To think this is unbelievably shit from the police?

[TheLostDiadem]

Six weeks ago my elderly mum had her house burgled while she was asleep upstairs. Not a lot of valuable things were taken as she doesn’t really have much but my (deceased) dad’s medals were taken, her laptop, a box of jewellery belonging to my grandma was taken and her cat was found downstairs with a broken rib where we assume he was kicked (but obviously can’t be certain it was the burglar).

She phoned the local police number and was told to report it online. I came round to do it and help her tidy up and make sure she was ok etc. 48hrs later and still heard nothing from the police so I called them to be told they were incredibly busy and responses can take up to a week. Finally, 8 days after being robbed my mum gets an answer phone message from the police saying they’ve received her report and given her a crime reference number so she can claim on insurance. If she has any further queries she can email them and they’ll get back to her. No enquiry, not welfare check, nothing. Just a crime reference number over a week later.

I live with my dc in the same town. In the garden of my house is an outhouse that is currently being renovated so that when my dm becomes less independent she can live there. It’s nearly finished and has been separated off from my house and has a separate entrance and drive. The electricity had finally been connected last week so last night I decided to do a sleep over there with dc, just for something to do. At 12.15 I was woken up by police hammering on the door. They immediately asked me my address and what I was doing there. I said I lived next door, was sleeping over with dc, had something happened, was dm ok as I assumed something bad had happened. They wouldn’t tell me anything just asked for proof of address. I said it was all next door and they demanded I go and get it. I wasn’t happy leaving dc alone with the police so had to wake them up and drag them over and back again while I got my driving license. It was only then that I realised they thought that I was breaking lockdown rules (very touristy area). I gave them driving license and got a lecture on how we weren’t supposed to leave home unless absolutely necessary, fancying a sleep over wasn’t necessary and I wasn’t to do it again. I asked if it was any different to camping in the garden and was that allowed, what possible harm am I doing sleeping in what is basically a garage and was asked “are you sure you want to do this? You have your children with you and I’m sure you don’t want a scene”. I found this genuinely quite frightening as it was two big, male police officers and I was alone with two young dc. They then left after telling me to make sure I stay at home from now on and that they wouldn’t take further action this time.

TLDR - my mum was burgled and police responded a week later with a crime reference number and nothing else

I slept in the converted garage in the garden with 2dc and was woken in the night by 2 police men to be lectured firmly about lockdown rules.

If I’m not being unreasonable do you think a complaint would be warranted? I’m one of those people who have never really had any dealings with the police and sort of assumed they’d be on my side. Really shocked at what I’ve experienced the 2 times I’ve actually dealt with them though.

Neighbours possibly could have thought that. The road it’s visible from only has four houses on though and I know everyone well that lives there. They could’ve easily just dropped me a text if they were concerned.

It’s frustrating as I’ve been doing shopping for two of the households in that road as they are shielding. I’m a bit reluctant to do that now if it was possibly them who decided to call the police rather than ask me what was going on.

LakieLady
We were all given letters from work because there were reports of people being stopped whilst driving for work.
I always found it amusing that we were probably more likely to be stopped driving around town doing welfare calls, than some of our students were when they're all over local Facebook pages hanging around in large groups and engaging in antisocial behaviour several nights a week

I'm a big supporter of the police, but they hurt their own reputation when there's large groups of teenage and young adult men known to be hanging around some estates and the police want to check if someone has had a cup of tea when they picked their child up from grandparents at the end of the day.

That's truly awful, definitely complain. Or shame them by writing to your local newspaper and MP about it.

Sorry your mum has lost such treasured possessions.

It is unfortunately common, police do not attend home break-ins unless there has been a threat of, or actual violence. After years of cuts they simply do not have the resources. If you have an issue with this write to your MP and consider police resources when you vote.

They were correct to attend your property if someone had reported as a breach of lockdown and they were right to ask for your story to be confirmed with proof/identification.

Your complaint should solely focus on the facts you were not breaking lockdown restrictions (assuming you have checked this and you weren't) and their manner.

But even if it was the neighbours who complained don’t you think it’s odd that they turn up sharpish with no actual evidence but reporting a burglary no where to be seen .
Even if you argue both potential crimes the police aren’t consistent with call outs .
So yes it seems that priority over Covid related ‘crimes’ .
The police have been constantly criticised throughout but yet no lessons are learnt it seems.
You may well to go to the press with this story op yet another embarrassment to the police .

Poster 1
This was a person who was severely mentally and physically unwell, who wasn’t violent but was resisting going in an ambulance, and was ultimately terrified as they didn’t have much understanding of the situation. I mean do they not have training on how to act ? If anyone else attended a profession with that sort of attitude surely they’d be sacked.

Poster 2 retired PO
There are some very dedicated people doing the job but I fear they’re swimming against a tide of apathy. It’s not that officers don’t want to attend burglaries but they are spending their days on bed watches, mental health cases and being social workers.

How do you square this - care in the community, how many officers would it take to pin down an extremely violetn/ psychotic/ mentally ill well-built man - Oh, this is without harming him or they risk their careers.
I would say minimum 4. Then you've pinned him down what then? Chuck him in an ambulance with ambulance staff who don't seem to know how to deal with him?
Take him to a police cell and have several police deployed to watch he doesn't harm himself until what - until a doctor decides he has time to come and treat the patient.

People live in lah lah land I think when they judge, as, if you think its simple to what arrest? apprehend? hand cuff? a mentally ill patient without hurting them (or you risk your job) with no specific place in a mental hospital to take them to, no safe place to put them - it's very difficult and money in put to care in the community / mental health is how to fix it, not blame police or sw.

And before people say he wasn't violent - well in that case what were the ambulance team doing - don't they know how to deal with this - it's more their line than the police.

Sympathise OP, they seem to have more time than sense.

Have a similar story to a PP in that a neighbour reported a suspected drunk driver turning onto the A road out of our village. Was out of sight by the time she called and they said there wasn't enough to indicate drink driving. An our later, I get a call from DD, who's friend had just been called out of their lesson to be told her dad had been killed by a drunk driver whilst on his motorbike. Same car as neighbour witnessed.

An hour*

I’ve just seen another case on Facebook of a woman being challenged by 4 police officers while standing in the queue for a coffee 2 miles from her home. She says she was handcuffed but that isn’t shown on the footage so I’m not sure if accurate. Even so- 4 police officers? You’d think she was threatening to stab someone for that level of police response!

With regards to the burglary you won't get a fast response if the burglar has left, in most cases there is no forensics left for scenes of crime so they will rarely attend. In my force a Safer Neighbourhood Officer will usually attend within 24hrs to conduct a welfare check and do door to door investigations to see if anyone has CCTV or saw anything etc. They will take a statement of what's been stolen. At the moment the police are really stretched, it's no excuse and if I was handed that report I would at the very least call and speak to the victim for reassurance. If you feel the response was unreasonable please complain, I feel very little is done for victims of burglary and its a horrible intrusive offence. I say this a police officer!
With the covid call, that's ridiculous!!! If you are on your own land then there is no breach, they obviously must have known that. That I would also complain about. We currently attend 100s of these type of calls every day and have been told to fine everyone rather then engage and explain. Our hands are tied and I can't wait until June when this nonsense stops.
Very sorry for your awful experience, please know that most of us don't behave like this I promise.

@PinkyParrot I understand the the police have through underfunding become a sort of ‘mental health’ emergency service but the fact is that ambulance crew can’t restrain people that need to be detained under the mental health act, that has always fallen the to the police has it not ? I do realise that there are many more cases now to attend than they can manage. Sectioning someone is very hard (as in making sure it’s legally watertight) therefore if they’ve been called to attend by a doctor they must know it’s a serious situation. You'd expect them to know how to deal with very frightened mentally ill people without resorting to threats of violence. And yes they should know how to restrain someone who is mentally ill and violent (or indeed just violent) without causing injury as that’s their job. But I think what ultimately this thread is about is the fact that we constantly hear cries of underfunding/overworked when it comes to investigating crimes yet they’re there in a flash when it comes to allegations of covid related misdemeanours. It doesn’t add up. For example our local beauty spot has a constant problem with car break ins. The police know who do it (they told me this when it happened to me) they just apparently don’t have the man power/resource to prove it and nick them. And yet since covid officers (not pcsos) are up there constantly patrolling asking dog walkers where they’ve come from . You can see why people lose faith really.

I gave them driving license and got a lecture on how we weren’t supposed to leave home unless absolutely necessary, fancying a sleep over wasn’t necessary and I wasn’t to do it again.

You haven't left home though. Presumably it is still all registered as one plot/home with the Land Registry and you are the owner? And as it is still being built it hasn't been valued for council tax yet nor have you registered it as a new address with Royal Mail? Therefore, it is still part of your home.

You should make a complaint but make sure it is focussed.

I recently made a complaint about the police not attending - I linked my complaint to their policies and procedures The complaints process was very thorough and 3 out of 4 points of my complaint were upheld. I received an official apology, which was better than nothing. If people don't complain then it is easy for the police and policy makers to assume that the service is satisfactory.

Yanbu. Make a complaint but tbh I'm usually more shocked when the police are actually helpful to citizens than when they don't make situations worse.

@UhtredRagnarson

I’ve just seen another case on Facebook of a woman being challenged by 4 police officers while standing in the queue for a coffee 2 miles from her home. She says she was handcuffed but that isn’t shown on the footage so I’m not sure if accurate. Even so- 4 police officers? You’d think she was threatening to stab someone for that level of police response!

Just because there was four police officers that attended doesn't mean there was a call to say four officers were needed. They may just have been the closest / only available officers in the area and there happened to be four of them..

Surely a daily walk for exercise could very easily include walking two miles or more from your home - especially in London

Just because there was four police officers that attended doesn't mean there was a call to say four officers were needed. They may just have been the closest / only available officers in the area and there happened to be four of them.

So be they can only move in a group of 4? They’re stuck together? They had to surround her as a group of 4? Or could one or two of them spoken to her whilst the others stood further away?

@UhtredRagnarson
They could well of done that but I was just pointing out that could have been why four police officers attended.
There may have been reasons as to why that did or didn't happen. The video is doesn't show the whole encounter - which they never usually do.
All we can do is speculate.

It’s irrelevant how many responded. What’s relevant is how many surrounded her like they did and 4 of them chose to do that. How intimidating. They could have been decent and chosen not to do that.

You're the one who pointed out how many officers there were.. I just explained why there may have been that many.
Like I said we don't know what happened before someone started filming, they may have had a legitimate reason as to why four of them 'surrounded' her.
Personally I wouldn't call that surrounding as where else are four people meant to stand when trying to talk to 1 person?
Agree to disagree

You're the one who pointed out how many officers there were.

No, I pointed out how many were challenging her. There’s a difference. It didn’t require 4 officers to surround her and challenge her. 2 max and If they had to stay with their two buddies the buddies could have moved away and let the first two get on with it. There was absolutely no need for such a show of strength.

Like I've now said three times, we don't know what's happened prior to someone starting to film. You're judging the way police have acted based on a 30 second video clip.
I give up trying to have a conversation with someone who fails to be able to see that there's more to situations than a video that only shows you 30 seconds of what someone wants you to see.
Have a good day

Toodle pip

@Ihatemyseleffordoingthis

Sorry YABU The issues are separate And you were breaking lockdown rules thoughI don't think they should have spoken to you in that way or frightened you or your children.

Wtf? Sleeping in her own property, on her own land . No one has the right to tell you that you can’t sleep in a tent in your garden , yes in the middle of winter if you want, or in your own converted garage.

Do you really want this kind of intrusion in your life.

I’m outraged by this.

Op I’m so sorry .
Take no notice of this idiot and complain.
Of course you weren’t breaking any rules.