Dorset Speed facebook group was shut down!!
Here is the link to the new group
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Coverup of the year award 2020, Mr Underhill, Ms Hernandez, PCCs, Dorset and Devon & Cornwall Police
Assisted by:
Simon Bullock, Chief Exec, Dorset OPCC
Carol Reece, Complaint Review Officer, OPCC Devon and Cornwall
Genene Wilson, Independent Office for Police Conduct
.. and many others
I’ve seen some coverups but this one is an absolute classic and deserves a special mention. There is nothing missing, we have:
- Blatant lies from a Chief Constable, PCC and head of alliance, PROTECTED, still on view
- Not 1, but 2 police forces protecting themselves and each other
- Every possible complaints process / appeal has been shut down
- Blatant conflict of interest PCC and CC.
- A serious complaint about the PCC Martyn Underhill sent back to himself to deal with by the Dorset Police and Crime panel!
- None of the points in the complaint or communications answered
- A classic “non-apology” “IF” there was an error, avoiding both proper admission of the “error” and the proper unconditional apology for it
- Not a single “mistake” properly identified and no person identified with any “error”
- Incredibly, a further misrepresentation made after this fiasco, lessons not learned, standards not improved
- The IOPC has strongly assisted the coverup (Genene Wilson)
- Multiple simple rules of the complaints and appeals processes broken
Follow this link for the full background
From mid-2019 to late 2020, we saw yet another remarkable demonstration of the shocking state of our UK police. We saw Dorset Chief Constable James Vaughan, Dorset PCC Martyn Underhill, and head of Alliance Adrian Leisk (Devon and Cornwall police) announce a pack of lies. They then used those lies to justify their obscene money-making activities dressed up as “road safety” when they are probably the greatest reason that road casualty reduction has completely halted over the last decade, and to ask for more money. Some of that money seems to find its way to Safewise, a “Charity” with James Vaughan and Martyn Underhill as trustees and tangled up in "driver education", a national scandal now a £100,000,000 industry achieving no identifiable casualty reduction. It is something of an accomplishment of some kind to consume so much and achieve so little and a straightforward FRAUD to present this to the public as a "casualty reduction" effort.
Dorset makes a particular mockery of this "education" by being the only force not to take part in the national scheme and having always had the highest fee, therefore making it less accessible but keeping every penny - and the money doesn't even go to the force, it goes to the PCC!! And yet Martyn Underhill's Chief Executive tells us "no police force makes money from its driver awareness scheme" - yet another point blank lie. According to Martyn Underhill, "Simon provides independent evidence-based governance and policy advice and has a passion for building improved public services that are transparent and accountable to the public purse". I don't think so.
How on earth has this been allowed to happen? The PCC is meant to have the interests of the public foremost. His judgment should not be clouded by about 10 grand landing on the doormat every day for services he is protecting that achieve nothing. No wonder this isn't mentioned in the OPCC accounts.
We saw yet again a comprehensive shutdown of the resulting complaint by the Dorset Police and Crime Panel, Dorset Police, and Martyn Underhill. We saw the IOPC actively assist in this shutdown.
All of that was to be expected, seen it all so many times before. But now I can confidently announce that the PCC of Devon and Cornwall, Alison Hernandez, is just as corrupt and incompetent as Martyn Underhill.
When it comes to helping themselves, it seems there are no rules for PCCs and Chief Constables. They can publish lies and ignore any complaints about them (Martyn Underhill and James Vaughan). They can send large amounts of public money to “Charites” when they are on the board of directors and trustees of those charities (Martyn Underhill and James Vaughan).
They can take on crucial roles such as PCC requiring the highest levels of integrity while they are under investigation for failing to properly declare election expenses (Alison Hernadez).
I wonder if that “Investigation” was as bent as the ones I have seen by the police including this one that she has been responsible for.
"Devon and Cornwall police is bringing in another force to investigate the claims against Ms Hernandez." Seen all that before too, just like when Underhill brought in Hampshire police to investigate my complaint about Dorset misrepresenting finances and road safety results previously, many years ago. Hear for yourself what the "independent" investigator Head of Professional Standards Colin Smith believed and said:
misrepresentation of finances
misrepresentation of safety benefit
He then delayed for a year, wrote nothing was wrong, "retired" and vanished before Underhill even let me see the report and question it!! And the result of all that was of course more complaints all nicely covered up, including by Hampshire police ...
But when it comes to what PCCs are meant to do, make the police accountable to the public, including dealing with complaints against senior police staff, the “rules” suddenly become so restrictive that it seems it is beyond their powers to do anything!
“However, the scope and remit of the review process does not extend to any consideration of previous complaint outcomes. I am only able to consider the outcome of your complaint referenced PSD/CO/677/20 and as such I am aware that this review has been unable to achieve any of the six points that you indicated were your desired outcomes from the review.”
So a review into the handling of a complaint cannot consider the outcome of the original complaint, or how it was arrived at! WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE ABOUT?? This is about as ridiculous as anything I have seen from the police.
Here is what I sent: Review_IB.PDF
Here is what came back:
letter5Oct2020.pdf
Here is the guidance from the D&C PCC about complaints about how the police dealt with a complaint
Here are the points just in this that the D&C PCC has failed on:
"A review of your complaint is not merely a quality check of what has happened, it offers the opportunity to consider whether the complaint outcome is reasonable and proportionate, and if not, to put things right."
"If your complaint has been referred to the Independent Office for Police conduct, or is about the conduct of a senior police officer (including the Chief Constable), or the conduct complained about would justify criminal or disciplinary proceedings, the Independent Office for Police Conduct will undertake the review."
There are multiple simple rules like this that have been broken,
it's all here
And to cap it all, Alison Hernandez is the APCC Lead for road safety. So the person with responsibility for accountability to the public for road safety not just in one force, but all of them, is protecting road safety lies and ineffective police activities which can only result in more people being killed or injured on the roads.
Road safety organisations, and the DfT, seem to have noticed that (contrary to what Dorset and D&C Police will tell you) casualty reduction has plateaued, while this money making has been ramped up to eye-watering levels and drivers trying to earn a living and pay their taxes have had to endure ridiculous speed limit reductions and 100s of £millions waisted "improving" roads for vulnerable road users increasing congestion and pollution.
The solution for road safety is a very difficult one. But what a few engineers such as myself can clearly see is that it is not a technical or cost challenge. It is an organisational and political one. Just imagine if the police were doing what they told us, actually trying to reduce casualty instead of making money, feathering their nests and abusing their positions to sweep any objections under the carpet.
It is obvious to any independent engineer why the course doesn't work, I announced it nearly a decade ago:
1. Only 7% of KSI crashes have speeding as a factor, and they will often include other serious factors such as drink, drugs, crime, road rage, etc etc. Exceeding one of todays ridiculous low limits (usually reduced by car-hating councillors, not qualified engineers) by a small amount, without other factors, will obviously be a very small percentage of this. Even if it were completely eliminated (which we know current policing does not do) the opportunities for KSI reduction simply cannot be significant.
2. Education only works when there is a willingness to learn, not when offered in a bribe like manner to prevent fine and points.
It is difficult because there is no accountability of the police to the public. The establishment (police regulators including the IOPC and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, the government, MPs
Michael Tomlinson, Kit Malthouse, etc) would prefer to turn a blind eye than sort it out. How do we break through that?
All I can do is to make sure I keep exposing these unfortunate truths in the hope that sometime something will be done.
But regardless of what anyone may think of the subject I comment on here is the really frightening thing: what other appalling waste of public money and misconduct is going on at senior levels in the police and being covered up?
Ian Belchamber
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