I had two bikes stolen last weekend.
With the help of neighbours we narrowed down to when it happened, who was likely to have taken them, and how the bikes were taken away (still locked together) without anyone seeing – most likely by two people who are employed by a company based next door to the local police station in the van they parked up against the two bikes at the time they were taken.
So it goes without saying that with this information, the local police swung into action to take more details and have a word with their next door neighbours to get the names of the two individuals using the van that day.
Of course they didn’t – despite several voicemails left on our “safer neighbourhoods” team (they never answer the phone), I’ve heard nothing other than receiving an email to say “case closed”.
It’s really no surprise to me now that so many people believe the police to be a bunch of ineffective paper pushers who ndo everything they can to minimise contact with the public.