To expect the police to take smashing a car up in the street seriously and not get asked 'why did you phone the police?'

[mumfor1standfinaltime]

I just phoned my local police non emergency phone number to report some young lads kicking in a windscreen on a car and generally trashing it. I got asked by the police 'and what is your concern?' 'why did you phone the police?'

HMMM!!

I think there's always a police non emergency line open isn't there?

Not round here! At least, you can ring the number, and after wasting 5 mins listening to umpteen options you get a message saying the lines are closed, please ring back tomorrow

That's appalling kathy - I would be asking for a reduction in my council tax

its a crap situation but bear in mind its the government our country voted in that are to blame for poor policing.
No where near enough coppers on each team each shift, one stop and search takes hours to do all the paperwork back at the station thus taking yet more off the streets and to respond quickly.
Some shifts can have over 200 urgent calls in a 12 hour shift and with only about 36 officers in total on any shift (and that s london boroughs). Of these officers some are station officers some front desk some are not qualified to drive thefast response vehicles it is a poor sad situation and will get worse as their recruitment drives only target certain groups of people at present.
Just to meet quotas they take people who should work in mac donalds full time not the police!!
P S whilst i back the police fully trying to do a hard job and with their hands tied with political rubbish it did take our local s 3 daysto respond recently!

My dh has had to phone 999 on several occasions - only to be transferred to an answering machine!

His advice is get involved in your Residents Association or Neighbourhood Watch. These organisations sometimes have a community police panel which you can attend and put forward any views/ideas (in his experience the local police are generally pretty friendly and open to ideas). They do rely quite a lot on the public tbh.

Bossybritches, I understand what you're saying (hear it off DH all the time). PCSOs are the cheap alternative, which as you say is not fair on anyone.

Shame, they could be a real asset with the appropriate training and support.

Exactly unknown-that's the key -training & support.

The poor sods are thrown in the deep end mostly & because they LOOK like coppers, they're expected to behave like them & have all the same powers.

IMHO it also (unfortunately) attracts a lot of would be cops who haven't made the grade & just like the kudos the uniform gives them (they think)

It's the flat cap.

........and the way the baton hangs menacingly from the belt snigger

Ooerr, I've not seen DH's baton for a while.

Yes sorry Op

Mine's on nights! Bliss bed to myself!

Night!

Fio - yes so do I, of course and it is appalling that our local police don't seem to take it seriously. If that was happening and I witnessed it I would try the local police and then if they refused to come I would maybe ring the emergency number, as you say depending on the severity - what saddens me the most is that we have got to the stage when we are too scared to go and tackle these 'kids' ourselves for fear of being hurt or abused in retaliation.

I thought it was fairly serious that young lads, my daughters age were openly dealing, smoking weed and drinking lager in the morning, in the streets when they should have been at school but the police reaction left me speechless. I did say to them at the time that maybe it would be better for me to ring the emergency number and they told me that if I did I would run the risk of being prosecuted for wasting police time..... - I was just reiterating what I had been told by the police - not meaning to sound as though I thought it was right

I don't know what the answer is; are they lacking in resources to police our streets better? Or have we become a 'laissez faire' society? Either way it's all to cock isn't it....

I am saddened by this aspect of the society that we are living in.

I agree with you fio, smashing up a car is serious in my eyes too! The operator didn't even ask who the car belonged to. She just wanted to know if it was happening on a street or on a drive way. I was then asked why I had phoned the police about the matter and how did it concern me!
I almost said, oh sorry I didn't realise I had phoned my local takeaway, thought I was talking to my local police force!

The thing is that the family I was reporting have a long history with the police for anti social behaviour and we have had so much hassle with this particular family, I had to report it!
I have lived in much worse places, I lived in a council flat years ago next to a drunk and had many unwelcome visitors to deal with and have had to ring police many times. Have never been spoken to like this before though.

My god, as I am typing this 2 police women just walked past my living room window! Maybe they are keeping an eye out. I am in shock!

Can't you tell them it is causing you alarm or distress and then they will be able to count it as a section 5 offence, which is what they are under pressure to meet targets for, so maybe then they will rush to come and arrest the vandals?

According to something I read the other day this is how targets are distorting police priorities....

Yeah, targets. The thugs obviously weren't committing the right crime. They'd probably reached their vandalism target for the month, so why bother responding.