"I’d be more keen here in prosecuting the people who devised the flowchart that the police are following, for not engineering it to be robust against this failu

"I’d be more keen here in prosecuting the people who devised the flowchart that the police are following, for not engineering it to be robust against this failure mode." In my post above I've suggested that police and public officials be prosecuted but I'll nuance that by saying that ought to be in cases of exceptional negligence. Moreover, if the granularity isn't right the law wouldn't be effective, either it would be ignored and the status quo remain, or public servants would become too timid to do their work effectively. You are right, much of the problem lies with those hidden and unknown gnomes who draft the laws that politicians often blindly pass and also those who 'engineer' the way the police work (and/or the way the law is administered). As I've said in my post it's time these people were brought to account. For starters, their names ought to adorn all draft laws, briefing/organizational documents, etc. Unfortunately, there's a snowball's chance of it ever happening.