Closing Cop Shops

[WildCat]

Since His Toryness came to power cop shops have been closing at rate of 3 per month. There are 229 fewer cop shops than in 1997 - which means less chance of reporting crime and less chance of Lieber Strassen laying his life down on line for the mad but cute pussy cats on 'ere.... Lib Dem MP Mark Oaten says: "Thousands of people no longer have a pernanent police station and closures have been made in name of efficiency and cost cutting"

( more cost cutting than efficiency - what they spending all that fine dosh on then...

The mass shutdown comes depsite spinning Labour claims that "more officers are emplyed than ever before"

( yeah - we know yaaaawwwn! Pretend ones!

Blunderkit so far has promised to cut paperwork for cops, by topping up CSOs and pledged to put law abiding citizen first

( how about law abiders in their cars?

Local stations are being replaced by large out of town ones (with no parking facilities like in Sevenoaks - nicht )and call centres

(AHA - Policing from INDIA - no wonder it takes them days to arrive then ....

And we cannot nip down und talk to local Mr Plod down in village as he is now up in big town and paper chasing....

The government shafted responsibility onto Chief Constables - saying they were in charge of this.... meanwhile cop shops are closing and the open ones operate normal office 9-5 hours with big shut down for dinner....

In Hawkshead (such a pretty place _ Mr Beatrix Potter used to be lawyer there and Worsdsworth was Grammar School Boy there ...) street fights have been norm since they closed the local cop shop down there - it is now flats....

A former London cop shop is now a dossers den of prostitution and crack cocaine dealing.... and pensioner from Pinner was stabbed to death after disturbing burglars at his home - the local cop shop had been closed and the BiB response was thus delayed....

All in all - losses as follows:

Essex - 59
Manchester - 15
Hant - 22
Lancs - 13
Cumbria -10
Merseyside - 9
Cambs - 6
N Yorks - 5
Durham - 2
Gwent =- 10
Notts - 18
S Wales - 22
N Wales - 9
Cheshire - 7
Dorset - 5

[supraman2954]

WildCat said:

In Hawkshead (such a pretty place _ Mr Beatrix Potter used to be lawyer there and Worsdsworth was Grammar School Boy there ...) street fights have been norm since they closed the local cop shop down there - it is now flats....

....and I bet they have to pay more council tax than ever before

[Peter Ward]

There's no votes in the countryside for Labour so why bother improving policing there? He's focusing on the cities where all his supporters are. Bet the police response time in cities is still ok.

[poorcardealer]

Shut them all.spent £2M on a new one near me, it shuts for business at 7pm or something stupid.......complete waste of taxpayers money

[8Pack]

Peter Ward said:

There's no votes in the countryside for Labour so why bother improving policing there? He's focusing on the cities where all his supporters are. Bet the police response time in cities is still ok.

Nah! It's the same everywhere Peter, I don't live in a city but a burglary or car theft gets you a "incident number" NOT a policeman. This has been increasing for 25+ years or more, AND it WILL get worse whoever you elect. The system CANNOT sustain itself on taxes paid only by the poor people, and that's the truth of the matter.

[autismuk]

>( more cost cutting than >efficiency - what they spending all >that fine dosh on then...

Pensions. And systems to hit targets. Policing is directed towards hitting targets - by any means necessary - and away from the likes of StreetCop plodding (or driving) around nicking criminals.

>The mass shutdown comes depsite >spinning Labour claims that "more >officers are emplyed than ever >before"

Which is probably actually true. However, this will include all sorts of admin people who will be classified as such to keep the numbers good.

>Blunderkit so far has promised to
>cut paperwork for cops, by topping
>up CSOs and pledged to
>put law abiding citizen first

I expect, and am willing to bet infact, that this will be the introduction of IT systems - the govts record in this area is appallingly bad.

I bet that when these systems are introduced they are designed by "consultants" who *never* ask the BiB what is involved.

As someone with a CS degree, if I was implementing a system like this I'd probably start off by spending 2 weeks going round with various cops on the beat, in cars etc. to understand what they are actually doing NOT what their managers think happens.

>Local stations are being replaced by
>large out of town ones (with no
>parking facilities like in Sevenoaks >- nicht )and call centres

Letter in our local paper from someone who rang Norfolk Police and gave up after 20 minutes on the phone. "If you are being raped, press 1" (joke).

This gets the crime figures down of course, just as much as catching criminals does.

>In Hawkshead (such a pretty place _
>Mr Beatrix Potter used to be lawyer
>there and Worsdsworth was Grammar
>School Boy there ...) street fights
>have been norm since they closed the
>local cop shop down there - it is
>now flats....

This applies to trafpol as well. The deterrent aspect appears to have completely disappeared.

It's like traffic wardens in the local town. Since time began, they only come on Tuesday, and everyone knows this..... guess what happens the rest of the week.

>All in all - losses as follows:

Not including Norfolk, but I believe it is quite large.

[james_j]

...like more NHS staff employed.

Yes, there are more. More suited clipboard-wielding managers who are driving targets. Health care doesn't figure. More spin.

[robocop]

autismuk said:

I expect, and am willing to bet infact, that this will be the introduction of IT systems - the govts record in this area is appallingly bad. I bet that when these systems are introduced they are designed by "consultants" who *never* ask the BiB what is involved.

Thats exactly what happened in our Force! They bought these sytems in and now you are in the station MORE than before, because they make everything run off it! You cant even take a piss without logging on! Fine if you are 9-5 civvy with nice warm office and Outlook Calender running all your meetings...but 'all use at an RTC in the pissing rain!

Blunderkit needs to open his eyes to what is happening to today's Police Force!!

Rgds

[Mr E]

Yes, because as we all know, criminals only work a 9 to 5 shift......

[autismuk]

robocop said:

autismuk said: I expect, and am willing to bet infact, that this will be the introduction of IT systems - the govts record in this area is appallingly bad. I bet that when these systems are introduced they are designed by "consultants" who *never* ask the BiB what is involved. Thats exactly what happened in our Force! They bought these sytems in and now you are in the station MORE than before, because they make everything run off it! You cant even take a piss without logging on! Fine if you are 9-5 civvy with nice warm office and Outlook Calender running all your meetings...but 'all use at an RTC in the pissing rain! Blunderkit needs to open his eyes to what is happening to today's Police Force!! Rgds

Consultants are f****** clueless. I used to work in a big software co. in London, we had a floor full of them. Management's main job seemed to be to keep them from pestering us developers with stupid ideas. One day they sacked them all ; no-one noticed.

It is a simple problem. Consultants love , and sell, and get commission from gee-whiz-bang technology, clever designs etc. They want high powered business meetings, equipment sales trips etc etc.

They *don't* want to sit down and talk to BiB about what they're actually doing, or spend a week trudging round town with a copper, watching over his shoulder while he fills forms in or uses the current system etc.

So someone decides that your average plod could benefit from having something like a PDA with a touch screen, and when he's on the beat he can start it up, tap in the crime details with a stylus, and wireless them back to CopHQ. Really hitech, trendy and I would imagine utterly unworkable.

And they are also massively overdesigned and overengineered. KISS. Cops aren't thick, but they aren't IT graduates either, so keep everything nice and simple, clean, as many defaults as possible. But no, we have to have the latest gadgetry which won't work properly, will cost a fortune, and takes three times as long as writing it down, so the PR looks good.

Of course, all these decisions are made in high level meetings with senior Cops who've either never been on the beat or haven't been out since WW1, or just exist on spin and PR, so they really think this is what the BiB's want.

To find out what the BiB's want, and how the system *actually* works, you have to interview them on an absolutely non-attributable basis - so they can basically say "this is absolute crap" and why and know it won't count against them.