Flippant Police

pinkcloudnine

Have to say 10/10 for our local force. DS was asaulted during a six a side football match one evening. He was elbowed in the face, pulled to the ground & repeatedly punched in the head. Luckily no seious damage, except black eye & lump to back of head. He arrived home , we called the police, they visited within 1 hr, were very kind, took a satement & explained the routes he could persue,they gave him a couple of days to think about it. Whilst it might seem they were reluctant to peruse the incident, it was in fact my son who pulled back cos hes about to apply to the police for a job. he was worried if the other guy made a couter claim,[son did not do anything] it would affect his chances of joining the force as he would be questioned & would have a police number against his name.The officer was more than happy to follow up the complaint, & said he could change his mind if necessary. Every member of the police we dealt with, from the call handler, [wanting to know if Ds was safe] to the photographer who took pics of his injuries, to the victim support who sent info[ not required, but a nice gesture] to the 2 attending PC's were a credit to the local force. The force in question is Kent

whitty121_2

a year ago a 15 year old boy pinned my 12 year old daughter against a wall stuck his hand up her top and into her bra, she wasnt "asking for it" she was dressed in scruffs and was letting my dog do a wee at the side of our house.

when we found out i went to try to nicely speak to the boys owners and i got a reply of tough crap they then threatened to have me sorted out.

so i called the cops, what a mistake.

male cop came out 2 days later and my daughter told what had happened and i explined what had been said to me, the cop told me how he understood and he would help us with everything (as the boy lived 50 yards away) my daughter then asked what would happen and was told that even though there was only her word and the fact i had seen him hangging around he would be arrested and charged within a week and his owners would be given a stern talking to, my daughter would have to give video evidence but he would be there with her, he also gave us his number and said if there were any problems to call .

sounded really good didnt it.

well three days go by and then this boy who had been laughing at my girl in school scince it happened followed her home so as we were scared we call the officer, no reply, so we left him a message ... nothing the bloke at the station told me he was on duty he just couldnt be reached next day the same thing happened so i tryed again and still couldnt reach him. after a week of trying to get intouch and even speaking to a higher officer i still had heard nothing so we contacted the nspcc and had an appointment to do the video interview within 15 mins

did the video interview and he never turned up, i was still callin twice a day to try to speak to him (id given up leaving messages). three weeks later he called out the blue and siad he would be picking the boy up the next evening, he offered no im sorrys or reasons why he had been so elusive and when i asked why he hadnt been at the interview he said he had been on a last min course (he agrred to the interview time the day before it took place)and then hung up.

5 days later the boy was arrested in an unmarked car no cuffs, gone from his house for 2 hours and comes home laughing with his owners holding a mc donalds.

officer calls me 3 days later say the boy denied it and there was nothing more to do, his word against her, i asked what i could do about him following my daughter home and his owners threats and he had a little laugh and said nothing other than move.

i did want to go to the ipcc but my daughter begged me not to as she didnt want to go through and more.

after talking to the nspcc i was told a very large % of cases like mine are treated the same or worse and that i was lucky and actual officer came out instead of trying to interview her over the phone or sending cso.

stationaryace

when we found out i went to try to nicely speak to the boys owners and i got a reply of tough crap they then threatened to have me sorted out.





huh?!?!

KILL_BILL

printedinuk wrote: »

As a serving police officer I couldn't resist replying to this one (although I realise I may open myself up to severe criticism!).

Firstly, I agree that for the police to have acted in that manner towards you then is unacceptable. Personally, if your complaint landed on my desk I would treat it very differently although that might be easier for me to say as my beat is probably rather quieter than the area in which you live, so I have the luxury (yes, I'm afraid it is often a luxury) of being able to give a little more time to minor investigations than my colleagues might be able to.

In relation to your particular case, I would certainly encourage you to report such crimes, even if you think they are "going nowhere". Often a quick statement and the submission of a small intelligence report might help to apprehend the culprit for similar offences - whilst it might not help you personally it might be comfort to realise that you are contributing towards the eventual apprehension of the thief, indirectly. If your bike is identifiable it may even end up in it being returned to you if it is ever found (but don't hold your breath!).

Also, as pointed out by another contributor, you will probably require at least an incident number if not a crime number to make a claim on your insurance, if you have any.

Although not a cyclist, I recommend Morzov's advice re crime prevention.

A quick note about CCTV: Again, I don't know if any steps were taken to check CCTV but you can't assume that the CCTV is of any use; without going into detail, it is not always possible for CCTV to be used.

Whilst I sympathise with you I would point out that we, the police, are forced to prioritise calls and enquiries because we have our budgets and targets forced upon us. I'm not excusing poor service, I'm just explaining how things are at the moment...

---

NB - the above are my own personal opinions and do not represent those of any organisation.

hi,

i have noted your comments as mentioned earlier that bike theft is rampant in london but appears to be a low priority and with particulary in my case the lax attitude towards that crime is no wonder that criminals are going to say to themselves that we are having a easy time because the poilice are not going to bother.

with regard to the cctv when i noticed that my bike had been stolen i noticed a man who appeared to be working in one of the local buildings so i asked him wether there was any cctv. he stated that he was a porter and that they had cctv of the area which included the scene of the crime which was about 30ft away from the camera. i looked at the cctv footage myself and i could assertain that they were 3 youths - i was able to clearly assertain their ethinicty etc, although the face where slightly out of focus.

the police originally stated that they assesed the cctv then their story changed, to in that they had spoken to the porter who told them that the faces where a bit blurry - now the porter in question is a front desk man in his late 50's and wears glasses. - the porter was very helpful to me and stated that he thought the police had a "dont care" attitude. ironically when ia asked the ds did they not have image enhancing software for cctv footage he stated no !

my point is if they had bothered to take the cctv images and passed the faces through the west end police stations, someone may have known the culrpits concerned and then at least something had been done.

again im not stating that all police are dire, etc , but my experinece with them myself and with friends and neighbours has not been good.

lhd4

amandada wrote: »

Can I defend our force!!!
I work as a police despatcher and often find myself phoning complainers if we've not had an officer attend within 2 hours-for really minor stuff like youths being noisy in the street...we ALWAYS attend.
The only exceptions being if there is a major incident ongoing and it's something which really can wait till the next day, we will call a complainer and ask them if they mind deferring their call till the next day.

Either our force is really good, or others are really bad-which is it?
I'm horrified when I read some of the things people say about police responses

amandada you must work for a really good police force!

I of course recognise that the police do the best job that they can, but at time of real need they seem to be absent.

Unfortunatly over the last few years i have been a witness to many assults including my brother being beaten up by security guards, the police said thier hands were tied, my husband was attacked by a disgruntled employee he was trying to help the police didn't warn him oranything as it was his 1st offence, well thats ok then my husband is let emotionally and pysically scared but it the guys first offence so never mind, my brother at the age of 12 was pressured by out local police force into saying( he wouldn't beacause he hadn't) that he had stolen his FRIENDS mobile phone, the friend and the parents both said he didn't do it but the school filed a complaint, so it went to court after theytold him hewould have a permanent record for not admitting it and lo and behold evidence turned up just before he entered the court to say that some one else had done it ( the very person my brother said it was) Lazy Policing. I will also add that shortly before this incident he reported his mobile stole and the police told him they couldn't do anything about it, dosen't that just add insult to injury!

I work for the NHS and have to defend the job i do to people who arn't happy with the service they recieve all the time but i admit that some of the staff that work there don't really care anymore and are waiting for early retirement. thats just the way it is and i think the police are no different to anybody else in that respect.

Sorry to rant but it drives me crazy the amount of problems I have directly encountered or encountered through, work family and friends ( all of which are law abiding citizens i might add)

PS just read through what iv'e written and realized that i actually :mad: my self up remembering thing ( to many to list)

PPS I still feel that the mojority of police officers do their best but it is the ones who don't care anymore that have people like me complaining.


Is there any such thing as post rage, i may have early symptoms;)

steps40

I agree with "Printedinuk" You have got to look at the seriousness of the crime and likleyhood of your bike being recovered.
Do you seriously expect a DS in London who is probably investigating KNIFE CRIME , MURDER ,ROBBERIES,BURGLARIES and VIOLENCE to prioritise the theft of your obviously insecure pedal cycle higher than those crimes mentioned if so REALITY CHECK.......

I understand that YOUR crime is important to YOU as a VICTIM but come on.

steps40

I agree with "Printedinuk" You have got to look at the seriousness of the crime and likleyhood of your bike being recovered.
Do you seriously expect a DS in London who is probably investigating KNIFE CRIME , MURDER ,ROBBERIES,BURGLARIES and VIOLENCE to prioritise the theft of your obviously insecure pedal cycle higher than those crimes mentioned if so REALITY CHECK.......

I understand that YOUR crime is important to YOU as a VICTIM but come on.

KILL_BILL

steps40 wrote: »

I agree with "Printedinuk" You have got to look at the seriousness of the crime and likleyhood of your bike being recovered.
Do you seriously expect a DS in London who is probably investigating KNIFE CRIME , MURDER ,ROBBERIES,BURGLARIES and VIOLENCE to prioritise the theft of your obviously insecure pedal cycle higher than those crimes mentioned if so REALITY CHECK.......

I understand that YOUR crime is important to YOU as a VICTIM but come on.

if you bothered to read my post PROperly you would have seen that i was making comments about the ds unprofessional attitude. Irrespective of the crime there is a duty by officers who have sworn to uphold the law etc to be courteous to members of the public.

doing this is not particulary difficult and and you will see from the other posts that have ben posted that police cleary do not have their prioritys in the right place - take for instance peter woodhams in east london - who was slashed in the face - i expext the detectives in that case deemed it NOt a violent crime - but of course the police stick with their own becuase as a result the 2 detectives who where forced to resign in the case where let back into the met force with a demotion in rank and dedcution of one weeks pay - their conduct as quoted by the assistant police commisoner was serious but not gross - that commisoner is a muppett.

whitty121_2

stationaryace wrote: »

when we found out i went to try to nicely speak to the boys owners and i got a reply of tough crap they then threatened to have me sorted out.

huh?!?!

well i dont see them as parents he is more like there pet than there son therefore there his owners

shaymenRup

KILL_BILL wrote: »

As i live in london i got a bike last year as its the easiet way to get arouind london

unfortunately i had it stolen - however the theft was caputured on cctv.

i reported it to the police - but did they want to know even though there was cctv footage _ NO

their attitude to people like myself is disgusting - they never contacted me and i had to chase after them to find out what was going on and wether they had bothered to look at the cctv.

cctv is cctv and if they had bothered to look at the cctv then an id of the culprits could have been obtained if nessecary by enhancing the images. but no they relied on a brief comment made by the porter of the building where the cctv was , hes an elderly chap and wears glasses.

i was annoyed at the theft but even more annoyed at the police's flippant attitude towards crime that occurs in london - it appears that irresoective of wether you have a bike nicked, assulted in a bar - like my freind was - or have you face slashed -llike the bloke peter woodham who face was slashed the police do nothing, the police - detective's particulary have nil interest.

The DS who was suppose to be dealing with the case was appaling and clearly they need to go on people skills course because he has no idea how to deal with victims. When i asked for the name of the DI and DCI he refused to provide the information and said ive got better things to do and put the phone down - DS sh*t.

rant over

Two issues here.

The first is unfortunately bike theft is one of the lesser crimes and rightly should not have the same time and resources spent on it as a serious assault or burglary. I find it unlikely that a Detective Sergeant would be investigating such a minor crime (usually a uniform Police Constable).

Secondly you mention CCTV - I will assume that you left your bike (near a camera) at 9am (for example) and returned at 5pm (for example) and discovered it missing. That is 8 hours of CCTV footage that needs viewing to discover the time of the theft. Then the CCTV will need processing to identify the culprits. Thats is providing a) the CCTV works, b) it records , c) the person who owns it wants to assist the police in downloading it (don't assume they will) d) the footage quality is any good e) the footage is of sufficient quality to identify anyone.

Given the vast amount of resources that this would entail I can understand why the police didn't seem enthusiastic.

If on the other hand the footage showing the theft had been located, the film was good quality and easily downloadable then you should complain to the police inspector at the station in question. Make sure the complaint is taken in writing and that you are provided with a point of contact.