To have complained to the local police today?

[lisbey]

When I collected by DSs from school today there was the usual traffic chaos around the gates cause by illegal and inconsiderate parking.

However, today it was worse than usual because a great big "Mobile Police Office" van was parked on the zig-zags about 10 yards from the zebra crossing. This meant children/families trying to cross the road, had to walk to the centre of the road before they could see around the van and traffic certainly wouldn't have seen any child who stepped onto the crossing without checking.

I was a bit put out and then DS2 pipes up "that van shouldn't be parked there" and I thought no it shouldn't, so I phoned the local police station to make the points:

1. No-one should be parked on the zig-zags by a zebra crossing at any time. 2)it is particularly dangerous/inconsiderate to do it as the school finishes 3)Shouldn't police be leading by example, both in terms of getting parents to park correctly and also demonstrating to the children that the law applies to everyone

I was very polite and friendly and didn't expect any action to be taken, just an acknowledgement that it shouldn't have happened and commitment that it wouldn't happen again. Whilst I appreciate it wasn't the biggest sin in the world, I didn't think my points were unreasonable. Do you?

"Yes, that's a good idea escalate the complaint so that it takes up more police time "

Hmmm. One senior police officer clearly had 40 mins spare to harangue the OP. So perhaps they aren't that busy after all, eh?

lisbey, YANBU.

I would contact the local paper. It would make a great story.

I think everyone would accept that in a real emergency, police cars with flashing blue lights can park wherever they need but "to give a rolls royce service"? Nope.

Of course no service is perfect, and no reasonable person expects them to be, but you should be treated with courtesy when you point out the things they do wrong. I mean, if they don't have a decent excuse, they could have always followed up by writing a dull letter saying they were looking in to it, and that if it could be corroborated, blah blah blah. He should not have rung up and given you a lecture.

It sends all the wrong signals for the police to break traffic laws like this (for no reason).

Thank you for your support - I was beginning to think it must be me.

He really genuinely felt that his reason for being there was so "good" that it justified all the other things. Wouldn't accept that the van had been there longer than 15 secs either "if it was, it was only because they couldn't pull away because of the congestion"

I won't waste my time (or theirs) taking it further, because I can't see it changing anything when they're that convinced they're right. That attitude appears to run right through, because it's the one the PC showed as well and when I told the story at work almost everyone had a similar story to tell. Bit sad about it TBH , because although I've had very few dealings with them, I always believed the police were doing a decent job of serving us.

Also, can't believe they don't get better training in complaint handling. Surely the answer was "thank you for bringing it to my attention, I'll make sure it doesn't happen again" even if they then put the phone down and say "silly cow, doesn't know what she's talking about."

complaints against police

This is in the news today - 1 in 5 complaints concern rudeness by officers. Clearly not a small problem then .

tbh I agreew ith everyone else i would feel like taking it furtehr due to his reaction, btw his reaction was cause he knew he was wrong and he doesn't want you to take it further