Police too busy!
Discussion
Police 'too busy' to arrest drunk driver in Somerset
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-3631...
Pretty much sums up my experience of the police - utterly useless and couldn't care less
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-3631...
Pretty much sums up my experience of the police - utterly useless and couldn't care less
jamesson said:
I'm not poopooing your opinion in any way but it's sad that you think the police are utterly useless and couldn't care less. On both counts I would argue that you are wrong. I'm a serving officer and I can tell you I care very much. The colleagues I work with also care very much and they're not the least bit useless. They are the hardest working most dedicated people I know.
As wiliferus said, our numbers have been slashed by the Home Secretary. Traffic police, response officers, community officers, all far fewer than they used to be. I was a response sergeant for a while and I would run out of PCs regularly within an hour of coming on shift, sometimes ten minutes. Then you're constantly fire fighting trying to prioritise jobs.
I hate drink drivers and it's a crying shame there wasn't someone available to take him into custody but please don't think it's because we don't care. We're fighting with one hand tied behind our backs.
I see your profile says you're a soldier. Imagine going into battle only suddenly to find you have a third of the infantry you used to have. No impact? Or would you find it much harder to carry out your mission?
I can only go on my personal experiences with the police which have all left me frustrated and having a complete lack of faith in the police force.As wiliferus said, our numbers have been slashed by the Home Secretary. Traffic police, response officers, community officers, all far fewer than they used to be. I was a response sergeant for a while and I would run out of PCs regularly within an hour of coming on shift, sometimes ten minutes. Then you're constantly fire fighting trying to prioritise jobs.
I hate drink drivers and it's a crying shame there wasn't someone available to take him into custody but please don't think it's because we don't care. We're fighting with one hand tied behind our backs.
I see your profile says you're a soldier. Imagine going into battle only suddenly to find you have a third of the infantry you used to have. No impact? Or would you find it much harder to carry out your mission?
Your analogy regarding the infantry being cut: The Army has reduced in size considerably - we are still expected to carry out all the duties we are given. These increase continually. I'm sure you've heard of Op Temperor - basically backfilling armed police in the event of a terrorist attack.
We cover fire strikes, foot and mouth, floods, olympics the list goes on. It doesn't mean we can just mug work off like the police I've experienced do.
XCP said:
'mug work off' not a phrase I recognise. Do you mean there were plenty of officers to attend but they declined for some spurious reason, or they attended and did nothing. From what I have read neither seem to apply in the Somerset case.
I'm not particularly referring to that case. I'm talking about my experiences with the police. XCP said:
Which was it in your experience?
1. Eventually attended 6 days later after a drunk unlicensed driver hit and wrote off my parked car.They interviewed the driver who was a neighbour - he admitted it. The police took no further action.
2. I caught 2 people breaking into a neighbours house. I rang the police - they didn't attend. I gave them descriptions and the vehicle registration. The police traced and interviewed them and took no further action. I know this because they took the trouble to ring me and tell me.
hora said:
OP don't read BBC online, I've spotted a few times now where they misrepresent a story and write in a few paragraphs. You'd think they'd have higher standards. Plus you can't taint Greater Manchester Police with your generic 'all Police'.
Hmmmm okhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-34...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-35...
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greate...
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greate...
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greate...
Elroy Blue said:
Perhaps we should do a thread on 'all soldiers drink piss and s
t' as that was in the news lately. We could dig out links showing the armed forces in a negative light.
Fortunately, most of us are intelligent enough to look past crap journalism and recognise 99.9% are doing the best they can.
You could do. It would probably be true - most soldiers I've worked with have drunk piss, as have I. Doesn't really do anyone any harm though. I'm not entirely sure how's it's relevant to a discussion about police neglecting their duty either.t' as that was in the news lately. We could dig out links showing the armed forces in a negative light. Fortunately, most of us are intelligent enough to look past crap journalism and recognise 99.9% are doing the best they can.
jamesson said:
bmw535i said:
Police 'too busy' to arrest drunk driver in Somerset
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-3631...
Pretty much sums up my experience of the police - utterly useless and couldn't care less
I'm not poopooing your opinion in any way but it's sad that you think the police are utterly useless and couldn't care less. On both counts I would argue that you are wrong. I'm a serving officer and I can tell you I care very much. The colleagues I work with also care very much and they're not the least bit useless. They are the hardest working most dedicated people I know.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-3631...
Pretty much sums up my experience of the police - utterly useless and couldn't care less
As wiliferus said, our numbers have been slashed by the Home Secretary. Traffic police, response officers, community officers, all far fewer than they used to be. I was a response sergeant for a while and I would run out of PCs regularly within an hour of coming on shift, sometimes ten minutes. Then you're constantly fire fighting trying to prioritise jobs.
I hate drink drivers and it's a crying shame there wasn't someone available to take him into custody but please don't think it's because we don't care. We're fighting with one hand tied behind our backs.
I see your profile says you're a soldier. Imagine going into battle only suddenly to find you have a third of the infantry you used to have. No impact? Or would you find it much harder to carry out your mission?
You imply a 2/3 reduction in numbers? Since when?
The truth is that there aren't that many less police officers than ten years ago, though the number increased up to around 2010 then declined.
2010 143000
2015 126000
About 12% from a peak figure, which should be manageable given technological improvements.
Hardly going into battle "only suddenly to find you have a third of the infantry you used to have".
fastbikes76 said:
La Liga said:
As other have pointed out, it depends on demand what what else was occurring.
You have to be a rather hard-of-thinking, as the OP appears to be, not to be able to consider these variables and unknowns.
Not in the least.. I FULLY appreciate what our services do for us and how far stretched they are due to cuts etc. However to be stretched to the point where not a single person can respond to a someone almost certainly about to cause a fatality is extremely worrying for all !You have to be a rather hard-of-thinking, as the OP appears to be, not to be able to consider these variables and unknowns.
Extreme periods of demand can and do occur. This may have been one of them, and it is likely to be so based on boring reasons as to how things are prioritised. A drink-driver 'in progress' would be high priority so for it not to be allocated would suggest there were multiple more serious matters preventing it from being resourced, as well as a shortage of resources.
I can provide an example:
Uniform shift of 30 comes on to cover 250,000 people.
10 prisoners in the cells who need dealing with. Let's say that takes 8 away.
10 officers at hospital / mental health places / need baby-sitting in custody / scenes need guarding.
12 remain whom are responding to immediate incidents with a greater need than the drink-driver i.e. fights in progress, domestic violence and many others and dealing with those. Many of those incidents require at least 2 officers, preferably more.
It could fall to the specialist roles like firearms / traffic (merged in a lot of forces now), but one serious / fatal RTC wipes them all out.
Sometime these 'perfect storms' come together to severely limited response capacity for anything but the most vital of incidents.
No police officer wants to ignore a drink-driver. It's likely they've seen death and destruction / given death warnings around fatal RTCs.
Not sure if anyone watches police interceptors, but there was an officer on the latest episode who was called by his mum to help her retrieve her car keys after locking them in her car. He was allowed to attend.
Perhaps some forces have different priorities, but this sort of thing just makes the police look like knobs. (IMO)
Perhaps some forces have different priorities, but this sort of thing just makes the police look like knobs. (IMO)
Because the police no longer want to be firearms officers, it looks increasingly likely that the Army may be used. Trust me, it's not just the police who face cuts, the Army is on its knees. With other services refusing to work, we have to fill the gaps. There is no choice in this either, and we don't even get overtime.
Oh well, orders is orders. Thousands are already on 6 hours NTM to help the police out.
Oh well, orders is orders. Thousands are already on 6 hours NTM to help the police out.
wiliferus said:
It's not that Police officers don't want to be AFOs, Christ historically they form an orderly queue to get an application form. It's that there's a deep distrust of the system in the event they have take a life. Increased scrutiny, criticism, and an inability of any management to support officers who have fired, means that there's less of a willingness to take in the role. Let's face it, no one wants to get locked up for doing their job. I'm not an AFO. Would I carry? In the current climate, not a chance.
So yet again, blame the establishment, not the Officers. If the support miraculously appears, there will be AFOs everywhere.
Your choice not to do it, so I'll blame you. Soldiers will end up forced to do it and it will go horribly wrong.So yet again, blame the establishment, not the Officers. If the support miraculously appears, there will be AFOs everywhere.
There are soldiers who end up in court or prison for firearms incidents, the rest of us don't suddenly refuse to soldier because of that. That would be cowardice.
Elroy Blue said:
You seem to have a real difficulty separating war and domestic situations. Many Officers on this site and others who I work with have years in the Forces. Non have the bitter attitude you seem to demonstrate. The only time you'll see military on the streets is if there is a major terrorist attack. It will be the unarmed Officers who will be first at the scene of such an attack. UNARMED. Your suggestion of 'cowardice' is pathetic.
If you weren't being so defensive you'd be able to understand my posts better. It was also not me who began to compare police cuts with soldiering.It is a fact that a soldier would be disciplined for refusing to bear arms - as a coward. I'm not sure why that is pathetic.
I'm certainly not bitter, I just think the police are utterly useless. That's my impression - it may well be the fault of others that the police haven't served me when I needed them.
I have been the victim of domestic violence - the police refused to believe it until I was attacked with a knife. They took over an hour to arrive on that occasion despite me being injured. The police now claim to take domestic violence seriously - I very much doubt it.
I have never had a positive experience of the police. It's unfortunate, but true. I'm sure there are good officers out there who are diligent and willing to go the extra mile, I just haven't met any.
Elroy Blue said:
A soldier is required to bear arms. Police Officers are not. It is an unarmed service. All AFOs are volunteers. Nobody 'refuses' to carry, they are not required to. They will still attend incidents where a firearm would be advisable to defend themselves regardless. Cowards they are not.
I never said they were. I said a soldier would be in that situation. 
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