Timey
Jedi Master
From the front page of The Times
"A giant American military-industrial corporation that helped build the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is bidding for a role in running British police, The Times has learnt.
KBR, a former subsidary of the controversal Halliburton group, is competing for the largest police privatisation scheme in the UK. The Texas based multinational is seeking a slice of a £1.5 billion joint contract from the West Midlands and Surrey forces which is intended to transform the way policing operates.
The Times can disclose that the number of companies bidding for the contract has been whittled down from more than 200 to four consortiums, with KBR in the running. The company confirmed its interests in the secretive tendering process, in which Home Office officials are closely involved.
With David Cameron driving a radical police reform agenda, White-hall hopes that the scheme could solve the problem of how to cut 20 per cent from police budgets while preserving front-line services.
The proposal has attracted controversy because of suggestions that functions of patrol, detention and investigation could be carried out by private companies. But the potential involvement of a US company close associated with the War on Terror and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will cause even greater alarm.
KBR's bid will stoke the anger felt over the Government's police reforms by rank-and-file officers, tens of thousands of whom will take part in a protest march in London this week."
So....a privatized police force operated by a multinational corporation? Thats the vibe I'm getting. Pretty scary thought, if you ask me.
"A giant American military-industrial corporation that helped build the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is bidding for a role in running British police, The Times has learnt.
KBR, a former subsidary of the controversal Halliburton group, is competing for the largest police privatisation scheme in the UK. The Texas based multinational is seeking a slice of a £1.5 billion joint contract from the West Midlands and Surrey forces which is intended to transform the way policing operates.
The Times can disclose that the number of companies bidding for the contract has been whittled down from more than 200 to four consortiums, with KBR in the running. The company confirmed its interests in the secretive tendering process, in which Home Office officials are closely involved.
With David Cameron driving a radical police reform agenda, White-hall hopes that the scheme could solve the problem of how to cut 20 per cent from police budgets while preserving front-line services.
The proposal has attracted controversy because of suggestions that functions of patrol, detention and investigation could be carried out by private companies. But the potential involvement of a US company close associated with the War on Terror and military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan will cause even greater alarm.
KBR's bid will stoke the anger felt over the Government's police reforms by rank-and-file officers, tens of thousands of whom will take part in a protest march in London this week."
So....a privatized police force operated by a multinational corporation? Thats the vibe I'm getting. Pretty scary thought, if you ask me.
