DanTheMan

Talizman - any copper who is put in the back of a camera van is one copper less to catch real criminals.

In Surrey our yearly crime stats were:

4239 Burglaries (16% increase from year before)
9960 thefts of and from vehicles (4% increase from year before)
9113 violent crimes (8% increase from year before)

So please explain how they can justify coppers wasting time in these vans raising money while real crime escalates on the streets !!!!!

I really don't give a toss if someone is going 31mph past my house, however if I return home to find the door kicked in (been there seen that) or when I wake up and my car window has been smashed again (been there seen that more times than I have fingers) then that's what really gets me pissed off.

Adrian F

So OK only the Traffic police earn more money when they catch more motorists.

Therefore as this has worked so well pay the beat officers more for ever drug dealer they catch!

Oh no I forgot we are going soft on drugs to target more resources on serious crime obviously motorists as they are pouring resources into speed enforcement e.g. they want to double the number of cameras in the next few years. They keep developing and buying more advanced camera’s which will catch even more people (Is 2million people a year not enough!)

I accept that some police officers are trying to do a good job but finding one is like finding rocking horse ****. now days if you have property stolen all they want you to do is go away, there is no attempt to catch any body they just give you a crime number and you end up paying for it in increased insurance premiums. So we pay more for the Police's failure in solving crimes.

When you talk to serving police officers there seems to be a total lack of understanding that they are in fact employed by the Tax payers to serve the community and the community does not want motorists targeted they want drug dealers and burglars targeted. The community does not want to have to spend money on Cat1 alarms for their car or having to sell there car as they are afraid of some body kicking the door down with a knife for a 15K car, they want to be able to walk home alone with out being scared of being mugged. Yet when many people have dealings with the Police it is with a NIP through the post for a victim less crime by breaking a limit which is frequent set for a political reason.

Also catching 2 million motorists for speeding in one year does nothing to reduce roads deaths in fact they have risen but it does raise lots of money for the Government and for the Camera partnerships to fritter away.

Apparently there are more motorists in jail than burglars? Priorities?

talizman

iTrader: (1)

What you must appreciate is, that the copper sitting in the back of the van, as you put it, is a traffic officer (if he even is a police officer, a smany are not nowadays).
His main role is road safety and road traffic law enforcement.
Even if he wasn't in the back of the van, he would still be undertaking some other traffic related duty as this is his remit.
The traffic are a completely seperate department and it is unfair to continually link the number of speed detetction vans to "real crime rises". The problem is that people cannot make the distinction between departments within a police force. In actual fact each of the departments are ran independently, each with their own "devolved budget" and are on the whole, treat like "businesses" these days.

I can understand how you and others may feel this way, but what you must appreciate is that all issues are being addressed at ALL times within police forces.
The problem is, that a lot of the hard work being put in by officers in relation to "real crime" often goes unseen so the public think the police are doing nothing about it.
On the other hand, camera vans etc are highly visibility, extremely high profile and well publicised, so the public think that this is all the police do, which is in fact, very far from the truth.

Question - How long do you think a Chief Constable of any force will keep his job, if crime is not the absolute HIGHEST priority on his force ojectives?
Not very long, is the short answer.

Bear in mind that the officers who operate speed detectors etc make up a very small minority of a police force's manpower level. The majority are addressing issues like crime and disorder, but it is an uphill struggle.

What planet does this occur on?

I'd buy that for a dollar!


A bit like trying to find a non-biased, well informed police basher on SN then?

Like I mentioned before..... sounds like another person who thinks that all revenue from fines go into our wages and into the Xmas night out fund!

Police simply OPERATE the cameras as instructed.
They do not buy them.
They do not bank the money gleaned from them.
They are simply used to operate and manage them.


Sweeping generalisation from an extremely narrow minded individual.

Not many people do....
Wouldn;t it be great if we all lived in an ideal world with a pink sky, and blue grass, cos the place you describe does not exist on this earth.


Utter nonsence. Completely made up statistic there!

eobd

Talizman,

Have to agree with you on most of your last post.

What is important for people to realise is that Police officers do not get bonuses, payouts or any other financial benefit from the work they do. Effectively a cop can sit and do nothing, whilst another cop can pan his head in doing his job, and both get the same pay at the end of the day.

As you rightly state the UK Police forces are divided into Departments and each department has it goals and objectives set by the Chief Constable. He, or she, is 'advised' (dictated to) by the Politicians as to what their force should be doing/targeting etc. Unfortunately up until even six years ago Police forces were largely unaffected to any great extent by Political interference. The forces had set budgets and were to a certain degree free to get on with the job of policing. Then the Politicians started to scim the budgets and Police forces were forced to adopt a business way of working ie statistics,figures, achieving targets etc in an effort to keep justifying and getting their budgets. Look to the NHS (STAR points system etc) or any other similar organisation to see the similiarities.

At the end of the day Police forces, and in particular the Traffic Departments, are being told what they must do and they have no right to object. They must simply get on with it. You have to realise that it is still a criminal offence for Police Officers to strike or take any form of proactive action so effectively they are 'caught between a rock and a hard place' to coin a phrase.

I think people on the forum who want to throw mud at the Police Services should check their facts. Contact your local MP and ask them to get the camera statistics for the UK. At the same time ask them to get the info on the revenue 'raised' (I personally hate this phrase) and where it all went. I'll negate this for you and tell you to ask MR Brown down in ol' London. His mate Mr Blair might help him get the answer too. Whilst your onto them, ask them what side of 40% their pay rise was on?

Do not get me wrong, I am not a great lover of the Police, but its so easy to 'shoot the messenger and not the sender'.