PACE Code G

Hi all,

Apparently there is this new section of PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act) called code G that comes into effect on 1st January 2006. This is a big overhaul of our powers of arrest and will effect every police officer that makes an arrest.

Apparently every offence is arrestable if it passes the necessity test.

You would have thought that such a big change would have meant lots of training for us police officers.

Well you will be surprised to know that our forces training dept were dragging their heels. 3 training sessions were provided to train every officer in my area. The first i was on annual leave (gotta take some time off sometime eh!) the second session that i had to attend was 6 hours after i finished work. I came off nights and finished work at about 1 am and they wanted me back at 7 am to train (No chance) The third session i am on a rest day, now i would attend but i am not going to be paid for it so i will be using a day off to go into work to do the training. Hmmm decisions decisions.

Luckily i have preempted this and the people at training were quite good about it saying "don't come in on your rest day, we'll sort it out in the new year after the changes come into effect" This is good for me as i don't loose a rest day. But what about arresting people???

Another well thought plan by my police force!

JS