Bad Form.

Just to give some respite from the debate on privacy, I thought you'd all like to know that our Hate Crime unit has just brought out another form. It is another risk assessment for special kinds of domestic/racist violence. Whereas we used to just fill in one five-page form on attending domestic incidents, Blandmore officers are now lucky enough to get to fill in TWO five-page forms for one incident.

Having done a short stint in the unit where these forms end up, I can tell you exactly what happens to the form after I leave the address:

1. Risk assessment questionnaire filled in by PC Bloggs at scene of domestic incident. Or more likely, filled in afterwards by guesswork or memory because PC Bloggs forgot to bring any forms with her. She will either forge the victim's signature or put "Refused to sign".
2. Risk assessment signed by sergeant who does not read it. Alternatively, PC Bloggs can just forge the sergeant's signature, as no one will ever check (except in event of pt.10).
   
3. The risk assessment arrives in the Domestic Violence unit to be reviewed by specially trained officers.
4. An officer with no extra training whatsoever, who is off frontline duties due to pregnancy, stress, laziness or stupidity, receives the risk assessment and puts it in a pile.
5. A few days later the untrained officer reads it.
6. The officer phones the victim and fills in a "secondary" risk assessment questionnaire on the phone. This includes the question, "Is your partner mean to the dog?" (I kid you not.)
7. The officer writes stuff on the form and selects the risk level - High, Medium or Low. The grading is chosen at random depending on the officer's mood.
8. This officer's sergeant now reads the form and decides whether or not to agree with the grading. So far two officers and two sergeants have been involved in the completion of this form.
   
9. If the grading is High, a snotty email will be sent to the officer who attended in the first place telling them how to do their job, and a copy to their sergeant. If the grading is Medium or Low, the form goes into a file of the corresponding colour.
10. Here is the clever bit: if the victim is murdered, by producing the form and looking back at which signatures are on it, the IPCC knows who to fire.

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