Even when we get it right

Glad Shannon has been found. It's never long before the Police are criticised though is it?

Does the Daily Mail genuinely think that WYP didn't want to find the little mite just as soon as possible? Every cop wants to be the one that finds someone like that - to rescue an innocent.

Then again, it was always said, those that can do, do. Those that can't teach. And those that can do neither write about it.

Gonna stop writing now as I've just checkmated myself there. Off to work now.

Mike Todd

As so many others have already said, Mike Todd's passing is a tragedy. I never knew him, only OF him.

He seemed like a decent bloke, a copper's cop who despite his rank didn't forget what the job was about. There are many Chiefs (and DCCs, ACCs, Chief Supt's and more) who have forgotten how to make an arrest. Mike Todd didn't.

Whatever the events that transpired, I hope the media lay off, give his family and friends the chance to mourn without dredging up rubbish and not second-guess the Coroner.

It's enough that we're a good cop down, without rubbishing his memory in the name of "news".

Thanks Boss. Rest in peace.

Did you choose Shannon or Maddy?

Madeleine McCann disappeared and in about 3 weeks there was a fund of £2.5m that had been donated by well-meaning supporters of the search for her.

Shannon Matthews' appeal has raised £50,000 in nthe same time.

The McCanns are, outwardly at least (because do we truly know what goes on behind closed doors?), a respectable middle class family, married, tax paying and aspirational for many.

The Matthews live on a council estate, Shannon's mum is unmarried, Shannon has a different dad to her mum's current partner... you get the picture.

It is to the eternal discredit to us as a nation that we differentiate so much between the two cases, yet money talks, and we have placed our bets.

Neither child were anything other than the victims of (as yet unknown) circumstances. Neither family can categorically prove that the microscope should not rightfully fall upon them, and neither child deserved whatever fate befell them.

But does Shannon deserve to be judged so much more harshly by society simply because of her ancestry?

You have a 9 year old child, who is, probably, streetwise to a degree, has been out before (we have all seen kids that age out at 7pm - I do every night of the week) and you have a 3 year old, left alone with her 2 infant siblings in a hotel apartment whilst her parents dine with friends, having left them all day in the creche. Who's more culpable?

My prayers are with both families, but my faith in society is somewhat eroded once more, because we chose the shiny brochure and wrote off another family.

Last chance saloon

So, the annual memory test of Promotion Exams has now finished its penultimate sitting.

For me, I think, that signifies one more go at the present system before it is consigned to the annals and replaced with a Diploma in Higher Education in Police Leadership and Management.

Regurgitating reams of legislation isn't necessarily going to help you as a decent skipper on the street, and pretty much most people who have been successful in these exams previously have promptly cache-dumped the vast majority of what they learned as soon as it wwas committed to paper. It proves you can learn lines, basically. It doesn't show you can think tactically, lead a team, manage incidents, make critical decisions and so on. I can see why they're being replaced.

I have a number of reservations about the diploma that's being brought in though. Does a Sergeant need to be able to write a 5,000 word discursive essay on the hisory of the Criminal Justice system, comparing and contrasting the modern way to previous ways?

Can an uninspiring student be taught how to be a charismatic leader in whom his troops have an innate sense of confidence and belief?

Talent can't be taught or learned, though agreed - it can be developed, to a certain degree.

In any other industry in the private sector (which is how our esteemed leaders in Westminster seem to think we should asipre to) promotion is based on ability. Someone showing flair and promise that turns into accomplishment in one role may be earmarked for promotion Frequently they are given more responsibility until they are ready for the job at hand and, to a degree, already competent. They don't have to do exams, diploma etc just to qualify themselves to be looked at.

Not that any of this matters. We have a system that won't change for me or my ramblings, so my choice is Diploma (18 months, a lot of pressure), exams (last chance, a year of study to make sure I pass), or sack the lot and not think about promotion (I don't want it just now, but I want the opportunity to consider it in the future.)

I think the exams just shade it.