shoeshine
24-01-2007, 10:28
The much hailed, 10 month's old Serious Organised Crime Agency, SOCA, one of the latest Blair's Government initiatives has come under criticism today. Could this be another one of those examples of "non-joined" Departments of State?
today's TelegraphOnline
Britain’s answer to the FBI, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, is beset by “major problems” just ten months after it was created, it was claimed last night.
Soca, set up to combat high-level drug and people-traffickers, was said to be failing to take up the majority of the drugs cases referred to it by Customs.
Some officers are already seeking to leave to return to conventional police work, it was said, due to low morale and a perception that the organisation is “paralysed by bureaucracy”.
Since Soca’s inception last April, customs officers refer most cases of class A drug smuggling to the agency to ask if it wants to investigate further.
Peter Lockhart, of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents around half of Soca’s officers, said of 300 drugs cases offered to the organisation so far, “only a handful...in the region of about ten cases” had been taken up.
and further:-
same source
One Soca officer, speaking anonymously to Channel 4 News, summed up the organisation’s performance as disastrous.
He said: “I am achieving next to nothing in my job... Since Soca started, I haven’t taken on any new investigations and haven’t been asked to develop any intelligence to move into an investigation. I am just purely performing email, admin tasks.
And a final quotation, purely for your delectation:-
same source
Soca, which views itself as a quasi-secret service, was set up in April to combat organised criminal gangs, using what Tony Blair called “21st century methods”.
Full article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/24/nsoca124.xml)
It's back to watching Laurel and Hardy for me. It's more believable. :hihi:
today's TelegraphOnline
Britain’s answer to the FBI, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, is beset by “major problems” just ten months after it was created, it was claimed last night.
Soca, set up to combat high-level drug and people-traffickers, was said to be failing to take up the majority of the drugs cases referred to it by Customs.
Some officers are already seeking to leave to return to conventional police work, it was said, due to low morale and a perception that the organisation is “paralysed by bureaucracy”.
Since Soca’s inception last April, customs officers refer most cases of class A drug smuggling to the agency to ask if it wants to investigate further.
Peter Lockhart, of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents around half of Soca’s officers, said of 300 drugs cases offered to the organisation so far, “only a handful...in the region of about ten cases” had been taken up.
and further:-
same source
One Soca officer, speaking anonymously to Channel 4 News, summed up the organisation’s performance as disastrous.
He said: “I am achieving next to nothing in my job... Since Soca started, I haven’t taken on any new investigations and haven’t been asked to develop any intelligence to move into an investigation. I am just purely performing email, admin tasks.
And a final quotation, purely for your delectation:-
same source
Soca, which views itself as a quasi-secret service, was set up in April to combat organised criminal gangs, using what Tony Blair called “21st century methods”.
Full article (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/24/nsoca124.xml)
It's back to watching Laurel and Hardy for me. It's more believable. :hihi: