The public loses faith in police to investigate crime

[BovaryX]

The Telegraph reports the public is losing faith in the police to investigate crimes. It is quite incredible that after 10 years of Conservative government, the alleged party of law and order are presiding over a collapse in public confidence in the police. Meanwhile, the CPS are training cops to police limericks and Tweets and providing guidelines to schools about how adolescent girls shouldn't expect sex segregated toilets. WTF is going on? It is way past time to call this out.

^The public has given up on the police solving crimes, an official report warns on Friday, as it says officers have been "rumbled" for failing to investigate offences including burglary and theft.
Matt Parr, HM Inspector of Constabulary, said the failure of the police to investigate high-volume crimes like car thefts, minor assaults and burglaries was having a “corrosive” effect on the public’s trust in the police^

www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/06/public-giving-police-solving-crimes-warn-official-inspectors/

It isn't coming down from the govt - Boris Johnson publicly said how ridiculous a waste of time, money, resources and misuse of police time the Kate Scottow case was. It's the high levels of the police, that's where the issues are. And the politics. The govt failure is to get a handle on it and make it stop.

high-volume crimes like car thefts, minor assaults and burglaries

We, the public, have simple concerns - and at the heart of them is the ability to live without hassles like vandalism, car theft, minor assaults, and burglaries.

We like to live our lives free from avoidable hassles - and, depending on where you live, high-volume, low-grade crimes are grindingly regular and we'd like to feel that Something Is Being Done About It.*

*tbh, for me, I'd also be happy if that included local youth programmes, better street lighting, reliable public transport etc.

That's a shock... oh wait no, no it isn't.

The govt failure is to get a handle on it and make it stop

I agree. But the government has been in situ for 10 years. They need to stop listening to lobbyists and start listening to voters. If they don't, they will get booted out in five years. The bankrupt mantra of the last 20 years needs to be challenged. On crime. On hate crime On freedom of speech.

I can't read the whole thing because no Telegraph subscription, but I'm not surprised that the public isn't pleased that crimes aren't being investigated. They'll be even less pleased when more of them realize that non-crimes are, by the same forces who can't be bothered to do anything about actual crimes.

They are not investigating burglary, theft, rape convictions have gone down....women are bearing the brunt of this shift to desk jobs by the Police.

BovaryX

I’d just like to say you’re on good form today (and possibly yesterday, I’ve been catching up). Every comment you’ve made has been excellent

This government is rubbish but the opposition is worse. They all need to stop pandering to lobbyists and actually do something useful.

I have completely lost trust in the police. It's so depressing. Only 1.4% of reported rapes go to prosecution - so rape is basically legal.www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/rape-prosecutions-uk-disclosure-mobile-phones-cps-a9160556.html

And yet they're prosecuting a mum for making comments on twitter. I don't see how that's a good use of police time even if she was the biggest meanie on twitter ever (I don't know whether or not she was but still - 1.4% of reported rapes are prosecuted and they're taking Kate to court - if anything shows a broken system it's that).

They'll be even less pleased when more of them realize that non-crimes are, by the same forces who can't be bothered to do anything about actual crimes

TheProdigal

I apologise for not being able to do share token, The Telegraph doesn't seem to do them. Yep, you are absolutely right. It is utter BS that the police have investigated 87,000 non crime incidents over five years, whilst failing to investigate actual crimes. This is a dereliction of duty. WTF are the Conservatives doing? They don't understand the voters want them to be Conservative, not apologise for it

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/05/police-forces-record-thousands-hate-incidents-year-even-though/

It's a thoroughly broken system. It would take very drastic action to deal with it, you'd be dismantling a whole culture at the top. The only way really to root it out would be mass removal of the whole group, mass throwing out of policies. Anything Stonewall has been involved with is already as we know, compromised an not compatible with current law.

(If they could then do the same thing with the NSPCC, Labour Party, local government offices, that would be lovely.)

alias
Hey, thank you!

It isn't coming down from the govt - Boris Johnson publicly said how ridiculous a waste of time, money, resources and misuse of police time the Kate Scottow case was.

Did he say that, specifically, Michelle? I think I must have missed it

No worries, Bovary, I know the Telegraph doesn't want people doing share tokens for some reason.

I wonder if the government is effectively no longer able to control the police. I certainly can't see how any Tory government could think that having the police waste their time on "she said something on Twitter that hurt my feelings" nonsense would work in their favor on an electoral level.

The Times covered this - the most recommended comments make very interesting reading: Share token:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e1787e96-491f-11ea-9a9d-aed7af30eb98?shareToken=611604d99e3b18fa053904147dcc07a5

Unless there's a very cynical calculation that the worse things get the more people will want to vote Tory in the hopes they'll fix it. But that doesn't really work when you've already been in power for 10+ years.

Datun it's quoted in a few articles twnews.co.uk/uk-news/mother-arrested-for-calling-a-trans-woman-a-man-on-twitter-is-charged-with-trolling from an article he wrote.

'After details of Mrs Scottow's case were revealed in The Mail on Sunday in February, Mr Johnson criticised her arrest when violent crime is on the rise.
Writing in a newspaper column, Mr Johnson, then a backbench Tory MP, asked: 'Is this really the right way to fight crime? Is this what our brave police officers signed up to do?
'Are you really telling me that it is a sensible ordering of priorities, when violence on the streets would seem to be getting out of control?'
Mrs Scottow's arrest came after a complaint by transgender activist Stephanie Hayden (left). Boris Johnson said sending three officers to deal with the case and holding Ms Scottow for seven hours was an 'abuse of manpower' at a time when violent crime is increasing'

Is this really the right way to fight crime? Is this what our brave police officers signed up to do? Are you really telling me that it is a sensible ordering of priorities to round up Twitter-borne transphobes and chuck them in the clink, when violence on the streets would seem to be getting out of control?

Well, now I'm beginning to see why some people support Boris at least - he seems to talk sense on some subjects.

If people signing up to be police now do know that this is what they'll be doing I think there are some questions to be asked about the kind of person who would want that sort of job. They may as well put "petty dictator and gleeful bully needed" on the application forms.

Datun From the Telegraph last February

I wonder if the government is effectively no longer able to control the police. I certainly can't see how any Tory government could think that having the police waste their time on

Here's my theory. When Tony Blair sailed into Downing Street in 1997, the only part of the public sector that wasn't rock solid Labour? The police. The police became another public sector Labour voting block circa 1997 to 2010. And now? The CPS are being trained by Stonewall. How is that democratic?

I'm uncomfortable about the idea of government having/ losing control of the police. Yes, a government passes laws and police enforce, but neither of them are in total control of the law: there's history and practice and civil society and contracts and so on.

However, a police not subject to government (and flouting the law/ its responsibilities) is even more alarming.

There's a balancing act that needs to happen, and the balance seems to have tipped to the police being answerable to no-one, which is not good at all.