Please release me, let me go…

We use bail as we’re not always able to keep people in the cells for as long as we need to complete enquiries. How does bail work then?

At the time I write this, I have four people on bail to myself including one who ought to have answered his bail on Sunday but decided he had better things to do and as such, is now wanted.*

They’ve all been arrested for a variety of different offences and for one reason or another, needed to be released so that a few enquiries could be completed prior to me being in a position to give a decision on their case disposal.

Police use of bail has been in the news recently after the BBC found that there are at least 57,000 people on bail and that over 3000 of those have been waiting on bail for over six months.

With specific reference to the length on which some people are kept on bail, the longest being nearly four years, the Law Society has even suggested a limit to bail length of twenty eight days.

What is bail though and how does it get used during the course of our investigations?

Simply put, us police officers ‘bail’ folk who we have arrested simply because we are not in a position whilst they are in custody to give a definitive decision on whether that person may be charged, released without charge or given some other disposal such as a caution.

To bail means that we’re telling a prisoner ‘we’re letting you out the cells but we’ve got enquiries to do that can’t be done whilst you’re staying with us so go away and come back at such and such a time’.

Referring back to my earlier blog on the custody procedure, the longest we can usually keep someone in the cells before either charging or releasing them is twenty four hours.

In relation to a complicated case, twenty four hours is a much shorter time than it first may appear and so it’ll often not be possible to complete all of the necessary enquiries inside that time.

As examples for why I’ve had to bail some of my prisoners recently, one was so I could gather more evidence from outstanding witnesses in the form of statements, another was so that a co-offender could be traced and a further was so that exhibits could be submitted for lab analysis.

Enquiries such as these can take much longer than the maximum amount of time on the ‘custody clock’ and so we have to use bail to accommodate them.

The complicated the investigation, the longer the enquiries are likely to take and so accordingly, the longer the amount of time that a suspect may need to be kept on bail until police are in a position to charge or otherwise.

In the case of the male on bail for nearly four years, reference is made to it being in relation to a fraud case.

Possibly the most complicated of the enquiries police are likely to carry out, there could be thousands of financial documents, multiple victims across several countries and a network of other offenders involved hence it’s exactly the sort of the investigation that will take a long time if it’s to be done thoroughly.

Bail can either be ‘conditional’ or ‘unconditional’, the latter being slightly misleading as one condition will always be that the released person surrenders themselves back into custody at a specified time and date.

As for ‘conditional’ bail, we’re able to place certain restrictions on the activities of a bailed person to help prevent them causing problems whilst released.

Common bail conditions that we use include having to live and sleep at a set address, observe and curfew, not visit a certain area and/or not to contact any persons we name on their bail sheet.

Where necessary, bail conditions can be far more extensive as in the case of Abu Qatada who had a huge list of restrictions imposed last year including not using the internet, only having one bank account and surrendering his passport.

Such conditions are justified on the basis that they may be necessary to help prevent further offences, protect witnesses or to discourage suspects from meddling with the course of justice.

In the West Midlands, supervisors are designated to keep an eye on bail lengths with the usual preference being to keep them as short as is reasonable.

It’s recognised that the conditions will have an impact on those released from custody, at the same time a balance has to be struck between this consideration and the fact that we need the time to complete enquiries to a high standard.

My four ‘bailers’ had all been given bail dates within four weeks or so of having been released, not wanting to extend their time on bail any further than is absolutely necessary, it’s now down to me to get the outstanding enquiries complete ahead of them returning to the station.

* You know who you are and if you’re reading this, pop into Bloxwich Police Station ASAP and we’ll get it sorted!

Movin’ on up now…

Good old Walsall Police Station. We’ve been working out of the station on Green Lane ever since we left our former address on Goodall Street back in 1966.

You can probably tell from the funky design of the roof that our building on Green Lane dates back to the swinging sixties, although I can assure you that inside the building is (for the most part) fairly modern.

Sure, we do have a few ball chairs and a vinyl record player blasting out the Rolling Stones but then, who doesn’t?

As good as the Stones were (are?) though, music has moved on a great deal since the sixties and so have building designs.

Just like the members of the Stones themselves, our base on Green Lane is now looking a little ‘weathered’ and as such the search for a suitable replacement is underway.

Subject to complicated negotiations between lots of different parties, progress was always going to follow a similar pace to that at which Charlie Watts now climbs the stairs to his drum kit, however recently details have emerged on how we’re looking to find new accommodation in Walsall.

Summing up the announcement from our News Beat website, the outline of the proposal is to as follows:

• Moving some of the neighbourhood and partnership teams in with Walsall Council at the Civic Centre on Darwall Street
• Having the response shifts, the head honchos from the command team and other departments work from Bloxwich Police Station
• Bloxwich would become our Local Policing Unit HQ
• The old station on Green Lane would be ‘disposed of’, probably by huge wrecking balls, explosives and diggers with fierce claw attachments.

There’s incentive to leave Green Lane as looking after the station in its old age is becoming increasingly expensive, a maintenance bill of half a million a year at last count, and not only this, listening to loose bits of cladding crashing into the roof on windy nights was always a bit disconcerting for officers too.

Working from the Civic Centre would offer several advantages including enabling officers to work more closely with council partners, being more accessible for the public and as mentioned, freeing up money that could be better spent elsewhere.

As for a time frame, should the proposals successfully make the transition to solid plans then officers could be working from the Civic Centre as early as this September with the bulk of the rest of the move taking around a year and a half.

As Police and Crime Commissioner Bob Jones has said, “The proposals really do embody the spirit of joint partnership working and will allow police and the council to work even more closely together which can only be of huge benefit to the people of Walsall.”

I’ll keep you posted on the latest news as when I hear it, your feedback on the proposals is welcome too and you can contact us via a variety of different options on the Walsall LPU website to let us know what you think.

Meat is murder…

Bacon! The official meat of the interweb and increasingly popular with thieves. What gives?

Working as a cop, I’m never too far away from associations with meat due to our (probably affectionate) nickname as ‘the pigs’.

As someone who eats more than their fair share of mixed grills, I’m quite comfortable with this.

On the investigation team too, our links with meat seem to be even stronger as we deal with many shoplifters and as a result, seem to end up investigating many reports of thefts involving meat and cheese.

Meat and cheese you say? Who would want to steal that?

Well, at the moment meat and dairy products seem to be very popular with thieves who have developed a sophisticated, Ocean’s 11-style, system for stealing packs of bacon.

It involves cutting holes in shop roofs using miniature lasers, abseiling out of helicopters and then escaping to Brazil with their bounty in a custom-built submarine before jetting off to a moon base where they all remove their latex face masks and sit around stroking cats.

Rather, they simply walk into a shop, do a quick ‘check for CCTV glance’ (this usually involves staring straight into the camera) and then stuffing blocks of cheese down their tracksuit tops before running out the door.

I would say that anecdotally, we seem to be seeing a rise in the popularity of meat and cheese with thieves looking for a quick profit which they can put towards a wrap or two of heroin.

Looking at the health of most of the shoplifters that end up in our cells, they don’t appear to be subsiding on Philly cheesesteaks suggesting that the produce is actually ending up in the bellies of people who decided to take up an offer of a cheap block of cheese having been offered it in a pub.

Judging from the cost of my own weekly shop, I’m well aware that food isn’t cheap so there’s an added incentive to cut corners and save a penny or two when opportunity presents itself.

It’s worth baring in mind though that rather than being refrigerated to Food Standards Agency guidelines, the produce on offer has more likely than not been pressed against a warm, unwashed armpit or crotch for the past three or four hours.

Still fancy eating it?

I’ve searched the FSA website and can’t find any recommendations that meat or dairy products be stored at body temperature or bathed in sweat/other ‘juices’ and so I’m going to conclude that doing so probably isn’t in the best interests of someone’s health.

If you’re offered some bacon on the bus, some beef in a bar or some cheddar in the coffee shop, firstly you really don’t want to accept it.

The pence you’ll save won’t be enough to justify the forty eight hour vomiting spree you risk, nor the offence of handling stolen goods that you may open yourself to.

Secondly, it’s always a good idea to give us a call straight away and let us know that there’s a dodgy pedlar about.

Catching someone with the goods on their person is good evidence and it doesn’t take long to trace the source of the meat either, especially when it’s got ‘Tesco’ stamped all over it.

All thing going to plan, we’ll be able to arrest the culprit and take him or her to the nearest station where they’ll be searched, documented and thoroughly grilled in interview!

You should have known by now you were on my list…

Want to increase the chances of your stolen property finding its way back to you if recovered? Get it registered on the Nation Mobile Property Register for free!

The other day I was sat in the Investigation Team office with a serious look on my face as I was busy with some very serious police work. I would have continued with said serious work were it not for two response officers wondering in with a PlayStation 3 under their arms.

What was happening? Why weren’t they out fighting crimes?

Well, I think several on my team were hopeful there was about to be an impromptu FIFA tournament – teams were picked and the location of the nearest TV was discussed.

Luckily for me this was not to be the case (my FIFA skills extend no further than repeatedly pressing the ‘hoof the ball into the stands’ button), rather the console they thought might be stolen and they wanted someone to check it to confirm it as being ‘hot’ property.

Breaking my concentration from a particularly engaging prosecution file, I volunteered to help out as I am one of the many officers with access to the National Mobile Property Register (NMPR).

The National what you ask?

Well, as I’ve referenced previously, the NMPR is a big old archive of property that we bobbies can browse when we recover items to see if they’ve been nicked.

By using the totally free Immobilise website, you can build up a ‘vault’ of all your valuables with their serial numbers and even photographs which is then added to the NMPR. We then use this incredibly useful system to help reunite stolen goods with their rightful owners.

Having logged on, we took down the console’s serial number and I tapped it into the NMPR to see what results we got.

Internet cogs turned, the computer made a few grinding noises and half a second later we got a bright red notification linked to the serial number confirming that the PlayStation was indeed stolen property.

This wasn’t all we got though, we also got crime details relating to the original theft meaning we were able to contact the police force that had dealt and arrange for the item to be returned to its rightful owner.

To work as it did in this example, property needs to be registered in the first place so without hesitation I’d encourage you to go and do the following:

1. Make a note of the serial numbers on all your various gadgets and gizmos
2. Take photos of jewellery and other keepsakes that might lack serial numbers
3. Get yourself over to www.immobilse.com and register everything on the National Mobile Property Register for free

So there we have it, three simple steps that you can take here and now to drastically increase the chances of getting your wares back if they fall into the wrong hands.

There was no FIFA tournament for either us or the criminals as arrangements were made to get the console returned to its rightful owner, all because that owner had taken the very sensible step of registering it in advance.