To think the police aren't fit for purpose

[countingsheep5678]

I am not talking about individuals who put their lives on the line, I'm talking about how police constabularies are run up and down the country.

I have experienced three quite horrible anti social incidents in the 'safe' area of Hertfordshire where I live! One a group of boys threatened to throw my toddler in the river and another a man threatened to smash my 'ducking' car in because I asked him to move a bag out of the road!

I want to speak to a local police officer to explain my concerns and ask if there would be more officers on the street and what they are doing about the anti social behaviour in the area. I managed to speak to someone who took all my details and said they'd pass it onto a safer neighbourhood team.

I asked when I would hear back... he couldn't tell me. I asked if I could speak to someone more senior as I wanted some reassurance quite soon, he said I would have to make a complaint if I wanted to speak to someone more senior. I asked if I could have the number of the safer neighbourhood team... they don't have a number. So essentially, unless I call 999 there and then there are no local police officers you can talk and engage with. I was also astounded by the lack of empathy the police officer I spoke to had. When you've been on the receiving end of horrible situations you want to feel reassured. I have got off the phone feeling more concerned about the safety of our neighbourhood than ever.

Just by luck I have seen my local safer neighbourhood police team are holding a surgery tomorrow... but surely we deserve better from the police? We need more open, direct access to them? Am I alone in thinking this?

The police have always been useless and unhelpful in my experience, and I agree with @Badbadbunny that it goes back to the 80s at least. They haven't suddenly become rubbish.

My area used to have a police station and 2 community hubs within walking distance of my house. I used to regularly see police officers. When I see police now, it's an event. I call my children over to the window to see. And I live on the high street.
As an aside in 2010 I had a burglary, when I was home alone as a teenager, in the middle of the day on a Saturday - a chancer who saw we had scaffolding up. The police didn't cross my mind. At all. The only thing I thought was the street - it's safer on the street.

I think you could class neighbourhood police surgeries as direct access, why don't you try going to one of those?

I’m afraid there just aren’t enough of us. As for “hiding behind desks” our force has massively cut back room staff so that budget can be used to have the appearance of having more front line officers. But who do you think is fulfilling those admin tasks now? Yep, front line officers. I would love to “get out from behind my desk” more often, however not keeping up to date with paperwork is one of the things we are measured on and hauled over the coals about.

In addition to that, a massive proportion of my time is taken up attending calls that other agencies would be far better placed to deal with, mostly mental health jobs. And every single one of those jobs causes more paperwork, safeguarding referrals etc.

There are bad eggs in every job but the majority of us want to be out there making a difference; it’s why we joined and the part of the job we enjoy. Unfortunately it’s not that simple.

@IfIHadAHeart totally understand! But I should be able to speak directly to a police office, any time of the day, about my concerns! Is there anyway, as a police office, you can implement change from within? The system needs to work better and it doesn't! I understand it must be infuriating to work in but it's even more infuriating when the police are nowhere to be seen and anti social behaviour is just allowed to run rife!

@queenMab99 I am! But I don't think a once every sixth month surgery is good enough! I expect more!

I live in Hampshire and contact details for our local team are published in the parish mag and on their web site. I can see who is our local rural pcso, their email address & number, and the team email address.

Our nearest police station is 18 miles away, we get a lot of rural crime, so the police rely on the public to email them about vans parked up where they shouldn't be at 2am, hare coursing, farm thefts, drug dealing etc.

Not sure they would discuss policy though. They're busy doing the best they can with limited resources.

The police are in an impossible position. A police force which investigate every complaint thoroughly will be accused of being heavy handed, not using their common sense and a whole lot more. They'll be told they're only investigating a particular allegation because they're racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic. A police force that thoroughly investigate everything will inevitably put a lot of time and resources into non-crimes and exaggerated (or straightforward made-up) incidents. Therefore they will be wasting resources.

What people seem to want is a police force that thoroughly investigates every actual crime but instantly dismisses the false allegations. It's understandable that people want that, but clearly impossible.

If we gave the police the ability to investigate everything then an awful lot of people would be upset. Every speeding driver, every cyclist who goes through a red light, everyone who has ever downloaded a copyrighted file from the internet (even once), everyone who'd had a bad day and made some ill-thought out joke on social media than someone took offence with - all these people would be dealing with the police and be threatened with a criminal conviction.

I doubt there are many people who've never breached some minor law or other. A properly funded police force will bring a police state.

There is a big recruitment drive going on at the moment. Apparently they are halfway to their target of 20,000 new police officers on the beat by 2023.
Although in the experience of the close family member who has just been given a start date, they dont seem to be in too much of a hurry.
The recruitment process has taken about 6 months!!
What the government should be looking at is the courts and the sometimes frankly pathetic sentences being given for some quite nasty and violent crimes.
Also need to put a stop to this ridiculous "none crime hate incident " malarkey.
If someone is offended by something they dont agree with the police should tell them to grow a pair of bollocks, build a bridge and get over themselves instead of pandering to them!!

They are rubbish in our area. Had a few incidents including a break in and without CCTV the police said there was nothing to investigate. Burglars even left cans of beer they had drunk, finger prints and marks all over the place.
lazy, disinterested, and constantly using excuses for why they can’t be bothered to actually deal with crime.

@Dotjones what about having a phone number to speak to someone directly about the vile anti social behaviour constantly happening in an area? Throwing rocks and killing ducklings/threatening to drown toddlers/sexual assault on teenage girls in broad daylight! We need to be able to speak to police directly not have paper pushed from one department to another and wait for a phone call!

You could contact your PCC instead. That's what he or she is there for.

Without knowing the nature of your complaint, and the set-up in your area it’s difficult to say. In our force it’s rare we would give out a direct number for the office as when that’s happened in the past we end up fielding endless calls that should be dealt with by the control room, taking up even more of our time. Its right in my opinion that the control room/call handlers act as a buffer. I can see that it’s frustrating though.

No, we want police to properly respond to and investigate crimes that matter. Like rape, burglary, assault, murder etc. NOT pissball about visiting and intimidating people who’ve tweeted an opinion others don’t like. Or copyright infringements or the like.

@MintJulia the fact I don't even know what a PCC is says it all!

Or dancing about waving rainbow flags at parties.

You're not wrong. So much red tape and pen pushing, not enough boots on the ground. The primary response seems to be "Please complete our online incident form", which I'm sure then gets lost in the system and thoroughly ignored. A relative phoned the Police recently to say a pick axe had been dropped in the middle of the motorway (very dangerous) - the young Officer's response was "What colour is it?". There seems a distinct lack of common sense!

No, we want police to properly respond to and investigate crimes that matter. Like rape, burglary, assault, murder etc. NOT pissball about visiting and intimidating people who’ve tweeted an opinion others don’t like. Or copyright infringements or the like.

Exactly this.

@Vincitveritas I think that's it as well! The police office I spoke to was so void of any empathy or reassurance... seriously why are you doing this job! When j got upset about the response he was like 'we're just going round in circles here.' Seriously, is this how you've been trained? I've just told you some horrible things I've experienced and you have no empathy or understanding... you're just 'computer says no'! Why is he in the police force? Because he really didn't want to help or even try (I understand the red tape but there are ways of dealing with people.

If someone had threatened to throw my child into a river I would have called 999. I saw ( a clearly distressed man shouting and singing half naked in the street - phoned 101 - no answer ) I went back to see if he was OK & the police officer said ring 999 in future )

Thank goodness for our police force

CCTV doesn't always count towards a conviction sadly. There was an incident locally where a guy had actually been seen on camera stealing a van (face in full view). He then went on to commit more crimes in the area, using said van. Even when the van was recovered the next day absolutely no charges were filed and the investigation was dropped. Outrageous.

@MistyGreenAndBlue

Some posts and tweets definitely do count as a crime

Hence why they're investigated

Technically, perhaps. Do they matter as much as rape, burglary, assault, murder? Not to anyone remotely normal, no.

@FOJN

Never said it was right

But am merely asking the posters who think it's ridiculous the police moan about cuts but can investigate what they consider minor crimes to engage their brains

They have limited hours in the day, why spend all of those investigating something that will most likely go no where, and with burglary insurance often covers the losses for the victims, whereas you could successfully investigate a handful of smaller issues with evidence.

The fact were arguing over what is and what isn't a crime says it all! All crimes should be investigated, I'm sorry if people disagree! We need a better government, more funding, a better recruitment process, better training and better leadership! There are some amazing selfless police officers in the force, but I can't understand why sexism, racism and homophobia is rife too? Surely this says the vetting process is not fit for purpose!