This has been the standard of British policing as long as I’ve been alive.
Unless it’s a really serious crime, and you’re not in London, you’re likely to get a crime number and nothing more.
Perhaps living in one of the most heavily surveilled countries on the planet isn’t that beneficial for the general population
Had the catalytic converter nicked off my car at a really popular zoo the other week. Within 7 days I’d received a letter from the police telling me that they’d asked the management if they could identify the suspect, as they couldn’t the case had been closed.
That was some pretty prompt incompetence in my mind.
Gee, I wonder who might be to blame for police being under-resourced? Could it have something to do with swingeing budget cuts and changing police recruitment to require completion of a pointless degree?
The stories I’ve heard about recent recruits from serving officers…. people who just want a degree (that they don’t have to pay for) aren’t bothered about going to fights or arresting people or doing other aspects of police work. What they’ve done is turn policing into a job where people who don’t want to do it go into it, get their qualification then leave.
In the past 10 years, cuts have continued throughout, reducing back office roles, so despite officer numbers rising, they are often backfilling Staff roles.
The courts have been similarly devestated. My crown court has 14 courts – and 3 judges.
The new DG6 requirements on police for case files by the courts means case files take a HUGE amount of time longer – normally you build a file with the information needed to decided if they should be charged. Now, to do that, an officer is required to effectively build an immediately court ready case file.
Covid massively impacted the courts in particular leading to further delays.
I get the police is under-resourced and underpaid (the other day saw a job and for a PC with a degree for roughly 20ish K per annum – not a very attractive salary), but I also wonder if there’s any organisation in the country that is entitled to take part of our income to fund these things properly, promptly and efficiently?
This is the effects of Tory cuts.
Who could have imagined that massive cuts in the police budget would lead to this?
7 comments
This has been the standard of British policing as long as I’ve been alive.
Unless it’s a really serious crime, and you’re not in London, you’re likely to get a crime number and nothing more.
Perhaps living in one of the most heavily surveilled countries on the planet isn’t that beneficial for the general population
Had the catalytic converter nicked off my car at a really popular zoo the other week. Within 7 days I’d received a letter from the police telling me that they’d asked the management if they could identify the suspect, as they couldn’t the case had been closed.
That was some pretty prompt incompetence in my mind.
Gee, I wonder who might be to blame for police being under-resourced? Could it have something to do with swingeing budget cuts and changing police recruitment to require completion of a pointless degree?
The stories I’ve heard about recent recruits from serving officers…. people who just want a degree (that they don’t have to pay for) aren’t bothered about going to fights or arresting people or doing other aspects of police work. What they’ve done is turn policing into a job where people who don’t want to do it go into it, get their qualification then leave.
In the past 10 years, cuts have continued throughout, reducing back office roles, so despite officer numbers rising, they are often backfilling Staff roles.
The courts have been similarly devestated. My crown court has 14 courts – and 3 judges.
The new DG6 requirements on police for case files by the courts means case files take a HUGE amount of time longer – normally you build a file with the information needed to decided if they should be charged. Now, to do that, an officer is required to effectively build an immediately court ready case file.
Covid massively impacted the courts in particular leading to further delays.
I get the police is under-resourced and underpaid (the other day saw a job and for a PC with a degree for roughly 20ish K per annum – not a very attractive salary), but I also wonder if there’s any organisation in the country that is entitled to take part of our income to fund these things properly, promptly and efficiently?
This is the effects of Tory cuts.
Who could have imagined that massive cuts in the police budget would lead to this?