In yesterday's Evening Post I read that the old Ashton Police Station is for sale having been made redundant by a new station in Bamfurlong which will serve the Ashton area as well.
And they wonder why the clear up rates for crimes is so low.
The police "service" as with other government departments has over the last 40 years become increasingly centralised which has resulted in a police force cocooned from any local knowledge which they would have previously had.
In former days the local bobby knew the area and the likely suspects if any crimes were committed, enough often to make a speedy arrest. He would also note any suspicious people in the neighbourhood and keep an eye on them.
Crime has risen because of these changes (although not helped by the politically correct lenient judiciary).
Calls for "more bobbies on the beat" put by all political parties are in my opinion misguided. The last Labour government responded to these calls by creating the useless "plastic police", usually women little over 5 feet tall with no powers of arrest which were supposed to reassure people.
Bobbies on the beat are a waste of time if they do not know the local people and scallies. These latter just wait until the cops have walked or driven past before commiting their nefarious activities. PCSOs are even more useless.
The only way for the police to combat crime is for them to have local knowledge, not the bobby on the beat but the local bobby.
It worked in the past but now they say it is uneconomic to have local police stations with local cops.
How come we could afford local bobbies 40 years ago and we can't now?or has everything been sacrificed to political correct box ticking?
It seems like, it but until the forces of the law regain their local knowledge and ignore political correctness I feel the situation will continue to deteriorate.
4 comments:
The police of yesteryear provided a well respected service - as well as the many accurate points you make; primarily it's now unfortunately, become one big business where budgets, targets, "cooking the books" and "fudging the figures" takes precendence over safeguarding our towns and cities.
You make some salient points in your post,but can I point out that the local bobby scenario has changed somewhat from the days of village,eg:- plumnose and hayward.
We are now dealing rather more densely populated area's which by definition would pose problems for a local bobby.
If you couple this to the fact that today we have far more people who have no respect for living their lives as law abiding citizens then it is plain to see that we and the police have major problems.
Can we solve these problems,probably not given the current political situation on reducing public spending and all that that entails.
Some time ago we moved from describing the police as a force and went to the title of a service,I for one would like to see them as a force which by implication means that we as the police will force you to be law abiding under pain of significant penalty.
This does not apply today the scallies as you refer to them are totally in contempt of the norms of a civilised society.
My opinion is that we as the majority of law abiders in this country should insist by all possible means that our politicians get some backbone and start to really make the scallies of this country realise that they will be brought to book in no uncertain terms.
Will this happen,probably NOT.
Point taken Anonymous.
I agree that the penalties are not severe enough and some people need to be intimidated into being decent citizens as they are not amenable to reason. I also realise that with increased mobility criminals can evade justice easier, but I still think local knowledge is the most important asset a cop can have even in the modern world.
BTW I note from your comments on the old police force that you are a Billinger
Thanks for the compliment about being a Billinger,yes I am and I'm very proud of that fact.
I see from media reports today the police are selling themselves via twitter,what a brilliant idea NOT,makes one wonder just were we are heading as a society.
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