UK Police Officers Sue The Public For Injuries Caused While Detecting Crime

WPC Kelly Jones responded to an emergency call regarding a burglary at a petrol station and allegedly fell over a curb while searching the property for intruders.

WPC To Sue Petrol Station Owner (The Mirror UK)

Isolated case of stupidity you assume yeah? But no, PC Richard Seymour is also claiming, this time against an aquatics shop owner who didn't complete a thorough risk assessment of his property before calling 999.

Another Police Officer Makes Claim (The Mail UK)

WPC Kelly Jones's lawyers Pattinson Brewer said the case was instigated by employees’ body, the Police Federation. PC Richard Seymour's lawyers Slater and Gordon issued a joint statement with the Police Federation.

WPC Kelly Jones has dropped her case and now claims that she only expected to get £2000 instead of the £50,000 that her lawyers expected. Completely sidestepping the notion that to sue somebody for calling out the police is outrageous.

What gets my beef though is that behind both these claims is a union that is fully prepared to destroy the covenant between the public and the police in the quest for a personal injury claim. I also wonder if they have considered the fact that it is for the employer to carry out a risk assessment and therefore if the Police Federation is ever successful the Police will have to send out a Health and Safety Inspector to do a thorough assessment before an emergency response.

You couldn't make it up.

It is incidents like this that makes me fear for the future of the UK. We are heading headlong into a faschist state.

reply to post by Wirral Bagpuss


Sorry for starting a thread and then running away, it's been a case of real life getting in the way of important stuff.

I personally believe the current problems with the police started under Blair’s Labour government. We have seen the politicisation of the senior ranks, probably starting with Ian Blair, one time leader of the Met and obvious Labour stooge. From then on it seems that the biggest factor in promotion through the ranks is having politically correct right on credentials. We see the effects everywhere. One problem is the prioritisation of hate crimes above other equally serious offences. Another is the “positive” discrimination against majority police applicants, always done in the name of filling quotas. But to be honest political infiltration by Labour is not limited to the police. Many areas of the civil service are creaking under the weight of the Braun Sandalen.

What seems to be the case here though, is that it is the Police Federation who are encouraging officers to sue the public and also the police themselves. I have no idea why the body that represents the police would want to destroy the trust of the public in the police in such a bizarre way. I only know that the unions in Britain are determined to destroy the coalition and that may be a factor.

They wont let the cops be real cops and carry guns so these poor folks are thinking to themselves - why not make a little money to enjoy life before it's snuffed out by a real criminal. These folks cant protect themselves from the bad guys yet people expect them to do so daily. It's insane. No wonder there are cops doing such crazy things. Sure it's wrong, but I can see how it could happen.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


If WPC Kelly Jones had been sent into a burning building, to arrest a Triad gang who were dealing weapons grade plutonium to a cartel of Burmese anti western sex trade smugglers operating out of Iraq. While armed only with a stick and a can of pepper, then I could imagine her claim against the police being justified.

But suing a civilian because you fell over his curb?

"999 what is your emergency"

"Help! There is a burglar downstairs!"

"Stay calm madame, a health and safety inspector will be there shortly to create a risk assessment report prior to an officer arriving."

"But what if the burglar is still here!"

"Well then I'm sorry but we will be unable to send a health and safety inspector until it is safe to do so. Please ring us back when he gone." Click, buzz the phone goes down.

Meanwhile Mrs Miggins gets hacked to death without any help from the police because there might be toys on her stairs.

Does it sound sensible to you? If you don't like the idea of navigating dangerous curbs then get a job doing something in doors.

Is this a result of Police pay being cut?

The compensation culture is certainly alive and well and now infecting our constabularies. I thought Mr Cameron was going to curb these compensation payments? I don't know how he would be able to do this without pushing through legislation in the commons, so maybe it was just another soundbite?

reply to post by Cobaltic1978


Being a police officer is not a job without its benefits. Yes there are going to be cuts to numbers and possibly pay and I think that is wrong. There is plenty of waste in all of the public sector to cut without messing with pay and taking bobbies off the beat. But this woman is also suing the police!

Now Suing Norfolk Police

That is someones wages that she is after. And all of this is through the instigation of the Police Federation.

Why can't they take responsibility for their own downfalls and just watch where they're going for goodness sake?

reply to post by JohnPhoenix

They wont let the cops be real cops and carry guns so these poor folks are thinking to themselves - why not make a little money to enjoy life before it's snuffed out by a real criminal.

No they aren't - sorry to burst your bubble but it has nothing to do with gun control laws or having unarmed police but everything to do with the 'sue for everything and get some compensation' culture that the UK imported from the USA along with a good old dose of PC bollocks.

As for police officers getting 'snuffed out by criminals' the facts just don't support such a claim.

In 2012 9 serving police officers died in service in the whole of the UK.
2 died of seizures, one on the way to work the other whilst in pursuit of a criminal.
3 died in road accidents, two on the way to work and one on the way home from work.
4 died as a result of armed weapon related incidents, one was shot when he intervened in an incident when he was off duty, one killed himself 2 years after being blinded in a shooting incident two years earlier and two were attacked by a criminal using a firearm and a grenade when they answered a call about a burglary.

Now that's four deaths too many as far as I'm concerned.

Just to show that's not a one-off in the previous year 8 of 12 deaths were as a result of traffic related accidents, 2 died of heart attacks, 1 died of a brain haemorrhage and 1 died in a terrorist bombing.

By comparison 49 of 120 Line Of Duty deaths that occured in the USA in 2012 were as a direct result of gunfire.
In 2011 it was 72 of 176 deaths.

No wonder there are cops doing such crazy things. Sure it's wrong,....

It certainly is wrong, but it's got nothing to do with arming all of our police.

reply to post by Freeborn


I don't believe that government propaganda for a second. The UK does not have such social and economic conditions such that it is a virtual paradise that would allow for the people and cops to live in relative non violent peace. I'm sure lots more UK cops dies and many by criminals with guns and you guys just don't see those reports. I'm sure they are carefully hidden.

Why am I so sure? We like to say in America If you take away the guns only criminals will have guns. Your telling me your criminals don't have guns? You can't change a leopards spots. Your criminals do have guns. it's just so taboo in your society to talk about it you don't hear the reports.

If what you claim is true, then the UK has the worst criminals in the history of the Planet. Super Wussy Criminals. With your influx of Middle Eastern gun toting loving extremists - Please.. it doesn't add up. Dig deeper than the nightly news. There is no logical reason for thinking your criminals dont have guns and dont shoot and kill those unprotected cops. I'll never buy that. That's a Government snowjob.

This isn't the first thread on this subject and i agreed in the other thread that this was silly and a money grab from those cops - but now I'm thinking of motive and it seems to me fear of death for so little pay/benefits has to play a part.

The British police like to keep up a façade called policing by consent. It’s a fallacy obviously but it does limit them to what they can carry on the street while patrolling. Don’t think for a moment though that it is leaving them undefended. It’s common knowledge that waiving an umbrella in a provocative way will result in more, black clad G36C armed coppers descending upon your head than SAS who attacked the Iranian embassy.

I don’t know whether I prefer my police armed or not. I used to live in Germany and I can remember a Polizei holding a gun on two American kids who obviously were no threat to anybody. Yet there are areas in Frankfurt where I dared not go for fear of Turkish gangs. On the other hand two policewomen were recently gunned down by a psycho in Manchester and maybe if they were armed, one of them might be alive today.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix

I don't believe that government propaganda for a second.

Neither do I.

However, these facts are supported by first hand experience of living in the UK for all of my 47 years.
Your denial of these facts are based on what?
Your belief in an opinion that is based on circumstances and experiences gained in the USA which has absolutely no bearing and relevance whatsoever to UK society.

I am well travelled in the UK and have many, many friends and acquaintances whose knowledge and experience I can call on, all of which suggest that those figures are correct.

The UK Police Federation themselves passionately support no further arming of the police force.
Armed Response Units are on duty 24 hours a day everyday in every police force.

But I guess you know better about what best suits British police?

The UK does not have such social and economic conditions such that it is a virtual paradise that would allow for the people and cops to live in relative non violent peace.

Of course it isn't a virtual paradise and certainly isn't non-violent.
In fact Britain has always been a relatively violent place but that violence tends to physical and not involving armed weapons.

I'm sure lots more UK cops dies and many by criminals with guns and you guys just don't see those reports. I'm sure they are carefully hidden.

No they don't.
If a police officer gets killed in the line of duty in the UK then it is very big news and makes national headlines - you'd have to be living under a rock not to be aware of it.

Why am I so sure? We like to say in America If you take away the guns only criminals will have guns. Your telling me your criminals don't have guns? You can't change a leopards spots. Your criminals do have guns. it's just so taboo in your society to talk about it you don't hear the reports.

And I think that's very true - in the USA which is why I understand why you wish to retain The Second Amendment - that horse has already bolted and gun ownership has become a part of the American psyche.
But I assure you that the vast majority of criminals do not possess armed weapons here in the UK.
Sure, I guess lots of people could get access to guns if they really wanted to, but most choose not to, even the criminals.
They just aren't anywhere near as freely available.

If what you claim is true, then the UK has the worst criminals in the history of the Planet. Super Wussy Criminals.

Of course they are.

With your influx of Middle Eastern gun toting loving extremists

Unfortunately most of the people convicted of terrorist related offences in the UK have been home-grown - which is a sad indictment of the UK but a whole different conversation altogether.

Dig deeper than the nightly news. There is no logical reason for thinking your criminals dont have guns and dont shoot and kill those unprotected cops.

I do, by living and experiencing life and there is a logical reason - most criminals know that the sentences they receive for carrying arms far outweigh the sentences they receive if they commit the same crime without a gun.

Anyone caught with a gun receives a mandatory minimum 5 year prison sentence.

I'll never buy that. That's a Government snowjob.

That's up to you - but I guarantee you it is nothing of the sort.

The UK is not the USA.
What is right for you is not always right for us - and vice versa.

This issue has absolutely nothing to do with gun control - I think you are completely missing the points the OP made and are using this thread to promote your own pre-conceived ideas and incorrect belief that everything that is wrong with the UK is because of our lack of an equivallent of The Second Amendment.

reply to post by Freeborn


Put more succinctly than I ever could. I was hoping that somebody would catch onto the union influence on policing that is highlighted but it seems not.