How long til privately run neighbourhood police become the norm?

[hotmumshit]

They already exist in some places and use private prosecutions to uphold their values

I personally think its morally wrong, but since when does that matter

I think that home security firms will start providing access to them as part of their services

Welcome to hell

I know exactly how you feel

However, with the crime issues, I am genuinely out and about a lot less. I moved from London a few years ago. It was really problematic there. Less so where I am now, but enough dodgy people around for me to be concerned.

Basically coming home on public transport later than about 8 pm is a no from me. And then there’s trying to avoid the times where the school kids are out.

and then there’s the dodgy taxi drivers. The sense of everything falling apart was really bothering me. I will say staying at home more solves some of that, but it is a bit strange still.

anecdotally I have heard that a big reason for the drop in nightlife is people worried about safety. In London, we had a very aggressive gang outside the tube station who were approaching young men, really trying to push drugs on them. It’s coming to something when you get young men saying to you that they feel unnerved coming out of the station late at night.

Around 15 years ago when I lived close to a Jewish area one of the residents I was chatting with told me all the residents chip in for extra policing / patrols in the area, because they are were heavily targeted. I’m not sure if they meant the real police or private?

That happens near where i am too, thats not really what I was referring to, although I still disagree with private prosecutions

The community seems quite inner, which wouldn't be for me, but people ive met seem friendly enough 🤷, and due to being visibly Jewish are 100% targets for hate so I get it

Assault someone because of their faith, you deserve what happens to you. There are plenty of 'unnofficial' punishments for racism employed by londoners tbh - pop to Ilford or Brixton and see i guess

For me its the rise in security firms policing that scare me and the fact that anyone could decide to start one - its no longer about preventing racist attacks but 'policing the neighbourhood' which is another thing entirely

@hotmumshit are you talking about things that are completely unofficial?

Have seen and been to private roads and gated places with security but not "private police".

I don't think it will ever be the norm in the UK. It's an incredibly safe country, never take that for granted or lightly but pretending it's some kind of wild west is completely disingenuous. London always feels safe as well.

These threads are absolute rubbish started by people who just want to tear the UK and particularly London down. There has been quite a concerted campaign across social media in the last few years.

Sorry I missed this

Yes im in london - its just awful at the minute, just ridiculous behaviour everywhere

I am not, we're safer than other countries

I'm not your 'let's all move to dubai' kind of woman, its not lawless

But there really is a crime problem and it's getting worse. Just horrible to be around.

@DeftGoldHedgehog I realise that from your perspective, I’m just a stranger on the Internet.

But after 28 years of living in London, I was genuinely upset by the state of it by the time I left. And I suspect those problems are replicated across the country and probably across a lot of big cities throughout the world.

Its bad. And agree re nightlife

I saw someone on another thread say that as much as the neighbourhood associations that oppose nightlife are harmful, they're doing so due to the lack of protection from the police which meant crime was worse

They had a point

Like the “security” that has taken it upon themselves to patrol parks and remove —brown people— threats to “our women and girls”

or the paedophile hunters who all have records, using at as an excuse to throw their weight around and make money.

how do you regulate it? What’s to stop some power tripping bully boy extracting a “confession”

whatever you think of the police they are trained, do have standards and regulations. What qualifications would “private security” need?

pp’s post about the police/cps/prison triangle is accurate. I would also add in mental health services and social services, as part of the reason the police struggle is much of their workload these days is dealing with child protection, mental health issues etc.

Preventing harm comes before crime. So once an officer and his entire team has spent most of their shift trying to talk someone off a bridge, no time to be taking burglary reports.

@hotmumshit oh that’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of that.

The area I lived in had up phases and down phases, which I think you can accept living in a city. But now it’s been going on for such a long time and no one seems interested in stopping it. That feels very different than before.

i’m still in touch with my old neighbours which is how I hear most of this. The younger ones are really upset at the thought of moving away. My main concern is they could probably move anywhere and find similar things.

That would be ideal if the police actually bothered to properly arrest and charge wrongdoers.
But half the time they dont even bother , just dish out a crime number and leave you to ir

But these things are happening, why are you trying to shut things down.

@DeftGoldHedgehog I promise, I love london! I'm a londoner born and raised, I love diversity and nightlife

Its just honestly getting me down now, so much crime and I do think we will get private companies running the streets. It starts slowly, but its happening.

I just think i need to win the lottery, move to Chelsea and forget about the outside world!

This is what I was thinking.

It's become more and more common in the city near me to see private guards patrolling around areas of small shops, paid for through the local business group.

A lot of libraries have security guards now too.

So I could easily imagine a neighbourhood hiring a security firm, or maybe creating a citizens patrol.

What else are people supposed to do when the police won't or can't do anything?

I'm disagreeing with the whole premise of the thread.

Well obviously you are privileged and don’t live in the areas it’s happening in,so it is rather selfish to try and silence those who are having to tolerate it.

I wonder how much of this is about cost of doing business?

Police officers earn a fair bit, have good benefits, and they are also required to maintain a ton of certifications and do a ton of paperwork for every incident.

Security guards aren't paid all that well, have minimal benefits, and have far fewer certifications to keep up and reports to do.

This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. It seems like every public service sector now has so much bureaucracy around it, so much ass covering, so much time spent on other things.

Before my husband retired a few years ago he was spending on average two days a month updating courses. Mostly because something new had been added. Mostly not actually useful.

I was doing some work for a tutoring charity as a volunteer. I eventually gave it up when they wanted me to do yet another course. I just didn't have time.

I'd love to see someone capture the costs of this kind of thing.

Is it really worse to assault someone due to religion than because you don't like the look of them, or randomly?

So sick of fake posts on here about non issues.

Why are you trying to shut posters down just because it doesn’t affect you.
Its not a none issue to those it affects.

There is way less crime and anti social behaviour in my city than there used to be. Although some of the ebikes and scooters are a menace.

The publicly funded police need to up their game and crack down hard on crime and criminals, instead of ignoring it and hoping it will go away. If not they will end up like the BBC, rendered irrelevant and unnecessary and people will get sick of being forced to pay for it as well as for private alternatives that provide the service that people actually want.

And who's connected to the contracts.

Most of the newer developments in London have them.
They patrol the development during the day, and at night they have some dogs too, but they can only move people along - they don’t have police powers. However, when we do get anti social behaviour such as party/ drug cars or music video filming we call security and they move them on… we pay for it via service charges (we are not in a gated development).