2010.

Tomorrow is the new working year of 2010. a decade has gone past but little to no change has happened in the last ten years. mostly because we have been distracted by the numerous and no end in- sight conflicts that we can't stop becoming part of. hopefully 2010 will start a new decade and a new start for all of us and more of a reflection on improving and changing public services. well you probably know what i'm most concerned about, the police service!

there needs to be an improvement in the way that the police are perceived and that is by the way the police act. i was reading in the guardain this week following Jack Straw's comment on the police, that the police service has not seen any change or reform for the last 40 years. Maybe 2010 is the time for that reform and shake up so that there is a renewed way in which police officers behave when they carry our their duties.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/31/jack-straw-police-comments

Another change that needs to be made is regarding the Acpo domestic extremists unit. The article in the guardian highlighted this issue.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/26/police-challenged-protest-files

I can't seem to find the Court of Appeal case this article refers to but there is an entry on Wikipedia which refers to it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_Intelligence_Team and you have to watch this http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2009/dec/11/photographs-police-anti-terrorism-laws the police don't like it when the tables are turned and their photos and details are requested. Did you see how the officer hesitated when showing his badge?

Nearly forgot new rules on how long the police can keep the DNA of innocent people on their database. at the moment it's a postcode lottery whether your request will be granted or not. otherwise 6 years but this will be looked at and in the next 6 months we should have clear outlines.http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/dec/31/dna-retention-public-police

2010 is a year for change