What are people's views on the Police?

[Echelon 10]

You're absolutely correct..

 

But you've got to realise that when forum members like VARB are slagging the police off...they don't really know any better. Poor education and a lack of social awareness manifests itself in the very posts which that member writes.

 

The problem is that in the UK there are too many people who are seemingly happy that the criminals have more rights than the victims. People spend more time bleating about a police officer that perhaps wasn't as polite as he should have been..instead of complaining that victims rights seem to have been overshadowed by the rights of the offender.

 

If you are a victim of a crime, you'll have little or no support professionally. (other than an ex WRVS lady now working for Victim Support - Sweet Tea & Biscuits in abundance)

 

However, if you are a criminal, there's people queuing out of the door to offer their support to you: legal aid solicitors, social workers, probation officers, drug rehabilitation workers, etc etc

 

you my friend are spot on. this is one and oretty much the only thing i dont like about the british legal system. i always have discusions about this with my friends. there should be no excuse for robery in this counrty as you get benefits and will not starv to death unlike some people in russia or georgia who need to steal to get food, yet if you catch them robbing you, youcan get away with doin pretty mch anything to them exept killing them. unless in self defence

[fr8neck 10]

Not a bad idea but like when national service was in operation a core of profesionals would be needed for training and specialist work .

 

I also believe if we had an elected ( non political ) chief constable in each area instead of a goverment appointee we might start to get the police force the people want .

 

At last! a reasoned response to my provocatory concept.

 

My personal experiences of the police (about 300 officers) have been fairly excellent in all modes: criminal, suspect, subordinate vehicle recovery operative, victim, and random encounters.

 

Occasional unfortunatenesses: "If I wasn't a police officer I'd punch your f*****g face in!", I take as mere overfamiliarity.

 

The problem is the complete lack of meaningful action regarding: druggies dealing in the street(4 months, nothing done.) Nuisance neighbours(2 1/2 years, nothing done.) Various car robbing/vandalising activities(no real investigations) Large gangs of ratboy/'underclass' types vandalising, abusing passersby and shopkeepers, persecuting anyone who appears handily weak.(periodic purges, then back to business as usual)

 

The police, as presently constituted, are not capable of achieving the ends society requires.

 

One rather obvious need is persistence of presence , which is simply not going to happen.It is not considered an efficient use of highly trained officers to do long term foot patrols: and it's correct, it's not.

 

Huge portions of the police resource are used dealing with drunk fighting activities which takes them away from more useful duties.

 

I don't see any particular reason why these pretty basic activities :beat patrol, disorderly conduct; are beyond the capability of an average person with 6 to 12 months training.

 

I've no interest in 'being a policeman' but I'm quite prepared to spend 12 hours every other week walking a beat with a stick and power of arrest if it makes our society safer.

More specialised police duties can, as now, be performed by the long serving professionals, and it makes little sense to use these on relatively unskilled policing tasks.

 

A national service police would make society more democratic and better integrated.

As all classes and ethnicities would be required to perform the duties; the us and them attitude, near unanimous in some areas, would be powerfully eroded.

By doing the job the deficiencies of the Criminal Justice System would become clear to a sufficiently large constituency to force improvement.

The requirements of learning and performing a responsible task in society would go some way to reversing the creeping self-absorbed, irresponsible infantilism that is making our country a less pleasant, less safe place to live.

 

No politician would endorse it as it would largely turn the police service into an organisation driven by the needs of society, rather than the tool of the political class: which, imo, is the best possible reason to do it.

[bexiboo 10]

I think the police are FANTASTIC.I know people have bad experiences with traffic cops and stuff and there are some nasty coppers about but when you speak to police and you ask why they are being so abrupt it's because they themselves get treated like crap sometimes so instead of pussy footing round people just get on with it.i just think of all the stuff they have to put up with i.e friday and saturday nights when people are coming out of clubs and stuff.

Thumps up to police and fire brigade!!!

[Womerry2 10]

When we were burgled, one of the attending police officers acted like it was all my own fault because I had negligently failed to install a six foot fence, a burglar alarm and a floodlight, all of which I was strongly advised to purchase at the earliest opportunity (we live in a small terraced house with a locked passage gate; the burglars crossed two other gardens, climbing a wall and a fence, to get in through a back window that is not overlooked from the road. I still do not see where, exactly, we made things "easy" for them or invited an opportunist crime.) The scenes of crimes officer, on the other hand, treated me neither as a helpless victim nor as a stupid moron but understood that I was shaking with anger more than fear (despite the friendly police officer's kind reassurance that we'd been very lucky that we had not woken up while the burglars were in the house as "it could have gotten nasty"). Maybe civilian support staff are simply less likely to develop such crass insensitivity because they are not usually called to attend in emergency situations - but I feel that we should certainly acknowledge the contribution they make to police work and especially to the overall positive image of the police.

[AtticusFinch 10]

I've called them three times this year and had mixed responses. The first time I was walking down London Road at about 11pm on a Saturday evening and as I walked past the Old Tramway pub, a gang of 6-8 youths hurled a brick at me and then ran off. Luckily it missed. I can't be 100% sure that they weren't merely aiming at the pub on the other side of the road, but I got the distinct impression they were just waiting for the next person who walked past the side road they were in.

 

I went to West Bar police station the following Monday and reported it to the woman behind the counter. She said they'd get back to me if they needed any more information or if any similar incidents happened in future, but no-one has contacted me since.

 

The second incident happened in either September or October. At the time I was living in a fourth-floor flat with a balcony in Coode House at Riverside Exchange. As I was watching TV one Saturday morning around 10-11am, I noticed two guys by the Inner Relief Road building site close to the Millsands junction with Corporation Street. They caught my attention because at the time the pavement had been dug up and fenced off, but they were behind the fence. They were also crouching down behind the wall so they couldn't be seen from Riverside Exchange.

 

One of them was pulling at the fence to open it at the end, and the other walked right across the building site with a shopping trolley. He picked up 4 or 5 girders or beams that were around 5 feet long, put them in the trolley and wheeled it back to where his mate was holding the fence open. Both of them then set off along Millsands towards Bridge Street pushing the trolley with the stolen goods. I could see what was happening so I shouted my girlfriend to fetch her camera and I took a few photos of them as they passed underneath. They weren't great photos because I was four floors up and the zoom on the camera wasn't great, but they still gave a general idea of what they looked like.

 

First of all I went past the building site to look for a sign with the contractors phone number on but couldn't find one, so I then went up to West Bar police station. I told the woman behind the counter and she fetched a police officer. I described it to him, showed him the photos and he took my details. He then set off to look for them in a car and said he'd contact me if they needed more information. He didn't actually take copies of the photos though and nobody called me back about it. I find this a little bit strange because the Inner Relief Road contractors must surely have noticed the missing girders/beams when they came into work on the Monday and reported them.

 

The third incident happened last week. I was sat in my front room in Highfield when I heard a bang. I opened the door and saw a car stopped diagonally across the path right in front of someone's front door on the other side of the street. A man got out, tried to push the car backwards onto the road, gave up, looked around and then walked off at speed. He didn't see me watching him. What I found strange was that instead of walking down the street, he walked down the nearest side alley and round the back of a few houses.

 

Although my gut feeling was that he'd stolen the car, crashed it, panicked and left, I was wary about reporting it in case I was wrong. It could well have been someone who lived there who'd crashed while parking. For the next 20 minutes I kept checking on the car at regular intervals. The lights remained on and the car remained askew across the pavement. I then took some recycling to B&Q and checked it on my way back. As I walked past, I could see that the car had hit both a parked car and the front of someone's house.

 

I then reported it straight away on 101, giving them the car number plate. For the next hour I was waiting for the police to knock on my door and ask for my information on the incident. After not checking for ten minutes, I opened the door and there were two police cars next to the car checking it out. I walked over to the police and told them it was me who'd reported it. What I found frustrating was that they should have found me, as I'd given 101 both my address and mobile number. I'd actually seen the incident happen, whereas it seemed like no-one else on the street had, so they should have knocked on my door first. Maybe they were on their way, but I can't help thinking that they wouldn't have contacted me if I hadn't walked over there.

[Darbees 10]

Ring them on 999, this 101 thing clearly doesn't work. They will trot out the old chestnut that you might be preventing them attending another emergency but they need to get 101 in order if they expect the public to have confidence in it. It's a cop (no pun)out for them.

[LibertyBell 10]

When we got some stuff nicked , my partner went to attercliffe station to report it and was seen by an overstuffed ignorant oaf who treated her like s--- and (probably because we lived in Pitsmoor) virtually said its your fault what the f--- do you expect me to do about it . He then got up and walked out without saying anything at all, not even saying thanks or goodbye. She didn't realise the interview was over for a few minutes when it became clear he wasn't coming back! Moron.

 

There are proabably some good ones as well.

[spook 10]

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

[tallpaul 10]

I think i'll join you spook

[samcdcd 10]

youd have summat to moan about if their wearnt any. police aware.

[Scrutineer 10]

"I then reported it straight away on 101, giving them the car number plate. For the next hour I was waiting for the police to knock on my door and ask for my information on the incident. After not checking for ten minutes, I opened the door and there were two police cars next to the car checking it out. I walked over to the police and told them it was me who'd reported it. What I found frustrating was that they should have found me, as I'd given 101 both my address and mobile number. I'd actually seen the incident happen, whereas it seemed like no-one else on the street had, so they should have knocked on my door first. Maybe they were on their way, but I can't help thinking that they wouldn't have contacted me if I hadn't walked over there."

 

What would you have told them? That the possible offender left nearly 2 hours ago?

Read 'Wasting Police Time' by PC David Copperfield. Then repost with your thoughts. Or even visit his blog. The truth about the British Police 'Service' will be revealed.

[VARB 10]

 

Waste Watch- The Police