You don't see bobbies on the beat any more?

[tomparryharry]

I saw a bobby on the beat the other day...

 

Dixon of Dock Green on I-Player....

[spikey]

When I lived in Essex we use to get the police helicopter flying over everyday, normally several times. I think the reason was the airfield they used ...

Nah, it was 'cos it was Essex.

[pH]

While US police may not carry guns around other than the standard police issue weapon, there is usually heavier artillery locked in the patrol car. 

 

Our town police used to have shotguns clamped upright to the dashboard of the cruisers. They are out of sight now, presumably in the trunk. 

[PatB]

We get quite a bit of after dark helicopter activity. I think it's mainly when there's an absconder from the local min security prison who doesn't head for the nearest licensed premises, where most get picked up . If it's the thermal camera boys I'm surprised we haven't had a visit, given that our shed, when the kiln' s running would practically blow the sensors .

[br2975]

The 'Bobby on the Beat' didn't wake up one morning and decide his or her role was a thing of the past.

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However, the modern day approach to 'serving the community' was imposed following many a 'meeting of minds' comprising most likely the Home Office, College of Policing, National Police Chiefs Council and any number of Police & Crime Commissioners no doubt came up with ideas by which the public could be better policed following drastic cuts to officer numbers, officer salaries, officer pension entitlements and any other number of 'cuts' - together with the now forbidden ability for officers to act upon their professional intuition.............in short, today's police officer is best likened to a uniformed eunuch.

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The amount of form filling (computerised) for any incident dealt with, not just a simple arrest, would be mind boggling to those outside the police service.

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Most of the forms filled have little evidential relevance to any eventual court case; but are solely to keep Home Office bean counters gainfully employed to show how well, or badly Sandford Police are performing when compared to Anytown Police.

.

As for helicopters, they are no longer locally based, but have, for sometime been operated on a contract basis by NPAS (National Police Air Service), and whereas once they didn't turn up because of weather conditions or pilots hours implications, now the machine is generally too far away from the incident.

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Finally, may I just remind you all, it is no longer the 'Police Force' but the 'Police Service' - in order to create a better impression amongst those versed in semantics.

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Finally, a message from our sponsor;

 

"Let's be careful out there !"

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Brian R

Edited May 8, 2018 by br2975

[polybear]

Plod on the beat?  After doing a risk assessment it was deemed that the streets are just too dangerous for such activities....

[Guius]

I saw a bobby on the beat the other day...

 

Dixon of Dock Green on I-Player....

I think there's a chance for a second career for us superannuated individuals here, after all PC George Dixon was 81 when he hung up his truncheon !

Electric scooters with 'Blues and Twos' could be pressed into service to carry the less agile officers, 'easy grip' truncheons perhaps and I'm sure no one would mind the odd afternoon snooze back at the nick before Countdown.

Guy

[Nearholmer]

I must live in an alternative universe, because we have regular PCSO patrols (foot, bike, and occasionally their rather clapped-out ex-proper-police-car), and they have a sort of 'police station in a cupboard' at a nearby shopping centre, run a very active schools liaison programme, and 'do the community thing' at the annual fete, letting all the kids dress up as police etc.

 

When we had a bit of a problem locally with 'bored youths' getting rather mouthy, 'proper' constables put in appearances, and when travellers descended on the green last summer, enough uniformed bods to put down a riot moved them on to the properly equipped site within 48 hours.

 

This alternative universe isn't trouble-free, though, in that we do get sporadic waves of burglaries and overnight car break-ins, and tradesmen have had their vans nicked, but it doesn't match the woeful picture painted by most here.

 

And, I recognise br2975's lament. A guy I know has just retired after a lifetime as a constable and sergeant, and he will grumble for England on the topic of excessive 'desk work', if prompted.

Edited May 8, 2018 by Nearholmer

[10000]

Our town police used to have shotguns clamped upright to the dashboard of the cruisers. They are out of sight now, presumably in the trunk. 

 

May be so but at least out there the Police do respond.

 

My son and his family live in Surrey B.C. Last year his not quite 3 year old daughter managed to activate the emergency call feature on his Apple watch. They got an immediate response to which he aplogisied and said it was a mistake, but an officer was still sent out just in case. After he arrived he checked all through the house to make sure everything was OK.

[Rivercider]

A couple of years ago our town centre police station was relocated out of town to near the M5 junction,

leaving a small team including a sergeant based at the town hall.  As a result we generally only see PCSOs walking around town,

apart from bank holidays when there is a greater police presence. 

On normal days the police in Weston have effectively been replaced by a street warden team employed by the town,

they seen to handle a lot of work regarding shoplifting, aggressive begging, lost children etc,

 

cheers 

[Horsetan]

.....As I type this 6 transit vans and caravans have just driven past the office window heading for Potton. ....

 

Heading for the old station site?

[chris p bacon]

Heading for the old station site?

 

The Station is a private house (a mate) and the yard is now a Pork Pie factory.

 

The Traveller site is in Myers Road and is a one way in/out which means they barricade it, But they tend to camp anywhere around here including the Sandhills.

When the last encampment was cleared, remnants of the contents of the Town Councils depot was found in the bonfires ( as well as cable burning and a stolen car) the depot was broken into the night they arrived (it's less than 500 feet away) and the Police chose a 'softly softly' approach, which meant the Town council lost £20,000 in tools and the travellers drove away scot free.

[Classsix T]

I was gonna read through this thread, but Airwolf is on the telly.

 

My advice therefore, and disappointed Mike didn't go down this route in the first place, is perhaps if you feel your local law enforcement is lacking, perhaps a broadside directed at your Police and Crime Commissioner, local authorities or Member of Parliment might be a more worthwhile expenditure of time than ventilation of spleen on a toy train appreciation hub?

 

Maybe Edward Woodwoodwood can "Equalise" the situation.

 

C'mon Mike, if the thread title bothered you that much, you'd be on the blower to the Home Office. C6T.

Edited May 8, 2018 by Classsix T

[TonyA]

I think there's a chance for a second career for us superannuated individuals here, after all PC George Dixon was 81 when he hung up his truncheon !

 

 

PC George Dixon was also dead before the TV series started in 1955. He was killed by Dirk Bogarde in The Blue Lamp (1950).

 

Tony

[chris p bacon]

I was gonna read through this thread, but Airwolf is on the telly.

 

My advice therefore, and disappointed Mike didn't go down this route in the first place, is perhaps if you feel your local law enforcement is lacking, perhaps a broadside directed at your Police and Crime Commissioner, local authorities or Member of Parliment might be a more worthwhile expenditure of time than ventilation of spleen on a toy train appreciation hub?

 

Maybe Edward Woodwoodwood can "Equalise" the situation.

 

C'mon Mike, if the thread title bothered you that much, you'd be on the blower to the Home Office. C6T.

 

 

That is true.

 

The wife is a Councillor and the PCC has 'limited' time for dealing with local councils and prefers to target Luton. The Police stopped attending Council meetings to face the public some years ago, they do send a note with statistics though. She is meeting our MP next week* so he can listen to local concerns, with it being a 2 hour meeting and nigh on 20 Town and Parish councils attending, there isn't much time given to any particular subject.

 

* I have suggested to her that she proposes that 'Airwolf' be taken off air so modelling time can be increased. Expect a Private members bill soon.....

[TheSignalEngineer]

 

To go back to not seeing a beat bobby. A copper in a car would normally arrive at the scene a lot quicker than one on foot a waving his truncheon and a blowing on his whistle. A response car can also cover a greater area than a peeler on foot or push bike. 

It took four minutes on a bicycle to get from the police station to my house when we had local policing. If you can get them to turn out these days it takes 40 minutes by car from where most are now based.

[Mike Storey]

When we lived in Peterborough, foot patrols seemed to vary year on year, but on the few occasions we needed 50 quickly, by Jiminy, they were quick. When we lived in Pickering, N.Yorks, despite being a very small town, Plod felt it necessary to drive around a couple of times a day - there wasn't an awful lot of crime in the high street to be fair - but on Friday nights when the Middlesborough Massive arrived, they were nowhere to be seen. But as soon as I drove at 61 mph on the road to Malton one Monday morning.......

 

Nonetheless, you could have what we have here now - we had lunch in Limoges last weekend. Limoges has a bit of a crime problem, but no more than most. Having not seen anyone more threatening than a parking warden since we arrived, we left our hostelry, turned a corner to be faced with four, very heavily armed, camouflaged soldiers in battle patrol formation. I thought I was back in Derry in the 1970's. We had forgotten the State of Emergency, which does not bother our little hamlet out west too much. There, the rozzers turn up for a drive through, in their converted Alfa Romeo, at least once a week, whether we need them or not.

[Horsetan]

.... the PCC has 'limited' time for dealing with local councils and prefers to target Luton. .....

I daresay there are quite a few people who'd like to target Luton.

[br2975]

In a recent radio interview the South Wales PCC apparently described officers on foot patrol as "purposeless".

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Meanwhile, in the wake of recent knife crime, the residents of the Metropolis are crying out for more officers on foot patrol.

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No comment necessary.

Edited May 8, 2018 by br2975

[Zomboid]

The residents may say they want foot patrols, but what they actually want is an effective means of reducing knife crime. Not necessarily anything to do with one another, those.

[Prometheus]

The last Neighbourhood Watch meeting I went to I asked a police officer when are you going to stop moaning about what you can't do becauce a lack of funds 

and tell us what he can do there was a deathly silence I then said have you lost your tongue with no response I got up and left others did follow, beat officers

are a waste of time most of them who are just plain lazy worm their way into the job so they can idle, it's a shame as they make to rest of the hard work officers

in the force look bad.   

 

I'm surprised that no-one has commented yet on this, a staggeringly rude generalisation based on what evidence?  As an Independent Custody Visitor I visit local custody suites at least twice a month, without notice, and generally find them busy with arrests being booked in, often disruptive detainees having to be managed and a disturbing amount of mental health problems being responded to. Quite a few of those individuals were probably arrested by those whom you have described as 'plain lazy [individuals who] worm the way into the job so they can idle'. They may well also have had to deal with the use of weapons.

 

Budgets are an appallingly difficult issue for police forces across the UK. As a citizen who probably wants to live in a law-abiding and safe community you need to both know this and understand the consequences of it. Pillorying individual police officers in local meetings is something which they neither need nor deserve. Save your comment for either your P&CC or your MP. 

 

Tony

[PatB]

The residents may say they want foot patrols, but what they actually want is an effective means of reducing knife crime. Not necessarily anything to do with one another, those.

As usual, America has the answer. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/05/british-parents-murdered-youngsters-condemn-trumps-speech-knife/amp/

 

Of course Donald is probably right. Just not in a way you'd want...

[br2975]

The last Neighbourhood Watch meeting I went to I asked a police officer when are you going to stop moaning about what you can't do becauce a lack of funds 

and tell us what he can do there was a deathly silence I then said have you lost your tongue with no response I got up and left others did follow, beat officers

are a waste of time most of them who are just plain lazy worm their way into the job so they can idle, it's a shame as they make to rest of the hard work officers

in the force look bad.   

 

And so, because a police officer was unable to answer your question there and then, you draw the conclusion he (or she)  is a " waste of time most of them who are just plain lazy worm their way into the job so they can idle, it's a shame as they make to rest of the hard work officers in the force look bad "

Edited May 9, 2018 by br2975

[jjb1970]

As usual, America has the answer. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/05/british-parents-murdered-youngsters-condemn-trumps-speech-knife/amp/

 

Of course Donald is probably right. Just not in a way you'd want...

 

This may be a bit distasteful and not at all commendable, but I can't help enjoying the sight of some of those who have used hyperbole to describe the knife crime issue in London objecting to Donald Trump picking up on their stories and comments with his own hyperbole and asinine comments.

[br2975]

I'm surprised that no-one has commented yet on this, a staggeringly rude generalisation based on what evidence?  As an Independent Custody Visitor I visit local custody suites at least twice a month, without notice, and generally find them busy with arrests being booked in, often disruptive detainees having to be managed and a disturbing amount of mental health problems being responded to. Quite a few of those individuals were probably arrested by those whom you have described as 'plain lazy [individuals who] worm the way into the job so they can idle'. They may well also have had to deal with the use of weapons.

 

Budgets are an appallingly difficult issue for police forces across the UK. As a citizen who probably wants to live in a law-abiding and safe community you need to both know this and understand the consequences of it. Pillorying individual police officers in local meetings is something which they neither need nor deserve. Save your comment for either your P&CC or your MP. 

 

Tony

 

The public remain blissfully unaware of the myriad of tasks that have landed in the lap of the police in recent years.

.

Mental Health - the amount of time officers spend dealing with mental illness and its consequences, due to cuts in health budgets. It is commonplace for officers who have detained a person under say Sec.136 of the Mental Health Act to spend hours waiting at a mental health facility whilst suitable staff can be found to assess the detainee, before they can be admitted.

 

Then we have those who are 'detained' at mental health facilities who are 'allowed out for an hour' unsupervised and fail to return, cue a missing person report for the police to follow up and which could occupy an officer for a full tour of duty.

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Alleged minor assaults by one patient upon another in a mental health facility. Unless their is medical evidence to suggest the aggressor has 'no capacity' the matter will be fully investigated, only to be later discontinued by the Crown Prosecution Service.

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It is common for staff to sustain minor assaults in such institutions whilst dealing with patients, which require investigation, but where it is then not uncommon for the member of staff not to seek any positive police action, even when the aggressor may have 'capacity'

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Ambulances - In many parts of the country, the eta (estimated time of arrival) of ambulances and paramedics at emergency calls can be hours, yes hours and at times the local ambulance control will advise the police they have no ambulances available, and can give no eta. This leaves the police officers at scene with a dilemma,  do the police officers stay with patient at the scene to await the eventual arrival of an ambulance (thereby reducing the already low numbers of officers on the local streets), or, do they convey the patient to hospital in a police vehicle that has recently carried drunks, drug addicts, or a stolen bicycle or two ? -  This latter scenario brings on another dilemma for the officers, namely the fear of the patients injuries worsening, due to the officers lack of knowledge or worse, the patient dies which then could be considered a 'death after contact' and which then attracts the attention of the (Not so) Independent Police Complaints Commission. Any officer who has experienced an IPCC investigation will be aware of the effect upon their subsequent morale, and policing methods. The unavailable ambulances are invariably queuing outside A&E with patients inside, as A&E is clogged with those who should not be there, those with drug or drink induced injuries, the lonely, the homeless. 

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Social Services - For reasons only known to the social services there is a growing trend for their staff to advise their clients to contact the police 'outside office hours and at weekends' thereby placing a greater burden on an already stretched police service; who are called upon to deal with "my twelve year old daughter Nevaeh won't tidy her bedroom' or "my ten year old son Tyler-J won't hand over the Sky remote" .

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Missing Persons - The public cannot imagine the amount of police time dedicated to the tracing of missing persons, an overwhelming majority of whom are teenagers missing from local authority care, supported housing, foster care or mental health facilities. The  majority of those missing persons draining police resources are the repeat 'mispers' who may have been reported missing 30, 40 even 100 times previously, some of whom have just failed to observe a hostel curfew, many are staying with friends but as the hostel staffing levels are limited, there is no member of staff available to look for the missing person, and if there were they would have no powers to forcibly return the missing person to the hostel.......in short, many teenagers and older folk are reported in line with 'hostel policy' and are not, in reality they are not, what you and I consider 'missing'. Many missing youngsters are so  street savvy it is others who are in danger, not the missing person.

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Over the last few years, the agencies I have outlined above have become unable (I hold back from saying 'unwilling') to fulfill their expected responsibilities to society, but are well aware that the police are the service of last resort, the service who cannot say no................despite the drastic cuts in police numbers, during the same period these agencies have also seen their budgets cut. 

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These are just a few things your local bobby may be doing when you expect him or her to be wandering around your streets.

Edited May 9, 2018 by br2975