Lack of police presence

I was quite surprised to read this yesterday. Just shows how bad it’s become.
www.thamesvalley.police.uk/news/thames-valley/news/2022/august/22-08-2022/new-joint-patrolling-partnership-between-thames-valley-police-and-the-civil-nuclear-constabulary/

He won't "get away with it." If mental illness is involved then he will be sent to a secure hospital. It's not a holiday resort.

What is saddest, is that prison doesn’t help the inmates. It is violent, bullying and often a huge crime school. There is little chance of released prisoners going on the straight and narrow. So, regrettably, we need a better prison service too.

I occasionally watch a police programme for light relief and am amazed at the way people who are stopped speak to the police and treat them generally. There is no respect, just a string of expletives and even spitting. Who would put themselves forward to be treated like that?

Our town is going to wreck and ruin with drugs and antisocial behaviour, but you never see the police around at all. I've a friend who's in a community group that go around at weekends talking to teenagers who hang about drinking and taking drugs. One young lad pulled a knife out on my friend last month, now these guys are volunteers and paid nothing, doing the job of the police and taking that from scum.
The innocent people that are getting caught up in gun and knife crime is terrible, a poor child getting shot in their own home where they should feel safe. I don't know where it will all end. There is no respect for the police anymore, some kids just shout abuse at them and a lot who do get arrested get off very lightly now anyway.

When my DH was a young constable the public supported the police against criminals. He and his colleagues got to know who the troublemakers were and could suppress problems before they arose. They were beat bobbies and knew their areas well.
Sadly that style of policing is long gone due to lack of officers and the media who have worked hard to give the police a bad name.

The public have been sniping at the police for years.
They are now getting the police force they deserve'

^If people vote for a low tax small state government, this is part of it, the police service is part of the state. Small state means smaller police service. This reduction in the police service was mainly carried out when Mrs May was home secretary.
Any time people like Jacob Reese Mogg talk about people keeping more of their own money, they mean a reduction in services provided by the state.^

Absolutely! The sooner people get their heads round this, the better. Anyone who votes Conservative is voting for a small state - that is Conservative ideology (regardless of who is PM). Less of the country’s infrastructure run by the state. This includes health, education, police etc. People need to really understand what they’re voting for. All the reductions in police, NHS dentists etc we’re now experiencing haven’t just happened by chance - they are a direct result of 13 years of Conservative planned small state. They don’t implement these changes overnight, they are ‘drip fed’ over a period of time. We are now seeing the outcomes of this play out in the everyday lives of ordinary people. No-one who votes Conservative at the next GE can claim they don’t know - it’s now bl** obvious!

Anniebach

Stop and search was usual, now it causes uproar

The uproar was because stop and search was almost entirely used against black people who had done nothing wrong. Justified uproar, I think.

If you’re concerned write to your MP. The Police have, like many State institutions been pared back and pared back till there is no resilience - unnecessary austerity measures for a decade. The officers on the front line are losing numbers due to stress of overwork and the public’s disgusting attitude, plus the latest wheeze for all officers to have a degree is attracting people who cannot actually do the job. Some cannot cope with shifts and even to meeting the public face to face. Policing needs practical people with excellent people skills who accept that being punched and spat at is all part and parcel. And who will be criticised and blamed at every turn. Some forces are better than others, some officers are better than others. We are let down by government yet again.

Our public services may be dire, but isn’t it comforting to know there are plenty of managers, diversity champions, service coordinators and committee members etc employed to oversee the troops on the ground. Glad to see they are well remunerated too so of course it’s understandable that funding has to be low for any actual ‘services’!

Pay less tax, get poorer services. Prioritize trivia, lose focus on serious matters. Make people poorer, risk economic crime.

They are no longer a police force, they are a police service which suggests a changed outlook caused by political correctness.

If you ever watch any of the British police programmes, mostly traffic orientated ones, when they sum up the punishments given it’s laughable. Even when the evidence is filmed and irrefutable the criminals get off with almost no punishment.

The police must feel that there is very little point in putting their lives at risk when there is very little support from the judiciary.

You only have to look at Katy Price’s long list of traffic offences and substantial lack of meaningful punishments to see how things are.

We have had three random killings of innocent people in a week. While I understand that random events like this can cluster with out it being statistically significant. It does seem, while these stick out because it involves women, children and the elderly, in far too many of the knife crimes that involve youths and young men, the person killed is entirely innocent, not a gang member, not known to the person who killed them, just another youth or young man in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once cases like that would dominate the media for weeks, now it is a one day wonder.

Galaxy -= with you on rape.

The death of the child in Liverpool serves to highlight increasing gun crime. There was a young woman shot and killed in her garden, again Merseyside. Police say random shooting, that was also this week

There is something about the death of the girl in Liverpool that was such a million to one chance, that it makes it seem more awful. I am not expressing that very well.

The figures that I was looking at were about being a victim rather than number of violent crimes. It's ok Iam64 you rant away. I am not minimising it I am just wary of what it may mean. In my head I dont even count rape in those figures, I dont see how you can compare rape figures, low reporting rate, rape in marriage legal within recent memory, I unfortunately see rape as a crime that has almost been made legal due to prosecution rates.

It may have done Galaxy, but unless we have the detail of what types of violent crimes have fallen and where and when, we cannot not know whether the problem is getting worse or better.

For exaample if minor acts of violence are decreasing, but the chances of non-involved people, like the two 9 year olds and the elderly man on a mobility scooter, being severely injured or killed has risen, does that count as an improvement or deterioration in crimes of violencce?

I’ve looked at the stats Galaxy and it can be argued the risk has reduced. However, the comments here don’t reflect a moral panic, imo. Three people shot and killed in Liverpool this week, one of them a 9 year old girl.

The lack of active police officers has no doubt reduced the number of people reporting to them. What’s the point people say
Successful rape convictions decrease. That’s a violent crime.
Burglary is a devastating crime and should be treated as such

As other posters have pointed out, the police are the last standing emergency service that always responds. My work over 40 years showed time and again the extent of police skills in calming inflamed situations, recognising mh situations.

Sorry Galaxy, the rant isn’t directed atbyou

One of my friends is a police officer and she said most people are relieved when they are arrested as they need help. That to me, says it all.

Hasnt the risk of being a victim of violent crime decreased.

It’s really scary isn’t it? The criminals must laugh at our so called police ‘force’ as they know that whatever heinous crime they are committing, terrifying some hapless member of the public, they have every reason to expect to get away with it.
Meanwhile what are the police doing? They are away on cultural awareness courses or on diversity training seminars.

What are people to do when confronted by a thief in their property? If they are not careful it’s the innocent person who finds he is in trouble.
I remember reading once about a shopkeeper who managed to lock a thief in his stockroom, only to be told, once the police eventually arrived that he could be charged with false imprisonment.
You couldn’t make it up could you?
Instead of the police thanking the poor scared shopkeeper for his prompt, brave action, he was the one in trouble.

It isn't the stiffness of the penalty that awaits offenders that matters, it is the certainity of punishment when (not if) they are caught that matters.

I can see that the police are caught up with those who are mentally ill - and also following woke agendas dictated by politicians. Far too much having to follow up microaggressions and not enough time to dealing with the kind of lawlessness that makes criminals feel they can walk the streets with guns and knives with impunity - and use them freely.

Absolutely. And people with mental health issues can end up having to be put into cells for their own safety simply because there is nowhere else for them to go. This isn’t something any police officer wants to do, and can be devastating for the person concerned. Our public services and all their safety nets have been shredded.

My son and his partner are both police officers and they spend a great deal of their time dealing with incidents which would definitely come under the 'mental health' banner rather than what the general public would think of as actual 'crimes'. Don't blame the actual officers - they are still very much committed to their roles and doing the best they can under very trying circumstances.

My son and his partner are also Police officers and say exactly the same. Too much of their time is spent shoring up the mental health services. The buck stops with them but they will always do their best.