As regular readers/viewers of the Team Voice Blogsites will be aware, we like to deal in relevant “facts” and documented “evidence” and question the acts and omissions employed by our ruling elite and do what we can to make some sense of it all to our audience.
In a series of a couple of postings we will be addressing the mystery of the “interim” MET Report and the “MET Report”, their significance in the suspension of our Chief Police Officer Graham Power, their purpose and indeed their very existence (or not) as the case may be.
First of all the “official” Met Report which we understand was submitted to The Wiltshire Constabulary in July 2009.
Its Significance in the suspension of CPO Graham Power? Well in theory it should have no significance whatsoever, that was not the purpose of the report. So what was the purpose of the report? It is standard practice for an outside force to be asked to review a major enquiry such as, in this case “Operation Rectangle” (HDLG Enquiry) It can be seen that this was discussed with ACPO and is mentioned in their reports. The advice was that a review would be done by the Met and timed to set an agenda for the new management team, Gradwell and Warcup. CPO Graham Power not only agreed to this, but welcomed it as a recommendation from ACPO.
Reviewing teams are encouraged to be "critical friends" and to present challenges for the investigating force. While the final report is an important document it is usual for verbal updates to be given regularly and for the investigating force to make changes on the move. This happened with Operation Rectangle and effectively all of the observations, (we are led to believe) of the Met team were acted upon before the events of November 2008 CPO, Power’s suspension along with Gradwell and Warcup’s infamous Press Conference.
The Met have resisted any use of their report in relation to suspension or discipline of CPO Graham Power and during the suspension review meetings Home Affairs Minister, Senator Ian Le Marquand was obliged to rule their report "out of play." The attitude of the Met on this issue, and for that matter the Service as a whole is obvious and understandable. Reviews of this kind are important. A critical and challenging attitude is also important. If they are to be used to suspend the Chief officer then which Chief Officer would ever again commission such a review??...and which reviewing team would make hard challenges of the kind currently encouraged??..........and in consequence the public interest suffers, and Police Forces would not be able to advance their skills in conducting major enquiries in fear of losing their jobs!
The Met review is not to be confused with the investigation led by the Chief Constable of Wiltshire. That IS a disciplinary enquiry. When “The Powers that be” (in our opinion) realised that they could not rely on the Met report to get rid of Graham Power they could have paused, assessed the situation, and looked for a way out. But they didn't (never underestimate the stupidity of our oligarchy) They tasked the Wiltshire Constabulary to start all over again. Now more than one and a half years on, the disciplinary process is still in its preliminary stages! At what cost to the tax payer? Probably around the million quid mark. The relevant part of Operation Rectangle was Feb 2008 and the months immediately thereafter. So the "investigation into the investigation" has taken three times as long as the investigation itself and still isn’t finished!
Chief Police Officer Graham Power was suspended in November 2008 by the then Home Affairs Minister Andrew Lewis with the only Ministerial decision he made during his very short time as Minister and still the Chief Officer has not faced any disciplinary action, why not?
So in conclusion.
The “official” Met Report does exist, the Metropolitan Police lay claim to it, they have insisted it is not used in relation to disciplinary proceedings against CPO Graham Power.
The “interim” MET Report, we would be as bold as we dare to be, and say there is a very strong possibility it doesn’t even exist! And we will explain why we believe that in the next posting. Unless of course anybody in the meantime could provide us with "evidence" that it does exist?
In a series of a couple of postings we will be addressing the mystery of the “interim” MET Report and the “MET Report”, their significance in the suspension of our Chief Police Officer Graham Power, their purpose and indeed their very existence (or not) as the case may be.
First of all the “official” Met Report which we understand was submitted to The Wiltshire Constabulary in July 2009.
Its Significance in the suspension of CPO Graham Power? Well in theory it should have no significance whatsoever, that was not the purpose of the report. So what was the purpose of the report? It is standard practice for an outside force to be asked to review a major enquiry such as, in this case “Operation Rectangle” (HDLG Enquiry) It can be seen that this was discussed with ACPO and is mentioned in their reports. The advice was that a review would be done by the Met and timed to set an agenda for the new management team, Gradwell and Warcup. CPO Graham Power not only agreed to this, but welcomed it as a recommendation from ACPO.
Reviewing teams are encouraged to be "critical friends" and to present challenges for the investigating force. While the final report is an important document it is usual for verbal updates to be given regularly and for the investigating force to make changes on the move. This happened with Operation Rectangle and effectively all of the observations, (we are led to believe) of the Met team were acted upon before the events of November 2008 CPO, Power’s suspension along with Gradwell and Warcup’s infamous Press Conference.
The Met have resisted any use of their report in relation to suspension or discipline of CPO Graham Power and during the suspension review meetings Home Affairs Minister, Senator Ian Le Marquand was obliged to rule their report "out of play." The attitude of the Met on this issue, and for that matter the Service as a whole is obvious and understandable. Reviews of this kind are important. A critical and challenging attitude is also important. If they are to be used to suspend the Chief officer then which Chief Officer would ever again commission such a review??...and which reviewing team would make hard challenges of the kind currently encouraged??..........and in consequence the public interest suffers, and Police Forces would not be able to advance their skills in conducting major enquiries in fear of losing their jobs!
The Met review is not to be confused with the investigation led by the Chief Constable of Wiltshire. That IS a disciplinary enquiry. When “The Powers that be” (in our opinion) realised that they could not rely on the Met report to get rid of Graham Power they could have paused, assessed the situation, and looked for a way out. But they didn't (never underestimate the stupidity of our oligarchy) They tasked the Wiltshire Constabulary to start all over again. Now more than one and a half years on, the disciplinary process is still in its preliminary stages! At what cost to the tax payer? Probably around the million quid mark. The relevant part of Operation Rectangle was Feb 2008 and the months immediately thereafter. So the "investigation into the investigation" has taken three times as long as the investigation itself and still isn’t finished!
Chief Police Officer Graham Power was suspended in November 2008 by the then Home Affairs Minister Andrew Lewis with the only Ministerial decision he made during his very short time as Minister and still the Chief Officer has not faced any disciplinary action, why not?
So in conclusion.
The “official” Met Report does exist, the Metropolitan Police lay claim to it, they have insisted it is not used in relation to disciplinary proceedings against CPO Graham Power.
The “interim” MET Report, we would be as bold as we dare to be, and say there is a very strong possibility it doesn’t even exist! And we will explain why we believe that in the next posting. Unless of course anybody in the meantime could provide us with "evidence" that it does exist?