Caught on Camera

[ragitty]

Thank you for that Paul, I have now decided to see just how long it takes them without me ringing every day to manage a visit, then I will of course make a formal complaint.

[JohnDotCom]

It's time for an Official Complaint to the Chief Constable and Letter to Local Press.
That is Disgusting regardless of Workload.

[ragitty]

I made a mistake with reference to the hours it is not 33 it is 56 yes 56 hours good job I was not waiting here for the police to call

I will keep you all informed of this little scenario.

[dickhilt]

Ragitty

Forget writing letters.

Contact the duty inspector at the police station that covers the business and complain about the delay. I guarantee he'll have someone there pronto.

It shouldn't have come to this, you really ought to have had a visit within 24 hours.

[Raistlin]

Originally Posted by dickhilt

Ragitty

Forget writing letters.

Contact the duty inspector at the police station that covers the business and complain about the delay. I guarantee he'll have someone there pronto.

It shouldn't have come to this, you really ought to have had a visit within 24 hours.

I'd disagree with that.

It really doesn't matter how fast the local Inspector gets an officer on the scene now. Way too late now to do much at all. After all, you can see from your experience what effect talking to the local level has had already.

Now is the time to make your feelings clear in a way which cannot be "contained" at a local level, otherwise, this will happen to the next burglary victim and the locals will be quite content to file your complaint in file B 1 N.

I find that a phone call or a letter to the divisional Superintendant is usually a good place to start. I emphasise, Ragitty, a place to START. If you cannot be sure that things will be done at that stage then a more formal approach would be called for.

Just my opinion of course, based upon considerable experience.

[ragitty]

Thank you for your valued information Paul, it is now 73 hours since we were broken into, absolute disgrace with regard to the police.

The goods will now be long gone, I will have a chat with my Company Director today as see how he wants me to progress.

[Phil]

73 hours is absolutely awful. What if there was a clue that they could have found that has now gone? I wouldn't like to be the policeman that does? eventually turn up and meet you.

[ragitty]

98 and a half hours and still waiting for visit from the Police.

I did manage to find out the collar number of the officer dealing with our little problem, so I called her voicebox yesterday afternoon and left a polite message that we still needed to see someone.

As of 10.00am today nothing at all.

Latest: at 10.25am I decided enough is enough, my MD was quite happy to let it go because it will reflect on his business and he don't want to create a fuss, anyway I rang the police operations room and explained my situation, they took my details and promised that an officer would be attending our premises today.

[efreeti]

I know this is becoming a cliche but I guess most cliches are borne from a fundamental truth...

In the last three years I have been threatened with a firearem, had 2 cars stolen, had numerous cars broken into, had a trailer stolen, had my warehouse vandalised and broken into 3 times and during all those incidents had excatly ONE visit from a police officer who didn't even take a statement. Oh yeah and a visit from some sort of victim support civilian employee who was about as much use as a vicar popping round to make me a brew. Even our police monitored alarm system never seemed gee them up.

However in the last 2 weeks I have noted at least 12 police cars sat at the side of the road doing speed checks or helping out their friends in VOSA pulling over cars to do spot checks. Every week on TV there is a program showing numerous police officers sat with council employees dragging in cars who have outstanding parking tickets!

IMHO this should be the very very bottom of the police agenda. Nobody was ever killed by a parking ticket. Parking ticket offenders are pretty unlikely to show up at your place of work and demand cash whilst holding a knife. Even spot MOT and insurance checks are just NOT as important as catching a group of lads who have just thrown a boulder through your shop window and nicked a load of caravan tellies.

It doesn't really matter if this is down to individual officers, the government, the council or the "system". The fact is that police are wasting their time chasing parking fines and speeding cars when, and here comes the cliche, they should be out there catching real criminals! There, I said it!

VOSA seem to be everywhere on the motorways, speed cameras are breeding like rabbits and surely bringing in huge incomes for the police coffers, automatic number plate readers are catching un taxed cars and now even the insurance and MOT systems are on a central database and offenders can be fined automatically. So why are there so many real police officers still assigned to traffic?

Rant, rant rant.

[dickhilt]

efreeti,

Couldn't agree more with SOME of your comments. The service Ragitty has received is chronic. He'll have been given a crime number to record the matter and the crime will have been allocated to some probationary PC no doubt.
In the good old days when I first joined, ALL burglaries were visited by a detective and high value commercial burglaries were always dealt with by the same.
As a traffic (motorway) cop I feel I have to set the record straight on a couple of issues;
Parking tickets are no longer dealt with by the Police, those offences have been de-criminalised.
Revenue from speed/traffic light cameras does not go directly into Police coffers. The revenue is allegedly ploughed back into 'Safety Partnerships'.
I fully agree that there are already too many of the damn things (can't stand them meself) and that a good proportion are there for revenue.
As far as traffic police are concerned, most people would prefer to see more of them, not less. Traffic policing in this country has been eroded enough already.
The only automatic fines one can receive are for excise offences given out by the DVLA if you don't continually tax your car or declare it as SORN. There are a limited number of DVLA camera vans designed to catch untaxed cars via ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition).
You are correct in saying that both insurance and MOT databases are now available to the Police though not one hundred percent reliable but there are NO automatic fines issued for use of vehicles without the above. ANPR can alert Police to vehicles not on the insurance database when they pass through the limited number of sites but the vehicle needs to be physically stopped to prove the offence.
The fact of the matter is that most criminals now use vehicles and no amount of cameras are going to catch them, especially as many tend to clone their cars, stolen or otherwise.
Same for the arrogant, selfish individuals who still choose to drive around using their mobile phones.
The huge influx of immigrants into the country has also massively increased the number of uninsured and un-licenced drivers on our roads and again, cameras won't catch them. My relatively small team of officers are actively seizing upwards of 300 cars a month off the motorways network alone with no insurance/licence.
On the speeding front, no one is more lenient than me on that front, perhaps too lenient some may say. You'll have to be cracking on before I put pen to paper and most of my colleagues are the same. The difference is that an officer still has discretion, cameras don't and are generally set to activate at ten percent plus two mph over the speed limit, some areas less REGARDLESS of what time of day or night it is.
But where do you draw the line on speed? When you've been to a few fatal accidents caused by speed, you might change your mind on that one. We've all (myself included) been pinching 10 mph over the speed limit when some lunatic appears clinging to your back bumper and then overtakes you like you're standing still. They're the ones that need catching because they're the ones likely to wipe out your loved ones.......
Then it will be a question of 'there's never one there when you need them'
as far as traffic police are concerned.
Playing devils advocate one might say that a burglar rarely kills someone, some of the drivers I've highlighted often do.
Penalising otherwise decent people for driving offences is never going to be a popular passtime but in most cases, it's justifiable and necessary, popular or not.