After reporting the theft of a Diavel Carbon in London to the police and telling them that the area was well covered by CCTV that would have captured any vehicles used to steal it on tape, I relaxed a bit. When I heard nothing I went back to the police who said that they had not looked at the CCTV because I'd given them a two-hour time frame - in the middle if the afternoon - for the crime. Apparently it's Met policy only to look at CCTV tapes if they're given a 20-minute time frame because they don't have enough resources to look at hours of tapes. Probably policy for other forces as well. Obvious if you think about it. But if I'd been told that when the crime was reported I'd have asked to see the tapes myself. And it's probably too late now as the bike is in a thousand pieces... Just something to be aware of.
Good old cut backs. 'Sorry we can find you're stolen motorvehicle as it hasnt been left within 50 yards of our front door'. Its a criminals world out there. Its seems they can do what they want and its only if they're unlucky or stupid that they get caught
2 hours and they can't look? Utter f£@&ing arse! It's got to take ten minutes absolute tops to find the bit where it went surely? Fast forward 10 at a time till it's gone then rewind. I am just stunned by the utter lack of interest shown in crimes like this these days. I had a £1600 mountain bike stolen from work a few years ago, went to to the police station and the guy on the desk could barely raise an eyebrow when I reported it. Guarantee if I'd caught the little shite and battered him they'd have been there in 5 finding me a little room to go spend the night in before throwing the book at me Sorry to hear that btw Maybe should have posted in the rant thread too, feel free to move it Matt
Tape? Isn't it all digital now? And agree with Matt: for god's sake, how long does it take to fast forward a two hour film? No wonder crime figures are down - there just isn't any point reporting most crimes. Report a bicycle theft and CCTV or no, it's like reporting that you stepped on some old chewing gum that shouldn't have been there.
I had a call from West Mids police on Thursday asking me for feedback about how they dealt with the theft of my bike. Was I satisfied etc. No I f-ing wasnt. You havent even looked for it, let alone found my bike you damn half wit ...shall I put you down for slightly unsatisfied then sir.......
On the flip side, would you want them sat in the nick watching hours of CCTV while Mrs Miggins is getting a kicking? An extreme example maybe, but they can't be everywhere at once. Blame the Governments who've slashed budgets across services, Military, Police, Fire, you name it they've cut it. I can't remember a time when I've seen so few coppers actually patrolling in my local town!
As I said on anther thread, relieve them of the burden of paperwork (with an iPad app system maybe) and they can go back to being policemen instead of form fillers and paper pushers. I bet they'd prefer that too. You then wouldn't need more coppers. Someone has to think outside the box here, because getting a load more police isn't going to happen and crime isn't going to go away.
its a five minute job surely, start at the said time, if bike there, skip to next 15 mins until bike gone then just wind back to catch the feckers. I've got cctv at home, 5 cameras up and its a piss off piss to check given a time frame. Sounds like they couldn't be bothered or too stupid to work the system.
I guess we are also assuming that the cctv camera was pointing straight at the bike. It would more likely be a camera nearby, so you would therefore have to scan it and take note of people/vehicles etc.
If someone had stolen my bike and I thought the thieves were on film, I'd definitely be making a stink about it until all possible avenues had been explored.
It would be nice to think that would happen but as the twenty-minute window policy is Met-wide you can bet it's been approved at Home Office level I somehow doubt it would. He would just say "blame government cuts" and the government would say "don't blame us, blame the other lot' !
Talk to your MP. Aren't they meant to make a fuss about this sort of thing on your behalf? Thery are your representative, after all. Failing that, contact the Daily Mail - you're bound to get a rise.
I don't understand how the police work any more. I reported a road rage incident (some trucker decided he wanted to kill me) and was giving the details over the phone when the woman the other end stopped talking. "Oh", she said, "it's been taken over by upstairs". Moments later I had a call from CID. I thought maybe this guy had a bit of previous and they were after him, but a courtesy call on wednesday revealed that they hadn't seen or spoken to him. I said that I knew he was around as I see him most mornings, still driving the same truck, so obviously working for the same company. "Ok", says the voice on the phone, "We'll send it back upstairs again". Why in hell are CID dealing with a road rage incident? I only wanted them to have a word with him. Looks like I'll be doing it myself - and then watch the sweeney appear...
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the CCTV cameras in city centres supposed to be constantly monitored ? But then again, thinking about it, the ones I know about are monitored by G4S ( aka Grateful For Serviceman ), so no real chance of criminals getting caught...
