A Dundee graduate has forced a police watchdog into a humiliating climbdown after they pinched the name of her website.
Lauren Currie (23), who graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone Art College, part of Dundee University, with a masters in design last year, forced Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMIC) to drop their claims to the website name My Police.
Miss Currie and her business partner Sarah Drummond set up the website www.mypolice.org last summer as a place for people and forces across the country to debate policing.
But their plans were disrupted when HMIC announced it was setting up another website called www.mypolice.org.uk that would allow members of the public to check on the performance of their local police force.ClashThey refused to change its name once they were informed of the clash.
The HMIC was heavily criticised on social networking sites and blogs for their refusal to change the name of their site but the stand-off ended without warning this week when HMIC announced it had dropped its claim to the mypolice name.
A spokesman said, “To ensure the public gets the benefits of both services with no chance of confusion, we will change the name of the My Police pages on our website.
“We are consulting on the best option, and will announce the results in the next week. We have nothing to gain by overwhelming mypolice.org and as an independent organisation ourselves, we would never wish to do so.
“Indeed, throughout our negotiations we have both been keen to stress that we can usefully work together in the future.”
Miss Currie, who was invited to attend the Conservative party’s Big Society conference this week, said she was delighted that online support had convinced HMIC to drop their claims to the My Police name.
“I’m dancing around,” she said.Shocked”We are in London speaking at a conference and to some MPs.
“Everyone has been really shocked about it and there have been some really strong Conservative and Labour blog posts about it. Twitter has been on fire.
“Then HMIC released a statement saying they wouldn’t use the name and then they phoned us to confirm it so I’m really happy.
She added that she believed HMIC’s decision showed that large organisations cannot get away with bullying smaller companies.
“It is just a brilliant day for public services and for young entrepreneurs and start-ups in the UK.”
The HMIC’s website will move to www.hmic.gov.uk/mypolice