How valuable is police time?
Discussion
The nice thing about living in a small village in the arse end of nowhere is where the seriousness of certain crimes sit in our spectrum compared with that of the big bad inner city.
Just before Christmas we suffered a crimewave that shook us to our core.
Someone was breaking into sheds and was stealing bikes and lawnmores. Worse still they were stealing external Christmas lights.
Police were informed and responded not by coming out and investigating the thefts but by issuing crime numbers.
With all the modern surveillance equipment the private individual has to hand it should come as no surprise that a clear image of the little s
te responsable was caught on a victim's CCTV system.
The Police were contacted and the footage was sent to them.
The response was pretty pathetic claiming the image was not clear enough to identify the thief and did not present as sufficient evidence to secure a conviction so no further action was taken.
What the Police did say though and said with some adamance was "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES POST THIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA".
Now, just because a policeman puts on his most serious face and tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something doesn't mean you don't do it and that being case the complainant posted the footage on Facebook.
The Christmas Tree light thief was recognised as a known baddun from a family locally notorious as known badduns, identified, named and shamed with immediate effect.
The torch and pitchfork brigade piled in with comments like "hang him by the neck from a tree with Christmas lights" and "skin him and roll him in salt".
As I said, the family is well known to the village as a bad lot.
The Dad and various Uncles started by kicking off on the village website, threatening guys for calling for the hanging, drawing and quartering of their little lad and ended up at various doors looking for "square gos"
The trouble then spilled over to school with the kid getting a hard time off his schoolmates, having to be sent home and the worse offenders of the pile on being suspended.
The Police have been run ragged by it all having to attend the various subsequent doorstep incidents, having to deal with Facebook posts calling for public hanging and various online threats from supporters of the boy towards those making the posts and even attending incidents at the school.
It's a small village where everyone knows everyone else's business. Word on the street (as Huggy Bear would say to Detectives Strarsky and Hutchinson) is the Police are very very cross with the chap who posted the CCTV footage to an extent he may be in a spot of bother. It seems when a Policeman tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something that instruction carries some clout and the Police really do believe their time is valuable.
Just before Christmas we suffered a crimewave that shook us to our core.
Someone was breaking into sheds and was stealing bikes and lawnmores. Worse still they were stealing external Christmas lights.
Police were informed and responded not by coming out and investigating the thefts but by issuing crime numbers.
With all the modern surveillance equipment the private individual has to hand it should come as no surprise that a clear image of the little s
te responsable was caught on a victim's CCTV system.The Police were contacted and the footage was sent to them.
The response was pretty pathetic claiming the image was not clear enough to identify the thief and did not present as sufficient evidence to secure a conviction so no further action was taken.
What the Police did say though and said with some adamance was "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES POST THIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA".
Now, just because a policeman puts on his most serious face and tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something doesn't mean you don't do it and that being case the complainant posted the footage on Facebook.
The Christmas Tree light thief was recognised as a known baddun from a family locally notorious as known badduns, identified, named and shamed with immediate effect.
The torch and pitchfork brigade piled in with comments like "hang him by the neck from a tree with Christmas lights" and "skin him and roll him in salt".
As I said, the family is well known to the village as a bad lot.
The Dad and various Uncles started by kicking off on the village website, threatening guys for calling for the hanging, drawing and quartering of their little lad and ended up at various doors looking for "square gos"
The trouble then spilled over to school with the kid getting a hard time off his schoolmates, having to be sent home and the worse offenders of the pile on being suspended.
The Police have been run ragged by it all having to attend the various subsequent doorstep incidents, having to deal with Facebook posts calling for public hanging and various online threats from supporters of the boy towards those making the posts and even attending incidents at the school.
It's a small village where everyone knows everyone else's business. Word on the street (as Huggy Bear would say to Detectives Strarsky and Hutchinson) is the Police are very very cross with the chap who posted the CCTV footage to an extent he may be in a spot of bother. It seems when a Policeman tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something that instruction carries some clout and the Police really do believe their time is valuable.
I recognise the public sector mindset.
You can't afford not to do something, but also can't afford to do it.
Until it goes wrong, and then money is somehow found to fix the bigger problem that would have been better to fix earlier, for less, if there has been that capacity.
But until the cost of not acting outweighs the cost of acting, minor stuff will simply get ignored under the pressure of other service demand.
You can't afford not to do something, but also can't afford to do it.
Until it goes wrong, and then money is somehow found to fix the bigger problem that would have been better to fix earlier, for less, if there has been that capacity.
But until the cost of not acting outweighs the cost of acting, minor stuff will simply get ignored under the pressure of other service demand.
Peter911 said:
Imagine if the police had done their job properly the first time, or even after that is arresting the people for threatening behaviour etc.
Very much sounds like a kumbaya approach from the Police. What is the point in having them? If the Police choose to do nothing then they create a rod for their own back. Much like things that escalate into complaints at Hospitals because medical staff don't talk to patients, if the Police had given a reasonable justification for not posting things, then maybe things would have been different.
Old Jokes Revisited...
A man sees someone breaking into his shed. He calls police. They say they don't have anyone available right now. They'll be there as soon as they can, but it may be two hours. The man hangs up.
A few minutes later he calls again and tells them to take their time. He's pulled out his rifle and shot the man. He's not going anywhere. Within minutes the place is swarming with police, helicopters, cars, dogs, etc. They find the man breaking into the shed and arrest him.
The police go to the man, "I thought you said you shot him!" The man responds "I thought you said you had no one available"
A man sees someone breaking into his shed. He calls police. They say they don't have anyone available right now. They'll be there as soon as they can, but it may be two hours. The man hangs up.
A few minutes later he calls again and tells them to take their time. He's pulled out his rifle and shot the man. He's not going anywhere. Within minutes the place is swarming with police, helicopters, cars, dogs, etc. They find the man breaking into the shed and arrest him.
The police go to the man, "I thought you said you shot him!" The man responds "I thought you said you had no one available"
Tannedbaldhead said:
The nice thing about living in a small village in the arse end of nowhere is where the seriousness of certain crimes sit in our spectrum compared with that of the big bad inner city.
Just before Christmas we suffered a crimewave that shook us to our core.
Someone was breaking into sheds and was stealing bikes and lawnmores. Worse still they were stealing external Christmas lights.
Police were informed and responded not by coming out and investigating the thefts but by issuing crime numbers.
With all the modern surveillance equipment the private individual has to hand it should come as no surprise that a clear image of the little ste responsable was caught on a victim's CCTV system.
The Police were contacted and the footage was sent to them.
The response was pretty pathetic claiming the image was not clear enough to identify the thief and did not present as sufficient evidence to secure a conviction so no further action was taken.
What the Police did say though and said with some adamance was "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES POST THIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA".
Now, just because a policeman puts on his most serious face and tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something doesn't mean you don't do it and that being case the complainant posted the footage on Facebook.
The Christmas Tree light thief was recognised as a known baddun from a family locally notorious as known badduns, identified, named and shamed with immediate effect.
The torch and pitchfork brigade piled in with comments like "hang him by the neck from a tree with Christmas lights" and "skin him and roll him in salt".
As I said, the family is well known to the village as a bad lot.
The Dad and various Uncles started by kicking off on the village website, threatening guys for calling for the hanging, drawing and quartering of their little lad and ended up at various doors looking for "square gos"
The trouble then spilled over to school with the kid getting a hard time off his schoolmates, having to be sent home and the worse offenders of the pile on being suspended.
The Police have been run ragged by it all having to attend the various subsequent doorstep incidents, having to deal with Facebook posts calling for public hanging and various online threats from supporters of the boy towards those making the posts and even attending incidents at the school.
It's a small village where everyone knows everyone else's business. Word on the street (as Huggy Bear would say to Detectives Strarsky and Hutchinson) is the Police are very very cross with the chap who posted the CCTV footage to an extent he may be in a spot of bother. It seems when a Policeman tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something that instruction carries some clout and the Police really do believe their time is valuable.
Was this stolen off of Farcebook? It reads like a weird "seen in this town" post of some descriptionJust before Christmas we suffered a crimewave that shook us to our core.
Someone was breaking into sheds and was stealing bikes and lawnmores. Worse still they were stealing external Christmas lights.
Police were informed and responded not by coming out and investigating the thefts but by issuing crime numbers.
With all the modern surveillance equipment the private individual has to hand it should come as no surprise that a clear image of the little s
te responsable was caught on a victim's CCTV system.The Police were contacted and the footage was sent to them.
The response was pretty pathetic claiming the image was not clear enough to identify the thief and did not present as sufficient evidence to secure a conviction so no further action was taken.
What the Police did say though and said with some adamance was "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES POST THIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA".
Now, just because a policeman puts on his most serious face and tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something doesn't mean you don't do it and that being case the complainant posted the footage on Facebook.
The Christmas Tree light thief was recognised as a known baddun from a family locally notorious as known badduns, identified, named and shamed with immediate effect.
The torch and pitchfork brigade piled in with comments like "hang him by the neck from a tree with Christmas lights" and "skin him and roll him in salt".
As I said, the family is well known to the village as a bad lot.
The Dad and various Uncles started by kicking off on the village website, threatening guys for calling for the hanging, drawing and quartering of their little lad and ended up at various doors looking for "square gos"
The trouble then spilled over to school with the kid getting a hard time off his schoolmates, having to be sent home and the worse offenders of the pile on being suspended.
The Police have been run ragged by it all having to attend the various subsequent doorstep incidents, having to deal with Facebook posts calling for public hanging and various online threats from supporters of the boy towards those making the posts and even attending incidents at the school.
It's a small village where everyone knows everyone else's business. Word on the street (as Huggy Bear would say to Detectives Strarsky and Hutchinson) is the Police are very very cross with the chap who posted the CCTV footage to an extent he may be in a spot of bother. It seems when a Policeman tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something that instruction carries some clout and the Police really do believe their time is valuable.
Id question why they didn't know said little scrote if he was well known within the village? This is one reason why neighbourhood policing is important. It's rare that response cops will know of all known idiots but usually if there's a crime in a locality which is fairly insular, then a quick email to the neighbourhood officer or PCSO with details will usually result in a name.
I take it that this kid responsible is school age? That's probably one of the reasons why they don't want pitchforks at the ready.
I take it that this kid responsible is school age? That's probably one of the reasons why they don't want pitchforks at the ready.
Sorry to hear that OP
Police where I live often put CCTV photo's of suspects on their website to see if the public can identify them.
What's the difference?
Police won't deal with shoplifting here.
Shopkeepers will eventually use reasonable force to protect their property, ie stopping the thieves and taking back possesion of their property.
Of course this will end up in someone getting hurt, or worse, and the victim (shopkeeper) may get into trouble for putting a hand on the thief.
As said, if the Police simply did their job and arrested the thieves like they used to, then escalations can be avoided.
It's a very rubbish situation where Police no longer deal with theft.
Police where I live often put CCTV photo's of suspects on their website to see if the public can identify them.
What's the difference?
Police won't deal with shoplifting here.
Shopkeepers will eventually use reasonable force to protect their property, ie stopping the thieves and taking back possesion of their property.
Of course this will end up in someone getting hurt, or worse, and the victim (shopkeeper) may get into trouble for putting a hand on the thief.
As said, if the Police simply did their job and arrested the thieves like they used to, then escalations can be avoided.
It's a very rubbish situation where Police no longer deal with theft.
geeks said:
Tannedbaldhead said:
The nice thing about living in a small village in the arse end of nowhere is where the seriousness of certain crimes sit in our spectrum compared with that of the big bad inner city.
Just before Christmas we suffered a crimewave that shook us to our core.
Someone was breaking into sheds and was stealing bikes and lawnmores. Worse still they were stealing external Christmas lights.
Police were informed and responded not by coming out and investigating the thefts but by issuing crime numbers.
With all the modern surveillance equipment the private individual has to hand it should come as no surprise that a clear image of the little ste responsable was caught on a victim's CCTV system.
The Police were contacted and the footage was sent to them.
The response was pretty pathetic claiming the image was not clear enough to identify the thief and did not present as sufficient evidence to secure a conviction so no further action was taken.
What the Police did say though and said with some adamance was "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES POST THIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA".
Now, just because a policeman puts on his most serious face and tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something doesn't mean you don't do it and that being case the complainant posted the footage on Facebook.
The Christmas Tree light thief was recognised as a known baddun from a family locally notorious as known badduns, identified, named and shamed with immediate effect.
The torch and pitchfork brigade piled in with comments like "hang him by the neck from a tree with Christmas lights" and "skin him and roll him in salt".
As I said, the family is well known to the village as a bad lot.
The Dad and various Uncles started by kicking off on the village website, threatening guys for calling for the hanging, drawing and quartering of their little lad and ended up at various doors looking for "square gos"
The trouble then spilled over to school with the kid getting a hard time off his schoolmates, having to be sent home and the worse offenders of the pile on being suspended.
The Police have been run ragged by it all having to attend the various subsequent doorstep incidents, having to deal with Facebook posts calling for public hanging and various online threats from supporters of the boy towards those making the posts and even attending incidents at the school.
It's a small village where everyone knows everyone else's business. Word on the street (as Huggy Bear would say to Detectives Strarsky and Hutchinson) is the Police are very very cross with the chap who posted the CCTV footage to an extent he may be in a spot of bother. It seems when a Policeman tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something that instruction carries some clout and the Police really do believe their time is valuable.
Was this stolen off of Farcebook? It reads like a weird "seen in this town" post of some descriptionJust before Christmas we suffered a crimewave that shook us to our core.
Someone was breaking into sheds and was stealing bikes and lawnmores. Worse still they were stealing external Christmas lights.
Police were informed and responded not by coming out and investigating the thefts but by issuing crime numbers.
With all the modern surveillance equipment the private individual has to hand it should come as no surprise that a clear image of the little s
te responsable was caught on a victim's CCTV system.The Police were contacted and the footage was sent to them.
The response was pretty pathetic claiming the image was not clear enough to identify the thief and did not present as sufficient evidence to secure a conviction so no further action was taken.
What the Police did say though and said with some adamance was "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES POST THIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA".
Now, just because a policeman puts on his most serious face and tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something doesn't mean you don't do it and that being case the complainant posted the footage on Facebook.
The Christmas Tree light thief was recognised as a known baddun from a family locally notorious as known badduns, identified, named and shamed with immediate effect.
The torch and pitchfork brigade piled in with comments like "hang him by the neck from a tree with Christmas lights" and "skin him and roll him in salt".
As I said, the family is well known to the village as a bad lot.
The Dad and various Uncles started by kicking off on the village website, threatening guys for calling for the hanging, drawing and quartering of their little lad and ended up at various doors looking for "square gos"
The trouble then spilled over to school with the kid getting a hard time off his schoolmates, having to be sent home and the worse offenders of the pile on being suspended.
The Police have been run ragged by it all having to attend the various subsequent doorstep incidents, having to deal with Facebook posts calling for public hanging and various online threats from supporters of the boy towards those making the posts and even attending incidents at the school.
It's a small village where everyone knows everyone else's business. Word on the street (as Huggy Bear would say to Detectives Strarsky and Hutchinson) is the Police are very very cross with the chap who posted the CCTV footage to an extent he may be in a spot of bother. It seems when a Policeman tells you "under no circumstances" don't do something that instruction carries some clout and the Police really do believe their time is valuable.
Original posts were seen by myself before being taken down off village news page and subsequent gossip on state of affairs came from a teacher who is kept abreast of matters by her pupils.
If you wait long enough am sure one of our Police forum members will come along and confess this sort of nonsense has the ring of truth about it and is exactly the sort of stuff that fills up their days these days.
Over 20 years ago we'd a retired couple coming in the farm shop and pilfering a few things when they though no one was looking.
Put up a couple of cameras and caught them in the act, nothing major a few packs on sweets, chewing gum or chocolate bars.
Ring the police, this couple now claim it's a first offence, honest guv, police advise it would be difficult to get anywhere with this.
Barred them from entering he shop again.
So I put up a photo of a screenshot in the shop and also gave one to other shops in the village so they could be aware of these two.
A few days later police arrive telling us and one other shop in the village that these had to be taken down, mainly because it didn't show the offence taking place, and wern't allowed to say we'd caught them shoplifting.
Fast forward 10 years and we couldn't get police to attend to shoplifting, we can give you a crime number only.
Put up a couple of cameras and caught them in the act, nothing major a few packs on sweets, chewing gum or chocolate bars.
Ring the police, this couple now claim it's a first offence, honest guv, police advise it would be difficult to get anywhere with this.
Barred them from entering he shop again.
So I put up a photo of a screenshot in the shop and also gave one to other shops in the village so they could be aware of these two.
A few days later police arrive telling us and one other shop in the village that these had to be taken down, mainly because it didn't show the offence taking place, and wern't allowed to say we'd caught them shoplifting.
Fast forward 10 years and we couldn't get police to attend to shoplifting, we can give you a crime number only.
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