Foreign HGV crashed into me and drove off

[gadgetman]

Sister in law's car was hit by a driver who then sped off and didn't stop whilst using a roundabout.

The other car lost their front bumper at the scene but it wasn't safe to recover as sat on a busy dual carriageway roundabout in rush hour.

Police didn't attend, reluctantly gave a crime ref, and didn't investigate /collect the bumper with their plate attached.

Surprisingly a few hours later bumper had gone, obviously they'd returned to rescue it and remove any way to trace them.

Probably no licence, uninsured or drunk to have not stopped. So why not investigate when all the evidence was there at the roadside?

[gadgetman]

This was only yesterday evening

[cheezemonkhai]

Says it all doesn't it.

[gadgetman]

I really don't want to bash the police.  But because of crime stats/detection rates and budget cuts speeding is the only thing Forces round here seem to be interested in.

 

PCSO's being cut, 101 in Cambridgeshire branded a joke and a waste of a call (they wont answer) by their Chief officer, Leicestershire only investigating crimes at odd numbered houses, police no longer responding to shoplifting calls unless the store has clear CCTV identifying the shoplifter....

 

Yet these same forces have dramatically increased their speeding campaigns with both police and civilian van operators.  Bedfordshire police and county council both so hard pressed they're rolling out new average speed cameras across the county-even on roads with no accidents attributed to speeding.  Other forces have increased their camera van fleet, deployed traffic and bikes on main roads likely to have speeding, others have shiny new vans replacing some only a few years old.

 

This imbalance really isnt winning the public over.

[cheezemonkhai]

I would like to think the police were great, and used to have a lot more time for them.

Individually I think there are many good/excellent police, however as a force it's a bit sad when you get the above state.

 

Before somebody mentions money, all these top brass complaining about money should probably start by looking at just how much they get paid and their benefits package.

The wages of the top few being cut to more reasonable levels, could probably pay for a lot of front line policing.

[WelshPlod]

Ok.  I'm going to say this really slowly.  The POLICE dont staff speed camera vans to the best of my knowledge.  There may be one or two forces (the smaller ones) where police officers MAY be deployed in speed camera vans.  The camera vans and static cameras are placed sites nominated by the local authority road safety partnership.  The police do not make money from dishing out speeding fines.  They receive 10 or 15 quid for the admin cost of processing the film, sending out NIPS/summonses or the correspondence for driver awareness courses.

 

Private companies tend to run driver awareness courses ......and get paid a handsome fee!  Personally, I think the police would run them better but thats a personal opinion.

 

No one seems to mind police officers pulling over suspected drink/drug drivers and locking them up and getting them off the road.  No one seems to moan about police seizing uninsured cars or taking from unlicensed/disqualified drivers.  Why the negativity around speeding?

 

Speeding is part of the "fatal 5" - dangerous/careless driving, mobile phones, drink/drug driving and speeding.

 

As someone who has attended countless RTCs and too many fatal RTCs for my liking, speed is a contributory factor in virtually all of them. However, I'm not going to go all pious on you.  As a human, I am able to exercise judgement and discretion - is 80/90mph on a dry motorway at 2am when there is no one else on the road a big deal. Nope...... so perhaps what we're talking about here is "inappropriate speed."

 

As for our discussion Gadgetman...... i think its a perfectly normal thing to ask your neighbours if they saw/heard anything if you were teh victim of a crime.  It's hardly rocket science in terms of investigation.

 

As for crime figures.... the organisation I work for record crime "at source." i.e. if you phone and say that you've been assaulted, youre given a crime number over the phone.  The attending officer then has to provide "additional verifiable information" to have the matter 'non-crimed' and each year we are assessed by independent auditors.

 

Personally...... it makes no difference to me whether the matter is a crime or not.  I attend, do my best for the victim, do my best to bring the offender to justice and do my best to keep everyone safe.  

 

Lastly, neither my self or my colleagues have a vested interest in cooking the books.  We all hope that crime figures will increase exponentially to show the government that #cutshaveconsequences.

[gadgetman]

The majority of forces in England use police employed civilians to staff the vans.

Wales might farm this out, but not over here.

[Chriswright03]

Unless things have changed in the many years I have been out of the job (I know a lot has) a RTC be it non stop or whatever is not a crime and therefore was not given a crime number.  You would (should) have an incident number but that would not be shown in crime figures and is merely used as a method of tracing the incident in the computer if required.

 

I think the way this thread has gone is quite sad.  I can see both sides and fully understand the frustration that the general public feel with regards to the service that is provided these days.  I also fully understand that there are less officers than in my day with a much higher work load.  Doesn't take a brain surgeon to realise that something has to go.

 

In the end it is the people that make the rules that are to blame and not the ones that have to enforce them.  If Police Officers are now told to do a job in a particular way that is what they will do because that is their job.  It doesn't mean they like it and I am sure for a lot of the older hands who have a few years service who can recall how it was done differently/better it must be very difficult.  Problem is each new officer that joins will be taught the new way and until someone who can make a difference realises enough is enough then we are stuck with that.

 

All I am saying is don't (please) blame the poor bobby for the way it is done now.  Be it lack of finances or political pressure to stick to targets that is way beyond the fault of any individual officer.  I don't like the way you can only buy chickens in cook in the bag in the supermarket because of the risk of infection but I don't blame the girl on the till!