Police give up the fight as yobs take over

[Greybeard]

"Sir Denis O'Connor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, says the rowdy and abusive behaviour of yobs is a "disease" within communities that has been allowed to "fester" because police have retreated from the streets in the past two decades."

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8019379/Police-give-up-the-fight-as-yobs-take-over.html

 

The report begs the question of why the police are fully aware of the situation but our polticians choose to ignore it, except for the typcal waffle, - "Earlier this year, Theresa May, the Home Secretary, placed more emphasis on community involvement."

 

It's a damning indictment, but what it doesn't touch on is the obvious fact that many of these yobs who get away with anti-social behaviour go on to believe that they're equally immune from check when they progress to serious criminal activity. They already know the police are generally powerless to respond and their chances of being caught and brought to book are virtually nil.

 

It doesn't seem a very good time to be cutting police budgets by 40%

[Magilla]

I agree, these private companies can then charge the criminals for services rendered. For example, if some retard continues to harass an old lady or smashes bus shelters up then the company arrests the said retard, takes them to the police station and then invoices the person.

 

If the person cannot pay, they are taken to prison (more prisons could be built from the savings made by outsourcing). If the person is under a certain age, the parents pay the invoice or are themselves taken to prison if they cannot pay.

 

Utterly unworkable, a complete waste of time. The opportunity for abuse is staggering. How long before we see people being dragged off on trumped up charges because some re-badged doorman doesn't like them?

 

The police should be dealing with the issue, we don't need "private" companies deciding who does and doesn't get locked up.

 

I for one would never support a system of private enterprise running around arresting people.

[Paul2412]

Utterly unworkable, a complete waste of time. The opportunity for abuse is staggering. How long before we see people being dragged off on trumped up charges because some re-badged doorman doesn't like them?

 

The police should be dealing with the issue, we don't need "private" companies deciding who does and doesn't get locked up.

 

I for one would never support a system of private enterprise running around arresting people.

 

The police would still be responsible for charging people, but not patrolling the streets. The companies would need to adhere to strict conditions and be moderated.

 

I think its the way forward, the police can concentrate on more serious crimes, petty anti social behaviour is reduced and the new industry will create jobs.

[RazorSHarp]

Police budgets should be increased.

 

The problem is that under Labour rule, more and more soft jobs were employed, taking money away from front line Policing.

 

PCSO's are a waste of time, whats the point in having 2 of them patrol the streets with absolutley no powers when we could swap two for one officer with powers of arrrest/stop&search etc.

 

The YOBS on the street know that the Police struggle to control their anti social ways and that the PCSO's have absoltely no powers So they continue to cause residents greif and worries knowing that even if the Police do turn up there is little likely hood that anything can or will be done.

 

We need more money and more laws to protect our communities and scrap worthless laws like ASBO's and start making the regular worthless elements of our society pay in ways that would reward the areas they co-habit by giving them community and work orders !!

[Alien]

The police would still be responsible for charging people, but not patrolling the streets. The companies would need to adhere to strict conditions and be moderated.

 

I think its the way forward, the police can concentrate on more serious crimes, petty anti social behaviour is reduced and the new industry will create jobs.

 

 

Isn't that the whole problem though... perceiving anti social behaviour as "less serious" crime? On an individual basis that maybe seen as the case, but as a collective nationwide, society has to make a stance. Policing is a state sponsored organisation and so it should be. Once you replace them with "Patrolling the streets r us" you may just as well do away with state policing.

 

So in theory I agree with Maggila.

[Greybeard]

Ooops - didn't see the other thread...

 

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=6712876&postcount=1

 

Can a mod merge please

[Magilla]

We need more money and more laws to protect our communities and scrap worthless laws like ASBO's and start making the regular worthless elements of our society pay in ways that would reward the areas they co-habit by giving them community and work orders !!

 

I disagree with more laws. Part of the problem under Labour was that they rushed through so much legislation that your average person has no hope of being able to interpret it or make a call on whether a crime has actually been committed. That included the police. That this legislation was rushed meant it was largely full of holes and unenforcable anyway.

 

We need less laws that are well draughted, less ambiguous and rigorously enforced.

 

Many of the problems we are seeing today could easily have been tackled under pre-existing legislation that has proven to work for decades, but then that wouldn't make for a constant stream of news headlines showing how you're attempting to tackle the issues.

[nightrider]

I think he means concurrently. It is true that as particular people are terrorised in their homes useless neighbours just do nothing. That street where a teenage boy and his friends drove a mother and daughter to suicide. Where were the men on that street?

 

IGiven they cannot imprison the yobs the only thing ordinary people could do is threaten or inflict violence on them to teach them a lesson? And I'm sure the police would suddenly take a keen interest if they did that. So they do nothing.

[Wildcat]

LINK

 

No real surprises. It's been plainly obvious for years that the police care for little other than meeting targets and positive PR spin.

 

And before anyone says "but could you do their job", no I couldn't.

 

Trouble is, neither can they!

 

But then again, as their job seems to mostly involve sitting on their 'arris stuffing their faces and filling in paperwork, maybe I could do their job.

 

Perhaps the police are not so involved now with anti-social behaviour now because it is the responsibility of Community Support Officers rather than the Police themselves.

 

The Chief Inspector seems to be setting out his case to prevent spending cuts.

 

The question then is do people think the coalition has got it wrong and that the police should not face spending cuts, and should ASBOs be scrapped.

[L00b]

The question then is do people think the coalition has got it wrong

Not much of it.

and that the police should not face spending cuts,

They should, but the cuts should be accompanied by an at least proportional reduction in non-strictly-policing duties (read: paperwork and admin), and the frontline numbers should absolutely be maintained.

 

I really don't think Police Forces need high-ticket Swedish/German/Japanese automobiles, either.

and should ASBOs be scrapped.

Yes. And the age of personal/criminal responsiblity lowered, and parental civil and criminal responsiblity firmly and clearly established...says reactionary me

 

You want rid of yobs? It'll take a while, for sure, but start by state-controlling the media, at least to the extent of putting a stop to the ever-increasing glamorisation (sp?) of violence/criminal behaviours/broderline-criminal behaviours and the like. Censorship is likely to be highly frowned upon as a solution (rightly so), but I can't really think of an alternative these days.

 

That should go hand-in-hand with outright coercion (policing, parental criminal responsibilisation) and social assistance/programs (skill/activity development & incentivisation...it works elsewhere, why not here ). Effective carrot and stick, in a structured way, not the current ad hoc 'fire-fighting'.

 

Hell, put any class of age in khakis for 2 years, it'll cost but I bet it'd be cheaper than the attendant, cumulative policing/insuring/societal costs...and, if it's done right, you should get most of them coming out of it in a socially-adjusted and -contributing form.

 

You want to stop the behaviour? Then stop (..or change) the conditioning!