[Closed] Bloody police.

Or maybe we could listen to the people who actually do the job, who say its nothing to do with money, nothing to do with lack of powers, and all to do with piss poor management and lack of leadership and direction

maybe not turns out he's a gun nut.

http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/cumbria-massacre-time-to-arm-the-police/

Policeman defends poor service shocker!

But then a good police person would recognise that the service they provide is not what it could be.

@ Nonsense. I'm guessing you're involved in the police in some way, as i stated at the start I'm not into slating the police, but last night was a piss take. Sat around at home waiting without even a quick call is unproffesional and somewhat dis heartening. That machine is now long gone, and to make it worse, it was ours and not hired in, done very few hours and was well looked after. The ****er only had a full service 2 weeks ago!! And the other thing a quick glance at the many CCTV cameras on the roads round here would have easily spotted it! It's baby blue in colour for ****s sake!!!

it's things like [url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/beware-the-east-london-fixie-freaks-long-dull-post-warning ]this thread[/url] that put off the piblic. seems like you can sort your own out but try getting them to come out to a burglary, robbery and the like and they are nowhere to be found....

Why do I have to provide details to you?

The police point blank refused to go in there and have a look around

With the second example how exactly does their lack of effort [ which is poor clearly] equate to them being too scared to act as you originally claimed?

Nice stories but does not support your conlusion that they are too scared to act.

wrightyson - Member
@ Nonsense. I'm guessing you're involved in the police in some way

Nonsense - Member
I do the job, and I do it very well thanks

wrightyson - I can sympathise fully. Both ourselves and a number of other businesses were cleared out in one night. That's small businesses losing tens of thousands of pounds worth of kit. Its peoples livlihoods!!

The police only took the remotest interest when the ****ers who did it came back and successfully did the same thing again 5 weeks later.

I may be being cynical and unfair to our beloved constabulary, but I don't think its a coincidence that a total lack of interest in trying to catch the culprits by the police, led to them coming back for a (successful) second pop. These people know full well that they can continue to get away with it

I do the job, and I do it very well thanks, as do a few others on here. But I think most people would rather quote the daily mail as scripture, than listen to anyone that knows what they are talking about. Typical reactionary nonsense being spouted in debate about the police shocker!

Maybe from some people but some people are talking from personal experience.

Why do I have to provide details to you?

A friend of mine had a hire van full of stuff nicked. The police were not able to do anything, so he went looking for it. This was not in his home patch, so he had to explore. He found a big traveller's site. The police point blank refused to go in there and have a look around.

OK, maybe I went too far in asserting that they aren't interested in going after certain people.

If not that reason then which one? It is a fact that they don't chase things up - not even a cursory ask around to see if anyone saw anything, not even establishing if there is a pattern, if it might be someone they already know - nothing.

If I'm wrong in my reason (fair enough) then what is going on?

If you re-read my original post I agreed that the service you got was well below what it should have been. I also think the police can do a much better job.

What annoys me is the kind of stuff I have to deal with on a daily basis, some of it really really nasty, and I deal with it well. Then you come on a MOUNTAIN BIKING FORUM and there are loads of posts slagging off the ENTIRE police service because of one or two incidents. I guess it's too much to ask to expect a bit of perspective from an internet forum.

thomthumb - I was off duty on my way to work and someone damaged my car. What exactly are you suggesting I should have done? Ignored it then cruised the streets waiting for billy burglar at 1 in the afternoon on my own time? By the way I have personally been involved in putting away numerous robbers, burglars, car theives, sex offenders, murderers etc etc etc. But I'm sure that's irrelevant?

Derbyshire police are supposed to respond within 24 hours. Ask to speak to the duty Sarge.

I think I've had pretty much only positive experiences of the police (if you accept that they can't fix everything and are restricted by the CPS etc). That said, not turning up for days is very poor form. When I found someone had vandalised my car for the first time the police were round in about 2 hours but pointed out that without prints or pics they were fairly powerless, but appreciated my contacting them and they'd step up patrols (which they did). On second occurence I flagged a passing (and it turns out, off-duty) police car, who took photos and called out an on-duty team within 10 mins, who followed up TWICE in the following week just to let me know what's going on. I have absolutely no problems with them at all.

Previous to this the police had caught someone who had been witnessed trying to break into my car (another city), but the CPS threw it out because their lawyer claimed that the person witnessing had lost sight of the criminal (for seconds as they moved from window to door) and as such the person they saw walking away from the car could have been someone completely unrelated to the identically dressed person with the same dog seen seconds earlier with a screwdriver in my lock. The police were furious and vowed to catch him another way, which they did about 8 months later.

Just for balance.

Can I just re-iterate my original point, where I was actually trying to help the OP. Call your nearest police station or the switch board and ask to speak to the duty officer or duty sgt for your area and explain the situation and that you feel you have had substandard service. They can and will make sure it gets sorted.

It is a fact that they don't chase things up - not even a cursory ask around to see if anyone saw anything, not even establishing if there is a pattern, if it might be someone they already know - nothing.

I understand there is a resource issue - but I can't fathom their priorities. Like I said earlier, plenty of people are being left with no way to make a living - that's a very serious crime in my book, but not in theirs it seems.

plods plodding the beat - apparently this makes us all feel safe but does not help us apprehend criminals or deal with crime scenes.

So, you think its more important for police to react to crime than prevent it in the first place? Its all in the basic principles, number nine in fact:

[i]The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.[/i]

thomthumb - I was off duty on my way to work and someone damaged my car. What exactly are you suggesting I should have done? Ignored it then cruised the streets waiting for billy burglar at 1 in the afternoon on my own time? By the way I have personally been involved in putting away numerous robbers, burglars, car theives, sex offenders, murderers etc etc etc. But I'm sure that's irrelevant?

entirely irrelevant. and thank you.

i don't think i ever suggested that you shouldn't have chased it up. i was trying to get across the exasperation when it seems like that you look after your own, whilst the public struggle with your systems.

in mine and others dealing with the police, it is always neccessary to have a word with someone, who knows someone on the force, so that they can have a word with the investigating officer so, and a i quote, 'it gets looked into properly'

I realise that it is a difficult job but you seem to be missing the point that peoples perception is real. it doesn't matter what the reality is it's what they

believe that's important. as a parallel immigrants do NOT take british jobs, however many of the electorate believe immigration is a big issue, so the politicians have to be seen to be dealing with it. You are after all public servants.

I'm not missing the point at all. Which is why I suggested that the police should become better at managing peoples expectations, in addition to working harder to meet peoples needs. As you rightly point out, this is an issue in all areas of public service.

The reason I reacted to your post in the way I did, is because you were clearly suggesting that I wouldn't have dealt with it in the same way if I was dealing with a member of the public. Which is wildy innacurate and personally insulting. I take great pride in the work I do and the help I have provided to many people on innumerable occassions. That's why I get a little wound up when you were referring to me as an individual and suggesting I was part of a corrupt system.

Glenp - police priorities are governed almost entirely by the Home Office and central Government. Although the shift back to a focus on neighbourhood style policing is an effort by senior officers to redress this.

Thanks nonesense, I'll get on with that course of action if I don't hear anything from anyone later. Oh and junkyard I type slow as I'm busy levelling shit out with a shovel rather than my digger, so nonesense's post wasn't up when I started! I always love the mocking element on this forum, it must make people feel better about their otherwise pointless lives! 🙂

Good luck Wrightyson. If I see a blue digger on my travels I'll be sure to check it out 😉

To the original poster. The best advice has already been said - go to the Police office and ask to speak to the duty sergeant or inspector explaining the situation that you are very disappointed in the service you haven't received. No need to go in aggressively and put their backs up ( cause its likely they had little to do with the original call and its lack of action ), but it should get things kicked off in the right direction.

There is no doubt that there are less Police resources on the street than what general members of the public would expect there to be ( which is seperate from the actual number of resources needed to deal with actual calls - expectation v reality )

As such, and its something I say to most folk, the reality is that its sometimes the case that he who shouts the loudest gets the attention. It may not seem like that should be the case, but it is.

if you accept that they can't fix everything and are restricted by the CPS etc)...the CPS threw it out because their lawyer claimed that the person witnessing had lost sight of the criminal (for seconds as they moved from window to door) and as such the person they saw walking away from the car could have been someone completely unrelated

I'm not saying you/the witness were wrong - I'm just suggesting that (like the cops decisions discussed elsewhere) it's (sometimes) more about putting resources where they're going to have the greatest impact. And these are phrases we can expect to hear more often in the coming years - spending money on cops wins votes in good years but no-one cares about the CPS, and the Sun doesn't care when lawyers/social workers/hospital cleaners etc get fired in the bad years...

FWIW I've had reasonably good experiences from South Wales Police. They came out within the hour when someone broke into my garage, and even pre-emptively nicked some dodgy kids in the area on suspicion (it was 3am) which I thought was a little TOO keen in fact.

I've had four personal dealings with the police.

The first was when I was attacked and unsuccessfully mugged in Nottingham, and they were okay, a bit slow to turn up, but to be fair, by the time I called them, I was inside someone's house and safe, although they would have had a much better chance of catching the buggers if they'd been quicker.

The second was when I was mugged in a dodgy area of London, and ran to a phone box and hid, called 999, took them half an hour to turn up, and then they left me in the middle of the dodgy area of London with no way of getting home until the first tube. Nice one.

The last time was when one of them threatened to arrest me under anti-terrorist laws, for doing high-line walking on a railing. They said that "Kids could see you doing that". The buggers refused to give me their numbers either (in typical London police style, they didn't have visible numbers on - and it wasn't even a protest day*). In the end I did get an official letter from the Met saying that they were very sorry, the officers in question were yokels hired in from Essex, and that they had been told off.

Oh, I've also had the flashing blue lights turn up to stop us playing frisbee in an empty car park on a Sunday.

So in summary, the police are mainly okay, but perhaps if they could lower the priority of rogue frisbee players and tightrope walkers, and up the priority of people being chased through dodgy parts of Wembley / Nottingham by gangs of thugs, I would have had a better overall experience of them.

Joe

*when there are protests on, the police at the protest typically remove/hide their numbers so they can't be charged with brutality - bastards.

So, you think its more important for police to react to crime than prevent it in the first place? Its all in the basic principles, number nine in fact:

Foot patrols are classic security theatre. Criminals, even the least bright, are generally smart enough to check both ways before committing a crime. This is a well-known dichotomy for police: the more they do to reassure, the less effective they are at preventing crime. The more they do to prevent and solve crime, the less reassurance (because visibility drops).

I don't have a source 'cos I'm remembering this from some guy down the pub (or whatever), but I sort of remember hearing that high-visibility stuff does work on reducing crime to some extent as well as fooling the public that something is being done precisely because criminals are members of the public too i.e. when they didn't see Plod walking around, they didn't think police were around and felt emboldened.

There's probably also a difference between the effect visibility has on junkies burgling houses and the effect it has on Madog-drinking teenagers setting fire to wheely bins, for that matter.

*when there are protests on, the police at the protest typically remove/hide their numbers so they can't be charged with brutality - bastards.

Which is wildy innacurate and personally insulting.

apologies, i meant you as in the police, not you personally.

My daughters mate got something slipped into her drink at a local nightclub, and then over the next few days started having recall of a gang slipping into her. On reporting it to the Police the response was along the lines of this happpens all the time, followed by we haven't got the resources to deal with it.... So precisely what else did they have to deal with that was so much more urgent than this I wonder?

sanctimonious asshat - that is perhaps the greatest username this forum has seen

i salute you

yes I though that and a few of us should have it to be fair

Your mileage will vary depending on who you deal with in the service. The best officers are great and go beyond the call of duty. They see everyone at their worst and put up with a lot of rubbish.

But there is incompetence - my mate's bike was stolen right in front of the security camera at Tesco. The security guard confirmed that the theft was recorded and the thief's face was fully in view. But the police cant read the format from the Tesco system and have lost interest

Note to all thieves: Tesco security cameras don't work, so you'll get away with it.

Nonsense,

Why on earth get involved in a thread like this? You seem experienced enough to me to know that trying to placate a mainly anonymous public forum populated with an inordinate number of immoderate EDIT (I do not include the OP in this) giving it the big-uns is an exercise in futility. Do that at work when you're getting paid for it mate.

Take it steady.

I originally got involved to try and help the OP. I shouldn't have got anymore involved, but I've just come off nights and my brain has been scrambled.

I've had a few encounters with them

1) Someone emptied my bank account. They did F-all. I did the work myself and found the guy's address and phone number, not difficult. Gave them that and they still did sod all.
2) Had a break-in. They turned up 4 days later and said 'it's too late to get any prints now.'
3)Got knocked off my bike by a fish and chip van, hardly a common vehicle. Again done sod all.
4)Arrested my friend for a non-arrestable offence. Made up something about him refusing to give his details.

Took them two days to send me a notice of intended prosecution for jumping a red light though.

Wrightyson we had a 9 ton 360 torched last year in Stamford, fire brigade said it was arson.
Some young police woman came out and said it must of been an electrical fault. We did ask her if it was an electrical fault how come the radio is gone and some of the bits that were in it ended up half across the field and the side shutter is laying in the river. She never did answer.

A couple of days later a retired work colleague had his two classic tractors burnt out 1/2 mile down the road.

My ex put his car in auto trader. Someone rang, said they were interested and what was the postcode? Two hours later the car had been stolen.

The cops (Herts) were unhelpful and unsympathetic and said "We're not coming to look at an empty space in the road".

We gave the cops the mobile phone number. They refused to follow it up on human rights grounds. They said there was no connection between the call and the disappearance. When I made a formal complaint they then came out with some crap about how much it costs to get the phone company to check numbers etc etc etc.

They refused to check the local cctv footage.

Two months later we got a call from Sussex police. They had had the car in the pound (Ontime have the franchise) since the Sunday after the Thursday when the car was taken. It had been twinned and they (and Essex police) had spent two months trying to contact the owner of the donor plate before it occured to them to check the vin. I pointed out to the cop that, as the people who stole it were dishonest, it might have been an idea to check the vin straight away. He wryly acknowledged that I had a point.

Ontime tried to charge us storage for the two months, but we said no way, this is the cops' fault for not contacting us, so they reduced it to £105 for recovering the car from the crime scene (it had been used in a ram raid apparently - although there were only a few small marks on it).

I won't bore you with the rest - just a total nightmare of indifference and downright rudeness of the first cop we spoke to when a few kind words and explanation of under-funding and resulting dissolution of Herts' car crime division would have made all the difference.

Unfortunately, the Police role is one that generally gets the bad stuff remembered and the good stuff given less acknowledgement.

When the Police comes up in conversation, more often that not its shortly followed by " I once had bad dealings with ... " "my friend got stopped by the Police for no reason ... " Everyone has a bad story about then, cause thats all they remember.

Its a shame, I personally think that for all the bad points brought up in this thread ( which I dont dis-believe ) there are magnitudes more instances and cases where the Police have resolved an issue in good fashion... however, it goes un-sung as that was the job they were expected to do, so gets less of an acknowledgement ( if any ).

Most of my experience with the police, has been working with them on mental health act assessments, at times some have been surprising sensitive to some very ill people, and never once has one failed to front up when things kick off.
As a victim of crime; I once stepped in to stop some fella knocking the shite out of his wife outside a pub one saturday night, it didn't quite go to plan as I simply seemed to take a slapping on her behalf! After the incident, whilst heading home with a split lip and a shiner, a copper stopped me to ask what I'd been up to. He was surprisingly polite and took my story at face value, and checked I was OK took my details etc. Next morning 2 coppers appeared at my house with a book of photo's. They were pleased when I identified the guy, seems they went back to the pub got some witness statements, and the chap ended up in the clink! Seems he had a number of other offences to face and was on a suspended sentance.
Thumbs up for them in my book.

Police response times are appalling even when one of their own, who is a neighbour got decked by some thugs causing trouble walking past his house they took ages to arrive it took numerous phone calls . Another time a friends cousin was attacked in town when the police were called they said they were busy dealing with other incidents, when the ambulance took him to hospital there was a police car waiting on the slip road to catch speeders. bloody disgrace, they complained to the chief constable.

Well did as you said nonesense. Amazing how a request to speak to the duty seargent moves things along. Guy on the switchboard immediately said ok sir please dont get irate with me and I'll see what I can do. 2 mins later I'm being told the
crime number. He wasn't impressed as it was, to quote a "5 figure theft" and my complaint would be passed on. I did ask however ,how come I was now able to get the crime number when on 4 previous occasions it couldn't be issued without a visit! The exact response was, " sir do you really want me to bore you with the internal policies of the police force?"
Anyway here's hoping that when they unload my digger, it tips off the ramps and kills them! Night all!

You ain't gonna believe this , the mother ****ers have now stolen the telescopic forklift. At 11 this morning. They just drove it off site and down the road, even waved to the neighbour as they drove past!! Un****in believable! Police still haven't visited from the first incident, god knows if they'll bother this time.

Put a pic or spec on . A stolen one from Dronfield turned up in Doncaster/Thorne last night.

A bloke up our way had a nicely restored MF 135 nicked. The bloke had got to about Retford on it before they found him (20 miles or so at 12mph)...

They just waltzed into the site in broad daylight and drove it off without getting challenged by any of your staff?