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Police Scotland Told To Pay Journalist $13,000 Over Illegal Intercepts (theguardian.com)
Reader Bruce66423 writes: A former police officer turned journalist whose privacy was criminally breached by Scotland's finest is due to receive 10,000 Pound ($13,000) for the damage their actions caused. Other victims didn't seek compensation. It is not clear whether criminal proceedings against the officers responsible for ignoring clear rules against their behaviour will follow.From the report: The investigatory powers tribunal ruled the force had breached the human rights of Gerard Gallacher, a former police officer turned freelance journalist, who had spent 18 months investigating a cold murder case in which a prime suspect had been released without charge. Gallacher said he suffered "invasion of privacy, familial strife, personal stress and strain and loss of long-standing friendships" after detectives accessed 32 days of his communications data, ignoring clear court rulings to protect journalists and their sources. Police Scotland had been braced for an adverse ruling after Sir Stanley Burnton, the communications interception commissioner, ruled last November that the force had been reckless in its repeated abuse of its powers.
So, the Scotland Police do something bad, and the penalty is paid by the Scottish taxpayers rather than the police officers who did the bad thing?
Not much deterrent value in "if you get caught, someone else will pay your fine"....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
The cops in question will most likely be forced to take an "administrative leave" where they will continue to get full pay. £10k is a f*cking pittance for harassment and privacy breaching.
Who is worse? The Corrupted or the Corrupter?
Trump it just trying to cut the middle man.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
And dealing with American cops. Or they might misunderstand that '10,000 pounds' payback.
Have gnu, will travel.
The £10,000 is compensation from the state to the victim for the behaviour of the police. This is always coming from the taxpayer. The more problematic situation is when police forces get fined in the criminal courts for doing something illegal - it does happen in England - and taxpayers pay the money to government. The only virtue of this is that it is embarrassing to the force.
On a good day the reprobates who actually committed the offences whilst they were police officers get sacked from the force and deprived of their pension. That DOES translate into the taxpayer getting a nice bonus; police pensions are EXPENSIVE. It's my hope that this might happen here.
So, are the people that broke the law paying the 10,000 pounds, or is their department? I wish they would have civil penalties for violating rights here in the US as well, our way of dealing with it is to just throw out all evidence obtained via unlawful searches... which only rewards criminals, and does nothing for innocent people whose rights were violated!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
FTFY
It must be nice to be shielded from consequences. They're told to pay but the taxpayer pays. Awesome.
"Oooh, make 'us' pay some more. Ouch" the commissioner commented after the heating.
Requiem for the American Dream
Option four) The investigators have been paid to find nothing and the whole thing is for show.
Etc...
Requiem for the American Dream
When those in power abuse their power in a criminal way, they should be punished and made examples of. In this case, the officers should have their faces ripped off and nailed to the wall of the station as a warning to the rest of the force.