talkmagic.co.uk

I know what you mean but I'm not sure if you're talking about a police investigation or a court prosecution. More often than not, if the police have two conflicting stories and they can't prove either way, the CPS end up dropping it and it doesn't get to court.

You also get regional differences in the way that police investigate and whether they will investigate or not, despite ACPO guidelines which are supposed to remove the ambiguity.

It's all going down hill me thinks.

More often than not, if the police have two conflicting stories and they can't prove either way, the CPS end up dropping it and it doesn't get to court

Yeah you would think that wouldn't you. However it depends. I have personal experience of zero evidence and two conficting stories and still a verdict of guilty being arrived at. I've seen this happen on numerous occasions. Not really the topic as such but it's one of my little soap box issues due to having always believed that it was as you say innocent until proven guilty. So just in case you thought it was still innocent until proven guilty, it's sadly not always the case anymore.

Personally, I definately don't believe in innocent until proven guilty and you're right, there are countless examples of rulings that are contrary to the how the law is SUPPOSED to be.

It's a bit of a soapbox issue for me too as I work with law enforcement agencies and with the criminal justice system and it doesn't always work out, even when you've got the evidence stacked in your favour. In fact, it seems to be getting less and less likely.

Anyway, you're right in that it's getting away from the thread.

I think that part of the problem between the way various forces and even coppers interpret and act often comes down to whether or not they watch the 'Bill'.

The old head on the shouldres approach doesn't seem as prevalent as it was and I find some of my discussions (especially with younger coppers) are more concerned with evening up things rather than dispensing justice in the way that we (society at large) think it runs.

Couldn't agree with you more Dat.

Vic

ps. What an amazing forum this is, the breadth of discussion and pool of knowledge and experience is so much wider than magic.

I think that part of the problem between the way various forces and even coppers interpret and act often comes down to whether or not they watch the 'Bill'.

This really did make me laugh out loud

Every copper that you meet will tell you that they hate the Bill with a passion (It's a TV programme for those not in the UK), yet they all, without exception have plenty of examples from the programme to talk about which means that they must have watched it. Yet, they will all swear blind that they never watch it.

Indeedy - and every 'old' copper will tell you that they never watch it and then in the same conversation, tell you how each of the other coppers resemble or exhibit a character trait of one of the characters. Especially the 'fed' reps. (Police Federation is like union, welfare and I don't know what rolled into one for those who dodn't know.

Every nick has its 'Reg Hollis' character it seems and yet nobody should know who he is becuase they never watch it

Now that's what I call magic!