To expect the police to attend to my daughters house following a break in

[Tinkerbellx]

My daughter and her boyfriend just got their first house a few weeks ago.
Both returned from work this evening to find the patio door had been forced open and the entire house turned over .
Everything tipped over and anything of value stolen ( iPads iMac watches her beautiful and very treasured pandora ) .
She was obviously absolutely beside herself and has been told not to touch anything and someone will come on Friday !
A Neigjbour saw someone suspicious who in retrospect was the culprit and could identify them .

Her keys have been stolen too .
They both have to go to work tomorrow .
How can they touch nothing until Friday when the worst room affected is the bedroom ??
AIBU to expect a least a local police person to pop in .

They called about 5pm ?

It sucks, but don't touch anything for legal and insurance reasons. If they mess up the scene of the crime they may not get reimbursed.

Can they take photos themselves and send them to the insurance company? I'm a bit confused why police wouldn't be there same day.

Yes, it's appalling. I remember being burgled in the 1990s, and both uniform and CID visited. Unfortunately, public services have been cut to the bone, and the police are not immune to that.

Dream on. The police haven't come out for burglaries in years - even if a 'beautiful and treasured' item of Pandora jewellery has been stolen.

Can't see why they're not coming til Friday. It's very unlikely you'd get a quick - as in a few hours - response. Resources are so stretched ongoing incidents get priority. In saying that we'd never in a million years be allowed to leave a burglary for days. It would definitely get attended that day

How the fuck can they not touch anything till Friday

Years ago ppl kept getting stuff stolen out of the local swimming pool lockers.

The polices advice? not to leave anything of value in there including purses or house keys.

a. without their purse or wallet how would they pay for their swimming session.
b. without their house keys how would they get back in their home. Or would they have to leave their house unlocked while they went to the swimming pool.

Fucking Kafkesque in the extreme.

Because police have been cut to the absolute bone. 70% of what Police deal with has nothing to do with crime. Missing persons, mental health, physical health (when ambo don't have resources to send) Fears for welfare, social services welfare checks (they don't work past 5) bed watches, scene watches the list goes on. There have been days at work where I've gone job to job, been hours late off and not dealt with a single crime (Friday does sound extreme though, I'm surprised at that)

What force are you in? In our force CSI officers attend burglaries within the hour (not including non integral sheds, outbuildings and garages etc), anything over an hour is classed as a failure. The advice they were given not to touch anything doesn't fit with the timescale for CSI to attend, are you sure this is correct?

In reality she should phone her insurers, get locks changed. Make it habitable. Did she have a tracker on her imac? Everything can be replaced by insurance. Horrible experience for her.

As funny said, the police are being cut back to levels which are actually quite worrying and seriously scary.

A guy tried to break into our house one Saturday night. DH caught him and he ran off. I called 101 to inform them, and the police were here within an hour, even though I told them there was no reason to come round. I expect it's if there are any police free in the area.

As funny said, the police are being cut back to levels which are actually quite worrying and seriously scary.

We'll just have the laws we can afford then

Wow, really?! I've been broken into twice, and had an attempted break in once and the police have arrived in no time at all. That said, I know for at least one of those there had been a recent spate, and they had a good idea of who was up to what.

I hope your daughter and her boyfriend are ok - how horrible, in their new place.

I wonder though, would the police attend much sooner if it was a "celebrities" house, or maybe a member of parliament, or even one of the many Royal residencies?....Or is that just me being cynical.

Not cynical at all...

Contact insurers if not already done for further advice. Change passwords on anything accessed on the ipad. If a rental, contact landlord.

Patio door will need improved security to stop the repeat attempt which is very likely. Replace nothing for now.

So sorry - been there.

When we've had attempted burglaries and called 101, the police have always been around within half an hour, and the crime scene folk next morning.

Surely they need to at least secure the house?

No , that's you being cynical . If there are no units to send , then there's no one to send . Regardless of whether you're Mrs Bloggs , or Robbie Williams .

Most forces now are at the point where their response teams are going from emergency call to emergency call to emergency call . And they don't even have the units for that . Regardless of what the laws are . Now we could choose to leave the personal injury accidents , or the domestic call where someone's being beaten to a pulp , or the missing person who has gone out saying they're not coming back and they've taken the medicine cupboard with them , or the child welfare call , or the stabbing , in order to report the burglary , but we don't, because in order of priority , people trump property . And it really is as simple as that . I have known shifts when I have all of those calls I'm being told about as a supervisor , and I'm being asked by the control room to find units , and I have either one car available , or none . I'm not saying it's not hugely distressing to be burgled. I'm certainly not saying it's right that they should be left until Friday . But that's the way it is . If any of you have seen the ambulance documentary on BBC one , it's no different . In fact, it's probably worse .

Complain to your MP . Complain to your PCC . The last round of cuts cost us 17, 000 police officers nationwide . Just about half of the whole Met contingent . Or ten times the total number in Surrey , roughly . You cannot keep cutting and cutting and cutting and expect no change

The only thing you get for less , is less .

Friday is ridiculous.

When I was broken into a few years back, police and CSI were there within the hour.

It is a horrible horrible business, just be glad things can be replaced and that nobody was hurt.

Happened to a friend of mine only she came home guy pulled a knife out on her, thankfully he didn't hurt her but she struggled for a very long time after that.

Meanwhile:

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/719405/Online-abuse-laws-trolls

Social media is to be more stringently policed after the Crown Prosecution Service issued rules on offences for which online users can face criminal charges.

Inciting people to harass others online, known as virtual mobbing, is among the offences included in the guidance published today.

It is hoped the updated information will help police to determine whether to press charges against someone for their behaviour on social media.

(contd...)

We have the laws we can afford ...

Remember when Cameron told us all to "hug a hoodie". Seems the soft on crime stance doesn't work, (what a surprise) now we're facing the backlash. Many young criminals fear nothing, they feel untouchable and know that if caught it'll be little more than a slap on the wrist. We have our succession of ineffectual governments to thank for that. Being soft on crime while at the same time cutting back on the police is a recipe for disaster.

Police are now expected to deal with so much that never used to be in their remit (e.g. mental health, social services, welfare etc) that actual crime is near the bottom of their list. It's awful but because you're not in any actual physical danger, they see you as low priority.

Luckily, when someone tried to break in our house last year (we were having an extension built and they got in via the building site) DP knocked them out with a cricket bat. The cheeky bugger who'd tried to nick our stuff then went to the police! Luckily the CPS just laughed him out of the room and told DP that he'd acted well within his rights and had used reasonable force to protect his family. I'm glad DP was here though because if he'd been on deployment I'd have been terrified.

Friday does sound extreme and I'd recommend that your daughter phones back and asks if it's possible for someone to attend sooner. As she's been told not to touch anything she's obviously in the queue for a visit from forensics. Your force area may have virtually no forensic support left after years of cuts. All that stuff chief police officers have said about cutting back room staff to protect frontline services (and still losing 17,000 officers in the process) will have led to forensic services being cut.

As pp have said police forces have been cut to the bone and are really struggling to fulfill their basic functions. I don't know why but there always seems to be a perception that there is a hidden army of police officers sitting around eating doughnuts, but the reality is there are only a handful of officers covering large areas and those officers are being run ragged.

A local police person popping in will do absolutely no good because it's probably the forensics team you've been asked to wait for. However, at the very least a police officer should be making arrangements to take a witness statement from the neighbour. Call 101 and ask for advice on how anyone is supposed to live in a burgled house for 48 hours without touching anything. Which force area are you in?

I agree with you lurkinghusband! But the police don't make the laws, and this is going to add even more pressure to over stretched resources however it is up to the PCC of each force as to where the resources go.

I think its time PCC's and politicians had a honest and straight talking dialogue with the public. At the moment the police try too hard to be all things to all people. Do the public want us to be dealing with Tanisha because she has been called fat on facebook or should we be attending burglaries with no lines of enquiries?

Do the public want us looking for a patient who has walked out of hospital because she got bored of waiting, and now the hospital think she's a risk to herself or should we have more of a presence in the town centre where there's alcohol related disorder?

Should we be going to the male who feels suicidal but the crisis team don't have enough staff to deal (even though in his own home police have very little powers to deal) or do we go and see the 14 year old boy who's being bullied relentlessly at school and was punched twice in the face on his way home?

Should we be doing a welfare check of a family on a social workers case load because she hasn't got around to seeing them this week, or should we be seeing the elderly victim of a snatch theft?

All of the above are genuine calls by the way-there are a finite number of police officers, who are trying their very best. Every public service is cut to the bone at the moment and the Police are having to deal with more and more non police jobs. There is a huge culture of fear at the moment for if something goes wrong and we get jumped on by the press. The publics welfare will always be put before property. Is that what the public want from the Police? Some forces offer ride alongs, for those doubting what it is like (especially outside of London) ask to go out for a shift and see what it's like

In an article that had just come up on my Facebook newsfeed it is mentioned that the Met Police alone needs to cut £400million from it's budget in the next four years, I think similar cuts have already been made over the last four years. The public is going to have to get used to the idea that the police won't be able to provide the service they expect.