Police allocation of resources, FFS!

[cashmax]

My 16yo son cycled down to a local canal to go fishing with a friend. They were approached by 3 lads, 1 on foot and 2 on bikes who said that they wanted his bike. They grabbed it and tried to get away but my son and his mate fought back and got the bike back. A fight ensued and one of the lads produced a knife and told them to back off and hand the bike over. A couple walking saw what was going on and the 3 lads ran/cycled off. They made my son call the police, who said there wasn't enough evidence to send anyone out and suggested he leave the scene for his own safety.

The irony is that I was out and about in my car, and pulled over when my son called me to explain. Whilst I was talking to him I noticed the police pulled up behind me and came to the window to ask me to move on because I was on a single yellow line. Talk about incorrect allocation of resources.

10 mins later my son received the email below from the police.

I would have thought this was attempted robbery, not theft?







Dear XXXXX

Thank you for the report you made to Thames Valley Police. I’m xxxx? from the Contact Management team and I have reviewed your report of a crime today.

Your report of a crime

We are very grateful that you took the time to report the Theft of pedal cycle? that occurred on 29/10/2022. The local Command team, neighbourhood officers and
our intelligence analysts have all been notified that this crime occurred, meaning your report has helped to ensure that we focus on the right problems in the places we are needed most.

My conclusion

Following your report, I have explored all reasonable lines of enquiry but have not been able to find enough evidence to bring a potential suspect to justice; please accept my apologies
for this. As a result, our investigation is now complete.

To reach this conclusion I have:

Recorded your report of a crime on our database
Shared the details with relevant officers
Conducted research on police systems
Considered all reasonable lines of enquiry (See below)
Sufficient evidence readily available
Suspect identified
Suspect brought to justice
I considered the following reasonable lines of enquiry:
Ø The availability and quality of CCTV/Digital Imagery

Ø The presence of witnesses

Ø A known or identifiable suspect

If you have any further information relevant to this crime that would support us in bringing an offender to justice, please let us know as soon as you can.

For your records, the reference number for this matter is xxxxxxx. Please use this number if you want to contact us further about this crime at any point in the future.
You can contact us easily by visiting:

https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/contact/af/cont...

If we become aware of any further information or evidence, we will review it and then let you know if we intend to re-open this investigation.

You are not alone and support is available

I am deeply sorry that this crime happened; I understand that this may have been a frustrating and stressful experience for you. Crime affects us all differently and many people benefit from
additional support or information following their experience. Thames Valley Police work closely with ‘Victims First’, an organisation providing free emotional and practical support to all victims
and witnesses, as well as family members. They help thousands of people each year. If you would like more information about the help they can offer, please visit their website: www.victims-first.org.uk.

The Thames Valley Police website contains some useful advice which may help prevent you becoming a victim of crime in the future. Please visit

https://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/cp/crime-preven...

Thank you for taking the time to report this matter. Your report helps us make the Thames Valley a safer place for everyone in the future.

Yours sincerely,

[anonymous-user]

Conflicted here; one the one hand that's obviously the standard 'sod off' case disposal template email, but at the same time it's refreshing to see police of any kind bothering with minor traffic matters!

I would take issue with the assertion that the Thames Valley will be safer in the future as a result of plod dispatching an email, though!

[Electro1980]

I understand that this is stressful and frightening, but what is it that you want the police to do?

[anonymous-user]

Electro1980 said:

I understand that this is stressful and frightening, but what is it that you want the police to do?

Perhaps, amongst other things:

Classify crimes according to what they are, as opposed to doing it in whatever way best suits the figures.

Not imply that they have investigated, been unable to identify a possible suspect and closed the case all within ten minutes of it being first reported.

Have enough awareness to appreciate that victims of crime, including attempted robbery at knifepoint, are unlikely to be reassured by bullsh*t, fluffy emails illustrating that contacting the police is quite literally a complete waste of time.

Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 31st October 10:30

[R56Cooper]

Hope your lad's alright. Sounds like attempted robbery to me.

[joropug]

I get why resource has to be prioritised, but the reason there is a lack of evidence is because there is a lack of action.

If they dispatched a car to the area and drove past a group matching the description near the scene with the bike - there's your evidence, if you can catch them.

My friend got beaten (badly) through the car window in a road rage. We found the car parked up in the area, we told the police, they wouldn't do anything at all. There were several witnesses, they didn't come to the scene, so had none of their details. That's why there was no evidence.

[QBee]

R56Cooper said:

Hope your lad's alright. Sounds like attempted robbery to me.

....with an offensive weapon, rather than just the usual offensive mouth that seems to be standard teenager issue these days.

[mac96]

If it were me, I might accept that there was no chance of catching anyone, but I would not be happy about the categorisation of a knife crime as 'theft of pedal cycle' ie what looks to be deliberate substitution of a minor offence for a serious one.

[Elroy Blue]

Frontline Officers are as frustrated as you at the response victims of crime get from Crime bureaus, who get passed crimes and do just this.
We had a major problem with cycle theft in my area. Got an analyst to send me a list of cycle thefts that had taken place that month. Didn't know anything about most of then because somebody at HQ had filed them straight away, including adding 'no cctv'.
We examined the cameras for the time and dates and found loads of thefts were on camera and we were able to ID the offenders, recovered loads of bikes and they got sent to court to receive their slap on the wrist.
Notified their manager of the dubious recording and received the email version of a shrug of the shoulders.
At the same time as doing this, they lecture us on ethical crime recording.
A significant number of people who work on these departments get put there because they can't do actual Policing. It explains a lot.

[julian64]

Electro1980 said:

I understand that this is stressful and frightening, but what is it that you want the police to do?

The bike is incidental. out there is a chap who is willing to stab someone for a bike. Someone holding a knife and threatening people with it.

This person is daft enough to label himself by walking around with a bike for the next half an hour. At the very least I would expect them to highlight a description to the police in the area. Someone spots a person with that bike they may be taking someone out of society who is highly likely to stab someone.

That is what I would expect the police to do. See past the bike you are you are talking about and stop a potentially much more serious crime.

[Bigends]

Attempted knifepoint robbery screened out..sad state of affairs
OP may wish to query the classification with the contact team

Edited by Bigends on Monday 31st October 10:53

[Nibbles_bits]

As BiB this pains me.

Go to your local Police station. This is an attempted robbery.

Here's the definition for your argument - A person is guilty of robbery if he steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.

As for the allocation of resources - a vast majority of Officers in the Police don't respond to emergency calls.
You can thank the Tory cuts for that.

1. cutshaveconsequences

[Bigends]

Nibbles_bits said:

As BiB this pains me.

Go to your local Police station. This is an attempted robbery.

Here's the definition for your argument - A person is guilty of robbery if he steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.

As for the allocation of resources - a vast majority of Officers in the Police don't respond to emergency calls.
You can thank the Tory cuts for that.

1. cutshaveconsequences

Shouldn't need a definition..this is bread and butter stuff

[V8 Bob]

Speak to your local police commissionaire..raise it on social media locally they will want to be re-elected so should respond

[Nibbles_bits]

Bigends said:

Nibbles_bits said:

As BiB this pains me.

Go to your local Police station. This is an attempted robbery.

Here's the definition for your argument - A person is guilty of robbery if he steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.

As for the allocation of resources - a vast majority of Officers in the Police don't respond to emergency calls.
You can thank the Tory cuts for that.

1. cutshaveconsequences

Shouldn't need a definition..this is bread and butter stuff

Clearly it is needed, because an Officer has said it's attempted theft.

I added the definition to help the OP when they complain.

[Nibbles_bits]

V8 Bob said:

Speak to your local police commissionaire..raise it on social media locally they will want to be re-elected so should respond

Nope. Just go yo your local Police station.

[Sebring440]

V8 Bob said:

Speak to your local police commissionaire..

Yes, he may be able to open doors for you.

[P675]

Robbery is serious crime and the knife involved also, really is a joke. Police are probably only interested in easy wins like twitter crimes.

[Bigends]

Nibbles_bits said:

Bigends said:

Nibbles_bits said:

As BiB this pains me.

Go to your local Police station. This is an attempted robbery.

Here's the definition for your argument - A person is guilty of robbery if he steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.

As for the allocation of resources - a vast majority of Officers in the Police don't respond to emergency calls.
You can thank the Tory cuts for that.

1. cutshaveconsequences

Shouldn't need a definition..this is bread and butter stuff

Clearly it is needed, because an Officer has said it's attempted theft.

I added the definition to help the OP when they complain.

It was probably a Police staff member who said it was attempted theft, signed off by a Police staff supervisor - piss poor public service

Edited by Bigends on Monday 31st October 12:19

[SteveStrange]

Electro1980 said:

I understand that this is stressful and frightening, but what is it that you want the police to do?

Always the same people who can't help but be contrary.

It doesn't take a genius to imagine he wants the Police to do a little more investigating about a group of lads walking around with a knife ready to stab someone for a pushbike. Maybe take a description, check some CCTV, whatever it is Police do. This is Thames Valley, so hardly some backwater parochial area.