Stress-Testing Contingencies

About a decade ago, I was pottering about as the duty inspector in south Birmingham when a full-scale police mobilisation of public order units was ordered. This involves having to get together a sergeant and seven constables on to van, all of them ‘level two trained’ in public order tactics – riot police, to you […]

Refusing s135(1) Warrants

This brief post is just a complaint on behalf of AMHPs everywhere. In recent weeks and months, I have received queries from AMHP services and AMHPs who are at jobs, for my advice on how to handle a situation where they have sworn out a warrant from a Magistrate under s135(1) and, having organised a […]

Strategic Problems

In a lot of the work I’ve done and still do, the subject frequently comes up public funding for services and, in the last eight years or so, of public sector cuts. We all understand how important money is and I don’t think there’s a public sector professional around who isn’t keenly attuned to these […]