If police aren’t investigating crime, what exactly are they doing?

[MyAmusedOpalCrab]

I keep seeing reports about police forces being stretched, backlogs of cases, and victims being told their crimes won’t be investigated. At the same time, we hear about officers spending time on things like social media monitoring, diversity training, or non-crime “interventions.”

Obviously, some of this is necessary but if solving actual crimes isn’t the priority, then what is? What exactly are they being paid to do if not investigate crime?

AIBU to think policing has lost its way? Or am I missing something?

You don't think trying to protect women from sexual harassment is a worthwhile use of police time?

They’re dealing with mental health issues and drunks, children with parents who don’t care and adults who don’t know how to adult.

Broken temporary traffic lights, domestic abuse, road traffic collisions, missing people (including elderly, young and concerns for welfare where someone might take their own life) burglaries, shoplifting, sudden deaths, Anti-social behaviour?
And all this can happen in a small area, with only 3 or 4 officer's on at the station at any one time.
Dont forget, a simple arrest can take up 2-3 hours for 2 officer's taking to custody and doing their statements.

Of all the crime in my area, a wolf whistle is the very least of it. What a joy if that were all we had to worry about

I think a lot of it is the length of time it takes for each case, the build up of historical crime, the criminalisation of peaceful protest groups and less staff.
I tried to report a car crime online last week, went through all the questions and......if the computer was a person it would have shrugged it's shoulders and went "meh"(kids speak never 2 old)

I’ll tell you what they’re doing…dealing with cyber based crime which is office based and absolutely massive now this includes child sex offences, sexual extortion (sharing someone’s nudes and blackmailing them), fraud, harassment, network coms crimes which includes ‘communities’ encouraging vulnerable people to harm themselves or harm others (think incel type behaviour). It also includes fraud offences, which is obviously huge and generally office based investigations.
As part of crime reports they have to fill out forms for partner agencies such as social care, victim support, referrals to help networks otherwise they’ve ‘failed’ someone.
They sit in hospitals for hours on end because some drunken lout threatens a nurse with a needle.
They stand outside in the rain guarding scenes for hours because some nosey bastards want to film it for social media.
They’re risking serious injury protecting the public during riots against immigrants.
They’re acting as a counsellor to the 16 year girl who’s stood on the wrong side of a bride over a motorway.
They’re spending hours on the phone trying to get through to social care duty team at 3am on a Saturday night on a bank holiday after removing a 4 year old child covered in bruises from their home for safeguarding reasons.
They’re spending hours attending sudden deaths, be an elderly lady in a locked house, a young man who’s overdosed or a child who’s gone swimming in a local river.

I could literally go on and on about all the things police deal with. It’s not a job patrolling on foot anymore, it’s dealing with crisis we see in every day life.

Well hopefully it might make them think twice about doing what they did to my daughter , who was followed by 3 blokes in a van while she was out on a run . They tried to grab her arm , shouted vile salacious remarks at her about her appearance, and wouldn’t leave her alone . She was 16 .

Unfortunately what they didn’t know was I was waiting further up the road . Their ‘bit of fun ‘ ended with me going nose to nose with them , bringing them to a standstill, and threatening to put them , their van , and their company all over social media. I was way, way beyond furious, and wanted to drag them out of the van , but my daughter stopped me with the words. “Mum it happens all the time “.

It happens all the time . And do you know how it starts ? With an unchallenged wolf whistle . They get away with it , and get bolder , till they’re grabbing 16 year old girls for “ a bit of fun”

Nah . Fuck that . All power to the police’s elbow . If being proactive prevents crime , have at it .

but my daughter stopped me with the words. “Mum it happens all the time “.

I don't know why this stopped you. Did you report it to the police? Did you put it on social media?

West Midlands Police don't investigate violence crimes. I suffered an un-provoked violent assault. WMP closed the case the next day without any investigation being carried out. Two days after the assault, saw in the mirror that I had two black bruising. Chatted online to WMP, but was just told to take photos, and told nothing further. I appealed against the downgraded crime, but it was a waste of time, as it was my words against the violent offender words. I didn't touch them at any time during the assault. It was a complete waste of time contacting the police on 999. I suffered a traumatic violent assault and the police just don't care. I now have a total mistrust of the police.

metal health calls, missing people, welfare checks for other services and families that can’t or won’t check on their own, anti social behaviour, protests and of course crime. The front line is stretched to breaking point. All the crimes and more you list are investigated, of course they are but sadly the officers carry a huge workload and they just can’t do it all.

the officers out doing cycling patrols etc are likely funded officers. Paid for by the council who dictate what they are to be used for.

The officers do their best but the under funding and the amount of calls that should be dealt with by other services ie ambulance, mental health services, social work are huge and until they step up something has to give.

And yet, custody suites and prisons are full ….

🤣yep , you're definitely "job" or married to someone who is

Did I report it ? Abso fucking lutely. Did I put it on social media ? Not whilst it was being investigated, no .

I think there’s quite a few people who would benefit from arranging a ride along with local officers or even better, volunteer as a special constable and then they can see for themselves.

They are investigating crime, that’s their job. And also acting as social workers, mental health advisors and lots of other things which aren’t their jobs!

I think they only deal with murder and people who they think have said some hurty words on SM.

I can say for sure that they deal with a tremendous amount of mental health callouts, suicide threats, welfare concerns..
Among other things

Well they’re a priority in my area . We have lots of request for information to do with investigations and lots of notices of arrests and cars being impounded.

The RW news/ propaganda is not fact but 😉

Totally unreasonable. Don't you think crime prevention and maintaining public order are important?

Back in day, we could depend on our police force. Now…🥺

i bet most of these comments are from people who have zero experience of being an officer and are quite happy to bash the very people they would call in a heartbeat if they actually need them one day!
I’ve been in the job for 15 years and 90% of my time is dealing with mental health. I spend more time in hospitals waiting for mental health teams than I do at my own station.
If you want to see a police officer go to your nearest A&E!

Paperwork.

and then paperwork to prove they did the paperwork

True . Back in the day , you could depend on domestic violence to be ignored , kids at risk to be blamed for their situations, and women officers to be diminished and literally left holding the baby .

Golden age of policing huh ?

I joined as an officer in the nineties , where we had to work three times as hard as anyone with a cock to be considered half as good. Every course I got , I had to fight for , to produce more work, catch more people for serious offences . I ran myself ragged and didn’t eat a meal at work for three years so they couldn’t give that course to someone else.

Other women in my intake fought similarly hard to be recognised . They were the first women to carry guns , the first in other specialist departments . We dealt with misogyny all day long , both from the great British Public and our own team mates . People who were supposed to have our back , as opposed to trying to get us on it .

But hey , things were SO much better then , right ?

Safeguarding. 95% of the job is Safeguarding.

Eating donuts?