Caught on Camera

[JohnDotCom]

There is several Police Officers as Subscribed Members on Here both Current and retired or Just Left.
On the Social Forum Free Speech within the Rules is allowed as otherwise it would just become a Dictatorship.
We Do not allow any Personal Attacks, Racial, Religious etc.
But Comments Good and Bad will appear about all areas on this Forum as a Discussion and are Personal feelings and comments.
Sometimes you may not agree but we allow Free Speech here within Limits.
We also have a Member on the Bench here who will be along to put his comments Later.
You must now realise the Police Force no Longer hold much respect in the UK, and many People won't even assist Officers in trouble, Respect is earned and many of these new ones will ever get that unfortunately and this is because of Real Events happening to real People out there and the crazy Results that come from it.

I am sorry if you do not agree and of Course you are welcome as you have to respond accordingly.

Oh and Where are my Manners, welcome to the Club.
There is loads to read on the Cars How to Fix them, Modify them, source Parts and a Many other Things as well as a Social side with Local and National Meets.

[ragitty]

Originally Posted by dickhilt

What a great shame!

I've just joined this register to learn a little about a car I admire and am considering purchasing and the very first post I read is almost entirely composed of slagging off the job I have been doing for 26 years!
It's always frusrating when people clearly have absolutely no concept of what it's like nowadays to man "the thin blue line".
Sadly, successive governments have increased the amount of red tape required to do the most mundane of tasks and have reduced beat strength to the point that it's almost laughable. Many of you would be shocked at just how few bobbies there are available to deal with the thousand of calls a day, indeed half my time is spent apologising for how long it's taken the police to get to their incident. That is purely because there are so few of us that we have to grade calls according to their urgency, ie life or death, ongoing etc. The rest I'm affraid often have to wait. Even in some larger cities such as Leeds city centre, staffing levels are often into single figures and one alcohol fueled disturbance, murder, fatal RTC etc etc can often tie everyone up.
The government have spent a fortune employing 'Police Community Support Officers' for 'high visibility' patrols, but they have very limited powers and, frankly, it's money for old rope! When you consider that a PCSO can earn anything up to £24,000 a year for basically walking around, one wonders why a married copper with two kids and five years service bothers for the same money, you could earn more as a trainee manager at Macdonalds!
All those 22,000 officers marching in London were on their day off because they feel betrayed by this government, as do most public sector workers.
A top scale PC now with less than around 12 years service takes home around £1700 per month working earlies, lates and nights. He is personally accountable for his actions 24/7 on or off duty, can't strike and can't take any form of industrial action. In my service I have been assaulted several times, once seriously, been shot at, had to disarm deranged knifemen and been stabbed with used needles, picked up parts of dismembered, decomposed bodies etc etcIt's very easy to slag off the Police when you have no concept of what they face everyday. After all, enforcing the law either criminal or road traffic is not a popular passtime.
And as for retired or ex cops, the job has changed beyond recognition in the last few years.
When I joined this job 26 years ago, it was "a bobbies job". You were paid not as much for what you did, but what you may be called upon to do. Now, the polar opposite is true.
I would not dream of slagging off anyones job unless I had a firm grasp of what they do and what difficulties they face.
Perhaps if one or two of you feel that you can do a better job for the money, then you know what to do..............................!
And as for describing us as "muppets" well, sadly that reflects very badly on the scribe................................

As per your two points above, first point I can share everything with you. and on your second point, I work 6 days a week which includes weekends, I get a thursday off as my rest day should I ever have the opportunity of taking home after tax £1700 a month I would be very happy indeed.

However I believe the Police do have a very hard job and like every other group of workers there are good and bad, I think the general concencus of the police these day's is they are never about when needed, I have lived in my house now since returning from the states for 8 years, I have never seen a policeman on the beat, and never seen a pcso either but I have seen them zoom by in their police car ignoring the rowdies on the streets.

Having said all that Welcome to a really great forum that is absolutely packed with information about the Rover 75/ZT please do not be offended by comments made this is a general forum where people can share their experiences good or bad, car related or other.

[Phil]

Welcome to the forum, when i said muppet, I did not generalise, I did say the stories I have heard in which I know to be true really are laughable and make me very upset and annoyed. For me to generalise and say all policemen were muppets would be reckless as you simply cannot say that. There are good and bad in all professions but unfortunately for myself I have only heard of the bad ones. If my comment has offended you then I apologise. But as I said, there are good and bad in all professions, people just tend to judge on their experiences.:lol:

[dickhilt]

I fully agree that everyone has a right to their opinion and I also agree with many of the comments on this post.
I am also all too aware that there are a minority of officers who let down their profession badly and sadly, these are the very ones who are most likely to draw attention to themselves for all the wrong reasons.
There are bad apples in all walks of life...............and in my experience, people are very quick to criticise but rarely praise.
I'm simply setting the record straight a little because most people have no concept of how bad things have become. They visualise police stations full of coppers either doing paperwork or in the now non-existant canteens.
What they don't realise is that the copper that turns up on their doorstep can often be one of only a handful and occasionally the only one on the streets.
For instance, if a prisoner is booked into custody and has, at that time or any time in the past expressed suicidal tendencies or self harmed, then they are put on constant supervision. That means an officer that would normally be on patrol sitting outside their open cell door all the time that they are in custody. Now multiply that by two or three which is often the case and you have just lost a third of your shift.
The majority of people's frustrations would be better vented on the government and judicial system that let down both the police and public so badly and have tipped the balance heavily in favour of the poor old villain!
This particular case is a prime example. If the video stills I've seen are all from a similar distance, then even if the culprits are caught but deny the offence, the chances of getting a conviction are slim. Thank the Crown Proscution Service for that. They, as the police are judged on results and unless there is a good chance of a conviction, they won't even run it.
Now, imagine how frustrating that is to the officer who has arrested the little darlings, spent hours waiting to book them into custody, then hours interviewing them and compiling a prosecution file just to be told that it's not worth running the case as they may not get a conviction. Now, who do you think gets the blame for this.............you guessed it!
Same applies to those ****** "Safety Cameras" and vans which, for the most part I despise despite being a traffic cop. Absolutely nothing to do with the Police or in many cases safety, yet who gets the blame when you get flashed at 36 mph in a 30 at 2.00 am...........yup!
I don't think lack of respect for the police is confined to this country, it's an international thing and the very fact that many people would not come to an officers assistance if they were in trouble is a sad inditment of society in general.
I strongly believe that education, health and law and order are the main priorities in any society and should be provided with whatever funding is necessary to be effective. After all, we all pay enough in taxes.
Just look at New York as an example. Ten years ago you wouldn't want to walk the streets at night, now there's a cop on every corner and people feel totally safe.
There will always be people let down, but despite everthing, in my force we get to around 95% of immediately graded calls and 85% of urgent graded calls within the requisite timescale.
I have enjoyed most of my Police service, but there is no way I would join today. I could earn substantially more money driving a train without any of the hassle!

[dickhilt]

PS.
I am not in the slightest bit offended and can fully understand people's frustrations!

I get far worse most days, and nights of the week!

Just putting a different slant on things from the inside so to speak!

Looking forward to learning a little about the cars and sourcing a nice low mileage, facelift ZT cdti preferably in red!

[JohnDotCom]

Originally Posted by dickhilt

Looking forward to learning a little about the cars and sourcing a nice low mileage, facelift ZT cdti preferably in red!

Your Car Choice is an Excellent one. Silvers Best Though.

[Phil]

I feel most educated. It sounds like a right kerfuffle. My grandad was a police officer in Leeds. Dead now sadly, I expect it was a bit different then though.

What car are you looking into getting then?

Edit: too slow, I guess you mean firefrost? very nice.

[ragitty]

It is good to be able to see both sides of other peoples opinions, after all many can only speak about their own experiences, getting the other side of the coin so too speak, can also help them to understand the difficulties associated to different peoples jobs etc.

The footage we have of the little darlings breaking into our premises, is on cd after being lifted from the hard drive of the recording hardware.

without giving details I can say that the close up pics are superb and crystal clear. all you see in my early post is the pics on the perimeter fence cam which does not have zoom facility.

[dickhilt]

Ragitty,

If the stills are that good it shouldn't be too hard to nab 'em.
Don't be fobbed off by the PC that comes and takes details. If they are conscientious they should get a result. Sadly, nabbing the receivers may be a little trickier. The thieves often have an immediate outlet and the stuff rarely goes to their homes. I believe the receivers are worse than the thieves though the law doesn't seem to agree.
If I were you I'd blow the pics up and put them in your showroom.
One or two garages round here are doing it for those that don't feel that they need to pay for their fuel with some suitable quips added below the pics.....................
Good luck and don't be frightened of complaining if you don't get the service that you deserve.

[ragitty]

Thanks dickhilt for the excellent advice with reference to displaying the pics, that I will certainly do after speaking with the Police hopefully tomorrow (saturday) until I have chatted with them I will wait to show these little angels to the public.