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 ?

[nancy75]

We were burgled last year, 2 policemen were there within minutes of my call to 101 and the finger print man was there with the hour. They did door to door enquiries all down our street and we had a follow up visit from a safer homes lady about 2 days after. All of the people I dealt with were friendly, professional and helpful and although they didn't catch the burglar I felt that i received a very good service from the met.
I'm not famous and I don't live in a very big house!

[LurkingHusband]

I agree with you lurkinghusband! But the police don't make the laws,

Oh, I know (but they can and do decide which ones they like enforcing).

The bottom line is it's us who make the laws (via parliament). And it's odd that while we keep adding new laws, it's much less common to remove laws.

Which leads to the inescapable conclusion that as a society we are becoming more criminal .

Or - if you want to escape that conclusion, our lawmaking process is broken ?

Isn't there an oft-quoted fact that 10 years of Labour (1997-2007) gave us 3,000 new laws ? One a day ...

[Caipira]

What?! FRIDAY???
We had two breakins in London, my mum had one and three or four neighbours had them. The police came at least by the end of the day, it takes a while for the crime scene officer to come but they always come by the end of the same day. Within the week the burglary prevention team will come by with a pack including property marker pens etc. Are you sure she hasn't misunderstood?

[CryingShame]

At least they are coming. Where I live the police trialled a system to better manage their time by only going to houses if you live in a property with an even number. We don't.

Friends who had PCs stolen from a small business couldn't even get the police interested when the bloody PCs turned up on eBay. They were told to go round themselves. They left the room the PCs were stolen from pending fingerprints staff who never turned up.

Presume the police will do nothing - phone insurance and get locks changed. That way, if the police can be arsed to show up it'll be a nice surprise.

[XinnaJane]

What I love is that the govt congratulates itself that crime rates are dropping - yeah only because the police are not actually attending the crimes that happen

[Sparklesilverglitter]

Yes it's not great but the policemen don't make the rules do they.
The police have been cut back in previous years and they now have to prioritise the resources they have. So if more serious crimes are being committed then understandably they come first and rightly so.

it really is a shame your DD neighbour didn't report the suspicious activity when she saw it- but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The flat I rent out was burgled last last year and my tenants lost laptops, computers, ipads, tv an awful lot. The police came out to them the following morning, but nobody has ever been caught. There're was no fingerprints and no neighbour saw or head a thing but I don't know how seen as they actually cut a whole in the flat front door to get in

[funnyandwittyusername]

Yep definitely because they can't be "arsed" no other reason at all.

And the odd/even system was for forensic attendance not police attendance full stop. Here's the thing with burglaries, if there's no forensic evidence and no witnesses, it's not going to be solved. Burglars wear gloves and the really switched on pros change their footwear each time. SOCO turning up is on a hope and a prayer, and to make a home owner feel better, it rarely leads to a line of enquiry

[funnyandwittyusername]

Anecdotally, most of the people I work with WANT to attend burglaries. More often than not, there's a genuine victim and we'll try our best for them. Doesn't change the fact that they are very hard to detect though, barring catching them in the act.

[HelenaDove]

Two years ago at Christmas someone tried to get into our flat by picking the lock. They failed. Police didnt really want to know.

A snake got into our KITCHEN in our flat last year and they didnt want to know. Said it wasnt their job. Fair enough. It isnt.


But surely that would also mean it wasnt their job when exactly the same kind of snake gets into the GARDEN of a posh house in West Hampstead.

These kinds of inconsistencies are one of the things that damage community relations between the police and the public.

[hopetobehappy]

Helena that was my point. If for example Elton John or Rod Stewart was burgled I find it hard to believe that the police would make them wait 4 days before turning up. It just wouldn't happen.

[Whatthefreakinwhatnow]

Best friends DP is a police officer, on scary amounts of occasions he will be one of three pairs of officers to respond to calls for the whole of their county AND the neighbouring one, so ongoing incidents are the priority, things that have already happened eg. burglary have to wait. It's truly shocking what resources they have to utilise post cuts

[Redglitter]

Few places in the country would have you wait 4 days for a burglary. That's not the norm. From a despatcher point of view I couldn't care less who has reported the crime or where they stay calls getc dealt with by priority and the nature of the calls.

I can guarantee even the poorest person in the poorest area we cover would wait no more than a few hours to have attendance at a housebreaking. And someone in the most affluent area would get no quicker response just because they live in a big house.

I wish people could see exactly what we're working with and how decisions have to be made

[HelenaDove]

Did the police go to your DDs today OP.

[Magicpaintbrush]

There aren't nearly enough police officers is the actual problem. Budgets have been slashed so much and the workforce so reduced that those who remain are drowning in unachievable workloads - the responsibility for this lies solely with the government, moreover the Home Office. If the police had the budget to employ the size of workforce it actually requires in order to function properly then things would be very different.