In 1995, Mr Miller, based in Bishop Auckland, was praised for rescuing two women from the freezing waters of the river Wear in Durham.The force declined yesterday to say why Mr Miller was off work. Mr Miller, who used to be a trainer for the force’s firearms squad, now works for the custody section but is believed to be off work with stress. The match, won 1-0 by Leeds, could hardly be described as passing without incident.Mr Miller has not reported for duty since last month although the force said he was expected back soon. According to the employers of an assistant referee, apparently suffering from stress, it is merely “therapeutic”.
Despite being on sick leave from his job at Durham police force, Sergeant Nigel Miller was allowed to work as an assistant referee in front of 40,000 fans for one of the great grudge matches of the season between Leeds United and Manchester United on Saturday.The game was notable for the volatile reception given by Leeds fans for the return of Rio Ferdinand to Elland Road and a row over whether David Beckham used his elbow in the face of fellow England player Lee Bowyer. Officiating at a Premiership football match between bitter rivals not averse to off-the-ball shenanigans would seem to most right-thinking people to be a job from hell. They were granted conditional bail on Monday and are due to appear in court again on 11 November.Police have stressed the allegations are not linked to the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.. PC Goodridge, 34, has been charged with four counts of making, possessing and inciting the distribution of indecent pseudo-photographs of children.
Det Con Stevens, 41, has been charged with three counts of making and inciting the distribution of indecent pseudo-photographs of children. But the girls disappeared on 4 August and the meeting was postponed. They were arrested shortly afterwards.Cambridgeshire Police had planned to meet on 5 August to investigate the 279 names on the list. An inquiry has been launched into why Cambridgeshire Police took nine weeks to act on information that two of its officers involved in the Soham murder inquiry were suspected of child pornography offences. They will also scrap or simplify many of the 250 different forms the police use.. This is already working very successfully in the West Midlands.”Among the other O’Dowd measures being adopted by the Home Office is a new power for police officers to deal with arrestable crimes on the street without having to take a suspect into custody.The so-called “street bail” scheme, in which suspects would go to a police station unaccompanied at a later date, would save time because officers would not have to spend hours processing an arrest.Forces will also be encouraged to make better use of retired officers, and provide officers due to give evidence with pagers so they do not waste time waiting outside court.
A spokeswoman for Asda said the supermarket giant would be interested in joining the scheme.The proposal was one of 52 recommendations made in a review of police bureaucracy by Sir David O’Dowd, a former chief inspector of constabulary He said: “[The police] are not looking for a free meal. In the West Bromwich division officers on duty eat in restaurants and supermarkets, some of which offer discounts to the police. The measure will provide greater police presence at no added cost.Mr Blunkett highlighted a scheme in the West Midlands. The Home Office said officers would get discounts on food if they ate away from police stations. A spokeswoman for the federation said: “While we understand that the police service has to be accountable, we have expressed concerns that the new forms will take a long time to fill in and add to the workload of officers.”Jan Berry, the chairwoman of the federation, added: “We welcome a re-examination of stop and search in order to simplify recording procedures.”As part of the plan for officers to take their 45-minute meal break in public places, the Government is negotiating deals with supermarkets and restaurant chains. The Police Federation, representing nearly all the 130,000 officers in England and Wales, saidabout seven minutes would be needed to fill out a form. It is designed to track whether officers are unfairly stopping large numbers of blacks and Asians and to provide greater public accountability and transparency.Mr Blunkett told the Police Superintendents’ Association national conference in Chester yesterday that the measure would be tested to find the simplest way of completing the questionnaire before it was adopted nationally.Confirmation that the scheme will be implemented will concern some officers who feel it will be a bureaucratic nightmare.
The certificate will record the person’s name, address and ethnic origin, with the reason and outcome of the stop. Its implementation was announced yesterday by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, with proposals to cut red tape, but was criticised by rank and file officers as time-consuming and bureaucratic.In another change, Mr Blunkett said officers would be encouraged to take meal and coffee breaks at fast-food chains and other restaurants in a move to increase police presence, a practice already used in the United States.The proposal by the Lawrence inquiry is for police to issue a certificate to every person they stop in the street in non-statutory or so called “voluntary stops”, rather than just to those they stop and search, as at present. Police officers will soon have to hand everyone they stop in the street a form giving details of the encounter.
The proposal, intended to reduce racism, was put forward by the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Such a society meant “equal status and opportunity, not equal outcomes”.. Mr Blair will say that he wants “a Britain in which nobody is left behind and people go as far as their talent allows”. It will be expanded so that the most deprived 20 per cent of wards in Britain will have a children’s centre by 2006 Some 650,000 children should benefit from the service.
