AIBU to be shocked and disgusted at this new development

[BLM2017]

I saw a news clip today from the BBC reporting that police are going to stop arresting 'low level' child sex offenders as they state they are overwhelmed by the numbers and don't have the man power basically. Shocked and worried about this and wondering what others think? Will try and post the clip

[Boomcack]

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/heatst.com/life/uk-police-dont-send-low-risk-pedophiles-to-prison/amp/

[SilentlyScreamingAgain]

I got the impression that this was a shock tactic to show how underfunded the force is.

[Ele13]

Police have been hit by insane budget cuts - I think it worked out at nearly 36% less by 2020 than 2010, not accounting for inflation. They are at breaking point and we should be unsurprised.

Crime rates were falling for some time , thought to be because computer games reduce the time spent causing trouble (vast generalisation, no citation, take with salt). But now the cuts are so great that the changes to police budgets can no longer be masked.

Consider reading the plans for police helicopters and other specialist areas: you'll see the provision of these has decreased and will continue to decrease.

[MaidOfStars]

Of we want excellent public services, we have to pay in more money.

Simple.

[IllMetByMoonlight]

Yes, Maid, this is obvious to me, but why do I often feel like I'm the only one who thinks this way? I shudder at the thought of public services being eroded due to funding cuts, and cringe at objections such as "I'm not sure I trust 'them' to allocate any extra tax-revenue appropriately..." So we try to fix transparency and accountability, not say no to higher taxes.

[OdinsLoveChild]

Unfortunately there just aren't enough police.

20 years ago there used to be 5 officers on a shift in my town. Now theres 1 officer per shift but they have to cover 2 towns and a dozen villages. If they need assistance for an emergency its not unusual for them to have to wait 20 minutes for another officer to arrive to help them, it used to be 3-5 minutes. Something has to give eventually and its clearly not going to be the government.

Im sure I read that increasing tax by 2p in the £ would cover everything we need to fund the public services in full. My council also has a massive tax evasion problem. They have more money outstanding than is collected every year. Its really shocking.

[JonesyAndTheSalad]

They should not be surprised if there is a surge in vigilante behaviour.

[Boomcack]

I get what posters are saying in terms of underfunding. However how do the police manage to focus on arresting young people for minor crime such as cannabis possession etc. and yet don't have the man power god thus. You would think the Fuchs would be on offering early intervention support for young people at risk of entering crime including counselling and therapy and focus police man power on child sexual predators.

[Boomcack]

Apologies for the errors in previous post. But I think the excuse of underfunding is bullshit. Safeguarding children should be a priority. Yet police spend a huge amount of time stopping and search and arresting the same young people for minor crime. Not much money spent on rehabilitating them, but somehow they have no man power for people who pose a risk to our children and want to spend time and money counselling them

[Boomcack]

I have seen several videos online if vigilantes literally catching these people and then calling the police to hand them in, it looks like that will become the norm. A society that is unable to protect its children is a list one. Where are the protests regarding this

[KillDora]

I suppose this would have nothing to do with those suspected high power pedophile rings in the government and police.

Of course they'd love for viewing images to be crime free. Never mind that they'd be fuelling actual crime (how else are those sick pictures/videos going to be made)

I'm dusting off my tin hat as we speak.

[KillDora]

Oops tin foil hat

[lalalalyra]

Underfunding is s huge problem. A friend of mine was burgled and the police didn't attend, just gave her a crime number, and they didn't send any forensic people despite the fact the one who smashed the glass in the door cut themselves (quite badly) and someone left a visible fingerprint in blood on the door.

[Megatherium]

We really do have to get beyond this culture of constantly cutting costs for public services: it puts people in danger. The government should be concentrating on growing the economy instead.

[anaiis]

The report is not talking about sexual predators, or any contact offences.

The reality is that offences relating to viewing indecent images take a very long time to investigate. If the police seize your computer equipment because they suspect you of downloading such images, every single file on every device seized has to be checked. That is 100s if not 1000s of man hours for EACH person. I think it was said they arresting several hundred a month.

At the same time, there has been a huge rise in allegations of historic sexual abuse following on from Savile, Yewtress, more recent cases connected to youth football etc. I think it was said there have been 70,000 allegations, all of which have to be investigated.

In terms of indecent images, after 1000s of man hours have been spent and every image catalogied, the offender is charged. Unless there are aggravating factors (pleading not guilty, offender is a teacher or community figure, previous offences, real risk of escalation to contact offences) then it is very unlikely they will get a custodial. Instead they'll get probation, put on the Sex Offender's register, and have to attend counselling/ therapy.

One force is therefore piloting a scheme to visit offenders', warn them and help them get treatment. Given that treatment and not a custodial penalty is the likely outcome anyway, the argument is does it not make more sense to use those 1000s of man hours spent cataloging images and use them instead to investigate historic allegations or other crimes? I can see the sense in that line of reasoning given how impossible it is for someone viewing these images to get help absent police involvement.

[nursy1]

I think there are people who are sexually attracted to children who struggle to contain their perversion. There should perhaps be more emphasis on being open to people in this situation and giving them help. It's in all our interests to stop them progressing to offending.

[SilentlyScreamingAgain]

We aren't talking about 'indecent images', we are talking about images of child sexual abuse. In every single one of those image a real child is bring abused.

[nursy1]

The funding cuts in all public services are disgraceful. Funding is required whatever the solution.

[ChortledTheLion]

Agree that this is to highlight how the police can't go on in current circumstances. I'm another one who would like to pay taxes ata level that mean we have a safer and saner society.

[anaiis]

Nurse, unfortunately the way things are set up, it is almost impossible to access help until after you've been arrested, let alone before an offence is committed.

With respect, throwing more money at the police won't alter the outcome in the courts. You will just have more officers spending more time on investigations to charge more people who will all end up with at most suspended sentences, because increasing police budgets wont have any effect on sentencing!

Would it not make more sense to focus the manpower available on those offences involving contact which are likely to be viewed far less leniently by the courts?

[Fighterofthenightman]

It's not just the man-hours going through all the images; it's accessing them in the first place. Police forces all over the UK have a massive backlog of digital evidence because very few crimes don't involve some sort of smartphone/computer evidence these days; downloads, text messages, FB posts etc.

You can seize devices but people don't usually give up their passwords so forensic teams have to spend a lot of time actually getting into the devices before they even begin finding evidence.

[CarrieMyBag]

They should not be surprised if there is a surge in vigilante behaviour.
^This. And I'd support them 100%. Minor or major, child sex offenders need to be put down.

[malificent7]

Well we did vote the tories in... what di people expect?

[CocoaLeaves]

Well, no, I personally did not vote the Tories in, malificent.

The reality of what happens when the police do not have the resources to investigate a child disclosure properly is that it becomes a family law matter. In Scotland this problem is worsened by the need for corroboration. Actually images of child abuse are easier to prosecute because they are hard evidence. A child's words, it seems, are not. The police fall back on that you can stop contact if there is no court order in place and it is a family court matter.

If social services judge your child is safe with you, it becomes a family law matter. I was advised to stop contact and let the family courts sort it out.

When it becomes a family law matter, the costs are devolved to you. It is that simple.

[SeaWitchly]

Well we did vote the tories in... what did people expect?

This in bucketloads.