Don't mess with ....

[219]

...something that isn't broken .

The news has been full of last week's incident where a car left the M9 , killing the driver , a week past on Sunday , and was reported to the police that morning . For some reason , the call wasn't acted on and the seriously injured passenger lay in the car for three days before another call alerted the police once again . The seriously injured passenger , now suffering from dehydration , was taken to hospital and put into a medically induced coma , but died on Sunday morning . The couple were also the subjects of a missing persons report after becoming overdue the night before the crash .

My take on this is that the root cause is budget cuts causing staff to be reduced to the point where service delivery suffers ; I pity the call handler who took the initial call and is probably now being hauled over the coals .

Minister has 'full confidence' in Sir Stephen House after M9 crash delay - BBC News

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Could it not have simply been a case of human error rather than staff shortages?

I don't see anyone taking a decision that the police are too busy to bother with investigating the crash, possibly the process in place was flawed or an individual in the process didn't do their job properly.

It would be inappropriate to politicise the tragedy.

 

[Howard]

We called the police the other day ( they have attended countless times over the last 25 years ) to remove kids from swimming in the lock and jumping in front of boats.

We were told by the civilian operator that they would not be attending as they don't enforce bylaw offences.

 

[grober]

On the news this morning-according to a government source [ official?? - wasn't made entirely clear] with the closure of many regional centres- many existing staff took early severance packages. It was intended these vacancies would be filled- the posts still exist they haven't been done away with [ according to the source] but the new national police authority has had difficulty in recruiting replacement staff- part of the problem being the extensive vetting process applicants must go through. The item finished with the unconfirmed report that the unit in question had indeed received the call but had failed to action it into the system which would have resulted in its investigation. Allegedly the senior officer drafted in to be in charge that weekend was completely unfamiliar with the call centre's operating proceedures.

I see this as just a further manifestation of the obsession with centralisation exhibited by government at all levels and of all political hues. Apparently this improves things- experience would dictate otherwise.

 

[Dryce]

I see this as just a further manifestation of the obsession with centralisation exhibited by government at all levels and of all political hues. Apparently this improves things- experience would dictate otherwise.

It's a hard one. On paper the restructuring probably makes complete sense. In practice it shifts some problems out of the loop and introduces new ones.

My guess is that this will turn out to be wrong priority assignment to the call. If that's the case it may well be irrelevant as to where the call was processed but simply the discrete decision when a priority was applied within the handling process.

 

[219]

I had read earlier in the week that the call had been taken , then not entered into the system and 'forgotten about' , the suggestion was that two call handlers were on duty and one took a break leaving a sole operator to handle all calls for the L&B and Central areas !

While Sir Stephen has already made a public apology for 'failing both families' there have already been criticisms of staffing levels dropping below an adequate number .

 

[Deleted member 6183]

I really don't want to have a personal pop at you Pontoneer but this is all a bit woolly at this stage isn't it?

You read something earlier in the week but decided to post a link to another, less detailed, article.
Meanwhile there has been a 'suggestion' made. By who?
Then there are unidentified 'criticisms', again, by who?

Maybe you have some insider knowledge but to an outsider there is nothing factual present as yet to base an opinion on.

 

[219]

This has been well publicised all week , both in print and on the Internet .

The issue was serious enough with the car lying undiscovered for three days before the girl was found and taken to hospital , but became much more serious with yesterday's news of her death - it is debatable whether she might have survived if rescued earlier , but dehydration due to lying so long in the wreck was quoted as a factor .

Reduced police resources due to budget cuts have been quoted by various sources , including both the police themselves and the government - I'm sorry I can't recall where I read the report of only a couple of call handlers being on duty , but this has been in numerous papers , on TV and on the Internet , probably one of the main media stories this week .

I only decided to post the topic this morning , after reading of the girl's death , and since the BBC news page updates every few hours , can only link to the current one .

If you need to know more , I'm sure an Internet search will throw plenty up .

While some have called for the Chief's resignation , and he was quick to apologise on behalf of the force , my own take on this is that budget cuts are the root cause .

 

[MangoMan]

Maybe if the person calling had reported a car speeding or someone on the cellphone there would have a dozen pursuit cars and a helicopter in attendance straight away.....

Reminds of this story...

Phillip Hewitson, an elderly man, from Norwich, was going up to bed, when his wife told him that he’d left the light on in the garden shed, which she could see from the bedroom window. Phillip opened the back door to go turn off the light, but saw that there were people in the shed stealing things.

He phoned the police, who asked ”Is someone in your house?"

He said "No, but some people are breaking into my garden shed and stealing from me.”

Then the police dispatcher said "All patrols are busy. You should lock your doors and an officer will be along when one is available."

Phillip said, "Okay." He hung up the phone and counted to 30. Then he phoned the police again. "Hello, I just called you a few seconds ago because there were people stealing things from my shed. Well you don’t have to worry about them now because I just shot them." and he hung up.

Within five minutes, Six Police Cars, a SWAT Team, a Helicopter, two Fire Trucks, a Paramedic, and an Ambulance showed up at the Hewitson`s’ residence, and caught the burglars red-handed.

One of the Policemen said to Phillip, "I thought you said that you’d shot them!"

Phillip said, "I thought you said there was nobody available!"

 

[Dryce]

Reduced police resources due to budget cuts have been quoted by various sources , including both the police themselves and the government.

Well they've thinned down the number of civilian personnel while increasing the number of police officers.

I think the argument was that the savings made by centralising everything as a single force would offset the budget cut. However - I suspect the actual money has spent has actually gone up - AIUI the Scottish government has been coughing for the redundancies and costs of the changes in addition and separately from the declared budget.

 

[Meldrew2]

It seems that for the last few years every "failing" is due to "lack of resources" and "lessons need to be learned".

It is wholly inappropriate for those in charge to use their failings to support a bid for more funding.

How about they investigate properly, find out what went wrong, put things right and try harder in future, rather than rolling out the same "soundbite" claptrap every time.

 

[boxbrownie]

How about they investigate properly, find out what went wrong, put things right and try harder in future, rather than rolling out the same "soundbite" claptrap every time.

Yet another ridiculously simple solution............

 

[brucemillar]

I fear that the inevitable cannon of blame will be zeroing it's sights on the lowest ranked individual whilst those who design, create and bestow these centralised cost saving realities onto the rest of us will sail away unscathed over the horizon.

 

[MangoMan]

It seems that for the last few years every "failing" is due to "lack of resources" and "lessons need to be learned".

It is wholly inappropriate for those in charge to use their failings to support a bid for more funding.

How about they investigate properly, find out what went wrong, put things right and try harder in future, rather than rolling out the same "soundbite" claptrap every time.

Yes, 'they' always seem to have an excuse, which of course that's all they are - excuses!

When I was in the BSAP, (look it up ) we never used the excuse of insufficient funding or resources, (which of course we did have with the whole world against us with sanctions etc) we just got on with the job with what we had at our disposal - and I'm not too proud to say that we did an outstanding job aswell!
This of course on top of having 60000 plus armed Terrorists within the country, (but of course they weren't considered 'Terrorists' by the western media - now of course anyway yielding an AK47 IS!) undoing all the good work we were trying to do.
And woe betide anything seen as dereliction of duty - I tell you what an apology wouldn't suffice - you did hard time for your mistake!!

And this is what I see this whole mess is, dereliction of duty on a massive scale.... Heads should roll!!!

And I have nothing more to say on the matter...

 

[219]

It seems that for the last few years every "failing" is due to "lack of resources" and "lessons need to be learned".

It is wholly inappropriate for those in charge to use their failings to support a bid for more funding.

How about they investigate properly, find out what went wrong, put things right and try harder in future, rather than rolling out the same "soundbite" claptrap every time.

The failure was placed under investigation by PIRC ( Police Investigations and Review Commissioner ) , and since the second death by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland ( HMICS ) .

Latest news http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-33503587

 

[markjay]

Central London - two flats were burgled in a neighbouring building last month. The owners were away at the time, and nothing valuable was stolen.

I called 101 to report, and was told officers will attend within the hour. It was 10pm, at 11pm two officers arrived in a police car.

They said that since the owners are away, it is not impossible that the burglars were still inside. They called backup, and two more officers arrived in a second police car 5 minutes later.

All four officers burst into the flat with batons extended, confirmed it was empty. The two backup officers then left.

We were offered the services of a boarding-up contractor who works with the police. We accepted. While waiting for the contractor, the local sergeant and his assistant arrived on the scene, introduced themselves, and stayed for a chat. They left when the boarding contractor arrived.

We were then told that a crime scene officer will contact us in the morning to arrange collection of forensic evidence.

By 1am we were out of there, with the place properly boarded up until the owners get back. The two officers that first attended the scene, were the last to leave. All in all they were there for 3 hours, with a total of 6 officers and 3 cars attending the scene.

They even left a customer satisfaction questionnaire...

I can't fault them. If I am pushed to find anything negative, I would ask if it is really necessary to spend all these expensive resources to respond to a burglary....?

Perhaps it was a slow evening. Perhaps Westminster Police has bigger budgets. I do not know if this is how they respond everywhere, and all the time. I can only tell it is I saw it.... but based on this one incident, it was a textbook police response if there ever was one.

 

[Ted]

I'll add to that.
Attempted theft of next door's BMW X6 around 3:00 am last week.
He heard the scutters and chased after them.
Called the police and they were there in three minutes, unfortunately said scum weren't caught.
Full of praise for the response and their actions.

 

[grober]

I suspect it may also have something to do with the postcode where the report comes from.