Car's been stolen- I know where it is!

[SalomeNotThatOne]

Just wondered if anyone had been through this?

My car's been nicked. I have a tracker in it and located it at an address about half an hour away. I drove round and it's there!

Tried to start it but I wouldn't recognise my electronic key.

Reported it to 101 but they have said that there is nothing the police can do- I need to get my insurer to collect it and fix whatever has been changed. Currently on hold to the insurer.

Just wondered if anyone had been through this?

@CaptainmyCaptain

Yes, I'm aware that the CPS make the decision on prosecution. Given the police couldn't get their act together to put a proper case together it never happened.

My family and I have had several interactions with the police, direct and indirect, over my lifetime (45years). I have yet to have experience a positive interaction. We do have experience of the police lying, bullying, not believing, being lazy and being ineffective. Who knows, perhaps there will be a positive interaction in the future. I'm not holding my breath.

While I completely understand your frustration and anger about how your husband is treated, please don't pit other emergency workers against each other. I am a community children's nurse, in uniform and have never had anyone offer to buy me anything and I wouldn't expect it either. We also have had pay freeze upon pay freeze, I empathise, I really do. I personally have had good service from the police where I live as they helped me so much when I was going through domestic abuse. But a friend of mine was domestically abused by her policeman husband (now ex) in the same police force, good and bad in all areas of work. People will only judge by their personal experience. Nursing is the same, some nurses go above and beyond, others do as little as possible, it's frustrating for those who love the job. But as I said, people will always judge on their own experience and will speak on this as a collective against whoever was 'bad' to them.

Sorry, this was to @josieJasper

CCN2012

It was a bit of a rant as reading the comments and knowing how hard he works and what he has to put up with everyday, makes it really hard not to react on occasions but I should know MN is notoriously anti police. My husband would definitely not expect anything for free, just to not get abuse for stopping to grab some food or a coffee….or even a doughnut if he so wished 😉 I’ve read and heard lots of comments where people have let a nurse/paramedic ahead in the queue and paid for their coffee/food but definitely not wanting to pitch against each other as they are all doing an incredibly difficult job every day on low pay and have been stitched up with their pensions too. The point I was trying to make is that it’s a person that can be bad not a whole workforce and the pressures on public services mean that they aren’t in a position to give the service they joined to give. My husband feels this all the time. He joined over 20 years ago as he wanted to help people but it’s getting harder and harder.

@JosieJasper it's really tough because - like you - I've seen my dh do a 72hr week this week. I've seen him cry over the people he couldn't help, go in early to support his officers and come home late every single day, just to try and make a difference.

But I've also seen him get angry about the Met, about the stories in the news, about the endemic behaviours and poor management.

It's tough not to feel upset and frustrated by sweeping generalisations when you and I know firsthand what it's like for good officers and how poorly resourced they actually are. But similar to NAMALT, I don't think it helps the endemic issues. Those can only be tackled from the top down and in every respect ie appropriate resourcing but also, systematic change to address some of the stuff we know happens in every station. Decent officers are just another letdown byproduct of a failing system.

The Met Police DO recover stolen vehicles to a police car pound - look on their website under Lost or Stolen Vehicles. It sounds to me like the operator was confused as you hadn't first reported it stolen and had found it yourself. I'd call back and point out what's on their website and ask to report it stolen now. My friend was in a similar situation and they did recover it even though she'd found it herself. I work for the public sector and all areas are under enormous strain since Covid and we all work long hours and over time. I think it's human error and they
would happily rectify it once you point it out.

So if your husband is so overworked,how does your husband find time to routinely stop and harass black people, just for the colour of their skin? Because I can tell you now, after 16 years of living in London, this is daily, institutional behaviour, carried out, as far as I can tell, for shits and giggles. And it’s fucking disgusting

This, I’m afraid. I didn’t feel this way about the police when I lived in Sussex, Kent or Gloucestershire. My DM in Sussex certainly had her burglary investigated.

My experience of the Met is that I SEE them harassing black kids, who I know are primary school aged because my four year old knows their siblings. For doing nothing other than playing normally in the park. The comment about the Met treating little black kids as adults when they wouldn’t treat white kids like that, is spot on. I SEE them harassing people in the street who I know have mental health problems (because they are my patients, but it is also completely fucking obvious when you talk to them).

But then I see them refusing to come out for car crime (I was told to download a form, fill it in and drop it off to be given a crime reference number). I have called them when I have witnessed assaults and muggings, and they haven’t turn up or followed up in any way, even though I have said I’m happy to provide a statement. They didn’t come out to my neighbour’s burglary. They obviously don’t prosecute rape.

Now maybe all of this is due to lack of funding and not, as it appears, due to complete contempt for the community they are meant to be policing. But if they have been defunded to the point where they can no longer investigate any kind of crimes (no car crime, no burglaries, no assaults/muggings, no rapes), what exactly are they for? Occasional riot police duties?