Channel 4 - To Catch A Copper

[NameChangeAsICouldBeOverReacting]

Thoughts?

I was luckily able to watch this during work due to my job and it absolutely SHOCKED me to my core and really affected me.

So the reflective practice boils down to:
I've never seen any racism
We've got your back
Don't worry mate, you've been completely exonerated!
I'd stop and search anyone for standing in their street, black white or stripy (but mostly Somali, right?)
If threatening gobby women with social services works, then you carry on officer. And don't ever feel reluctant to use your pava when you get the chance.

Great, job done, we've all had a good chat about it and we're fine.

I felt this week's episode had a disturbing change of tone.
Ep 1: Misogyny. Police fully admit the behaviours of the officers were wrong and the IOPC is the hindrance to further action. Misogyny exposed and recognised by A&S Police.
Ep 2: Racism. No agree from Police that the behaviours were wrong, clear denial of racism from some officers. The community reps see racism and wrongdoing but the loudest voices in the room are white men. IOPC again finds no wrongdoing. But this time no statement of condemnation by A&S Police.

It's almost like they wanted to "prove" to viewers in the first episode that they are cracking down on misconduct and are doing the right things but in the second episode pull back and won't admit the racism they see in their in force.

It's as if they were saying- look you know from last week that we will pursue officers who we believe are guilty of misconduct, but look in this week's episode we looked at racism and actually we're not definitively seeing it.

And yes these reflective chats are pointless at best and condone, even encourage and excuse, misconduct at worse.

Agree with all these comments - and more! - about tonight episode. The line "no one is criticising anything you've done" when telling them they were being investigated said it all.

They ALL of them deserved criticism.

Thank god none of them carry guns, bloody hell.

If they’re all racist, they won’t be able to see that there is an issue with their force as they will think they treat everyone the same, but clearly they aren’t.

The bus incident could easily have been diffused

Why didn't they ask the bus driver to use discretion on this occasion and allow the lady to travek to her destination

Everyone could have been happy

Another awful episode. I don’t think I’ve ever felt more uncomfortable than seeing a whole bunch of white people decide what is and isn’t racist.

The woman who Cocking raped, let's not call it anything else, was being spoken to by a female officer originally, then he told the other officer that he would deal with it, he would take her home, everything is ok.
Which leads me to ask....why? Why would he do that?
Because he'd spotted an opportunity and he grabbed it with relish, that's why!
He saw a young drunk female and grabbed the opportunity to commit his heinous crime.
I'm sorry but if that shit show of a jury can't see the facts that are literally screaming in their faces, then they need their heads testing!
Young drunk woman being spoken to by a woman officer, gets ' taken home ' Via an unlit country lane with no CCTV, the rapist pulls the car over and stops.
What, do the jury think they were just going to have a cosy chat or something?
Didn't they wonder why he intervened and said he'd take her home? Didn't they wonder why he went down that lane when it wasn't on the route to get home? Didn't they wonder how a woman could possibly squeeze herself between a car steering wheel and him when the seat is in its normal forward position? Didn't they wonder why they ended up changing positions so he was behind her, outside the car having sex?
You couldn't make it up, seriously!
As for the IOPC well, I've had dealings myself with that lot and guess what, it didn't go in my fucking favour! A bitter pill I'm still having difficulty in swallowing years later.
ACAB and I'll never change my opinion on that.

And all credit to Reon's mum for arguing his case and reviewing the cctv footage with such dignity.

@LIZS Yes, she was impressive and clearly made those female officers squirm with her comments. Shame the bigwigs couldn’t acknowledge the mistakes that were made.

@SendOver- it’s baffling isn’t it? Surely someone must have asked him during the court proceedings ’why did you take a detour down an isolated lane rather than driving her home?’ I’d love to know what his answer was. The whole thing absolutely stinks.

Although thinking about it, he’d probably have answered ‘Because she told me to and I was scared to disobey because of my PTSD’.

I’m still reeling at one policeman saying he’d never come across any racism in the force he worked with.

The shocking thing with the rape was that the offence was just having sex with a member of the public while on duty - which he admitted to! - so how can he have been not guilty?

They didn't have to argue that it wasn't consensual or that the victim wasn't vulnerable. Even if she had been stone cold sober, enthusiastically consenting, the instigator - he still shouldn't have had sex with her in a police care while on duty He admitted he did it.

With the bus situation - it was so clear that the police involved, the supervisors at the station, the IOPC - none of them had considered that there might have been an alternative to violently and physically forcing the woman off the bus once she had 'given them verbals'. She was upset, difficult and stroppy so naturally they had to assert their dominance using as much force as necessary.
The police were baffled that the community were shocked or thought they could have prioritised the baby's safety over 'winning'.
The only person in the police to question that was the black diversity officer who surprisingly was totally ignored and talked over.

Absolutely.

Same. And he wasn't a junior officer, he was the police federation officer (iirc). Absolutely staggering levels of denial/arrogance/blindness/lack of awareness.

They didn't have to argue that it wasn't consensual or that the victim wasn't vulnerable. Even if she had been stone cold sober, enthusiastically consenting, the instigator - he still shouldn't have had sex with her in a police care while on duty He admitted he did it.

This, I still don't understand this. ^. There was only one charge to answer to - and he answered Yes, I did it!

And that investigator narrating the bus incident - ah look, she was verbally abusive so what choice did the officer have? As the diversity guy pointed out - um, she could have (should have) just backed off.

As a counter to this, the programme following (called the Night Coppers or somesuch)- shows some really good police work where officers are good at de-escalating situations and just kind of policing alongside. There was a great scene last night where some lads were looking for the weed they had dropped. The copper was like, oh well, they dropped it so aren't in possession, so um, leave them to it!

Another frustrating episode.

The bus incident was bollocks. And threats to call SS only further inflamed things.

Again reflective practice is nonsense.

The lad who was searched on that corner...I know he should have been told why and under what laws he was being searched/what grounds they had, and the police officers failed to do that. Imagine my surprise when the lad was innocent. How they got away with it that I do not know.

And poor Reon. His illness got him arrested in the first place. He was definitely confused and you could see his distress. His mother Charlotte is a force, she conducted herself with utmost dignity to defend her son.

Just to add, CC Sarah Crew is obviously frustrated with the IOPC too.

If it was a white or Asian woman on the bus being arrested, would anyone care?

And what did 'slavery' have to do with anything???? Yes, it was a bad era but what nation hasn't had one? the British also have a bad history, the UK has been invaded and enslaved for hundreds of year but many different cultures.

The investigation found no misconduct towards the woman on the bus so WHY did she get compensation???? this just so annoys me, especially as it comes from the tax payers pockets!

Stop using the race card as an excuse for bad behaviour!

Furthermore, after watching the case on the young black guy Reon who was arrested after a Breaking and Entering and ended up in hospital. Yes, he did say his head and neck hurt and he was feeling unwell, however, he did admit that this was after drinking vodka! During his arrest, he was treated fairly and respectfully at all times. How were the officers supposed to know that these were also symptoms of a brain injury, they are not doctors but upholders of the law and again, as sad as I am for his mother, she is STILL using his authenticity as an excuse for what happened to him and not that it was just one of those awful situations that would have happened whomever it was. Maybe see it as a blessing, he could have became unconscious is an alleyway and not found for days, this arrest possibly saved his life!

I felt that some situations that were highlighted have been shocking and unacceptable, but on the whole, acceptable. I'm just sad and disappointed that this programme has just been reduced to a show for black people and other ethnic groups to air their constant need to point the finger and say we are unfairly treated in comparison to white people! what a load of rubbish!

I do not envy the police, damned if you do, damned if you don't.....

If it was a white or Asian woman on the bus being arrested, would anyone care?

Yes of course. There was no need for the level of aggression on display from the police on that bus. They were immediately confrontational. It was my understanding that the police are supposed to work hard to de-escalate highly charged situations rather than escalate them. They are trained in exactly that. One of my in-laws was in the police and when he first retired, he took a job travelling the country training police in how to de-escalate situations using non-violent means. These officers showed no sign of attempting to do that, and I would say the same regardless of the ethnic background, race or sex of the person being dealt with.

As for the rest of your post… completely disagree. You don’t come across well at all.

@DEEinKENT you'll be relieved to know that in last week's episode, the police were just as vile to the white people they encountered - so equal treatment for all. Hurrah!

Fucking hell. Just watched last night's episode. It's horrific. They've basically shown on national tv that they're still institutionally racist and are incapable of investigating themselves. I can't believe they thought letting the tv cameras in would show would show them in a positive light.
To be honest it's really wobbled my trust in the police. Something needs to be done to sort them out. What I saw tonight is not ok.

I can't believe you watched that episode and have these thoughts. You are part of the problem.

@OffToBedforshire agree with everything you say - the Chief Constable Sarah Crew has committed to change, she made a statement last year (well after the documentary was filmed) admitting that Avon and Somerset police is institutionally racist (as we saw so clearly in the latest episode).

This documentary has really shaken me up, seeing the extent of the problems. I can't believe there hasn't been a media shitstorm over it tbh.

I just watched last night's episode. haven't seen the others but I am astounded that the outcomes of them were cosy little chats where no one challenged or pointed out that what they did was wrong. And they kept pointing out that they had been "completely exonerated" which is not what the IOPC stated at the end. And from looking at this the IOPC are in need of disestablishing.

Reon didn't get a nurse because he refused to say why he wanted to see a nurse, as is his right. The police have no right to know his confidential medical information. He was left in that state.

Why did the police pay the bus lady money if they were all so perfect in their dealings with her.

I have always said that no one believes how corrupt the police are until they have had dealings with them. This proves my case perfectly

Hey, Racist! How you doing?