To think that this is an odd way for the police to operate?

[ThreeNinjas]

About seven weeks ago I had to report a crime to the police. One of our employees had been systematically stealing money from us over a period of weeks to the tune of several thousand pounds. I won't go into all the details, but basically he confessed to us at the point where he knew he was likely to be caught very soon because he was unable to replace the money or hide the evidence that it was him. When he realised the game was up he decided to confess.

We sacked him, obviously. He apologised, blamed personal problems and promised to repay the money as soon as he could.

I was told when I reported the crime that as he'd admitted it in writing (he sent me a long text explaining why he'd done it and exactly how much he'd stolen) and was not on the run it was a low priority/low urgency case but that he would be arrested and charged. Fair enough. I informed the employee that he should expect a call from the police as we would be pressing charges. He was expecting that and said he would cooperate fully.

I was then asked to give a statement over the phone about 4 weeks ago (yes it took another three weeks from reporting the crime and being given a reference number to be asked for a statement.)

I'd heard nothing since. Until this morning. At 6am my phone rings, wakes me up, and I ignore it because it's from an undisclosed number. But a voice mail is left.

It's the police officer dealing with the case. He was ringing me at SIX A.M IN THE MORNING to tell me that the ex-employee had just been arrested earlier that morning and was now in the station awaiting interview.

WTAF? If it's such a low priority, open and shut case, where the person has confessed to a relatively minor crime and had not absconded, why would they not just phone him and ask him to come to the station for an interview? Was it really necessary to knock on the door and wake the whole family up in the early hours of the morning?

And was it also necessary, having waited seven weeks to arrest the man at all, to wake me up to tell me about it?

This is a strange issue to have tbh. The police work around the clock. You wanted him arrested, he's been arrested. 🤷🏻‍♀️ It's their business how they do it, surely?

The crime was reported, it’s been reviewed and allocated, the person has been arrested. But just not at the hours you find convenient?

Makes perfect sense to me - I guess they have officers working at night anyway, if they've no urgent cases on they'll work on yours?

Friends DS is a police officer, he has many ongoing cases plus it’s a 24 hour service. It will have taken this long because that the first chance they have had to process it. Calls that are threats to life always take priority that’s why stuff like this and burglaries are not treated as urgently as any of us would like. They shouldn’t have rung you at such an early hour but I can't get worked up about a criminal being arrested at any of the time day or night. He spends most of his time dealing with DV, MH issues and missing people, everything else has to wait. I know the police are not exactly loved on MN but they are seriously under funded and without them it would be carnage and survival of the fittest.

It was low urgency as he’d confessed but he still stole thousands so it’s fair enough to arrest him that way rather than politely invite him in. He’ll probably get off lightly so there’s no harm making some part of the process a deterrent or he’ll try his luck again. Agree with PP that police work 24/7 so they did the case when they got to it rather than waiting for a busier time for them that would be more convenient to the criminal.

I agree OP. It would seem more appropriate for him to come in for voluntary interview but perhaps there is more to it?

People are more likely to be at home early in the morning so easier to arrest them then rather than later in the day when they may not be home (which then potentially gives the person a heads up that they’re about to be arrested so they can abscond).

Yes they could have called you later in the day but it’s probably easier for them to just do it while they’re dealing with the case, it might get forgotten/missed if left until later.

They might have previously asked him to go in for a voluntary interview and not heard anything from him.

Ring ring - Hello, its the police, would you mind awfully coming into the police station we need to charge you for a crime.

Yes of course, I'll be there before the end of day ..

absconds....

Do you think possibly this could ever happen? Yes of course it does.

Let them do their job.

Granted the police are 24/7, but having had such a call at 10:30pm on a Sunday night to a road accident I had witnessed weeks earlier, I can also advise I was not best pleased either. When you get a policeman phoning at that sort of time, most normal people need to unpick their nails from the ceiling once they realise they aren’t calling with very bad news.

I wouldn’t expect a call only during waking hours - they obviously arrest people early in the morning because they are most likely to be at home and phone calls as soon as things happen is better than finding out hours later. If his wife was the type to want to be very angry, how would you feel about being woken up by her wanting to yell at you ? It’s fair that updates come from the police rather than others.

They rang you immediately after they arrested him to keep you in the loop. Did you expect them to think it's a bit early I'll do it later or I'm going off duty I'll get someone else to do it later. Double handling things like that takes extra time and means things drop through the cracks, better that that job is wrapped up, on to the next without loose ends.

You are being totally ridiculous. Maybe you’d like policing to only occur between 10am and 4pm. They have gone and locked him up as the first job of the day before other jobs start coming in. If they hadn’t have done that, it would have likely been deferred for another day.

They will deal with it when they have the resources to do so, any time of day and night. The officer that called you would be likely going off shift so has to contact you when they are working.
I expect at 6am they expected to leave a message and not speak to you- most people have phones on silent and wouldn’t hear all call when asleep surely?

Police, damned if they do and damned if they don’t 🙄.

A) you can’t “press charges”. That is a CPS decision, not yours.

b) it’s likely 6 am was the officer on their night shift, finally getting chance to get his paperwork in order and admin done before he went off at 7. Funnily enough the police tend to be insanely busy what with “having something better to do” 🙄 so you get a call when they can fit it in.

They probably asked him to come into the station, he didn't so they arrested him 🤷‍♂️

As for waking you up at 6am, surely you don't think they're all on a 9-5 shift?

Well i have never thought they work 9-5

I imagine as I watch a fair few police tv shows that the early morning arrest is due to flight risk if notified before hand as it involves money, and early morning becuase that is the time they do house arrests as it is likely the person is actually in.

Just be thankful they actually arrested him.
It took Humberside police 4 months to arrest my ex despite him wearing a GPS tracker, being on curfew and having a probation officer. When they did act, they decided to get him at the airport. It was ludicrous.
Another story, my poor son got ran over on a path. It took so long to get to the right department of the police that by the time they acted all evidence of CCTV was lost.
They don't seem to want to do much anymore.

The Police are hardly likely to come and see you in the evening when it's their busiest time for other work. 6am was probably a quiet spell when they could catch up on low priority stuff.

You are being massively unreasonable. If you were concerned the impact his arrest and conviction might have on his family then you should have weighed this up when you reported the crime.

The police work to their schedule, not yours. They have to balance resources and work on cases when they can. An early morning raid is often favoured because a) it catches suspects out at a vulnerable time and b) there's less normal policing to do - few drunks, not many people on the roads crashing their cars.

I'm astonished you're upset that the police have arrested someone you wanted arrested and then phoned to tell you about it.

If you don't want the police raiding your home at dawn, don't commit a crime. If you don't want the police contacting you about a crime, don't report it.

Yeah it’s definitely that they cba and “don’t want to do much”

it’s definitely not that they don’t have the resources and officer numbers have been cut again, the pay is shit for the hours and risk, officers are burning out and leaving due to workload, and that they have to prioritise what they can and sometimes things slip though.

they’re all in Macdonalds cos they simply don’t want to do anything.

The police arrest people first thing in the morning because they are most likley to be home at that time. They then have the whole day to process and interview them

OP they arrest at home so they can search the address and find evidence to corroborate an offence.