The Police, what's the point of them?

We have a business, and we no longer bother to ring the police.

We have invested in state of the art security, which generally alerts us to suspicious behaviour, and we have challenged them, several times ending in scuffles.

We have good relationships with other traders, if someone known is seen in one unit, the owner will ring around so that we are prepared.

It’s all very well saying it’s only stuff, but we all work hard to pay for it, and don’t plan on allowing anyone to just walk away with it.

Nicenanny3

54Wenmore

If a cyclist loses their bike l don't want my tax spent on getting it back.

He didn't just lose his bike he was robbed of 4 specialist bikes worth over £36,000 I'm sure you'd change your tune if robbers came into your house and pinched goods worth that amount.

I wouldn't have £36,000 worth of anything in my house. When l was in twenty l had almost every possession stolen, taught me you don't need many possessions. £36000 of bikes should be in secure storage, adequately insured.

Nicenanny3

Cyclist forced to spend £6,000 on drones, private investigators and drive to POLAND to get stolen bikes back after police said there wasn't enough evidence - despite him giving them the crooks' Names (Daily Mail today)

What do you think? I think it's frightening that a crime is committed you phone 999 and the police don't want to know, they are about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

If I were you I would stop reading The Daily Fail , oh I mean Daily Mail !!! . It is very anti police , does not accurately report and twists headlines .
The public would be absolutely astounded if they spent even a couple of hours alongside the police and saw what they have to deal with day in and day out .
We never pick up a paper and read about all the positive cases do we .
It really infuriates me this constant anti police rhetoric . We have in the UK one of the most tolerant and compassionate police forces in the world , I think we should be grateful for the men and women who pull that uniform on every day not knowing if they'll make it home at the end of the day .
Insulting to say the least .

Polite cough! Ahem
Police do investigate cycle thefts, my neighbour had his and his son’s bike stolen last year.He reported the thefts ( taken from back yard) and to his surprise got them back a few months later.The police knew, as they often do, the bad lads who were stealing them, and they recovered them from a property along with other stolen stuff.

The choice is not between pursuing theft or saving lives. Much police work is spent on routine paperwork, chasing up licences, visditing women who take photographs of some TERF stickers, and such like.

Some police forces had decided that mental health is not a police matter and should be dealt with by the NHS. Police cells are NOT a suitable place for the mentally disturbed.

We are far to quick to find excuses for people and groups not doing their jobs properly. That is why their are so many corrupt and violent members of the police who should have been kicked out and haven't been.

The police are understaffed and underfunded. My daughter and son are in the police and its the hardest job in the world. If your child goes missing who do you call? You know they'll come through for the most important things.

We have the lowest number of police officers per head of practically any developed country - some have twice as many. The PCSO teams that helped with neighbourhood support have been virtually dismantled in the name of cost cutting, as have the proactive teams working within communities to stop crime before it happened. The police starting salary was slashed to £19000 from over £23000 ten years ago.

If you want a better service, perhaps address your queries to the people responsible for all of the.above?

And just keep hoping that the police are never allowed to strike. Because if they stopped working for a few days we’d soon find out what the point of them is.

Agree with GSH am pretty sure Police Forces would not investigate theft of cycles taken to Poland unless this is part of organised crime intel ..

Maybe it depends on the area. When our house was burgled the police were marvellous. They came out straight away and we had a follow up visit when the culprits were caught. Mind you this was a long time ago.
About five years ago we had an incident with a dangerous dog. Once again the police visited us and we had a follow up visit to tell us the outcome of the investigation.

So what did you expect the police to do? Wouldn’t you rather they were dealing with knife crime than your garage!

A few years ago I came back from holiday and our garage had been broken into I phoned the police all I got was an Incident number to give to my insurance company no one came out to investigate, no one cared. I got sent victim of crimes help sheets, it's turns out lots of garages had been broken into in my area which I found out by reading the local paper, the perpetrator probably got a slap on the wrist.

Surely we should ask more of our police force. Our grandson's need protecting on nights out, our granddaughter's need protecting. Whose protecting us, no one it seems if we call 999 will anyone police arrive, I don't think so. Knife crime, burglary, rape, perhaps murders after someone has been Killed, I feel that we are living in a lawless society.

I don't think it the actual Police officers that are refusing but unfortunately it comes from a much higher level, and the buck stops at government funding and namely the home office. They are looking for boxes to be ticked and a new way of policing unfortunately it isn't the type of policing that Joe Public want, as usual it is all cost. Even in major crime they have to not process some of the evidence they uncover as the cost would take them over budget. The days of the copper on the beat are long gone.

Does anybody realise how many hours and days of police time would be taken up pursuing those bikes and thieves to Poland. Would you prefer them to spend that time on possibly no result or on saving lives? There are serious crimes happening every day in the UK.

I looked up the article. The man said he gave the police names which had been passed to him. If there was insufficient evidence there would be no point in their wasting their time. The cycles had been taken abroad. The cost of an international police investigation would be out of all proportion to the scale of the crime and the value of the stolen goods - which he should have had insured.

Crossed posts AGAA4

That is what the police are there for.

However a huge percentage of the calls they receive nowadays are related to mental health incidents.
So, property or people?

This all seems to be outrage over property versus life and well being. There are just not enough police to go to serious incidents and chase stolen property.
Too much of their time has been spent on people with mental health problems which they aren't trained to deal with.
The police do need evidence to prosecute and another problem is the justice system when even sound evidence is produced the thieves walk away laughing as there
is a loophole in the law.
I think all crime should be investigated but until there are more police people's lives will take precedence.

Kate1949

I'm sure the police have better things to do than bother with stolen bikes, whatever they are worth. The cyclist wasn't forced to spend £6000. It was his choice to do so.

Where does it stop?
A crime was committed so therefore it’s the job of the police to catch the criminals.

Some years ago our card was cloned. The scroats spent £100 at a takeaway. At the police station the officer asked if we had got our money back ( yes) the office said oh that’s ok, then
My oh can get very shouty when there’s a wrong being done.
It got to the raised voice stage when he pointed out to the officer that it was a takeaway, it was delivered to a house, the takeaway have the address
It went to court 😊

If a cyclist loses their bike l don't want my tax spent on getting it back
What a horrible thing to say it may be the only way that person can get to and from work and as valuable to them as a car is to others

No not at all anna. What I should have said was that in this case the police said there was insufficient evidence and, I assume, to them the matter was closed. I understand that the man was upset, but the police have priorities.

I think these posts about the stolen bikes are absolutely ridiculous

What items worth £36,000 is he allowed to own that the police will investigate if they are stolen.

The police are meant to investigate crime and make it possible for us to go about our normal lives without fear of personal injury or being deprived of our belongings by people not entitled to take them.

It doesn't matter whether someone owns £36,000 worth of bikes, jewellry, furniture, cars, books, garden gnomes or football cards. They should be able to own them and use them without being in constant fear of them being stolen because aall the local thieves know the police do not investigate thefts. That is what the police are there for.

The government is ultimately to blame for the lack of police officers and their orders come from them on what they want prosecuted.
We would all like to see low level crime dealt with by the police but there is so much life threatening crime about that they can't deal with everything.

So if I spend £6000 on a car or a piece of jewellery or anything really, does that mean someone can just take it off me and the police should do nothing? What's the point if the police then? I don't understand your argument Kate1949.

I'm sure the police have better things to do than bother with stolen bikes, whatever they are worth. The cyclist wasn't forced to spend £6000. It was his choice to do so.

AGAA4 what has insurance got to do with it. If goods worth £36,000 are stolen I expect the police to make an effort to find the culprits and if someone, even the owner, gives them information I expect the police to follow it up.

How can you react like this when we hear that shoplifting gangs operate with impunity and shop owners do not even to tell the police

It has been found elsewhere that cracking down on low level crime is effective in cutting down crime overall. More effort should be put into neighbourhood policing. Responding to shoplifting, theft from domestic premises and TWOKing.

'ism' policing should be limited to only the most egregious cases where a crime has clearly been committed. Fishing for easy cases where nothing illegal has been done or said should be stopped