milo24/7

Well you will forgive me for a little civic pride in the city where I live.! Personally I believe that Sheffield, indeed South Yorkshire as a whole, is deserving of such assets as a Police Helicopter AND/OR an Air Ambulance. The county may well be covered from afar, but that will only be when incidents nearer to the helicopter bases arent occuring also. Time-critical incidents are prioritised by the chances of success / usefulness of the crew. So this region will slide down the pecking order. I for one will always be critical of such decisions rather then trust that every decision made is in the best interest of the people being served.

No. The Police helicopter is going too. Sheffield is losing both the Air Ambulance AND the Police Helicopter. But dont worry Leeds are keeping both theirs, so its ok. !

yeah you could do. But you could also remember the eighties. You know when the evil witch otherwise known as thatcher the milk snatcher, devastated all the heavy engineering in this part of the world. The tories, then as now, with no regard for anyone but themselves and their upperclass twits brought in an industrialist to "run" british steel (into the ground as it happended). Who was this person, Ian MacGregor... AN AMERICAN..!! Not content with destroying British Steel, he was then appointed chairman of the National Coal Board..!! guess what happened next.. ah yes the british coal industry also went to the wall.. (ironic that now the country depends on overpriced gas from overseas..) and now that the eastern european countries no longer subsidise their coal to undercut the UK, the price of coal has risen to the point whereby its actualy worth digging it out the ground again now..! (maltby pit is doing very well thank you) But of course, the wicked witch maggie was intent on bringing down the miners, regardless of the consequences to the North. Labour are indeed, it would appear, guilty of gross mismanagement of the country. But they are no better or worse for this than than the tories. It will only be a matter of time before the government ministers all have non-executive directorships of companies, succesfully bidding for government contracts and have their noses well and truly buried in the trough, AGAIN. People have short memories and seem to forget how utterly despicable the working class get treated by the tories. Sadly we never learn, and while ever only a third of the population can be a**sed to vote, we never will. Personally, when thatcher finally pops her clogs I will dance in the street for what she did to my family and my community, and if they dare to give her a state funeral, I will be there to yell out a huge BOOOOOO as they go past. Why, because I do remember. So perhaps if the conservatives had managed the economy better during their last term, we wouldnt be a nation of shoppers, shopkeepers, cleaners and public sector workers. We may have continued to have the industrial power we once had, whereby we were innovative and productive, the rival if not the better of any country in the world, and stronger economicaly for it. As for cops having expensive toys ...?? well that pretty much demonstartes the depth of knowledge.. I wonder what that poster does for a living...

What price justice then..? Will we compile a list of things that will be investigated and a list of things that wont..? Trivial joy riders - what is the definition of this..? Is it judged on the value of the car they have stolen, so only executive cars will be chased..? Perhaps it can be based on whether or not they have burgled your house or not. Or maybe by postcode..? We have a postcode health service, so perhaps we can have postcode policing too..? Those people that live in areas where there are lots of crime can be ignored if they report a car theft, because the car wont be worth much anyway and lets face it they probably know the people responsible..! We can prioritise petty crime the same way. Shoplifters from waitrose can be investigated/chased. But not from Aldi.. ! If the helicopter is called over from Manchester to a car chase, they can ask whether its local joyriders in a nissan micra (in which case its not worthy) or if its a new executive BMW, in which case they will make the effort to travel 20 mins to fly over the pennines..! (assuming its a quiet night in manchester that is) I like your idea NAGEL.. its a new way to police.. dont bother with petty stuff like someone stealing your car..!!

well i guess its open season for the burglars to come to sheffield (from manchester) and take peoples cars from their drives, knowing full well that by the time anyone knows whats happened they will well on their way back over the hill on the M62..! another quality decision by SYP..

well maybe but i cant see how many crooks they are going to catch when they have to travel over from manchester first..!! Personally i'd rather pay another ten pence and keep the one at sheffield..!

yeah but not all the 1.75 million people ARE paying taxes..!! So are we now paying for the helicopter in manchester too..???

Have we..? when did that happen..!! Does that mean both are being scrapped.?

Actually the tories commissioned the Sheehy report into the future of Policing in 1993. This friend of the tories was then running British American Tobacco, and was intent on running the police as a business, and paying them the same. He argued that Police work was not a special case occupation, and compared newly appointed constables to people stacking shelves in local supermarkets. He argued they should be paid the same. Which is all well and good, however (and all respect to supermarket workers) but police officers regularly are attacked, and occasionaly murdered, (pc sharon beshenivsky) merely because of the uniform they wear, and the job they do. Police Officers are there to deal with the section of society that you, the public can choose to cross the road to avoid. If Police work is to be considered a business, then Officers will obviously lose those restrictions on private lives currently in place. ie being unable to join a political party, being unable to live where they want without permission from the chief constable, be unable to join a trade union, and be unable to go on strike..!! (amongst many others) Performance related pay (as recommended by Sheehy) will also bring in many dividends for hardworking officers, who when dealing with minor misdemeanors, perhaps with young people, can arrest, process, and have prosecuted, every individual they come across, (rather than give a verbal warning) and claim the bonuses that the tories would like to pay. So no. It's no shock at all actually. Police work is traditionaly a working class vocation. And we all no how the tories treat them.

........................

Not so. The seat in use at the time is irrelevant, you can be stood next to your vehicle and still be "in charge". Many people are prosecuted when asleep in the back seat for drunk in charge offences. As mentioned earlier, the test to be applied is, the likelihood of driving And whilst that is subjective, the court will decide one way or the other. virtually all drink drive legislation applies to "public places". A pub car park is private property. But it is a public place. (Unless the landlord puts electric gates on it and issues his regulars with a swipe card.) The same applies to supermarket car parks, private roads with no gates on, open playing fields/park land etc.. and for obvious reasons. !! A drink drive/drunk in charge arrest, will generate about 3 hours paperwork at least, after the arrest. So if you really believe that 3 hours paperwork is a way of relieving boredom.... well... what can i say.. ??? Next time I find an Officer that is "bored" I'll ask what "tricks" they do to break the endless monotony..!!

short answer: YES.. PERFECTLY LEGAL..... (however) just as it perfectly legal (tho not advisable) to drink alcohol whilst driving.!! Yes, you can drive up the M1 and drink a can of stella if you choose. The problems occur when you exceed the limit whilst doing these things... The current limit is 35 micrograms in breath. Which YOU will not be able to judge. Its nothing to do with pints/units/shorts... whatever.. everyone absorbs alcohol differently so ignore people that say the limit is 2 pints, 2 wines, or whatever. The only safe measure is ZERO..! Anyway. As far as the being sat in the vehicle and being drunk.. yes. the offence is drunk in charge. Ignore where the keys are. The location of the keys and the proximity of the "driver" are simply means to determine the likely-hood of the drunk person, actually driving. It is this likely-hood that will sway a prosecution one way or another. The legislation is HUGE and much caselaw has been written about it, because drink driving legislation is the most tested in the UK.. Far too big to explain fully on a forum. However... if you are in possession of your car keys and drunk, yes, technically you are committing an offence. But dont get worried about it... the test that will be applied by a court is, "what is the likelyhood of you driving... 99% of the time the answer will be ZERO... If however, you are found asleep in your car, down a quiet country lane, or somewhere similar, and the worse for drink... you are highly likely to be arrested for drunk in charge.... (and this is the MOST common circumstance this law is used) Dont forget, its a safety thing.. its there to prevent drunk people, who are not making clear decisions, from driving when they shouldnt. Dont worry about the technicalities of the legislation, your head will spin if you go into it too deeply. (im sat with a glass of wine right now, my car keys are on the side, and i am "in charge" of my vehicle..! I could easily go and drive it right now... however, the cops arent going to be beating down my door. The message is simple. Cars and drink dont mix. If you were arrested whilst sat in your car with your mate, on your street, over the limit for drink driving. How confident would you feel about convincing a court, that there was absolutely NO chance, whilst in your drunken state, that you wouldnt have been tempted or able, to just drive a bit further down the road, move the car round the corner, drive it to your mates, nip to the shop, go into to town, drive to the coast...!! Can you see where this goes....... This legislation is in place because people have lost loved ones as a result of drink driving. Its not because the law makers wanted to stop people sitting in cars on their driveway with some cans...! Its there as an intervention, so the police dont HAVE to park round the corner and wait for the vehicle to be driven (and therefore risking an accident or a pursuit, or both) by someone who is drunk. They arrest the person in charge, and let the court decide if there was a likelyhood of driving taking place WHILST over the limit.

ah well.. 25 years in the "business"... it does that to you..!! In fact the title of this thread should be changed to "south yorkshire police helicopter to go.." be under no illusions that this is whats being planned. SYP wont share its chopper with someone else. It will go, and they will have to pay to use someone elses when the need arises...!!

like most police forces SYP is top heavy with departments / civilians that are nothing to do with policing. wasting money on handheld computers PCSO's walking around in gangs 'cos they cant deal with "proper" police work. "business change" managers..? cant wait to hear the outcry when its announced that the SYP helicopter is binned..! and it WILL be binned cos west yorkshire is quite close by and already provide cover.. welcome back the ram raiders anytime soon..!!

Just so you know. SYP dont get ANY of the money from the safety cameras. The fines go back to the safety camera partnership. Any surplus after wages and equipment costs goes back to the government. That also applies to ALL fines issued to motorists, and offenders at the courts, not just speeding. The money goes straight to the government. The Police dont see a penny of it. Police budgets are fixed and come from council tax and the home office. However the cops on miami vice..... they get to keep speedboats and Ferrari's and lots of other cool stuff. Maybe it will happen here soon,and we can drive around in L reg Vaux Corsas or crappy toyota Camry's. Cool.

Condolences to all family, friends and colleagues. and to the bike wing too. Close knit bunch of guys who are everything the job stands for. Very choked when i saw the flag at half mast earlier at the ops complex, really brought it home.

hmmm sense of humour failure... never mind. But just for the record, its really very insulting to have ones professionalism knocked by someone who clearly has no idea of the real world out there. I have a very high tolerance level to low lifes and law breakers, as do all Police Officers. However I reserve the right to get annoyed, when Im spat at, swung for, or accused of doubtful parentage. The difference between cops and civilians is that cops will find a way to deal with it and confront it, whereas others can walk away (or start swinging). you clearly know nothing of police work if you believe that we have clerks available to carry out the reams of paperwork required of a frontline officer.? As i stated before, and no, you dont need to speak slowly, im quite used to listening to people, written communication, having no NVC's to fall back on, can be very easily misinterpreted. Thats why 20 years ago, we went to taped interviews with suspects rather than notes. So despite the use of "emoticons" i was still misinterpreted, well by one individual anyway. If you wish for your police to be completely unresponsive to any outside influences and completely inflexible, (more so than they are now) then robocop is what your after. However if you want humans doing the job, then be prepared for some variance between individuals. And if you start swearing at me whilst im working, you will get a warning, and if you swear at me again, you will get arrested, and i will probably tell you that you are a "gob-blank" as i sit you down in a cell, so that you know why you shouldnt swear at cops. Your parents may tolerate it, but the cops wont. Whats the problem..? Mr.. whatif.. I call a spade a spade im afraid, and I tell it how I see it. I'm as politicaly correct as the next person, but a low-life is a low-life if they are out there commiting crimes against decent people. I'll give them some respect when they stop stealing, and get jobs. Enjoy

5 years on an ARV my friend... different bucket, same s**t.. Actually I do lock up gob****es. Where's the issue..? is it my grammar..! I also deal with more serious offenders and deal with them in all manner of appropriate disposals, including cautions, warnings, final warnings, charge and bail, charge and remand.. or sometimes just a clip round the ear.!! (HA, I WISH.. those were the days) Please dont assume that simply because i think my managers are buffoons, and that the job as a whole has gone to rat s**t, that I am some sort of psychopathic loose cannon, waiting to go off..!! but i suppose thats the downfall of written communication. A lot gets lost in translation. For the record. I consider myself very much a real professional. Ive been doing the job a long time, and still have a good few years (and arrests) left in me yet. So long as I get left alone by the bureaucrats, to deal with the scum out there, my final phase of my career will be productive and fulfilling. However I dont hold out much hope of that... and a job in Oz looks much more tempting for the next 8 years. G'Day..

two faced..!! if it was only 2 faces needed then the job might be manageable. you, the public, have demanded, through political correctness, amongst other things, that cops have to say one thing and do another, all the time. I provide a public service, im not a public servant. my job is being out there catching the scum stealing your cars and breaking into your houses. I do not dish out parking tickets, speeding tickets, or knock people off for having no car tax. I dont get time for any of that sh**, and neither do my colleagues. (But if i do ever get time again i will) At various times over the last 20 yrs or so, I have been stabbed, kicked unconscious, had my eyesocket broken, and ran over by stolen bikes. I have been maliciously accused of assault by criminals, who later admitted they made the accusations 'cos they were bored/didnt like getting arrested. So please. If you stagger up to my van downtown on a friday night and try to make a joke and have a laugh with me. You will forgive me for not having a sense of humour 100% of the time. Selfishness..?? damn right. Why..? cos if I dont look after my own back, no one else will. There arent many jobs you can do, that will look at putting you in jail if you **** up. Im a professional person, and I rarely feel the need to engage people in useless conversation when Ive a stack of things I need to do elsewhere.. So please dont accuse me (us) of being rude, when I dont share a joke or spend 5 mins passing the time day. The individual posting the reply and divulging the firearms incident may well have been stood on an outer-cordon for several hours that day keeping people out of the area while the job got sorted. After hearing the same questions several dozen times from punters, ones patience wears a little thin. Cut the guy (or girl) some slack. They will still be out next week on nights locking up the gob-****es in your area making your lives a misery. Im afraid Dixon of Dock Green is dead, as the Dodo. If you want him back, better start speaking to your MP and try and get the Police Service back. Because what you have now is useless. These views are my own. The job doesnt like me having them. I hate criminals and thieving lazy scum who wont get jobs.

Especially the ones that are going to take money off you for this "service" you are very vulnerable, please dont get taken in by these immoral criminals. Just remember that one of the "best" so called mediums, Doris Stokes back in the eighties was revealed to be exactly what she was. A fraudster. As they all are. A quick search on the internet will find you plenty of books for sale on how to set yourself up as a medium. Give them a wide berth, and concentrate on providing the best care for your friend, and for yourself. best of luck.

i fail to see what the point would be of "racing around the streets" with or without impunity... for no reason.? is it to get to the next domestic where the house stinks of urine and the dog comes into the lounge for a crap before back out into its "clean" kennel. is it to get to the next neighbour dispute where adults have been calling names over the garden fence. perhaps its the smith family again, falling out with each other and wanting the cops to come arrest the drunken step dad who has scabes and lice and convictions for incest. hmmmmmm yes, i would always get my foot down for quality calls like that. or maybe, just maybe... if you do see a cop car driving like the clappers, with or without blue lights (depending on the type of call theyre not always used).. there is a valid reason to do so.!! after all, if you have 6 hours to go before the end of a shift, what difference does it make driving quickly..? it wont make the end of the shift come any quicker..!! or we could all just hang up the car keys and say bo***cks, whats the point !

oh paalease.. feel free to contribute 11% of your GROSS wage to your pension scheme.. then get someone (who doesnt know anything about it) to moan. and for the record. the police pension scheme has been raped just like all the others. New starters have been forced to join the "new" scheme for a couple of years or more now.. whereby they work more years for less pension..??

the link is w w w news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7466291.stm and has already been mentioned, the overtime budget is not the issue. what the public should be concerned with is the fact that in a typical borough such as say rotherham, including the town centre, outlying areas such as kimberworth, thorpe hesley, aston, swallownest, wickersley, whiston, taken as a whole... the number of officers actually on duty during the night will be about 8.. if your very lucky.. thats 8 cops for 250,000 people. and the more numbers are reduced, the more these officers spend running around at the beck and call of the radio, going to stupid people who cant control their husbands/wives/pets/children/selves.... without involving the authorities then the less time they are are out there on patrol, in the night, trying to catch the real criminals that are out there trying to break into your property or steal your car. PCSO's dont work night shifts, they dont attend domestic incidents, they dont arrest people, they dont have to submit the reams of paperwork after each job. The list of things they DO is much smaller than the list of things they DONT.. and yet we are getting more and more of them at the expense of regular Officers. Give them the powers to deal with all the usual sh*te that officers deal with and I may be a little more supportive, if it frees up time to go and deal with all the actual criminals, rather than people that just cant sort out their own lives. you dont catch villains or protect property by sitting on your arse in the nick doing paperwork. But thats what were left with when the idiots stop ringing in with dross and you finally get chance to get caught up with bloody paperwork, cos there's not enough on the shift to do otherwise.

shame on this goverment shame on modern day society shame on modern police command teams for destroying the modern police service and all that has been suffered in the past to make it what was, the envy of the world... despite all the faults routinely trawled out by people on here, anyone that has spent time overseas will tell you how superior the UK Police are. One of the best things was always that the man at the very top, started at the bottom with everyone else. That any specialist had spent their time on the streets earning their spots and that any officer arriving to help you would have the tools and the knowledge to do so. And what do we have now..? Extreme fast track promotions Civilian workers doing police jobs (and even supervising cops..!! ?? ) PCSO's providing a 2 tiered Police service (at best) I despair at what has happened to the service that my father held so dear, and was so proud for me to join. I'm now ashamed to tell people im part of an organisation that gets so much wrong, so often, for so many people. We do do good work, every day. But that is in spite of the organisation, not because of it. Its only ever down to the tenacity of individual officers and hard graft on their part. After 20 years I wish i had a stab at another career. I dont complain about pay. I get paid a fair wage for fair graft. But I never thought I would see the day when we REDUCED police numbers in light of expanding population and immigration. This has been the final straw for me. Im now looking for opportunities in the southern hemisphere and the chance to leave this madness behind.. I wish you all luck with what is to come, you'll need it..!!

however its okay "only 40 frontline posts will be lost"...! i wonder where the spare 40 cops have been hiding away then that we can afford to get rid of...? oh but its okay, we will have plent of PCSO's to to take the strain wont we..!! PAH..!!! what utter madness