Summary
Summary Public services - Command and control - P4
- Institution
- PEARSON (PEARSON)
Directly from my public services course which I achieved maximum marks in, this covers P4 of the command and control module
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Explain how an individual can exercise command and controlIn explaining how an individual can exercise command and control it is best to use an example to
show how it is done and where in the example an individual made errors and how they could have
improved. An example of where an individual’s ability to exercise can be seen is in the shootng of
jean Charles de Menezes. Here an innocent man was mistaking shoot on suspicion that he was
terrorist. The metropolitan police were in charge but Cressida Dick i was operatonal head on the day
Menezes was shot.
The situaton was this, two weeks afer the 7/7 bombings a second atempt was made on trains to
make a similar atack. Fortunately this atack was foiled and didn`t occur. However intelligence
suggested that more terrorist could stll be actve in ondon ready to carry out an atack. uspects
were under surveillance by the metropolitan police at the tme and this is where the police frst
notced Menezes at his lat. A number of unfortunate coincidences meant that he became suspect.
One he fted the descripton of suspected terrorist and was foreign. econd he lived near suspects
that could be terrorist, ofen terrorist stay in groups before an atack so they are fully commited tll
the atack has commenced, so he fted this behaviour from police eyes. As he lef the lat he had a
large rucksack, similar to rucksacks carried by the 7/7 bombers and would be bombers of the
atempted atack the day before. Finally he was headed into a train staton, the target chosen by
terrorists in the previous few weeks.
The police acted on this informaton and followed Menezes into the staton. They were non-
uniformed and armed with pistols. As the train was leaving Menezes atempted to enter the train.
He was wrestled to the ground and shot repeatedly into the head to guarantee his death. It later
transpired that he was not guilty at all, and following two investgatons by the police complaints
commission it was found that the ofcers did not have enough evidence to act and that their actons
were wrong. There were a lot of rumours and excuses though that the police couldn`t back. The
ofcers who shot Menezes for example said that he ignored warnings to stop and jumped a gate to
get to the train. However the Police complaints commission concluded that he shouldn`t have been
shot but that there was insufcient evidence to prosecute any one individual for the incident so no
one has been charged. The police as a whole though sufered, their reputaton damaged and their
command structure questoned.
Cressida dick failed as a commander and she didn`t use her command and control efectvely. he
reacted too quickly to the situaton without considering that Menezes might be innocent. A simple
search of Menezes would have solved the situaton early on. As it was she allowed her ofcers to
take charge and act as they saw best and so her ofcers shot Menezes late afer the situaton
escalated rather than actng quickly early on. he failed to act decisively and take charge of those
under her command. The lack of communicaton between herself and her ofcers is another failing.
In the police complaints commissions report she claimed too busy with other situatons and teams.
Her failing her was that she didn`t delegate a temporary commander for her ofcers following
Menezes to act upon the situaton. he also failed to follow protocol ignoring the right procedures
and as a result, she was unsure of the situaton and her ofcers were forced to act without thinking.
The ofcers on the ground were following orders and when the situaton escalated acted the
manner they needed to prevent a potental terror act. Their command is at fault for not ensuring
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