Scotland Yard used ex-police from private firm G4S to help hunt for missing Madeleine McCann - 3.1.16

Something in the mirror about G4S and OG, can't get it here, can anyone else?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/scotland-yard-used-ex-police-7112764

Well its Tracey again! A friend in need eh........................



Scotland Yard used ex-police from private firm G4S to help hunt for missing Madeleine McCann

22:29, 3 JAN 2016 UPDATED 22:50, 3 JAN 2016
BY TRACEY KANDOHLA

Up to 81 former officers were on the Met payroll as part of the failed £12.1million hunt for the missing child

   



Former police officers employed by G4S have been used by Scotland Yard in the hunt for Madeleine McCann.

Up to 81 former officers have been on the Met Police payroll to search for the missing girl over a five-year period.


Revelations of the global company’s input into the failed £12.1 million hunt for Maddie only emerged in documents obtained from the London force under freedom of information laws.


It is set to cause embarrassment to the Government who are now investigating the private firm for allegedly overcharging them.

Two weeks ago Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry publically thanked Operation Grange, the police inquiry set up into their daughter’s disappearance on PM David Cameron ’s orders, in May 2011.

PAG4S guardsG4S: The firm's relationship with Government has been frayed
But the couple from Rothley, Leics, couldn’t resist a dig at cops for failing to do “as much” quickly enough in an online festive message.

It was not clear if the McCanns were aware G4S , whose reputation has been scarred after a string of blunders, had been brought on board.

The firm’s relationship with the Government has been frayed following a series of scandals including bungling the London 2012 Olympic contract and charging taxpayers for monitoring dead criminals.

The hunt for Maddie, who vanished during a family holiday to Portugal’s Praia da Luz, in May 2007 just days before her fourth birthday, is now being scaled down.

VIEW GALLERY Police-in-Faro
In 2011 G4S provided the most staff, up to 33, to help solve the Maddie riddle , at a cost to British taxpayers of up to £91,929, including an agency fee of £8,489.

The following year up to 16 officers were on Op Grange books, plus one intelligence assessor at a fee of up to £59,380. In 2013 up to 13 G4S staff were assigned to find Maddie at a rate of up to £54,134. In the summer of that year Scotland Yard travelled to Portugal to dig up ground in and around Luz where they suspected Maddie’s body could be buried.

In 2014 G4S provided up to 10 ex cops, a researcher and two digital media assessors to team up with the Maddie squad at a price spiralling towards £57, 413.

Read more: Gerry and Kate McCann reveal the reasons why they miss Maddie

On top of G4S Operation Grange used another private company Servoca to help the hunt.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We can confirm we have used agencies to provide extra support on specific high profile cases, including Operation Grange, the search for Madeleine McCann. G4S has provided ex police officers during a period from 2010 to 2014. It is not believed that we are still using them.”

G4S has also been involved in Operation Yewtree, the Met Police’s child sex abuse inquiry which has seen the high-profile prosecution of celebrities collapse and Operation Withern, the investigation into the 2011 London riots.


At the weekend MPs questioned the decision by police, who have suffered 20 per cent budget cuts, to use staff from G4S.

The company is being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office for claims it overcharged the Ministry of Justice for the electronic tagging of criminals who were dead or back in jail. G4S also failed to provide enough trained staff for the London Olympics, causing troops to be brought in.

Private firms including G4S and Servoca have been paid nearly £170million of taxpayers’ money between January 2010 and December 2014 for helping police forces across the country.

Read more: Madeleine McCann's parents say they have 'fresh hope we will find her'

The newly-released statistics come from 28 of 45 forces who confirmed hiring staff from both companies.

Keith Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East, and chairman of the home affairs select committee said: “Given the huge pressure on police budgets, it is puzzling that such a large amount of public money is being given to private-sector organisations.”

Scotland Yard has vowed to continue the search for Maddie for another three months despite recently scaling back on officers.

Getty ImagesParents: Gerry and Kate McCann are preparing for probe to be shelved
But former GP Kate and heart doctor Gerry, both 47, are preparing for the inquiry to be shelved later this year after, so far, failing to unearth any new clues. They believe their daughter, who would now be aged 12, could still be alive and will use money from the £750,000 set aside in official Find Maddie Fund to employ a new team of private eyes.

Until the end of June last year it emerged controversial Op Grange has cost £10.1 million with a further £2 million from the Government’s “Special Grants” budgeted until early April.

 Madeleine McCann police begin to search a patch of scrubland just outside of the small town as the search for clues enters a second week
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: “The investigation is still ongoing although the number of officers has been significantly reduced.”

The task force has yet to make a single arrest. In October they drastically cut the number detectives from 29 to just four.

Kate and Gerry’s spokesperson Clarence Mitchell said: “How Scotland Yard run Operation Grange, and the manning of it, is entirely a matter for them. They will employ agency staff as and when they see fit. Kate and Gerry will not be commenting.”

Cheers Bampots x

G4S provided 33 agency cops in 2011

G4S provided 16 agency cops and I Intelligence assessor* in 2012

G4S provided 13 agency cops in 2013

G4S provided 10 agency cops, an agency researcher and 2 digital media assessors in 2014

I wonder is this in addition to the 37 officers already working in Operation Grange - or were 33 of the G4S agency in 2011 doing the majority of the work ?  In the early days it was supposedly bringing the 3 lots of info together.

Agency staff just do as they`re told, usually have no interest in finding the real truth, have no career path in mind and probably wouldn`t seriously be on the look out for anything untoward.

The only positive thing about this is that ex-agency staff are more likely to speak out about the instructions they were given.

* Intelligence Assessors develop, collate, assess and disseminate available intelligence in relation to the case. They research databases, prepare briefing documents and intelligence products in line with the National Intelligence Model (NIM) in an effort to develop and gather the intelligence opportunities available to superiors and ensure the provision of an effective service to the Force.

Taken from a Job Description in a Strathclyde police job opportunity advert.
http://www.allpolicejobs.co.uk/index.php?p=police_job&jid=24356

And what with Theresa May's husband being a major shareholder in G4S. This beggars belief.

Daily Mirror wrote:In 2011 G4S provided the most staff, up to 33, to help solve the Maddie riddle , at a cost to British taxpayers of up to £91,929, including an agency fee of £8,489.

£91,929 - the agency fee of £8,489 = £83,440

£83,440 divided by the 33 staff = an average of £2,528 each, which is way below the minimum wage.

Later the article says G4S "provided up to 10 ex cops, a researcher and two digital media assessors to team up with the Maddie squad at a price spiralling towards £57, 413". So that's 13 people for £57,413 = an average of £4416, still below the minimum wage despite the costs allegedly "spiralling".

Perhaps the clue lies in the phrase "up to". Regardless I'm pretty sure the figures are at best grossly misleading and the article is yet another attempt by the MSM to create a false impression. The question is why? Grange is already down to 4 people (where IMO it will remain ad infinitum so that reporting restrictions stay in place) so what are they trying to achieve?

I just wanted to point out the observation that according to Kandohla's 'article', on every occasion where she mentions associated 'officers', she states 'up to', each and every one - basically she's got no idea of the facts

AndyB wrote:

Daily Mirror wrote:In 2011 G4S provided the most staff, up to 33, to help solve the Maddie riddle , at a cost to British taxpayers of up to £91,929, including an agency fee of £8,489.

£91,929 - the agency fee of £8,489 = £83,440

£83,440 divided by the 33 staff = an average of £2,528 each, which is way below the minimum wage.

Later the article says G4S "provided up to 10 ex cops, a researcher and two digital media assessors to team up with the Maddie squad at a price spiralling towards £57, 413". So that's 13 people for £57,413 = an average of £4416, still below the minimum wage despite the costs allegedly "spiralling".

Perhaps the clue lies in the phrase "up to". Regardless I'm pretty sure the figures are at best grossly misleading and the article is yet another attempt by the MSM to create a false impression. The question is why? Grange is already down to 4 people (where IMO it will remain ad infinitum so that reporting restrictions stay in place) so what are they trying to achieve?

Apologies, AndyB. I hadn't read your post when typing mine out. I definitely agree that this is MSM trying to pressurize the Met, as usual

mrjnh wrote:

AndyB wrote:

Daily Mirror wrote:In 2011 G4S provided the most staff, up to 33, to help solve the Maddie riddle , at a cost to British taxpayers of up to £91,929, including an agency fee of £8,489.

£91,929 - the agency fee of £8,489 = £83,440

£83,440 divided by the 33 staff = an average of £2,528 each, which is way below the minimum wage.

Later the article says G4S "provided up to 10 ex cops, a researcher and two digital media assessors to team up with the Maddie squad at a price spiralling towards £57, 413". So that's 13 people for £57,413 = an average of £4416, still below the minimum wage despite the costs allegedly "spiralling".

Perhaps the clue lies in the phrase "up to". Regardless I'm pretty sure the figures are at best grossly misleading and the article is yet another attempt by the MSM to create a false impression. The question is why? Grange is already down to 4 people (where IMO it will remain ad infinitum so that reporting restrictions stay in place) so what are they trying to achieve?

Apologies, AndyB. I hadn't read your post when typing mine out. I definitely agree that this is MSM trying to pressurize the Met, as usual

No worries, you expressed it far more succinctly than I did. The question remains though; pressurize the met into what? What's the objective when grange has already been all but wound down?

With friends like Khandola, who needs enemies?

OG down to four officers indicates that we are approaching end-game. This article sends a clear warning to SY that they will never be allowed to quietly shelve the investigation without the press exploding with demands to know how,where, when and why millions of taxpayers money was spent on a wild goose chase.

Rather than allowing the investigation to sink into oblivion, the police will be forced to make a statement such as that given by the Assistant Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police, who stated in July 2008 that "While one or both of them [the McCanns] may be innocent, there is no clear evidence that eliminates them from involvement in Madeleine's disappearance."

This suggests to me that the McCanns are expecting arrests and are desperate to get the investigation shut down (or they're planning to use their old excuse of, "they couldn't find the abductor so they're framing us.") and that Tracey Khandola is hedging her bets - she's determined to get a big story out of the McCanns this year ...one way or another.

Interesting from Sonia.......


Sonia Poulton ‏@SoniaPoulton · 3h3 hours ago
Media: it is not objective reporting when you keep using Tracy Kandohla for #McCann articles. Trace & Kate exercise together, Trace told me.





Sonia Poulton
‏@SoniaPoulton @fiorifan I don't think the country realises OG is under homicide division...







And to do with her documentary she says this in reply to a tweet......


terry john moore ‏@Terrymoore1John · 2h2 hours ago
@SoniaPoulton thank goodness for people like you Sonia..the bravest lady iv ever heard of..have u got a date 4 yr film on the McCann's?




Sonia Poulton
‏@SoniaPoulton @Terrymoore1John I run updates on my Twitter. Refuse to say much these days as enemies have twisted it and used info against me

That is a good way of looking at it Poe. I have to say I did have doubts when the MSM were reporting the cost of the case. I thought the intention
was to prepare the public that the case would be closed early this year, due to the expense.

Cristobell has blogged on this subject...

Searching for Madeleine..

http://cristobell.blogspot.co.uk/

"Even if the parents are never charged, and even if they are completely without conscience, they must live with that never ending suspicion."

Too right.
This is one of the things that sustains me throughout this business.

As someone mentioned on Cristobells blog, what would the digital media assessors do?

Posted by portugalpress on January 04, 2016


Outrage as yet more thousands discovered to have been jettisoned at Maddie inquiry



A new disgrace in the €16.4 million police investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has erupted in the British media.

 It now appears that the Operation Grange ‘Maddie probe’ has involved the hiring of private investigators from firms that were actually being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office for “allegedly overcharging” the British government.

 According to a report in the Sunday Times, both firms were under suspicion of putting in bogus charges for the electronic tagging of released prisoners who were either “dead, back in prison or had fled the country”.

 One of the companies, G4S, has “since repaid more than €130 million to the Treasury” over the scandal, but it is still another low moment for the Metropolitan Police which has come under enormous criticism for spending so much money on the Maddie investigation over the past eight-plus years, without coming up with one single charge or provable theory.

 According to stories in the media today, “up to 81 officers from private security firm G4S were recruited to assist Operation Grange - even though at one stage 31 detectives were assigned to work on the case full-time”. G4S was also involved in Operations Yewtree, the Met’s child sex abuse inquiry, and Withern - a probe into the 2011 London riots. But it is the Maddie angle that has inflamed tabloid media, as it centres on the “failed” aspects of police investigations this far, and how much they have cost the British taxpayer.

The information emerged as a result of documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws, explained the Sunday Times, quoting shadow police minister Jack Dromey as saying: “The public will be rightly concerned at the creeping privatisation of core police functions and that the policing of their communities is being increasingly handed over to private companies”. Where the revelations will leave the already “drastically scaled down” Maddie investigation is anyone’s guess. Here in Portugal, the PJ’s parallel investigation remains ongoing, although not exclusively focused on finding the British toddler who disappeared without trace from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007.

As a police source told us late last year, the case has been “worrying, because in most cases where no-one is arrested or charged, we know what happened, we just can’t prove it. “But in this case, rigorously, there is no definitive idea on what happened. We don’t know a thing”. As Sky News Martin Brunt said on air last October, “it is a case of £10 million spent and nothing achieved”. Since then, the investigation’s total expenditure has increased, with the figure of €16.4 million due to be reached by April this year.



http://portugalresident.com/outrage-as-yet-more-thousands-discovered-to-have-been-jettisoned-at-maddie-inquiry

Remember this.

Walt wrote:It pains me to admit it,but its for research,I've just gone out and got a sun,the closing paragraph states and I quote.

Crucial to the new search will be access to information Operation Grange has uncovered.The McCanns can only hope it will bring them more success.

The £750,000 isn't for new searches its to pay the bunch of private investigators for info into what is going on,OG aren't telling them diddly squat.All opinion though.

Wonder what "not exclusively looking for" means? If the PJs main focus is not on finding Madeleine, I wonder what it is
IMO

With regards Digital Media Assesor DDL.......Found this old job advert ........
http://www.policingsolutions.co.uk/job/digital-media-assessment-and-analysis-officers-jobid-6461448

Digital Media Assessment and Analysis Officers
Job reference:6461448
Location:Empress State Building
Salary:14.00
Job type:Contract
Sector:Public Sector
Date posted:11/08/2014
Contact:Send email

Email me jobs like this
G4S policing Solutions are looking for 6 Digital Media Assessment and Analysis Officers for one of our major clients

Main Purpose of the role

Experienced Ex-officers required to assist in the viewing and assessment of seized Counter Terrorist suspect digital media.

Suitable candidates should have an investigative background, previous counter terrorism experience is desirable although not essential.

On average there are over 900 outstanding examinations to conduct which are required to be reviewed thoroughly and methodically.

Candidates should have interest in current public affairs as well as an inquisitive mind as this will benefit them in the role.

Please note that they may be required to view images of a distressing nature. Successful candidates will be required to go through SC vetting.

Job Summary

·         Provide support during investigations including completing administration procedures ensuring that they are carried out in a prompt and efficient manner.
·         Participate in tasking and de-briefings.
·         Assist in the gathering of intelligence.
·         Record statements, prepare case files and attend hearings.
·         Maintain records, and conduct research using internal systems.
·         Work co-operatively within a team, contributing positively and constructively to their achievements

If you would like to apply for this role please contact Shana Tranter on 02084616620 or email .tranter@uk.g4s.com">shana.tranter@uk.g4s.com

We are committed to positive employment policies to promote equal opportunity in employment regardless of sexual orientation, age, marital status, ethnic origin, sex, nationality, religion or disability. Our policy complies with all relevant legislation and codes of practice. We are also an equal opportunities employer and do not discriminate on any grounds other than ability to carry out the task. Our management personnel encourage employees with opportunities for training and promotion. To ensure that this policy is applied consistently we take steps to monitor its effectiveness and carry out occasional reviews.


So the part I take from this is the assessment of "suspect digital media" .......which could be DVD, digital images(photos??!!) etc. Also read other bits which suggest the assessment of how people handle the media.......let s face it,it could mean lots!

Your a brilliant help Bampots, thank u. As you say, could mean anything, darn!

dogs don't lie wrote:Your a brilliant help Bampots, thank u. As you say, could mean anything, darn!

I second that ddl. Bampots is a brilliant help.

I'm hoping those digital media assessors was assessing all pics in this case,
Who knows, maybe that (possible) map on the table pic was assessed too

From Wikipedia (bolding mine): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_media

Digital media are any media that are encoded in a machine-readable format.[1] Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified and preserved on computers. Computer programs and software; digital imagery, digital video; video games; web pages and websites, including social media; data and databases; digital audio, such as mp3s; and e-books are examples of digital media.

I don't know whether mobile phone communication fall into this category as well but emails most certainly do.

At this point I would like to add a message to our digital media assessor overlords ...

Walt wrote:Remember this.

Walt wrote:It pains me to admit it,but its for research,I've just gone out and got a sun,the closing paragraph states and I quote.

Crucial to the new search will be access to information Operation Grange has uncovered.The McCanns can only hope it will bring them more success.

The £750,000 isn't for new searches its to pay the bunch of private investigators for info into what is going on,OG aren't telling them diddly squat.All opinion though.

Walt - are you saying that the Sun paper article contains more than was posted above, i.e. the bit saying `crucial to the new search will be access to information Operation Grange has uncovered` ? If so, this is implying that the McCanns will have access to all OG`s files from the last 4 years - surely that can`t be true !

Mimi the post I quoted was from back at the end of October where the spokesman said what would be crucial to any private investigation,I believe also it mentioned about former police men,now this lot the Met employed included former policemen,too much of a coincidence,all opinion based on nothing.