Time for Reflection

After the recent sad events with the loss of our colleagues Fiona and Nicola, we now reflect on the issues that may arise.

I have seen the debate around whether all police officers should be routinely armed, I have also had a number of enquiries as to whether Taser will be rolled out to all officers.

These issues are out of my hands and something that needs to be looked at nationally.

I was unable to attend the National Leaders Health and Safety seminar owing to a crown court trial and attendance at the funerals.

I am not aware if the above matters were raised, when I have the update from the seminar I will advise you all as is necessary.

We are still having issues with prisoner transport, this seems prevalent on the X department, waiting at the roadside for suitable prisoner carrying vehicles.

I am getting near miss forms in from Brian Mcgill but do not appear to be getting them from anyone else.

Can you please notify me if you come across this problem, preferably by the near miss forms.

The National Police Air Service has gone live in the South East region and will be going live in the No1 region on the 4th January 2014.

West Yorkshire will have ownership of the National contract, as Norman Bettison took the lead and volunteered his force to run it.

GMP will still operate out of Barton but will be under secondment to West Yorks.

I attended the North West Airwaves regional user group meeting, there we discussed a number of matters, one being the contract for the systems currently contracted to Airwaves Solutions Limited.

It is a multi-billion £ contract and there are various pieces of work being undertaken regarding the future technology.

Audio and data transference systems are being looked at, the consensus of opinion around the table from a police perspective was data is desirable but audio contact is a must and should be of the best quality available, along with point to point and fast refresh rates.

But it is in my opinion the end user that we should be asking, the officers on the front line, what do you want from a communications system ?

So as reps start to ask the question, to see what response you get.

It is also time for reps to take responsibility for your divisional/departmental health and safety meetings, they are our meetings run by the divisions/departments the meetings are set well in advance and held each quarter, four meetings a year.

So between you please attend these meetings.