Monday 18 January 2010

Caught In The Web...

The Internet and the desire to maintain a presence on it seems to be causing the police all kinds of trouble.

Last week, we had The Case of the Unpaid Web Bill:
A Metropolitan Police officer assaulted and falsely arrested a man who asked to be paid for working on his personal website, a court has heard.

Commander Ali Dizaei, 47, bullied web designer Waad Al-Baghdadi when he asked for £600 for work on alidizaei.com, Southwark crown Court heard.

A forensic examiner said injuries to Mr Dizaei's chest after the clash were "likely to be self-inflicted".
Oh, dear...

And then there was the row over the eye-watering costs of Norfolk Police's web design overhaul:
Norfolk Police spent more than £250,000 redesigning its website, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

This compares to Essex police which spent £75,000 and Northamptonshire police's website revamp cost £65,000.
Ouch..! Still, it's only taxpayer's money, after all. Plenty more where that came from...

If the police want to maintain a web presence that casts then in a good light, they should really forget all the flim-flam and digital whizz-bangery sold to them by men in nice suits and shiny offices, or the desire to use new innovations simply because they are there. They already have a useful and engaging web presence in those websites run by their own officers, some of which can be found in my right hand links column.

Perhaps, just perhaps, they might consider not persecuting them for telling it how it is?

7 comments:

Ross said...

Is Dizaei still in the police? He seems to be caught up in a fresh scandal on an almost weekly basis and this has been going on for several years.

Joe Public said...

I bet "Inspector Gadget"'s website doesn't cost anywhere near that much to maintain.

Why can't 1 police farce have a website that's used as a template for all the others?

Dr Melvin T Gray said...

The mere idea of an official police site mirroring Gadget, is nauseous.

Heralding his unsettled future are whispers that Gadget has not been on 'active police duties' for some time.

Whatever impact this status has on his official career, it has bouyed Gadget with extra time for treason, libel, blogging and lucrative book deals whilst undermining government and National police standing in endless sprees of lies, petty moans and gripes.

Clarissa said...

It is perhaps rude of one to ask Melvin but may I enquire as to when you are going to get over Gadget banning you from his blog for trolling?

Getting back on topic, it does appear that the Met are determined to get Dizaei for something... which is I suppose better than persecuting a member of the public in the same way.

David Gillies said...

£250,000 will get you a lot of website, if that figure represents the upfront design costs. Web design is expensive, because beyond the basic stuff it's hard and intricate, but a quarter of a mill is definitely the Simple Shopper getting his pocket picked again.

JuliaM said...

"Is Dizaei still in the police?"

I think the police are themselves somewhat surprised at that...

"Getting back on topic, it does appear that the Met are determined to get Dizaei for something... which is I suppose better than persecuting a member of the public in the same way."

He certainly does seem to have done something to deserve it, doesn't he?

"...a quarter of a mill is definitely the Simple Shopper getting his pocket picked again."

Yup. They see the government coming a mile away. And no doubt there's a lucrative 'mainteneance' contract that's seperate to that figure lurking somewhere...

MTG said...

Clarissa, what a refreshing and charming view from a blog aimed at the age group who see Mr Plod as a kindly man who provides the time.