Plod - what a waste of time

[Beetnik]

So we turn up at the shop a few days ago to find a smashed window - going on £200 to replace, disrupted business etc.

'C'est la vie' we think but mid morning a guy comes into the shop to tell us that he witnessed what happened, followed the miscreant home and provided a description and statement to the police.

Good, we think, we should get a result but no - it turns out that the address the scroat retreated to is a block of four maisonettes and the police, not knowing which of the four it is, are not going to proceed further.

How about knocking on just four doors, guys? Ooo - two pensioners, let's eliminate them from our enquiry. Ooo - man with bandaged hand fitting the description, let's ask him where he was when the window was put through.

I despair.

 

[st4]

Its easier to catch motorists doing 15mph over the limit I guess.

 

[markjay]

I think that everyone at the government have already agreed that ignoring petty crime is the root cause of the recent riots. Just before they all went to have a nice cup of tea and forgot all about it.

 

[trapperjohn]

Perhaps a telephone call to the local press may change their minds.

 

[Scott_F]

Perhaps a telephone call to the local press may change their minds.

I doubt it - the police are not trying to win friends and influence people and they're not looking to attract your business. You'll get the service that they want to give you and if you don't like it then tough.

If forced to give a response they'll just trot out the usual line about "limited resources.... etc.... etc."

 

[MOCAŠ]

Leaving aside any accusations of institutional laziness, the enthusiasm of the police to pursue a suspect is generally driven by the likelihood of securing a conviction for the offence. That would seem a reasonable equation to me. Were there any factors in this case that would have made securing a conviction unlikely?

 

[balge]

Leaving aside any accusations of institutional laziness, the enthusiasm of the police to pursue a suspect is generally driven by the likelihood of securing a conviction for the offence. That would seem a reasonable equation to me. Were there any factors in this case that would have made securing a conviction unlikely?

Well the fact they didn't even try to solve it rather precludes any chance of a conviction I would have thought!

 

[moonloops]

If it was a doughnut shop they may have acted differently

 

[MicB]

Similar scenario with a pal's cloned car.......he had been getting a lot of unexplained parking tickets (estate agent so he gets a lot as a matter of course through the nature of the job......seen as an expense). By coincidence he pulled up behind his clone and so followed it to the house outside where it was parked and into which the driver entered.
Reported the findings to the Police who refused to take any further action and most certainly would not knock on the door (one of one in this case)......some nonsense I think about human rights.
Little wonder that the Police do not have the wholehearted support of society.

Mic

 

[MOCAŠ]

Well the fact they didn't even try to solve it rather precludes any chance of a conviction I would have thought!

Can't argue with that as a statement of fact, but it doesn't really address the question I raised.

In cases where there was no threat or injury, and the culprit was not caught in the act, the police have to consider the time and effort (read "cost") involved in identifying the suspect and bringing them to justice.

How much wriggle room would this suspect have had? Was it dark at the time of the offence? Did the good Samaritan see his face? How many other youth may have visited the address he was traced to? Etc, etc...

Sometimes the police have to make value judgements, and accept that if the only damage was to property, the victim's best recourse is to claim on their insurance. Not saying I agree with that, or that I think it is right, but I can see why the police might be reluctant to expend effort on such a case.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Similar scenario with a pal's cloned car.......he had been getting a lot of unexplained parking tickets (estate agent so he gets a lot as a matter of course through the nature of the job......seen as an expense). By coincidence he pulled up behind his clone and so followed it to the house outside where it was parked and into which the driver entered.
Reported the findings to the Police who refused to take any further action and most certainly would not knock on the door (one of one in this case)......some nonsense I think about human rights.
Little wonder that the Police do not have the wholehearted support of society.

Mic

That one is much harder to understand.

 

[Scott_F]

Can't argue with that as a statement of fact, but it doesn't really address the question I raised.

In cases where there was no threat or injury, and the culprit was not caught in the act, the police have to consider the time and effort (read "cost") involved in identifying the suspect and bringing them to justice.

How much wriggle room would this suspect have had? Was it dark at the time of the offence? Did the good Samaritan see his face? How many other youth may have visited the address he was traced to? Etc, etc...

Sometimes the police have to make value judgements, and accept that if the only damage was to property, the victim's best recourse is to claim on their insurance. Not saying I agree with that, or that I think it is right, but I can see why the police might be reluctant to expend effort on such a case.

If this was the case then the police have a duty to at least explain their reasoning to the victim. The tone of his post suggests that they didn't bother to do so.

 

[balge]

Not so long ago I was 'house-sitting' for a friend, heard a disturbance and happened to look out of the back window, to see some scroat going in through next doors back-door...without opening it. Immediately gets on the phone, call plod to say 'crime in progress'.

When I eventually got through the police took my details and the story - but refused to send any one out even while I was describing the scroat inside next doors house! Said scroat wandered around next-door 'topping up' their benefits for 15-20 minutes then sloped off with some new luggage...

Plod turned up an hour or so later to leave a victim support leaflet for the lucky neighbour....wouldn't even take a description of the burglar!

I'm sick of hearing excuses. The police decide what they will and won't do and their 'value judgements' are based on their convenience as far as I can see

 

[artyman]

I read something some years ago about a pensioner who reported something similar, police said they had no one available. She hung up, a few minutes later phoned again and said not to bother rushing as she'd killed him and he wasn't going anywhere now. Two minutes later police arrived, she said I thought you had no one available! Don'ty know if this is true or not, but if the police persist in these sort of responses then they had better be prepared for middle england to start dealing with matters themselves.

 

[Beetnik]

Leaving aside any accusations of institutional laziness, the enthusiasm of the police to pursue a suspect is generally driven by the likelihood of securing a conviction for the offence. That would seem a reasonable equation to me. Were there any factors in this case that would have made securing a conviction unlikely?

Unless they investigate who knows but (accepting it was dark) they have an eye witness, a choice of only 4 addresses and (try hitting a toughened plate glass window with your fist and sufficient force to break it) a perpetrator with a sore and bruised appendage. Oh and CCTV on the street.

As it is they leave a number of people - including someone who went out of his way to follow the criminal home and report it - unlikely to ever bother reporting to the police if they ever again see someone committing a crime. And someone (and his mates) who thinks he can act with impunity.

It's difficult to see what else they might want to make a case but, if they can't, then at the very least they should explain why not in order to retain some goodwill from the public. At the moment, and as far as I'm aware the 'investigation' is closed, it's because knocking on four doors is considered three too many.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

This is a serious question;

Besides the supposed 'persecution of motorists' and standing about while young punks loot posh furniture stores, what do the police do?

I've not seen a bobby on the beat since the 1980s when I was growing up. I do see the plastic plod mooching about but they are normally fat busybodies with no real power other than fine people for dropping cigarette butts.

 

[finisterre]

they must be doing something because the prisons are full to bursting.

I suspect we could build another ten prisons and they would fill them.

I also suspect police morale is depressed by the courts refusal to deal robustly with offenders.

have a browse through the archives
POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG

I find I am more understanding of their lot after reading it.

 

[MOCAŠ]

I read something some years ago about a pensioner who reported something similar, police said they had no one available. She hung up, a few minutes later phoned again and said not to bother rushing as she'd killed him and he wasn't going anywhere now. Two minutes later police arrived, she said I thought you had no one available! Don'ty know if this is true or not, but if the police persist in these sort of responses then they had better be prepared for middle england to start dealing with matters themselves.

Pretty sure this is an urban myth; it's been doing the rounds in various forms for years.

Generally speaking, the police will treat a crime in progress as an emergency and respond accordingly, not least because it has the potential to escalate into something more serious.

 

[markjay]

I am pretty sure this is an urban myth as well, heard it a few times before.

But... either way this story actually makes perfect sense - this is how it should be, in my opinion....

 

[nick mercedes]

Besides the supposed 'persecution of motorists' and standing about while young punks loot posh furniture stores, what do the police do?.

Moan about paperwork while getting loads of overtime sat in an office and getting hardons beating up harmless drunks while handing out section 5's like they confetti on Saturday nights, and that ultimate example of slacker policing, sit in ANPR vans waiting for poor people with no tax/mot to drive past.