Old Bill caught bang to rights by jargon police

Scotland Yard's vocabulary has evolved into management speak – with beat bobbies being described as "borough operational command units" and "partnership enforcement teams".

The Metropolitan Police, worried about confusing criminals and victims with jargon, has signed up to the Plain English Campaign to help it communicate with a multicultural London. Detectives will be offered courses to help their vocabulary and editors will offer to check that "rights" read out to criminal suspects are intelligible.

The Plain English Campaign said it was important that immigrants were not confused by esoteric language. A spokesman said: "We will help the Met communicate clearly and make sure they are not using jargon or gobbledegook."