I look forward to a rash of recordings on mobiles revealing police malpractice

I was impressed by the swift reaction of Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, to the behaviour of one of his officers, who allegedly arrested, abused and falsely charged a Kurdish lad with threatening behaviour in Paddington in February. Once the proverbial cat was out of the bag at the local court, the officer was suspended at once and Sir Ian indicated openly and without reservation that he wanted the officer "on a fast track" out of the force.

This straightforward approach has not been the norm, not for decades. In the struggle of immigrant communities against

police malpractice, we've grown accustomed to mealy-mouthed

statements from senior officers, tending to underscore the need for wholesale cleansing of the stables. But to return to the case itself, the boy was stopped in the street by one of a group of police officers and he indicated that, in his view, the officer had no reasonable grounds for stopping him. That would have meant the stop was illegal (though not unusual - as scores of young black men would testify). The youngster had the presence of mind to press the "record" button on his mobile phone and he then initiated an astute questioning of the officer, who replied: ". . . this isn't one that you won't fucking get off at court because I'll write it up properly", seeming to say that he was bent on framing him and would do it in such a way as to ensure a conviction.

At least one other officer was present but the recording, which was eventually played in court, gives no indication of any intervention as the arresting officer allegedly acted in a way that broke most of the regulations protecting citizens stopped in the street. No caution was heard, and not a word spoken about the background to the stop and consequent arrest. The judge said he could not believe a word of the police evidence.

Recently, young black men with mobile phones have been under fire from commentators. Much venom has been spewed, for example, on "happy slapping", the dismal fad in which some poor sod is slapped around and the event recorded on phones. Now we have witnessed a more creative use of the mobile as a weapon in our pursuit of justice. How elegant, how smart, how intelligent! I look forward to a rash of recordings that reveal the illegalities which have plagued our lives, so that in courts up and down the country, we may hear this question posed to police officers in cross-examination: "Is that your voice?"

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