High Court – PACE Clock – OMG – HELP!

Mad Hatter
No wonder you’re late. Why, this watch is exactly two days slow.

Is anyone else running around like crazy maniacs trying to find out what the recent High Court decision on the PACE clock actually means?

Here in Ruralshire, we have decided to go for our favourite option, bury our heads in the sand and hope it’s all a horrid mistake. Other Forces have told their officers to stop bailing suspects immediately. Meanwhile, most of the remaining police budget for 2011 will now be spent on hugely expensive legal advice about what to do next.

For the uninitiated, it seems that the PACE clock on a magistrates extension will now run into any bail time a suspect is given. This effectively means that if we have to delay the investigation for any reason, like the victim is unconscious and can’t speak to us or the CCTV cannot be downloaded, or the victim is a child who requires a specialist interview, or we need something translated, or we need a computer or phone diagnosed and checked for child sex images, then it’s tough luck.

We will have only the initial police PACE hours to get the whole investigation done, or rather the bits of it we want to speak to the suspect about, or we have to go it alone without a suspect interview. The other option is to leave the suspect at large, possibly giving them time to commit further offences or flee.

Before I joined the police I would have thought this a clear mistake, or maybe an oversight, or that we have misunderstood something that people far cleverer than us have said. Now I’m ready to believe anything. As with most CJ decisions these days, there are only two groups people who will gain from this. One group are the criminals themselves and the other? Well, just follow the money (Clue – they will be the ones charging huge sums of money to sort it all out).

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