Non-Subscriber Extract
CPS standards are 'too high', cop tells Coaker over cuppa
By Claire Haynes
30 March 2009
Vernon Coaker (left), Jan Berry (right) and Sgt Richard Sainsbury discuss CPS evidence standards (Andrew Carruth)
THE standards of evidence required before Crown Prosecution Service lawyers take a case to court are far too high, a frontline cop has told the police minister in a face to face meeting.
Sgt Richard Sainsbury, a South Yorkshire Police officer and a Police Review columnist, told Vernon Coaker over a cup of tea in the Home Office that the police service needs to trust officers to use their discretion.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith asked the pair to get together after reading one of Sgt Sainsbury's columns earlier this year (PR, 9 January) and Police Review sat in on the meeting to hear what a sergeant with 32 years' policing experience had to tell Mr Coaker.