Rant Cops in the UK - useless!

You got told there was nobody available to deal with your inquiry and asked to come back tomorrow, sounds perfectly reasonable to me. You wanted to report a theft, it's not a high priority and the police force did not deem it necessary to take an officer away from their normal duties to take your statement.

Again, you were reporting a theft. It's not a Grade A callout and doesn't need an immediate police response.

Things have dramatically changed in the last two years for the Police, all Forces have had drastic budget cuts yet still be expected to provide the same core service. Something has to give and for a lot of forces PEO opening hours and staffing levels are a way of cutting expenditure without cutting the number of officers available to attend.

I'm not going to comment on my background, but it's not too far from yourself.

 

if you are ex job then you must appreciate the constraints of modern day policing. Most cops want to do a good job but at times the wheel comes off and the management of witnesses & incidents doesnt reflect the sual high standards most forces offer

the flow of information sometimes gets interupted and the resources dont get the right places quicly enough . Priority management of incidents is extrememly difficult and there will always be losers... everyone wants what they report to be treated as THEIR priority however in reality that cant happen.

There is no other job like policing and nothing that you can draw a simile to

7 years isnt that much service to be out sounds like your bitter towards the job ?

 

my view on the police is good they do what they can with the resources they can, ive only ever dealt with them once when i was recently mugged on my way home, and the service i received from them was amazing and they did a lot more then i thought they would. Im not saying that its a perfect service but with out them the country would be in a much worse state than it is.

 

I understand where you coming from Kov some police can be useless and take the easy way out mutliple times i called police about a gang damaging cars and causing so much trouble with neighbours all they did was went in and had a cup of tea.

But most of the time they do have more to deal with than petty theft, you have everyright to be angry your flesh and blood has been stolen from but to claim that all police are to the same standard is simply not true, i have police within my family former and current and some of the stuff they deal with just does'nt bare thinking about from uncovering a decomposed body to a horrendous case of sexual abuse to a woman on a night out, stabbings, murder and suicide

They can potentially have the shittiest jobs and however much we would like to think they could attend any single incident its not possible

 

I think a lot of it comes from publicised incidents when police haven't done anything, then people have been forced to do something about the situation themselves and get punished for essentially vigilante.

 

And your statements are a case in point: SASH triggers attachment dynamics and unrealistic child-likerecipe expectations.

You think an armed police officer isn't bothered by the idea of shooting an innocent person? I was pissed off about De Menezes more than most because I knew it was down to other psychological dynamics of racism, xenophobia and paranoid anxiety. It was adults forgetting they were adults. But the firearms chief leading the team cried in court. He was gutted.

You think they should prioritise petty crime that affects you over serious crime because you (fortunately) have no personal experience of the latter?

Both statements are ludicrous. Time to put your adult head on again.

I'm sure you do have insight into the NHS better than most. What I am asking is to apply that insight of how there is a whole other, complicated side to running a service that tries to meet the needs of of a huge ammount of people in a state of SASH on limited resources to the police service.

 

People are legally pretty well protected in defending themselves and their homes from criminals (even more so over the recent years, where people --quite rightly-- have got away with killing intruders). Chasing after people down the street, dragging them back and beating them up has been frowned upon more.

The problem is that many people cannot handle self-defense. They jump to conclusions and retaliate at the wrong person; they flip out and overreact or their attempt at restraint results in someone choking to death. Awkward. And of course the guy who they are trying to tackle may be volatile, on drugs, drunk, armed...

A night not so long ago some drunk "hiding from some people" broke the neighbour's front room window and tried to climb in. The noise alerted his other neighbour, who is also his brother-in-law and is a HUGE bloke, so when he came out the house and told the man to sit down and wait for the police, you'd think the scrawny ned would have listened. But he was drunk and thought he'd make a gazelle-like leap for freedom over the separating wall into our front garden. Unfortunately the houses are built on an incline, so the wall on our side turned out to be twice as high than on his. Drunks have poor saving reflexes. We were woken by a man demonstrating rag doll physics as his face cracked into the paving stones.

He was picked up by the cops (there in less than 5 minutes) arrested and taken to be patched up. But he could have broken his neck in a citizens arrest that was executed fairly calmly and considered by a probation officer. The ned by the way turned out to be telling the truth --he was just trying to hide from some nasty guys. He paid up for the broken window. Now consider how messy this could have turned out.

And here's another point. When my old car got stolen, I called the police just to report it. I did not expect them to come out and do something because I realised that they couldn't. No witnesses, no CCTV; what are they going to do, stand there with a divining rod? Same when my number plates got nicked. Same with the lorry trashing my car --it was long gone and the bumper it left behind unfortunately had no number plate. Spend a day canvassing for witnesses on a busy through road? Yeah, sure; perhaps if someone had got killed. When I found my car keyed I did not call them at all. Again, what are they going to do? Dust for fingerprints? Our garden shed got "broken" into --I say "broken" because we don't lock it. We don't lock it because we keep nothing of value in there. They took nothing because there was nothing of interest to take.

But when a guy broke into our neighbour's house and he was detained, patrol was there in less than five minutes. When two guys systematically vandalised cars and harrased a woman one night as they worked their way up the road, the police was there to meet and arrest them (they are well-known repeat offenders living in a local bail hostel). It is these sort of petty disorganised crime and disorder cases that take up all their time. You have to be realistic about when to call them and what they can actually do to help. Meanwhile help yourself: have good door locks, don't leave valuables on display, have insurance, don't go down dark alleys alone. Stuff like that.

 

My friend trained as a police officer and quit right after she had finished her training. Why? One of the main reasons was she couldn't deal with the amount of suicides. Scotland has the highest suicide rate in the UK and it just another meaning less statistic until you have to stand beside the body hanging from the noose until the coroner arrives or inform the relatives or question them as to why their loved on took their own life. The really shocking thing was how regularly this happened and once you add on all the sudden/unexplained deaths and car accidents it is a lot of death to deal with.

 

Absolutely. And for those who stay something has to change inside of them to be able to psychologically survive. Perhaps they develop a layer of cynical detachment or emotional indifference, or just a bit of victim blaming on occasion.

What's more, the public colludes. We have expectations from the police, the NHS, teachers, fire and social services. They are supposed to look after us. We put them on a pedestal of power and authority and then knock them down for being inadequate parents (and none do more so than those who actually have been raised by inadequate parents). We forget that we are adults too, and should primarily take care of ourselves and our community.

There was no rioting in the Asian districts of Birmingham. Says something right there.

 

The Police have better things to deal with than a stolen phone. They've had dramatic cuts in funding which reduced the amount of Police anyway. The amount of pointless calls they get about petty things, like stolen phones, makes it so that the calls that actually need help have to wait alot longer.

If you wanted them to do something about it, you should of gone down after your son and talked to them aswell.

Besides the Police have no power what so ever in this country, look at the French riots compared to ours. The French didn't give a **** and the Police had full power.

It's almost impossible to take someone to court and win for the Police, since the evidence has to be 100% solid.

You say you're an ex cop, so really you should understand exactly why they wouldn't bother with the phone, and should understand what has happened to the forces over the years.

I know many officers, but half the times they can't do stuff, because of some stupid rules etc.

 

I guess you decided to not read my previous comment:

Finding the cases where harm has been caused is easy, the media don't write articles on the countless amount of times the Police are called out and the situation has ended with the person with an offencive weapon or firearm being disarmed and no shots being fired.

 

Whilst I am surprised that, on attending a Police station, your son was sent away with the request to return the following day, I do think feel that you have blown the situation out of proportion.

A stolen phone, although very annoying, is not a priority - unless he was attacked/mugged.

I think you also have to remember that modern policing is not like CSI, there will be very little the police can do to track down and catch the great phone thief of Harrow.

I can sympathise as I wouldn't be too happy at having anything stolen from me, and I would expect the police to at least take my concerns seriously and record the offence.

 

As has been pointed out before, it is more the politicians who are the useless ones rather than the cops, they are the ones who saddle them with ridiculous restrictions, paperwork and policies which hinder their work rather than help, which seem to reward criminals rather than honest people.

Heres one example, one of my colleagues had a car stolen from his driveway, he did all the legwork to get information such as the route they started to take it and camera locations which would have caught them clearly, but police said they would not be able to use that cctv footage in court...WTF?!

My friend had his card cloned, they caught the girls face clearly on camera using the card, police say they wont do anything since its first time this person has appeared in a fraud crime, if she is seen couple more times doing fraud crime then they will treat it as serious and pursue it. She spent £1100 of his hard earned cash and police basically told him they wont do anything since its a 'first-timer'...not enough resources, and with more cuts looming it looks even worse

 

Correct. All that the CCTV footage proves is that the car was driven on that road, at that time; not who drove it and whether or not they had the owner's permission.

That's a resource issue. It takes considerably more than £1100,-- to arrest and try this person, with the likelihood that she'll get off with a fine she can't afford to pay and community service she won't show up for (jails are getting crowded these days). Card insurance will suck it up with the billions of profit banks have been making over our backs.

The alternative is to chop off her hand. Extremely effective, but would you like to live in such a society? Most people don't seem to realise that we are living on a thin surface tension called "society" covering a whole festering march of anarchy. The recent London Riots were just a bubble breaking the surface. Today's society is too big to control effectively by any one force without the use of either serious resources or extreme measures. The only controlled state is a police state. I think we are doing remarkably well as we are, to be honest, and that is only because most people have not yet caught on to how little power the police really has. Things could be much, much worse.

 

since this appears to be a rant thread at first glance:

Get off benefits chavs, more importantly get off your backside and do a days work.

 

If there is no actual theft of the card, then it is the banks duty to investigate it. They have a much superior capability at investigating card fraud. If the bank then reaches a conclusion whereby an offender is identified, only then do the Police step in.

Where you say that she is a first time offender, I can only presume the female was identified through the CCTV (a rarity in itself)? Once an identification has been made she has to at least be questioned about her involvement, else alarms will ring at HQ and the investigating Officer will be hung up to dry. There aren't any fraud offences that require a 'course of conduct' and it being the first time means nothing. She can still at least be given a formal caution.

Another very important factor; Was he reimbursed by the bank? If so, then the bank become the victim and will pursue it themselves; they have some very good fraud investigation teams. If he wasn't, then a lose of £1100 is enough to warrant putting her to court to seek compensation.

The days of 'Police not doing anything' are long gone. Everything we do is auditable and will be audited and criticised. 'Police not doing everything you want them to do' is probably more fitting.

 

Police can actually do far less than we perceive they can. Also resources are a factor. A stolen phone can be tracked, but police won't use those resources on something so minor. It's a bugger, but there it is. And tbh I'd rather they tracked a suspected terrorists phone, than some phone stolen by an asshole.

I've been on both ends of the law in my time, and I've found the old bill to be exactly like us; human. Some are sweet, and some are *****. Slagging them off is easy, and frankly at times they deserve it. But I cant help but feel to all those badmouthing em..you go do their job, and then see how you feel! I bet ya tune changes, and changes fast.

 

I've had good and bad experiences with the police, but to generalise the whole force as 'lazy' and 'useless' is simply fatuous and ignorant. I for one would not relish the daily work of a police officer - having to take **** from the average citizen who thinks the world owes them a living, and that they are entitled to every right without a sense of duty.

 

Also, just as a point of note to the OP; From research you appear to have spent at least the last twenty years in retail, leaving the gap between you leaving school and starting this career path occuring in the eighties. I couldn't even begin to explain how vastly different Policing is, much like any public sector work, compared to then. I'm sure everyone reading this can appreciate the huge increase in expectation from the public over the last thirty years. After all, greed has got the better of all of us.

 

This is an obvious issue, but most of it is inevitable due to our distaste for police corruption and other miscarriages of justice. If you don't want to see people doing time for crimes they didn't commit (think of what Hannibal, Murdock, B.A. & Face had to go through ), and you don't want police getting away with all sorts, then bureaucracy is a pretty necessary evil.


When I was a cop there was a fair amount of skepticism about reports of mobile phone thefts, supposedly with them frequently associated with insurance claims when losing them wasn't covered, or when people just wanted to make fraudulent claims.

You've also got to consider the details of the incident. Was the phone in the kid's physical possession at the time, or had they put it down (introducing an unhelpful element of doubt due to the possibility of claims it had been discarded)? The Police can't work miracles and the realities of our society have to be taken into consideration. The amount of reports I took of people who'd left their bike unlocked and in plain sight somewhere was just depressing - yes, it's still theft, but would you honestly expect the Police to pursue the issue with everything they could?

There's also the issue, with food inflation, that some mobile phones cost barely more than a Mars Bar nowadays. As upset as you'd be, would you bother to report the theft of your Wispa?

However, that's enough defending the police. Someone above posted that they are representative of our society - some good, some not so good. I met some decent people on the job, but I've worked with or otherwise encountered many coppers who were complete knobs and some who I would not trust in a million years. The job attracts such types for obvious reasons, and arguably breeds them as well.