Saturday 7 February 2009

Counting The Cost of Murder!

I think it is simply a scandal that senior police officers are to be asked to account for every single penny they spend during murder investigations. Not that I don't approve of proper auditing of public expenditure and not that I don't think it is possible that our Police could do better.

My outrage comes because during a murder investigation I want the police officers in charge to be concentrating on getting violent, dangerous individuals off our streets and into custody not filling in forms and worrying about whether a penny here or there will be cast up and used against them at a future date.

The Herald covers this issue today as Hunting Murderers on Budget, http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2487646.0.Hunting_murderers_on_budget_new_rules_for_police.php) , but for the general public I don't believe there is a value you can put on solving such serious crime.

It's time our Police became a Force in our society again and to do that we need to back them in good times and in bad and not to become preoccupied with cost. We won't make them a force by placing financial constraints on investigations and we must trust those in charge of our Police to hold themselves accountable for what their force spends.

No comments: