Reported a drink driver.
Discussion
Police never attended.
I was travelling to work this morning about 5.30am and I was around 5 minutes away. There was a car stopped my side of the road with lights and hazards on and other cars going past me flashing their lights. Then the car that had stopped started to beep its horn for a long time So I stopped and was wondering what the hell was going on. My night shift colleague just came past, stopped and asked what was going on. I said I had no idea but something seemed rather odd and out of place. So he went to have a look and said the bloke is drunk as a fart and trying to flag people down for a lift.
I called the police and said what was happening. While I was on the phone, the drunk started stopping vehicles in the middle of the road. It's a dark road with no lights. I hung up and waited around 20 mins. Still, no sign so I called back and asked if they had an update or ETA of any units. No was the answer so I hung up and waited another 15 minutes. Still no sign of any units so I called again. I was told there was still no update and no ETA. At this point, the drunk started to jump in front of cars, shouting and swearing at them, to get them to stop to which I said to the operator and all he said was I have no idea where they are or how long they will be. If they're attending a stabbing, that would take more priority. What, just after 6am on a Saturday morning?! So I waited another 10 minutes and then left as I had to relieve the other night staff. As I drove past the parked car, the side of it was all smashed up and dented in.
I really can't say how frustrated it was trying to get a drunk driver off the road, how he's causing a hazard for other road users, and yet all I got from the police was don't know when we'll be there. Not even a rough ETA. It's now 14:10 and I haven't had a phone call asking for a statement etc.
Anyway, rant over.
I was travelling to work this morning about 5.30am and I was around 5 minutes away. There was a car stopped my side of the road with lights and hazards on and other cars going past me flashing their lights. Then the car that had stopped started to beep its horn for a long time So I stopped and was wondering what the hell was going on. My night shift colleague just came past, stopped and asked what was going on. I said I had no idea but something seemed rather odd and out of place. So he went to have a look and said the bloke is drunk as a fart and trying to flag people down for a lift.
I called the police and said what was happening. While I was on the phone, the drunk started stopping vehicles in the middle of the road. It's a dark road with no lights. I hung up and waited around 20 mins. Still, no sign so I called back and asked if they had an update or ETA of any units. No was the answer so I hung up and waited another 15 minutes. Still no sign of any units so I called again. I was told there was still no update and no ETA. At this point, the drunk started to jump in front of cars, shouting and swearing at them, to get them to stop to which I said to the operator and all he said was I have no idea where they are or how long they will be. If they're attending a stabbing, that would take more priority. What, just after 6am on a Saturday morning?! So I waited another 10 minutes and then left as I had to relieve the other night staff. As I drove past the parked car, the side of it was all smashed up and dented in.
I really can't say how frustrated it was trying to get a drunk driver off the road, how he's causing a hazard for other road users, and yet all I got from the police was don't know when we'll be there. Not even a rough ETA. It's now 14:10 and I haven't had a phone call asking for a statement etc.
Anyway, rant over.
It feels like your anger is directed towards the Police - and clearly they have to prioritise what they attend, constantly reviewing whether the next job is more important/urgent than what they are doing already (and whether leaving the job they are already doing will cause more harm etc).
Maybe their Control Room got it wrong. Impossible to tell from only seeing that they didn't attend.
But 21,000 fewer Officers and 20,000 fewer staff has an impact. As does increasing complexity of incidents and investigations.
This govt have committed to recruiting 20,000 more Officers (no word on the staff who do the work to make the Cops effective though?), so *nearly* replacing those they cut, and it'll only take a few years for those Officers to be trained and making a difference (recruiting 8,000 this financial year won't start to have an effect until next (and they'll need the staff to train them, or use Cops, in which case the situation will actually get worse before it starts to get back to where it was 10 years ago.
I don't as a rule, blame the Police. I blame the public for voting for it to happen.
You got the service you voted for. (Even if you didn't vote for them, that's democracy. Humph)
Maybe their Control Room got it wrong. Impossible to tell from only seeing that they didn't attend.
But 21,000 fewer Officers and 20,000 fewer staff has an impact. As does increasing complexity of incidents and investigations.
This govt have committed to recruiting 20,000 more Officers (no word on the staff who do the work to make the Cops effective though?), so *nearly* replacing those they cut, and it'll only take a few years for those Officers to be trained and making a difference (recruiting 8,000 this financial year won't start to have an effect until next (and they'll need the staff to train them, or use Cops, in which case the situation will actually get worse before it starts to get back to where it was 10 years ago.
I don't as a rule, blame the Police. I blame the public for voting for it to happen.
You got the service you voted for. (Even if you didn't vote for them, that's democracy. Humph)
All depends on what the job has been recorded as.
The call taker will have no idea how many units are available or what anyone is doing.
Yes - people do get stabbed at any time of the day and it takes time to resolve matters!
If it has really bothered you that much phone and make a complaint. It won't take 5 mins to pull all the info together of who was free/committed when you phoned and someone will be able to give you an explanation.
The call taker will have no idea how many units are available or what anyone is doing.
Yes - people do get stabbed at any time of the day and it takes time to resolve matters!
If it has really bothered you that much phone and make a complaint. It won't take 5 mins to pull all the info together of who was free/committed when you phoned and someone will be able to give you an explanation.
I was in my towns A+E at 4am recently as a 'customer', I counted 12 Police Officers in there sitting with various people in the waiting/triage area. I know that my town has 8 PCs on each shift, so the others must be from the surrounding rural area. I don't know how many more officers were out there working, but I'm sure there couldn't have been many.
Sadly there aren’t the numbers there used to be. There can be a number of incidents going on.
My shift yesterday we had three arrests in 30 minutes. This meant we had no officers free to deal with any jobs that came in until we were done. This was in the first half hour of the shift.
Four of us ended up tied up in custody having to deal with someone kicking off for an hour and a bit.
We then had another two nicked for a fight once we had finished after our first trip to custody.
This tied me and another PC up for four hours as we had to go to hospital on the way. This left two officers for the area (just under 300 square miles).
Then we had our paperwork. I ended up with 13 pages covering my use of force over the two events. Justifying why I’ve done what I’ve done.
Everyone I work with loves catching a drink driver. Even those who dislike traffic stuff normally.
There will be a reason why someone wasn’t there straight away.
It’s possible that they won’t need a statement from you if they have seen him driving themselves.
My shift yesterday we had three arrests in 30 minutes. This meant we had no officers free to deal with any jobs that came in until we were done. This was in the first half hour of the shift.
Four of us ended up tied up in custody having to deal with someone kicking off for an hour and a bit.
We then had another two nicked for a fight once we had finished after our first trip to custody.
This tied me and another PC up for four hours as we had to go to hospital on the way. This left two officers for the area (just under 300 square miles).
Then we had our paperwork. I ended up with 13 pages covering my use of force over the two events. Justifying why I’ve done what I’ve done.
Everyone I work with loves catching a drink driver. Even those who dislike traffic stuff normally.
There will be a reason why someone wasn’t there straight away.
It’s possible that they won’t need a statement from you if they have seen him driving themselves.
flashbang said:
Police never attended.
I was travelling to work this morning about 5.30am and I was around 5 minutes away. There was a car stopped my side of the road with lights and hazards on and other cars going past me flashing their lights. Then the car that had stopped started to beep its horn for a long time So I stopped and was wondering what the hell was going on. My night shift colleague just came past, stopped and asked what was going on. I said I had no idea but something seemed rather odd and out of place. So he went to have a look and said the bloke is drunk as a fart and trying to flag people down for a lift.
I called the police and said what was happening. While I was on the phone, the drunk started stopping vehicles in the middle of the road. It's a dark road with no lights. I hung up and waited around 20 mins. Still, no sign so I called back and asked if they had an update or ETA of any units. No was the answer so I hung up and waited another 15 minutes. Still no sign of any units so I called again. I was told there was still no update and no ETA. At this point, the drunk started to jump in front of cars, shouting and swearing at them, to get them to stop to which I said to the operator and all he said was I have no idea where they are or how long they will be. If they're attending a stabbing, that would take more priority. What, just after 6am on a Saturday morning?! So I waited another 10 minutes and then left as I had to relieve the other night staff. As I drove past the parked car, the side of it was all smashed up and dented in.
I really can't say how frustrated it was trying to get a drunk driver off the road, how he's causing a hazard for other road users, and yet all I got from the police was don't know when we'll be there. Not even a rough ETA. It's now 14:10 and I haven't had a phone call asking for a statement etc.
Anyway, rant over.
I left the job some 15 years ago. We had insufficient personnel then to answer all non-urgent calls, such as this one, especially at night. Since then there have been the reported loss of police staff, which alone would have been a disaster. On top of that, a high number of civilian staff were cut as well, and their functions remain, but have to be completed by police staff, who are generally less efficient at it. I was travelling to work this morning about 5.30am and I was around 5 minutes away. There was a car stopped my side of the road with lights and hazards on and other cars going past me flashing their lights. Then the car that had stopped started to beep its horn for a long time So I stopped and was wondering what the hell was going on. My night shift colleague just came past, stopped and asked what was going on. I said I had no idea but something seemed rather odd and out of place. So he went to have a look and said the bloke is drunk as a fart and trying to flag people down for a lift.
I called the police and said what was happening. While I was on the phone, the drunk started stopping vehicles in the middle of the road. It's a dark road with no lights. I hung up and waited around 20 mins. Still, no sign so I called back and asked if they had an update or ETA of any units. No was the answer so I hung up and waited another 15 minutes. Still no sign of any units so I called again. I was told there was still no update and no ETA. At this point, the drunk started to jump in front of cars, shouting and swearing at them, to get them to stop to which I said to the operator and all he said was I have no idea where they are or how long they will be. If they're attending a stabbing, that would take more priority. What, just after 6am on a Saturday morning?! So I waited another 10 minutes and then left as I had to relieve the other night staff. As I drove past the parked car, the side of it was all smashed up and dented in.
I really can't say how frustrated it was trying to get a drunk driver off the road, how he's causing a hazard for other road users, and yet all I got from the police was don't know when we'll be there. Not even a rough ETA. It's now 14:10 and I haven't had a phone call asking for a statement etc.
Anyway, rant over.
I was in control rooms for a couple of years, this in the middle 90s, and we struggled then to cover all graded jobs. On nights, there’s generally a quiet period around the wee smalls and police tend to leave stuff like for these periods, such as dealing with prisoners. As an inspector, I used to take a car out around 4am just to cover the calls, so to limit what we handed over to early turn.
We struggled back in the day. Sometimes, we could not cover the graded calls just under the grade 1s, urgent, blues and twos.
I’m glad that I’m not around now, taking muster with a PC or two.
A drunk driver is a danger to everyone. I used to think I had done a good job if I nicked a DD, and got them banned. I would assume that police officer, reading the calls, will be irritated they could not respond to your call.
But as pointed out, this is what Cameron and May wanted.
LosingGrip said:
Just so you know a lot of the social media posts done by officers are done in their own time when they are off duty.
Nah. That can’t be true. Only a few days ago a serving police officer was telling us that plod don’t do ANYTHING in their own time without being paid for it!Oceanrower said:
Nah. That can’t be true. Only a few days ago a serving police officer was telling us that plod don’t do ANYTHING in their own time without being paid for it!
Some are like that (same as any job) but as the use of social media is something that officers have chosen to do it’s often done in their own time. (I’m currently doing work when I’m on annual leave for the weekend so it’s clearly not every officer).
aka_kerrly said:
Greendubber said:
5.30am on a saturday? You'll have precisely zero staff free.
Shift change time?Nightshift have half an hour left and think they can pass the job onto the morning lot when they arrive.
t but its the way it is. Point of note, people talk about the cuts “this” government have made but haven’t “this” government pledged 20,000 more recruits?
I’m sure serving officers are capable of establishing the difference between the Conservative Party, David Cameron and Theresa May... or are you all just pre-programmed that Labour will save the day and anyone in blue is out to screw you over (especially ironic given the BiB nickname...)
I’m sure serving officers are capable of establishing the difference between the Conservative Party, David Cameron and Theresa May... or are you all just pre-programmed that Labour will save the day and anyone in blue is out to screw you over (especially ironic given the BiB nickname...)
Pegscratch said:
Point of note, people talk about the cuts “this” government have made but haven’t “this” government pledged 20,000 more recruits?
I’m sure serving officers are capable of establishing the difference between the Conservative Party, David Cameron and Theresa May... or are you all just pre-programmed that Labour will save the day and anyone in blue is out to screw you over (especially ironic given the BiB nickname...)
It's a nice thought, these 20,000, but it does not mean that the police will have, at the end of it, 20,000 more police officers. Obviously.I’m sure serving officers are capable of establishing the difference between the Conservative Party, David Cameron and Theresa May... or are you all just pre-programmed that Labour will save the day and anyone in blue is out to screw you over (especially ironic given the BiB nickname...)
Not only that, much will depend on funding as well. When, with great fanfare, 'this' government stated that there would be no more cuts to police funding, in the local paper there was the revellation that there would be a cut of £1m to, you've guessed it, police funding. There is likely to be more next financial year as well. It means the force cannot afford to recruit its share of those 20,000.
When the Cameron/May cuts were imposed, the police were obliged to cut as many civilian staff as they could in order that they could suggest that the number of police officers had stayed high. Smoke/mirrors. This 20,000 (which isn't 20,00 extra) is police officers, so not making up the loss of staff.
In the 'old days', of merely underfunding, rather than political posturing, the police lost around 11 - 12,000 officers pa. I would assume that there has been a significant drop in that figure over the last couple of years or so, perhaps 9,000, maybe less? I doubt my force will be able to recruit enough officers to cover wastage.
Smoke, mirrors.
Just to show that I'm not only picking on the tories, although they are serial offenders of late, under Blairs 'tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime', they regularly reported increases in police funding. However, they added the latest 'massive' rise to the previous one, and came to a total, and suggested, albeit subtly, that it was a new increase. In fact, numbers of officers went down in my force during Blair's time, but obviously, nothing like the swingeing cuts imposed by the tory goverments under Cameron and May. I assume there are a number of current tory mps who voted for the massive cuts under their previous leaders.
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