Huddersfield

In our scramble to contain the threat posed by radical young men with aspirations to Islam-flavoured martyrdom, let us not forget existing problems around the use of armed police units. In particular, the now three year wait to find out how a young man came to be shot by police in Huddersfield, a matter I last noticed around half a year ago at reference 1.

Inspection of reference 2 suggests that there has been no visible progress since then. But I do notice that the present head of the Independent Office for Police Conduct is a high flying management accountant, CIPFA flavoured, one Michael Lockwood. And that it is an organisation which is sufficiently concerned with its independence to say on its website that: '... By law, our Director General can never have worked for the police. Also none of our executive team, regional directors or our Director for Wales have worked for the police ...'. I suspect all this is something of a mixed blessing, but perhaps appropriate given all the circumstances.

So when will our high flying accountant put this particular, three year old story to bed?

PS: will the much trumpeted tilt to the north in the wake of the recent General Election help push up the standard of police work there in years to come?

Reference 1: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/huddersfield-and-manchester.html.

Reference 2: https://policeconduct.gov.uk/search/node/yassar%20yaqub.