My friend had bricks thrown through the window of her house 3 weekends in a row. When she called the local police they said they weren't interested in taking details or doing anything about it at all. And they implied that this is the case for an awful lot of crime in her town (ordinary place in the SW)
When she said she was a bit scared because a) they happened late at night and b) she's a single parent with 3 small children they said and I quote, more or less, from what she told me:
"you know, we can't do anything about anything any more. Time was when we SAW someone put a brick through a window we could arrest them. These days even if we see it happen we have to 'invite' them to the station at their convenience. They may turn up, they may not. And we then have hours of paperwork to do for no conviction."
2 separate policemen told her on 2 separate phone calls:
"we have no resources, no power. We can't really do anything about anything. People are getting away with all sorts of behaviour and we can't really do anything about it. Policing is pointless"
I appreciate a brick through a window ISN'T the crime of the century, not remotely, that's not my point - my point is that these comments are interesting.
A male friend of hers waited outside the house this weekend to see if he could see anyone and when he told the police he wanted to do it and if he caught them should he call them they said no, don't bother. He said "but you'll do me for something if I catch the person won't you?" and they said "not if we don't know who you are sir" - they implied "go ahead, take the law into your own hands and don't tell us about it, we don't care and we can't do anything aobut it anyway".
Views anyone?