Dr Dizaei

I have met Ali many a time. He may have made mistakes but genuinely I do not believe him to be corrupt. He is an intelligent and outspoken police officer. I heard on the news that his phone was tapped. OK, I understand allegations of corruption, but actually there was no CORRUPTION. I wonder what confidential information the Met Police now have about the state of the NBPA and the advice given to those that Ali was supporting. It is so easy for the mainstream organisation to allege that individual support groups are corupt.

Can the service give any promises that confidentiality will be maintained or will they be laughing at the internal wranglings within the NBPA movement? Don't get me wrong.

I believe we do need an NBPA, but we need people in the NBPA that do not practice prejudices, that have qualifications in race relations, that have an understanding of policing, and that actually when there are tensions in places like the West Mids, they are able to pick up there coat and go quickly to advise. But at the moment it is a job for the "boys." But all we get is they go, and there is hmming and arring.

We do not need "nodding dogs". Ali certainly is not a "nodding dog" and I love him to bits, just like Monty, but he remains the only really qualified person in the movement. This is the history of the NBPA movement. Who is allowed in? Who is not?

As stupid as it may sound, remember the shooting of the young Black man in the West Mids as a result of an attack on two Asian males, following on from last years disturbances. I feel some of these, like the young Black man that was shot are innocent victims of hatred. I don't know if this man has previous. But, we should have been able to sense this tension.

Our PCSO's and local officers will feel this same tension in the community the same time probably next year. What we must do is engage the community. That means we get into shops, we mix with all communities, we identify troublemakers, we get to know everyone, it is a hard role, but it is key policing, not detection chasing. This is about proactively preventing race hate crime. OK, we can flood the area, but that might not be the answer.

We must ensure that deprived areas have dedicated and resourced teams that know the communities inside out. Other than this I can think of no fail-safe. This is about good old fashioned beat policing on foot and in cars and loving these communities, which incidentally most of us do, but we are forced away elsewhere; towards Home office Targets. These local officer's, some of whom have dedicated their service to marginalised communities, are the eyes and ears of trouble brewing. Interestingly I was at Conference when Ali was to speak, and another Asian officer who I thought was in the pockets of Chief Officer's so to speak, not literally, and not financially, but nudge nudge wink wink, you know what I mean, was going to stand up and criticise Ali if he spoke. I wonder what this Asian officer had been offered. This was an attempt to keep Ali quiet. Who was behind it? But who did the dirty work? I have never since trusted this Asian colleague. This is an example of a "sell out" who had power.