Are the police the best 'institution' to offer advice on theft prevention?

Lab-rat · 02-01-2012, 09:15

Just read this article & find this quite astonishing.........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16380862

mart · 02-01-2012, 09:19

The report says opportunist thieves, but that does not rule out the police themselves. There are lots of good honest officers, but not all are honest.

ECCOnoob · 02-01-2012, 12:12

Why is this story so "astonishing". Its a police station not the M15 Hq.

Its just an office building just like any other office building. People come and go all the time. Some smaller ones are closed up completely overnight. Some "police stations" are just purely offices or storage and are not publicly accessible.

They will have a certain amount of CCTV, staff patrol, secruity features but its still just an office building. The items listed in the report were hardly high value. Im sure many of the items were later recovered.

If royal palaces and prisons can be penetrated im damn sure its possible someone can steal a coat or a mini fridge from a police office.

Seems like a non story to me. Slow news week as I note it was a information request generated the media themselves. Obviously they were looking to create a situation.

Alien52 · 02-01-2012, 12:30

Toilet rolls stolen.....quite astonishing !

Lab-rat · 02-01-2012, 12:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by ECCOnoob

Why is this story so "astonishing". Its a police station not the M15 Hq.

Its just an office building just like any other office building. People come and go all the time. Some smaller ones are closed up completely overnight. Some "police stations" are just purely offices or storage and are not publicly accessible.

They will have a certain amount of CCTV, staff patrol, secruity features but its still just an office building. The items listed in the report were hardly high value. Im sure many of the items were later recovered.

If royal palaces and prisons can be penetrated im damn sure its possible someone can steal a coat or a mini fridge from a police office.

Seems like a non story to me. Slow news week as I note it was a information request generated the media themselves. Obviously they were looking to create a situation.

Wish I was a quid behind you Pal... if you think a 10k patrol car & a 30k private car are small change & 'not high value items'!!!!!!!!

These vehicles may then be have to be listed as stolen / recovered depending on damage should they have recovered them.....all leading to less value when they sell them on! Who do you think 'foots' this devaluing of public assets......give you a clue......TAX PAYERS!

Halibut · 02-01-2012, 12:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lab-rat

Wish I was a quid behind you Pal... if you think a 10k patrol car & a 30k private car are small change & 'not high value items'!!!!!!!!

These vehicles may then be have to be listed as stolen / recovered depending on damage should they have recovered them.....all leading to less value when they sell them on! Who do you think 'foots' this devaluing of public assets......give you a clue......TAX PAYERS!

The cars are exceptional. It's mostly much lower value items.
Really can't understand why you're getting your knickers in such a twist about this. It's unfortunate, but hardly surprising.

Lab-rat · 02-01-2012, 12:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halibut

The cars are exceptional. It's mostly much lower value items.
Really can't understand why you're getting your knickers in such a twist about this. It's unfortunate, but hardly surprising.

It's what the report doesn't say.....WHO stole them? I.e were they stolen internally or from outsider gaining access to supposedly secure police stations?

Halibut · 02-01-2012, 12:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lab-rat

It's what the report doesn't say.....WHO stole them? I.e were they stolen internally or from outsider gaining access to supposedly secure police stations?

I would imagine most of the stuff was stolen by people who work there i.e. police or civilians working for the police and some of it stolen by outsiders.

spooky3 · 02-01-2012, 12:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halibut

I would imagine most of the stuff was stolen by people who work there i.e. police or civilians working for the police and some of it stolen by outsiders.

But you haven't really got a clue, but at least your covering all the bases eh...

lolli_pop · 02-01-2012, 13:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by ECCOnoob

Seems like a non story to me. Slow news week as I note it was a information request generated the media themselves. Obviously they were looking to create a situation.

The media do tend to make FOI requests just to see what non-story they can make out of things like this. Wonder how much taxpayers' money is wasted answering them?

MrMoran · 02-01-2012, 13:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lab-rat

Just read this article & find this quite astonishing.........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16380862

More proof you cant trust the poilce.
Im not in the least bit suprised.

Lab-rat · 02-01-2012, 13:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by lolli_pop

The media do tend to make FOI requests just to see what non-story they can make out of things like this. Wonder how much taxpayers' money is wasted answering them?

There are strict criteria that have to be met when making FOI requests......to stop spurious time wasting / fishing for nothing. The media pretty much have to know what the info is held before it will be released. This pretty much negates most 'fishing for info exercises'!!!

Section 8 subsection 1 c) of the FOI act 2000 actually requires you to more or less describe the information you think they have before they will release it!

Section 9 allows fees to be charged for gathering / collating & releasing of such info.

It's all down to the experience & efficiency of the Data Controller on what data will be released.

End of day don't cock up......no data to release.......no story!

lolli_pop · 02-01-2012, 13:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lab-rat

There are strict criteria that have to be met when making FOI requests......to stop spurious time wasting / fishing for nothing. The media pretty much have to know what the info is held before it will be released. This pretty much negates most 'fishing for info exercises'!!!

...

End of day don't cock up......no data to release.......no story!

With the proviso that this is the internet and anyone can claim to be anything ... I've had to answer some extremely spurious FOI requests in the past and it was just fishing, there was no story whatsoever, no cock ups, just the media trying to find something to be outraged about. Of course the request could be denied - and they would then do a story on it being denied.

I think FOI is a very good thing, overall, but it does get abused.

Lab-rat · 02-01-2012, 13:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by lolli_pop

With the proviso that this is the internet and anyone can claim to be anything ... I've had to answer some extremely spurious FOI requests in the past and it was just fishing, there was no story whatsoever, no cock ups, just the media trying to find something to be outraged about. Of course the request could be denied - and they would then do a story on it being denied.

I think FOI is a very good thing, overall, but it does get abused.

Oh.....lucky you..... are you the Data Controller then?

lolli_pop · 02-01-2012, 16:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lab-rat

Oh.....lucky you..... are you the Data Controller then?

Oh that takes me right back to the very tedious Data Protection training

As far as I remember it the organisation is the Data Controller but I could be wrong, it's been a while.

I provided the substance of the response, dug up the stats etc. Some things were genuine requests, others were plainly fishing expeditions and a waste of time and taxpayers' money.

InigoMontoya · 02-01-2012, 16:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lab-rat

Just read this article & find this quite astonishing.........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16380862

Not as astonishing as the hotbed of criminality that is the South Yorkshire Police…

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...d-6284098.html

Quote:

Most of the convictions are for traffic offences such as speeding and drink-driving, but the records also include a South Yorkshire Police officer convicted of fishing without a licence

.

ECCOnoob · 02-01-2012, 17:09

Ha ha ha. To think an editor actually published that line.

Ohhh god. fishing without a licence. Get them struck off right away.

I rest my case about non stories.

RicadoTubbs · 05-01-2012, 11:12

Non-story is right. put it into perspective:

944 have criminal records, that includes both officers and pcsos - GB and NI have 140000(ish) police officers and 16000(ish) PCSO, so a pool of 150,000.

That makes the 944 = 0.6% of that population

Some 10% of the public have proper criminal records (for recordable offences)

The list provided seems to include speeding and fishing licence(!) offences which are non-recordable offences, so I hate to imagine what % of the general population has fallen foul of one of those.

Remove those "non-recordable" offences from the 944 and I doubt you are left with many "proper" criminal offences making the proportion infinitesimal.

When looked at in perspective, the police seem like a fairly honest lot to me. In fact, i would suggest that if one of their number falls foul of the law they are punished disproportionately harshly owing to the breach of trust angle. (i.e getting prison for an offence joe public would have got a caution for - that's fact, not opinion).

Anyway, don't let the facts or considered analysis get in the way of a good whinge. Gross generalisations make for good bar room "opinions" spouted by people with little of no capacity to grasp the full complexities of the issue at hand. Pass me that copy of The Sun / Star / Mirror / Daily Mail, (errr, pretty much any "news"paper publication these days) I need to be told what to think.