WHO IS JAMES PATRICK?, page 1

This is a media statement issued by the solicitors who have been retained to represent PC Patrick in these conduct proceedings.

Media Statement - PC James Patrick
Since 2012 James Patrick, a Police Officer serving in the Metropolitan Police Force has been a blogger and a user of Twitter. He does so under his own name and is not anonymous.
The subject of the blog was Police Reform and throughout publicly accessible material was drawn from mainstream media and freedom of information sources.

His blog has been in the public domain, open to comment and debate for the duration of its existence. The blog has attracted the interest of media figures and has been referenced and used as source material by journalists.

In October 2012 for the Charity, Care of Police Survivors, the blogs were amalgamated into a book called "The Rest is Silence". Following encouragement from numerous parties the book has been entered for the 2013 Orwell Prize.

On 23rd November 2012 James received notice that he was being investigated for gross misconduct by the Director of Professional Standards at the Metropolitan Police Service ("MPS"). The complainant was listed as management and the allegations are that:

1. He has written and published a book about police service in contravention of MPS Policy.
2. Some of the contents of the book could be harmful to the reputation of the police service and adversely impact on public confidence.

On Friday 30th November James was served with restrictions, which include "not to have contact with the public, external agencies or stakeholders".

This is what he looks like.

His YouTube channel.
www.youtube.com...

One of his commendations.
twitter.com...

Wikipedia tells us this about the Peelian Principles.

The Peelian principles describe the philosophy that Robert Peel developed to define an ethical police force. The principles traditionally ascribed to Peel state that:
Every police officer should be issued a identification number, to assure accountability for his actions.
Whether the police are effective is not measured on the number of arrests, but on the lack of crime.
Above all else, an effective authority figure knows trust and accountability are paramount. Hence, Peel's most often quoted principle: The police are the public and the public are the police.

We see in the media statement.... "On Friday 30th November James was served with restrictions, which include "not to have contact with the public...."

My question is, has the Director of Professional Standards at the Metropolitan Police Service instructed James not to have contact with the police? After all.... "The police are the public and the public are the police." The Met should issue an explanation. Do they consider themselves to be members of the public or not?