Wednesday 8 July 2009

It Appears You Do Not Have To Be Male To Be A Keystone Cop,

in the Norfolk Police force they have lady Keystone cops! Miranda Skillings, 56, made the 7ft tall straw lawman and placed it outside her house in Brancaster to promote a scarecrow festival, said, 'We get people to put up scarecrows in their gardens and funny places as a prelude to the fete, last year we had around 50 in the village, We always put up a couple of scarecrows early to encourage people to take part and this year we decided to make a policeman with a speed gun.' Mrs Skillings said she ran her idea past a local community support officer who contacted superiors before she was given the go-ahead, imagine her surprise when it disappeared, so she contacted the local police to report the theft, several hours later that the Norfolk Police admitted one of their own was responsible for the 'crime' and arranged for it to be returned, the lady police officer impounded the impostor for sending out an 'inappropriate' message, despite being given the go ahead from her superiors to have the straw man on display, but the force standing by one of it's own it stated yesterday 'it had given permission for the fake officer but not the speed gun' Inspector Dave Buckley added: 'An officer removed the scarecrow as it portrayed an incorrect and inappropriate message to passing motorists' later a car from Hunstanton police station arrived 'An officer brought him round in a Land Rover sitting in the front passenger seat at 5pm, people passing looked amazed as he was being manhandled out of the car' so the straw head is now back on patrol without the speed gun, the Keystone cops are alive and well in Norfolk! by the way did I mention this is the same police force that, last week was issuing compasses to Muslim suspects in custody to help them face Mecca while praying, which is fine, but a risk assessment will have to be carried out before each compass is handed out! the force also came under fire last year after a leaked memo revealed rank-and-file officers had been told that incidents such as car vandalism should not be classed as an offence when there is 'no idea how it happened', in the same year it emerged it was shutting all but six of its 999 response stations and in 2006, a Norfolk Police Authority member advises the public to 'exaggerate' details of crimes when he was confronted with complaints about officers failing to respond to 999 calls, I just hope the other 50 scarecrows in Brancaster are not all straw headed policemen, imagine the size of the truck they would have to have to bring them back in!

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