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Showing posts with label ACPO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACPO. Show all posts

Monday, February 22, 2010

Millions of Anti-Terror Cash Spent on Luxury London Flats For Police Chiefs


Britain’s most powerful police body, which is run as a private business, has spent millions of pounds meant for counter-terrorism work on luxury London flats for senior officers.

The spending on an undisclosed number of apartments in the Westminster area is understood to be about £1.6million a year.

The money is taken directly from taxpayers’ cash given to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) by the Home Office to tackle the terrorist threat across Britain.

The funding – £33million last year – is supposed to be used to beef up regional police forces’ anti-terrorism response and pay for crucial equipment and facilities.

Instead, ACPO’s Terrorism & Allied Matters (TAM) committee, headed by Assistant Commissioner John Yates, has used millions of pounds from the budget to pay for flats.'

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Now 'Police Chiefs PLC' Cashes In On Speeding Drivers

Britain's most powerful policing organisation has set up a private company to cash in on its own orders to send speeding drivers on retraining courses.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has told all police forces that from April hundreds of thousands of motorists should be sent on Speed Awareness Schemes rather than receiving penalty points and fines.

At the same time it has set up a new company which will earn millions of pounds running the only database recording which motorists are eligible for 'retraining'.

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Sunday, February 15, 2009

Body in Charge of UK Policing Policy is Now an £18m-a-year Brand Charging The Public £70 for a 60p Criminal Records Check

Britain's most powerful police body is being run as a private business with an annual income of around £18million.The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), which oversees everything from anti-terrorism policy to speed cameras, was last night facing demands that it be disbanded, following a Mail on Sunday investigation into its activities which include:

Selling information from the Police National Computer for up to £70 – even though it pays just 60 pence to access those details.

Marketing ‘police approval’ logos to firms selling anti-theft devices.

Operating a separate private firm offering training to speed camera operators, which is run by a senior officer who was banned from driving.

Advising the Government and police forces – earning £32million of taxpayers’ money in the process.

Employing retired senior officers on lucrative salaries.

Until now, ACPO’s central role in policing has not been questioned as it is seen as an essential, if sometimes controversial, public body writing the rules on police operations as well as campaigning on key issues such as the proposed 90-day detention for terror suspects and the DNA database.

But the organisation is not a public body, nor is it a police trade union or even a campaign group. It is a private company – a self-styled ‘global brand name’ – paid millions of pounds a year by the taxpayer to effectively run the nation’s police forces.

Because ACPO is a private company, members of the public cannot use the Freedom of Information Act to scrutinise its operations. Last night it came under fire from politicians and human rights lawyers, who called for its immediate reform.

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