The devil finds work for idle hands
— Henry David Thoreou
We have it on good authority that our website is widely read not only by injured officers or those seeking further information about the ill-health or injury award process, but by SMP’s, force solicitors, HR managers and maybe even Chief Constables.
A number of months ago we introduced ‘Like’ and ‘Dislike’ (or thumbs up/down) buttons for the user submitted comments on our blogs. As an organisation that believes everyone is entitled to their own view, we are happy to have ‘Dislikes’ as well as ‘Likes’. We have in the past also published negative opinions about our blogs.
However, it wasn’t long before we noticed that a person or persons unknown went on a frenzied clicking spree, ‘Disliking’ all publicly published comments on our blogs. The ‘Dislikes’ far outweighed the ‘Likes’ for any particular comment, and disproportionately so.
On 18th March 2020, we released a factual news item concerning Gareth Morgan, the Chief Constable of Staffordshire Police where we highlighted a recent BBC documentary where is was said that he had wept – https://iodpa.org/2020/03/18/chief-constable-gareth-morgan-weeps/. The item gave no personal opinions and linked to both the program and a number of online news articles. This resulted in some public comments being posted.
The day after the news item appeared, the phantom clicker was back, putting twenty three ‘Dislikes’within tweleve minutes on just about every one of the user comments! Only this time, we captured the Internet Protocol (‘IP’) address of the user making the clicks.
For the non technically minded, whenever one computer talks to another using something called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (‘TCP/IP’), certain additional information is always passed in the transaction. This includes a numerical identifier separated by dots, which is a unique reference to the computer or network at the time. It is something that always happens in the background, that most people are probably not even aware of.
Here is a list of the ‘Dislikes’ that were recorded –
You will see that the IP address captured was – 213.104.210.101
A reverse Domain Name Server (‘DNS’) lookup using one of the many publicly available tools gave us details of who that particular IP address was assigned to.
You will see that a static block of IP addresses 213.104.210.96 – 213.104.210.127 has been permanently assigned to none other than…
Staffordshire Police
Yes, that’s right, someone viewing our site from within Staffordshire Police is frantically clicking the ‘Dislike’ button on every public comment published.
The following day there was another tranche of ‘Dislikes’. This time, twenty one ‘Dislikes’ in a period of two minutes. The IP address this time was 213.81.65.226. Wait for it… yes, it is another IP address in a range (213.8.65.224 – 213.81.65.231) allocated to none other than Staffordshire Police.
This obviously begs, the question, who is it? Is it a member of HR such as Andrew Coley, who has been driving the injury reviews? Is it a member of his team, or maybe it is a member of senior management? Of course it could be Gareth Morgan himself?
We have supplied sufficient information for Staffordshire Police IT department to check their own server logs and identify who this person is, and would be very happy to hear from the person directly? As we have previously said, we are more than happy to place alternative views on our website; it is always interesting to hear the argument from another viewpoint.
You may, of course (as always), leave a comment on this blog, but just bear in mind that you may, at some stage, get a ‘Dislike’ for it, but don’t take it too personally as it appears to be the work of one person, and judging by the emails we receive from serving and retired officers from Staffordshire Police, we know that their view doesn’t represent the rank and file from within the force.
Here is a massive hmmmmmm!.. Its still smaller than Morgan hmmmmmmmm when asked by a Sgt ” when are we actually getting these extra officers??”.. Now correct me if I am wrong.. But was it staffs police iod policy not to review band 1 pensioners or iod pensioners passed 71.5 yrs.. Now when faced with court cases coming up.. Guess what!.. Few band 1 iods get a higher grade.. (no disrespect or any quarms about it.. If you have had your banding upped fantastic.. You are getting what you should have been awarded in the bloody first place) big hmmmmmmmm.. Is this a large gesture to look fair to the courts?… What about the unnecessary underhand tactics employed prior… Explain that in court.. Jog on organ..
It’s a shame Morgan or Ellis never entered service in the armed forces.. If either had we could have colonel H’d them long before they were let anyway near the police service…
It is now obvious why this person got the job.. You don’t need a degree or the equivalent to slide up the greasy pole, just the self centred ambition to get to the top at all cost.. To be blunt get the job on a promise you will save money and do the best for the crime commissioners whims and ridiculous cuts.. Your officers can go to hell in the meantime.. Whilst the crime commissioner and yourself indulge in getting state of the art security systems installed in your private houses.. You insisist on driving a jaguar car which the public fund as your personal transport.. What transport does cressida dick have.. Are you equal to the met boss?.. We need to start a campaign to expose what you and Ellis have done over the past few years and bring those responsible to account.. I. E you and ellis.. We need to do it throughly and properly.. So you don’t leave before you can get away and leave the crap for someone else to pick up.
It’s not that the person who down voted so many posts that is what I find distasteful it’s that they down voted multiple times, over and over again on the same comments so as to inflate the down vote ratio on many individual comments using a Staffordshire Police computer.
Now this is not the action of a fair minded, balanced individual who is simply expressing their opinion. This is the action of a coward, a spiteful coward at that, who is clearly trying to hit back at the commenters.
What is really troubling is that this coward is employed by Staffordshire Police clearly in a capacity that involves them in dealing with injured on duty officers and former officers.
After all why else would they go to so much effort to act in such a manner?
As expected, my posts of 22nd and 24th March have received individual ‘Dislikes’.
There is always going to be opponents to published points of view and I am always prepared to listen to what people have to say.
To the ‘disliker’: Does the truth really hurt so much? Please feel free to enter into debate. You can even use a pseudonym.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Having read many replies re likes and dislikes together with how to trace them, it is clear Staffs knowledge of computing is woeful. I have watched Morgan’s performance in episode 1 of COPS LIKE US (BBC iplayer). How can a force have a leader who is so inept and out of his deapth. Should he go on to develop PDSD. he might need a medical pension, but not be awarded an INJURY ON DUTY caused by work related stress.
It took a mental breakdown after numerous IOD’s for me to realise ACPO ranks/HR’s agenda of wanting us to die before we could realise our legal entitlements to remuneration for our loss of earnings, especially as us injured officers had no choice about being forced in to retirement.
HR know that so many of us will die within a certain number of years due to the mortality rate of medically retired officers whose ability not only work has been diminished, if not ended through an IOD, but whose health and quality of life will take the inevitable downturn due to the degenerative circumstances of an IOD, or multiple IOD’s.
I am not surprised at the lengths a Force and/or its Personnel will go to, to not only belittle and mock us within our own forum, but also to collaborate with the medical profession and their legal teams, so that a percentage of us IOD retirees will not live to receive what the regulations state we are lawfully entitled to, due to the lengthy and drawn out legal and medical procedures.
The Donald Trump of policing. Say no more…………..
I’m sorry to say, but the “thumbs down” guy must be lacking such foresight in computer tech., as not to have known they could easily be rumbled. It appears to be the sort of action a spoiled child might do when they don’t get what they want…….