Why is car crime unpunished/ unpoliced?

[oyster]

Yellowfez said:

Some on this thread will still say this isn’t a police problem

RWD cossie wil said:

So… Update time.

Comedy this morning, just sat having lunch with my brother, door bell goes… Pcso is raising awareness of lots of thefts in the area, & is distributing faraday pouches. She asks “Have you got a keyless car?” My brother answers “No, but I have got a carless key, it got stolen last week off the drive & you were not interested then” (Car was not keyless just for background info).

Fair play to her though, she promised to go & check what was happening. Brother got a call late afternoon, seems it triggered an ANPR camera in Birmingham at 11pm, so was stolen probably 10:15pm to 10:30pm… Village CCTV conveniently didn’t pick it up, despite there only being 2 entrances to the estate, both covered by the CCTV cameras…..Neighbours CCTV has been electronically jammed somehow so didn’t activate.

Still a pile of glass on the drive, then around the corner the drivers window remains along with lots of bodge tape, so looks like taped the window up, OBD port used to deactivate alarm & key clone, then pushed off the drive up the road before being started. It has given them less than an hour between the car getting home & being stolen, so probably been watched for a while or followed home.

Car has been found today in Cambridge, stripped & burnt out, so thats that. Oh, and there is no forensic evidence to collect, police have washed their hands of it & its now my brothers responsibility to get it recovered.

Oh, in the same village, two cars were stolen with forced entry key theft last week, & THREE, yes THREE, were stolen from the same road last night….. This is a quiet, nice village, not the bronx.

Welcome to lawless Britain….

Genuine question - how much extra tax do you want to pay to get the police resources we all want?

[DodgyGeezer]

oyster said:

Genuine question - how much extra tax do you want to pay to get the police resources we all want?

sadly there comes a point where you have to consider that a rise in tax is worth-while - the biggest issue against said rise is that with the sheer wastage that goes on it'd be questionable how much the 5-0 would see...

[DT1975]

In short OP vehicle crime isn't a priority for most forces. Every police force has a policing plan, some of the major priorities are drafted down from the Government, others are as a result of community consultative meetings or decided by the force themselves. Read them and weep.

Vehicle crime is 'acquisitive crime' or volume crime so quite labour intensive to deal with, unfortunately it impacts more folk than anything. When Theresa May chopped numbers and austerity hit, the Government does what every Government does and changed crime priorities. The investigation of vehicle crime was binned as they knew they wouldn't have the staff to deal with it any more and that still stands today in my local force but not others I guess.

What goes around comes around in relation to policing. As staff numbers increase again, priorities may change again. If a future Government want votes they increase numbers, change priorities, detections will increase and they can say what a wonderful job they're doing protecting the public blah blah.

[havoc]

DodgyGeezer said:

oyster said:

Genuine question - how much extra tax do you want to pay to get the police resources we all want?

sadly there comes a point where you have to consider that a rise in tax is worth-while - the biggest issue against said rise is that with the sheer wastage that goes on it'd be questionable how much the 5-0 would see...

What I fail to understand - to the point on wastage - is that the UK are now paying, give-or-take, as much tax in real terms as ever.

...yet the NHS is failing. The police are failing. Local councils are (have always been?) a joke. Every single public service feels noticeably worse than it was 20-odd years ago.


All I can assume is that we're paying for a load more crony-led projects and big shiny white-elephants like HS2. And probably much more for unaffordable yet apparently untouchable public-sector final salary pensions.
(It's quite telling that most workers outside of big-corporates can't now afford to retire even at 67, yet most public-sector employees can still take quite-generous early retirement packages before they hit 60, or at the very least enjoy 2/3 final salary when they do retire)

[jm doc]

DT1975 said:

In short OP vehicle crime isn't a priority for most forces. Every police force has a policing plan, some of the major priorities are drafted down from the Government, others are as a result of community consultative meetings or decided by the force themselves. Read them and weep.

Vehicle crime is 'acquisitive crime' or volume crime so quite labour intensive to deal with, unfortunately it impacts more folk than anything. When Theresa May chopped numbers and austerity hit, the Government does what every Government does and changed crime priorities. The investigation of vehicle crime was binned as they knew they wouldn't have the staff to deal with it any more and that still stands today in my local force but not others I guess.

What goes around comes around in relation to policing. As staff numbers increase again, priorities may change again. If a future Government want votes they increase numbers, change priorities, detections will increase and they can say what a wonderful job they're doing protecting the public blah blah.

Yet we see more and more camera vans. And don't even think about having a laser jammer. You're right, it's all about priorities.

[RWD cossie wil]

I don’t blame the individual officers, 95% seem to be decent people that are just as frustrated as the rest of us with the situation. I blame the Judiciary & policy makers, instead of policing twitter for people saying nasty words, get out there & sort the issues in the real world.

They need backing up with much harsher sentences & punishments. I don’t care if prison does not work, at lesst they are off the streets…

I can only imagine how soul destroying it must be for a copper to spend months catching & building cases against these career criminal oxygen burglars , only to see them let off with a slap on the wrists.

[Yellowfez]

If you watch these shows like motorway cops etc the ending is always rather sad when they announce what happened to the criminals in that episode, they usually get away scot free almost

[Roger Irrelevant]

babelfish said:

Octoposse said:

I’m a Crime & Intelligence Analyst - been working in the same large town since coming over straight off the back of the Olympics in September 2012, on maternity cover.

The system reminds of that scene in “The Bridge at Remegan” where the German engineer discovers they haven’t got enough explosives and keeps repeating “key points only”!

Our priorities are inevitably Serious Violence (Domestic Abuse / Public Place / Sexual Violence), safeguarding and vulnerable people, Anti Social Behaviour hotspots. Huge amounts of time go on missing persons.

The entire system is threadbare. I used to meet monthly with Probation - always productive. Since then they’ve been split up, privatised, some CRCs went bust, de-privatised, re-organised. Haven’t seen them for years.

Ludicrous delays between offending and getting young people into court to get interventions in place - months and months.

No Youth Clubs for preventive work. Family Centres decimated. No ‘Cardiff Model’ data out of hospital EDs in the area since COVID.

So we concentrate on murder prevention, basically. Having said that, if we pick up a trend in anything else - cycle theft, catalytic converters, burglary, then we’ll flag it up, model it, and look for an intervention or identity likely suspects.

Interestingly, the most recent spike around here in theft-from vehicles, on people’s drives, is all down to Ring doorbells: people now know that someone’s been in their unlocked vehicle at three in the morning, whereas they just used to wonder where they’d misplaced their sunglasses / IPod / parking change . .

Only two years to retirement - I was settled, but am seriously tempted to do something else.

And people ignore this post and keep banging on about the police do nothing...... it's the whole system that is under funded.

Indeed, this is probably the most salient post of the thread and it pretty much disappeared without trace. For whatever reason, the people of the UK have voted for cuts to public services - including the police and courts - for over a decade. And they then moan when there's more left-behind desperate scumbags knocking about and insufficient resources to deal with car crime. But try pointing this out to them and you'll be told that it's not that people are getting what they voted for, it's the fault of all the black disabled lesbian outreach workers that the police are now employing, or 'The Left', or immigrants, or the police themselves for not being telepathic and able to predict exactly where a crime will occur. And so it will continue.

[Pit Pony]

Will everyone stop calling it a police force.

It's a police service.

Mind you I once owned a Rusty pogweasiled red astra mk3, with alloys off a calibra on it. I had picked up some old stock opel centre caps. For it. Didn't cost me much at a car Spares Fair. £6 I think for all 4 one night they disappeared.

I was totally incensed. Livid. Had I found the culprit, I'd be in Prison for murder.

Weird reaction but I think it's cause they were su h a bargain.

[gt_12345]

Dingu said:

gt_12345 said:

Dingu said:

Anyway, the actual answer to your question is probably funding. Both that of the police and that of other agencies which police spend lots of time picking up the slack for. Like mental health services.

Disagree.

All this crime is from a breakdown in society (coupled with importation of.........). Advanced countries shouldn't have to keep spending money to keep citizens behaving, they should want to behave.

Idealistic nonsense. With a hint of spineless bigotry.

Shall I bother to make a proper response?

Given your brain is probably wired the same way as Lineker's, there's probably not much point......

[gt_12345]

Pit Pony said:

Will everyone stop calling it a police force.

It's a police service.

Social Services armed-wing.

[NMNeil]

Maybe true, maybe an urban legend.
Guy gets woken up in the early hours and sees some characters breaking into his garage. Calls the police to be told by the dispatcher that there were no units available in the area and he'd best just wait safely indoors until they leave. He hung up the phone and called back a few minutes later and told the dispatcher to send an ambulance because he just shot 2 of them. Within minutes the house is surrounded by police cars and the characters are caught in the act and arrested. The Sergeant in charge is pissed and gets in the callers face because nobody had been shot, to which the caller replies "And I was told there were no units in the area, so that makes us both liars"

[Greendubber]

NMNeil said:

Maybe true, maybe an urban legend.
Guy gets woken up in the early hours and sees some characters breaking into his garage. Calls the police to be told by the dispatcher that there were no units available in the area and he'd best just wait safely indoors until they leave. He hung up the phone and called back a few minutes later and told the dispatcher to send an ambulance because he just shot 2 of them. Within minutes the house is surrounded by police cars and the characters are caught in the act and arrested. The Sergeant in charge is pissed and gets in the callers face because nobody had been shot, to which the caller replies "And I was told there were no units in the area, so that makes us both liars"

Total bks I'm afraid.

Mentioning guns or shooting is a sure way to make attendance slower

[bucksmanuk]

Roger Irrelevant said:

Indeed, this is probably the most salient post of the thread and it pretty much disappeared without trace. For whatever reason, the people of the UK have voted for cuts to public services - including the police and courts - for over a decade. And they then moan when there's more left-behind desperate scumbags knocking about and insufficient resources to deal with car crime. But try pointing this out to them and you'll be told that it's not that people are getting what they voted for, it's the fault of all the black disabled lesbian outreach workers that the police are now employing, or 'The Left', or immigrants, or the police themselves for not being telepathic and able to predict exactly where a crime will occur. And so it will continue.

I think most people would like to see more police and be happy to pay for them with increased taxes. However, life just isn’t that simple.
If the vast majority of the money is spent directly on increased police effort to catch criminals, then all would be well. BUT, if people see the money being misappropriated into other areas, and that’s a judgment call all on its own, then the willing supply of extra money will be reduced. People vote for other things…

For comparison purposes, what is the cost of policing in other countries?
Are we genuinely getting value for money, or are we paying well over the odds?

Does anyone know?

[NMNeil]

RWD cossie wil said:

I can only imagine how soul destroying it must be for a copper to spend months catching & building cases against these career criminal oxygen burglars , only to see them let off with a slap on the wrists.

“We keep locking them up, but the bail bond laws have changed where they now get right out and commit crimes the next day, and sometimes the same day,” says Detective David Miranda.
https://apnews.com/article/2edf415eabde0a0faa00275...

[Downward]

So if you walk up someone’s drive and steal a £100k RR nothing happens.
But walk into a bank and ask for £1k and the place will be swarming with police

[Greendubber]

Downward said:

So if you walk up someone’s drive and steal a £100k RR nothing happens.
But walk into a bank and ask for £1k and the place will be swarming with police

Hyperbolic nonsense.

[RazerSauber]

DodgyGeezer said:

oyster said:

Genuine question - how much extra tax do you want to pay to get the police resources we all want?

sadly there comes a point where you have to consider that a rise in tax is worth-while - the biggest issue against said rise is that with the sheer wastage that goes on it'd be questionable how much the 5-0 would see...

Well insurance prices will go up, more so for those who are unlucky enough to have their car stolen. That, in turn, makes more profit and thus the insurance company pays more tax. So we're all paying for it in a roundabout way. There will come a tipping point though where the increase in tax to deploy a suitable police force (yes, let's call it force because it sounds like they might actually do something) will be cheaper than having to claim off your insurance every 3 months because another car has been had.

Last time I heard, a >100k Range Rover could be had for as little £5k as a stolen vehicle. This was on one of those "presenter follows a police squad for a bit" shows some years back. Doesn't sound like a lot but when it's £5k from nothing and you're not paying tax, that's not bad going. If you've got somewhere to store them, 1 or 2 a week makes you a very rich individual at some rate.

[havoc]

RazerSauber said:

Well insurance prices will go up, more so for those who are unlucky enough to have their car stolen. That, in turn, makes more profit and thus the insurance company pays more tax. So we're all paying for it in a roundabout way. There will come a tipping point though where the increase in tax to deploy a suitable police force (yes, let's call it force because it sounds like they might actually do something) will be cheaper than having to claim off your insurance every 3 months because another car has been had.

Car insurance is typically loss making throughout the insurance industry.

Especially at the moment with current rates of crime.

[oyster]

Pit Pony said:

oyster said:

There's lots of talk about how the police and justice system makes it easy for the criminals with poor likelihood of getting caught and low consequences of getting caught. Surely it stands to reason that offering easy access to said criminals is also encouraging more crime (either more criminals or more offences per criminal).

We put so much effort on physical security for ourselves (don't walk down dodgy streets at night wearing a Rolex) and our houses, but neglect cars. Open driveways. Keys in hallways. Gates open. etc. etc.

It's often the case that telling your insurer that the car is parked in the garage does not result in lower premiums. Assume that's because a thief can get into the garage and then spend as long as he wants (it's never a she... The police should look at that trend maybe) with access to all the tools, making the car run.

Isn’t the garage thing because a lot of claims are made by people pranging their car on entry/exit to the garage rather than crime-related?