to convey to you the sense of outrage that this action has
created throughout the police service, a service that is able to function as it
does due to the sense ofduty and goodwill of officers.

Whilst it is difficult to diminish that sense of duty theactions of the
Home Secretary has put the goodwill in serious jeopardy. Officers face a prison
sentence if they take strike action but for many of them this is a path they
feel they may have to consider if this situation is not resolved.
I therefore
seek your support in this matter by signing the Early Day Motions 494 and 512
and urge you to pass on to your colleagues in Westminster the strength of
feeling of the police officers of England and Wales.

Yours sincerely,

Kicked In The Teeth!

BITTER disappointment, disgust and "another knife in the side of British policing" are how furious frontline officers have described the Home Secretary's decision to effectively only give them a 1.9 per cent pay rise this year!

After accepting the police arbitration tribunal's 2.5 per cent pay award Jacqui Smith will NOT back date it to 1 September as was recommended. Instead police officer pay packets will only see the increase from 1 December.

In a letter to The Chancellor of The Exchequer, Mr Alistair Darling, Ms Smith said the effect 'will produce a headline annual settlement of 1.9 per cent' which effectively shaves 0.6 per cent off the award. The Home Secretary was due to formally announce her decision yesterday on 6th December.

In my opinion this shows the government's contempt towards police officers. I am gob smacked but in many ways not surprised at this news. I just hope that there are calls being made to access the "right to strike" The Labour government since coming into power have bound the police force, sorry, service, in red tape, bound our hands to issue out punishment and cut further and further back in spending so much so, you barely see a police officer on the streets anymore and this is now the cherry on a very large proverbial cake!

After the alerts on 9/11, the attacks on 7/7, the Glasgow airport attacks, the attempted attacks on 21/7 and the failed car bombings. It adds insult to injury when officers put the job first before their families to protect the public putting in hundreds of hours without question only to have the government they are protecting insult them with this embarrassment of a pay rise.

The hole in the bottom of the bucket is getting bigger. In the years I have been in the force I have seen many good officers leave as they cannot stand the working conditions any longer. There will be a time when the bucket being filled with recruits will gradually be reduced to a drip, eventually stopping. Let's face it, would anyone want to work in these conditions with a government who doesn't give a toss?!!

Any other group of workers would be thinking about taking industrial action. If this was the London Underground you wouldn't have seen a tube train for the last 6 months! What angers me more is that the government know this and that's why we have to just carry on regardless to the best of our ability. Because if we don't, someone ultimately suffers and the government knows this!

I am very interested in how the Federation will want to pursue this! Hopefully they will insist on direct action!

I for one will be withdrawing my goodwill and will be working to rule.