In the Absence of Iles by Bill James Read Free Book Online

practicalities if forced. And he was forced when taking questions. He had the full, preposterous jargon stored about him and could retaliate with real clunking zing. Esther had already heard some of it when he spoke about Hilston Manor. Then, later:
Officer A: on ‘the necessarily restrictive methodology of undercover’
    God! He’d been asked from the floor whether the returns from Out-locating were ‘quantifiable – quantifiable in the normal sense of quantifiable’. Did any data exist to demonstrate that the gains from such tactics justified, ‘in the normal sense of justified’, the expensive manpower/womanpower commitment? This commitment could be listed as:
    1. the Out-located officer him/herself;
    2. any stand-by help party at constant readiness, admittedly for other responses besides Out-location rescue, but chiefly for that, and involving, presumably, at least six officers, some gun-trained;
    3. the Out-located detective’s upper-rank contact handling selection, briefing and debriefing. Selection, particularly, might swallow huge amounts of time: a widespread search for possible talent would be needed, a shortlist, a final choice.
    ‘Quantifiable?’ A said.
    ‘In the normal sense of quantifiable.’
    ‘What
is
that?’
    ‘To put it crudely, A, profit and loss.’
    ‘Yes, that’s crudely enough,’ A said.
    ‘The bottom line.’
    ‘I’ve heard of it,’ A replied.
    ‘We are accountable to our Police Committees.’
    ‘Yes, I understand that, sir,’ A said.
    ‘Important budgetary aspects. I recognize that in some ways Out-locating is a special, perhaps mysterious, carry-on, and we can never disclose full details to lay people. Yet, we have to convince our respective Committees – and rightly have to convince them – we have to convince these Committees we are providing value for money, and value for money in all aspects of policing. As far as scrutiny is concerned, there can be no no-go areas. No, no no-go areas.’
    ‘No, no, I don’t think any such study has been done,’ A said. ‘I can’t think how it would be. This kind of work doesn’t fit into an account book.’
    ‘I’m not sure we could get away with that excuse.’
    ‘It would be worth a try,’ A said.
    ‘And then, another point, does this type of activity fit into everyone’s work scheme?’
    ‘Sir?’
    ‘I notice that Assistant Chief Constable Desmond Iles is not present at our conference.’
    ‘I don’t have a nominal roll of those attending,’ A said. ‘It’s not available for general inspection.’
    ‘There was a bad business on his ground involving an Out-located officer, wasn’t there?’
    ‘Things can go awry, sir. It would be absurd to say otherwise.’
    ‘Is that why he’s not present? Has he measured profit against loss and found loss wins?’
    ‘I can’t answer for him, sir. I wouldn’t pretend to know the mind of an ACC, and particularly not the mind of ACC Iles, who is, I understand, rarely easy to read. This isn’t to slander him behind his back. I’ve been told Mr Iles would never claim to be unduly predictable. Obviously, you’ll know the Latin tag
sui generis,
sir. Latin. Meaning one-off. I gather Mr Iles couldn’t be more
sui.
If he has a nickname it might be that.
’
    ‘All right, all right, but listen, A: you looked hostile . . . yes, totally hostile . . . others must have noticed it, too . . . yes, you looked damn hostile, possibly vindictive, when I used the word “quantifiable”. I could almost hear you mutter to yourself, “Here comes a load of standard management-speak.” The fact is, though, A, that we
are
managers and have to meet management criteria, tiresome as they might seem to someone of your . . . to someone at your place in the service. For instance, I would love to see a case study and evaluation of the number of crimes revealed and prosecuted or prevented by a typical Out-located officer over a measured period. In the normal sense of evaluation. Perhaps, after his