To think the police let people down?!

[hattiesmumm]

Last night a friend of mine who lives a few doors down was beaten up by her husband. He’s always been abusive. He has a name for himself as a “hard man” in town, and no one would mess with him. They have two small children who are best friends with my two.

Anyway it was kicking off with him screaming at her, and the babies screaming at him to stop/stop shouting and generally crying. It was fucking awful. I could hear it in my bedroom with my fan on. I looked out the window and saw the oldest daughter (5) run across the road to the neighbor and ask for help. That’s when I rang the police. It took them over an hour to turn up. By then my friend and her kids had drove off. I tried numerous times to get her into my house but understandably she wanted to get away. Iv texted her and rang her and she’s safe, but she said the man hurt their youngest child.

I feel physically sick.

The police turned up, went and spoke to him and then left laughing and joking with him.

I don’t know what to do. I haven’t slept being worried.

The experiences I've had were with 3 different forces. So whilst it might not be every officer, I do think that a sizeable number still have these outdated attitudes.

And there was never any attempt to get me safe. I was told basically not to make a fuss. I wasn't even allowed to report a fucking crime.

We have as a country let down the police when we voted 3 successive times for a government that has pledged to cut funds for our public services.

They probably took their time because they know they'll be back next week, and the week after because she'll take him back cos she loves him and he cried and promised to change.

^ awful.

Conversely my new neighbour called another neighbour a 'fucking scanky bitch' on Monday which apparently warranted 3 police cars and 5 police officers.
I live in Blackburn, where on Monday a group of travellers illegally entered a brewery and caused a lot of damage. The police 'warned them' and 'negotiated' with then until the travellers got bored and left.

I usually have the greatest respect for the police but these 2 incidents have definitely soured my estimation.

namechanger I would bet my pension that the initial report mentioned more than just name calling. No way would that amount of officers be sent by a control room without their being more in the report or intelligence suggesting that that level of response would be appropriate.

I would bet my pension that the initial report mentioned more than just name calling

Yes, it’s astonishing how many fights involve ‘20 people with sticks’ or someone shouting ‘I’m going to get a knife’ to get a faster response to a load of crap.

Blame those time wasters for the DV victims having to wait not the cops

Clearly I meant "there" and not "their". I blame the wine on my holidays for that rookie mistake.

We were discussing our police situation on a local community action group recently...it was surprising how many people said they had no hesitation lying to the operator & saying that a gun was present if they wanted urgent police assistance. No wonder our police force are struggling!

it was surprising how many people said they had no hesitation lying to the operator & saying that a gun was present if they wanted urgent police assistance

Couple that with 999 calls because of ice cream sprinkles

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-27691809/woman-calls-999-over-ice-cream-sprinkles

and it's easier to understand a certain level of misanthropy these days ....

OP, you seem toknow so much information about what happened from peeking behind your curtains !

why not tell your friend about Women's Aid and the Freedom Program and encourage her to leave.

It really is a waste of resources if she's back with him every 3 weeks before he's kicking off and she's having to flee with the kids in the middle of the night again.

The Police can't sit at the top of road every night.

DGRossetti that's shocking!!! Altho having watched a few of the programmes following various police forces I guess we shouldn't be surprised. People really do need a shake sometimes

you can blame Vote Leave

To be fair to the idiots who voted for Brexit, I think understaffing of public services has been developing for a bit longer than this. Gin's statement that we should protect ourselves and our property ourselves is simply ridiculous.

I am disappointed to read people's experiences of the police with DV. I naively thought things were improving.

So many points to address.

1. we respond as quickly as we can. Always. We don’t dictate the priority of calls though, the control room do, and it’s not unusual to have many, many calls waiting to be dealt with.
2. I’m not blue light trained; not many of us are in my force. There is zero funding for this so response driving courses are like hens teeth
3. I’m 5ft3. Pally is my go to tactic, it has to be. It’s absolutely not a reflection of my opinion on anyone I come into contact with. Even if I was tall and strong, we are supposed to diffuse situations rather than escalate them.
4. your friend had left, so arresting for a breach of the peace isn’t an option. Arresting for assault etc would involve further investigation and your friend wasn’t there to be able to take details from straight away. After any domestic incident there are safeguarding forms to fill in and follow ups to complete so that’s not to say that’s the end of it.

I can’t stand police bashing threads. We are so overstretched, and I spend more time plugging gaps in the ambulance service/NHS/community care dealing with vulnerable people or those with mental health issues than I ever do dealing with crime. It’s an impossible situation. There are bad eggs in every job but honestly we are are just trying our best.

@Hopefully. Thank you for what you do and explaining your point so well

My experience with the police has been different. My son called them a couple of weeks ago on accident (I had literally popped upstairs to settle the baby down) the police were at my door within about 15 minutes. When I explained it was an accident they still demanded to come in!

The police didn’t let her down . Her husband did . Their hands are tied if she won’t prosecute.

Can you get her some information on women’s aid ? I’m afraid the next step is hers to make but only if she wants to make it . Surely she’ll put her kids welfare before an avusive husband

Oh I hope your friend and kids are ok. Hopefully this will kick start her getting some help to get away from this evil fuck. Men like this should be strung up by their balls from the nearest lamp post. Yes the police are stretched but laughing and joking with the cunt? They should know “men” like this are manipulative arses. I’m fee up
With the police being treated as political pawns. Our local police commissioner (labour) has systematically stripped the Tory areas of their police funding whilst plowing most of the budget into labour areas at sat on a multi million pound surplus for, in his words a rainy day. Well it’s fucking pouring round us mate but all he says is it’s your fault for voting Tory!