At last, the Met Police (MPS) responded to my request for an explanation …
At last, the Met Police (MPS) responded to my request for an explanation to provide specific reasons why an Exemption under the FoIA is being used for my research. Sadly, the reply did not provide an answer and made an excuse they replied to another email so I wrote again requesting specific reasons. This time I received a quick retort with joined-up words and sentences. It stated they don’t have to give a response to my complaint as they have fifty days with twenty days to go.
Well there’s one in the eye for proactive, open public service and best practise working! It’ll be six months and counting next week since I applied to undertake research.
How on earth can the MPS expect to secure the respect of the public when they refuse to clean-up their own backyard it simply isn’t good enough! In the London Evening Standard (28 May 2012) the headline said ‘the Met tries the personal touch to repair public trust’ after a survey asking victims of crime how they were treated by the police and The Met (MPS) came bottom of the league of large city police forces. Assistant Commissioner Simon Byrne was quoted “ We are trying to change the whole emphasis of what we do.” It is all so grubby and unconvincing for public service and decent law enforcement officers too!
As for reasons for blocking access for my research under Exemptions of the FoIA, well I can make-up my own for all it matters. As the timeless piece of drama Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John La Carré so accurately summed-up:
“Reason as logic or as motive, or reason as a way of life?
They don’t have to give me reasons. I can write my own damn reasons and that is not the same as the half-baked tolerance that comes from no longer caring.”