Stolen 90's back!!!

That reminds me of case a few years ago when a car was found abandoned (but drivable) having been stolen. Owner agreed that police could take it away for forensic tests. Attempts were then made to charge the owner the standard recovery rate (£100 plus) for transporting the car around whilst the police did their thing.

Is it any wonder that we get miffed?

There are stated cases re appeals over this, the courts found in favour of the police. The vehicle being recovered on behalf of the owner.

I don't know the manner in which the ocnversation went, do you have chunky tyres? Even if not bog standard Landy tyre tread is Big in comparison to your common garden Corsa's. I wonder if it was an attempt at some light hearted humour to make light of a bad situation? I could be wrong but seems otherwise to be a pointless comment to make in which case I see your frustration.

Most details of stolen vehicles are passed over the phone in my force. I would say unless you specifically list stuff in that conversation then it's not going to be initially recorded. I'm not suggesting thats "right" but say for instance my car was nicked, I'd have a hard job remembering what CD's are in there, whats in the door pockets, unique identifiable items etc etc. I probably notice them missing 3 months later.

This does present problems for bobbies, I've stopped a youf with a engraved zippo in his pocket prior to dealing an hour later with a theft from vehicle where I had to ask , "Has a lighter been taken?" "Yes" , "Can you describe it to me"... Bingo. Fortunately I filled in my stop search form so chummy was promptly nicked.

Bob you have my sympathy but take some time out and chill dude, life is just too short. Landy is back, tools are back, Insurance is par for the course... biggest bunch of crooks since the crooks themselves. If the police paid for every vehicle recovered then where do you think the money for that would come from? Alternative is they leave them at the road side which has ended up with the police having to explain "duty of care" issues when the car gets used to kill someone later. Dammed if they do, dammed if they don't. Recovery companies don't recover for charity.

Lee

"Lee_D" wrote after

No, I didn't get the idea it was humour, she was too "professional".

Point take

"Lee_D" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net...

Bob, glad to hear you got it back.

Lee, I can sympathise with the bad press that some coppers get for effectively "just doing their job", and believe you me it's reassuring to hear that there are some out there that actually take policing seriously. However, here's a little tale for you. When my wife's car was hit on a single-track road by a total knob in a shitroen xantia (his ABS was inoperative, he left a skid mark from his NSF 4.5 times the length of his car on dry tarmac, and the same NSF tyre was under the legal tread limit all the way round. My wife was stationary at the point of impact! ) the coppers that turned up just couldn't have cared less, it was going to be knock-for-knock simply because it was a single track road, nothing to do with who was driving at what speed, christ, the little shit even admitted to them that he had been going too fast to stop! They didn't measure the skid or anything, they failed to check his car properly and if it hadn't been for me going armed with camera I doubt we'd have been able to fight the insurers and win!! Now, I always thought the job of the attending officers was to gather all the evidence and report back, not to make the Procurator Fiscal's decision whether there would be a prosecution or not on the spot. (Scottish law, the PF decides whether a case goes to court or not) When the insurers contacted the police they couldn't even find a record of the 999 callout, it was only my wife pushing it with an itemised mobile phone bill that proved she'd made the 999 call that got any action from the coppers, and even then it took 6 weeks to get a statement from the attending officers!! Now, it's not even as though they've a lot to do, it was just after teatime on a calm sunny spring evening, a Tuesday, in an area where the loss of a cat up a tree is breaking news! I used to respect our village bobby when I was a kid, but it's a sad thing when I have to grit my teeth and force myself to explain to my 6 year old daughter why the police are good people and to be respected, 'cos I'm afraid my adult dealings with them (all as a law abiding citizen, I hasten to add) have almost always left a bitter aftertaste...... We won eventually, but only by threatening legal action against both the very people who are supposed to be upholding the law; and the insurers.

Badger.

You did get s**te service there and are right to be bitter.

Lee.

...and who pays for the police ? It should be part of the service. Its like charging us extra to turn up at a robbery isn't it ?

Steve

Not at all. If "we" who pay for the police had to pay for _everything_ that the police do, we'd be paying somewhere in the region of 8 times as much - covering the recovery of private vehicles, paying for high level police presence at football matches, on a weekend in every city centre, at rallies and demonstrations, rock concerts...

The simple economics is that the police are constantly expected to do more, with less staff and reducing budgets.

Now if you _really_ want to get scared you only need to look at some of the 'think tank' theories about the policie charging to investigate petty crime so that they have greater resources to fight serious crime

- like terrorism and not having a TV licence... Erm...

Cheers mate, but I do sometimes feel bad within myself at holding a general "bitterness grudge", as I was brought up in an environment where you had respect for the local bobby 'cos you knew that he (predominantly male back then) would actually uphold the law. Our local bobby was ace, he'd wander along the lane from the police house to the old coal bings where we used to run around on old motorbikes as kids and check our brakes all worked etc, but we all knew fine well what he really wanted... a shot himself! LOL! But, if you did something wrong, you'd live in fear of him catching you as he could administer a right good clip around the lug or kick up the ar5e. Maybe that's where it's all gone wrong, the ability to administer an instant "physical" conviction has been taken away by do-gooders and litigation, for the worse, I feel. It's just a pity that the good guys get tarred with the same brush as the bad ones. Badger.

And boy, can they charge for concerts! Mate of mine organised a big rock concert up this way last year and had it not been for a friendly ex-police inspector explaining the rules re. numbers of police v's type of fencing and no's of private security persons, it'd have bankrupted the whole proceedings.

But if we told all the bloody do-gooders (and europe) to sod off and reverted to traditional values (clout around the lug / kick up the ar5e etc) and got rid of all the overly complex paperwork (not to mention expensive and unreliable computer systems) them maybe they'd have enough people to actually have a beat bobby presence again, which in itself is a damn good deterrent to petty crime. Big issue is the budget holders on high, if they'd see a new database system, for example, as a tool to aid the capture of criminals rather than just an excuse to save on wages then that would make a big difference I think.

Now that's scary! Badger.

I think I made that point a bit further down but yes your right Steve, The Police Officers aren't the only ones funding the Police Service via council tax and income tax but so do the rest of the public (well at least those in gainful employment). I love the "I pay your wages..." routine, always makes me chuckle as I pay my wages too ... and want my monies worth, my street is self policing... I should be sending a bill somewhere.

:-)

Lee

Good point, well presented. Try your euro-mp, he (or she) must be good for something? ;-)

Badger.

Mother"

That would be to have the Police on "private" property, yes? Football clubs pay for any Police *in* the ground but not for those outside the ground. This is why you see lots of private security people in grounds and not many Police Officers, just enough to make the arrests and bang 'em into the holding tank. The hundred or so Officers outside with the drunken football "supporters" are paid for by us.

Aye, it is frightening when you hear of some 7 year old kid who has just kicked seven shades of shit out of another child answering back "You can't touch me, I know my rights". I'd be for six of the best, though with a gym shoe not the cane. It still hurts enough to impart the message.

Trouble is you once societies gone soft it's very difficult to go back to stricter times.

I don't follow the 'we must get stricter' arguments I hear each and every week. I think there's something more fundamental, something to do with values and standards. You can have a soft and secure society.

I thought I just did.

There is a very strong argument that gated communities who employ their own security should be given rebates. This is NOT my argument, by the way.

Aye and folk without children too.

indeed.

On Thu, 19 Jan 2006 19:45:43 +0000, Mother scribbled the following nonsense:

yep, currently all our staff are involved in rolling out a "traditional values" programme at school to the kids. Some of them are real sh*t bags, and one young lady reduced one the science teachers to tears this week, just by refusing to work and verbally abuseing her.....

Some of the problem now is that kids are bringing up kids.... At a year 7 parents evening I sat talking to some one I went to school with about their 11 year old daughter, and i'm not yet 29.....

Thats odd...news.individual didn't show Martyns post...least not here anyway. Hope this isn't a new trend :-(

Lee