OPINION: Penalty for A413 crash misconduct police officers was hardly a penalty at all

Investigation opened after a fatal collisionInvestigation opened after a fatal collision
Investigation opened after a fatal collision
For the past three years I have been covering a story which could affect anyone.

Loved ones travelling on their morning commute on the icy A413 killed in a crash. But this story is different, and our coverage over the past few weeks has laid bare a litany of failings by three police officers, who were found guilty of gross misconduct and misconduct respectively for their actions that morning.

Those officers were called to the scene of a crash on the same stretch of road, in the same icy conditions - they saw, and even commented on the conditions of the road.

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But rather than putting measures in place to prevent a second crash, they went on their way. Hence the outcome of the hearing – gross misconduct for one officer, and misconduct for the other two.

Content Editor Hayley O'KeeffeContent Editor Hayley O'Keeffe
Content Editor Hayley O'Keeffe

Now for me, if you are found guilty of gross misconduct, especially in a role so important as policing, one would assume that you would be fired? Even misconduct for that matter, because surely the people who uphold the law in this country should be held to the very highest of standards?

Well that was not the findings of the hearing, which handed a written warning for the gross misconduct, and measures amounting to no further action for the misconduct officers.

If I was found to have committed gross misconduct in my job I would expect to be fired, it’s extremely serious. And I think it’s disgraceful that in a country where a lady who (rightly or wrongly) stopped to pick a dropped £20 was hauled through the courts, surely this cannot be right...

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This week our front page and page three stories are all about the roads nightmare which snakes around Aylesbury.

Content Editor Hayley O'KeeffeContent Editor Hayley O'Keeffe
Content Editor Hayley O'Keeffe

This was no more obvious than last week when, as we covered, it took up to three hours just to get from one side of town to the other.

It is not good enough, and as a newspaper we are calling on both councils to work together to get proper plans in place to alleviate this congestion, because with more homes planned, it’s only going to get worse.

Let me know what you think by emailing [email protected]

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