Police ‘have a bully culture’

Thursday 9th July 2009, 3:00PM BST.

PUBLIC confidence in the States police is low and a culture of bullying still exists within the force, according to Home Affairs Minister Ian Le Marquand.

The Senator told a Scrutiny panel yesterday that the competence of senior States police officers was also of concern and ‘needed addressing’. However, he praised the performance of the new acting police chief, David Warcup and his deputy.

The former Magistrate also revealed that disciplinary action was likely against some of those involved in Operation Blast, which involved a select group of top officers keeping secret files on States Members.

The Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny panel, chaired by Deputy Roy Le Hérissier, with members Deputies Trevor Pitman and Montford Tadier, questioned the minister about Operation Blast for the majority of the session. Mr Le Marquand said that they were doing everything to ensure that proper systems were in place so that Operation Blast would never happen again.

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1
truthseeker

July 9, 2009 at 8:52 pm

For the public to have a healthy relationship with the Police.there must be respect,earned not expected and trust based on performance only, I’m glad to see Ian working through what is a tricky and tough job,and not flinching,For there truly is no true policing without consensus.

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2
Daniel

July 9, 2009 at 11:03 pm

They should put the police hedqarters in a big top tent after all they are clowns. They all ways talk to young people like they are in the wrong plus I think alot of them are power hungry.

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3
K

July 10, 2009 at 4:22 pm

The police are useless. I do not trust them and I have seen what the power hungry ones can do. Also about 5 years ago my brother was sitting on the front door steps of our house and some steroid popping guy came up and punched him in the face for no reason. My brother went to the police station to report the offence and they ended up arresting him saying he was disturbing the peace and did nothing about this guy who broke his nose! I have not trusted the police since and would not think to go to them if I needed help.

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4
ZBD

July 11, 2009 at 10:34 am

Whether or not there is any truth in what Ian Le Marquand says, I feel he should be more circumspect. His continued criticism will not be doing any good for the morale of ordinary officers. I retired from the States of Jersey Police after 30 years in policing. I really enjoyed my job and I was sad to leave. We had had some inept senior officers and yes, even some bullies, but then you find that in many other jobs too.

Before joining the police I was in H.M. Forces and you definately had a bully culture there – but you accepted it, it was what was expected and accepted by many of us.

I now work in local government in the U.K. and there is definately a bully culture here.

I’ll bet there are other departments in the States – the Fire & Rescue Service, Ambulance Service etc., where there to a greater or lesser degree, there is some perceived bullying. Yet that isn’t highlighted to everyone….for God sake Mr. Le Marquand, by all means do all you can to prevent or reduce bullying, but do it quietly.

Truthseeker, Daniel and K, I have no idea what policing is like nowadays, but sniping at cops via this medium is not the way to get thing improved.If you think you can do better, why not join S.J.o.P yourself to do the job the way you think it should be done.

I enjoyed my job because it was a way of serving the public and I was able to assist in the fight against people who bullied others – I wish to God I was young enough to do it all again.

To reiterate, please Mr. Le Marquand stop telling everyone how bad your police force is and if improvements need to be made, just get on and do the job quietly.

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5
truthseeker

July 13, 2009 at 7:15 pm

4.I take it reading is a requirement to be a policeman,so that report writing ,parking fines etc can be issued,where in my post did I snipe at the cops…? I mentioned trust,consensus and respect.all necessities if the public are to be served,their moral is the responsibility of themselves and their management,some of who ca’nt keep out of the headlines, I imagine oversensitivity is not something they are accused of too often,your misreading of my message would seem to support your own argument to the contrary..so what are you bleeting about….?

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