Poice responce etc

PeterM · 18 November 2010, 10:22

Been reading about the stolen Marlin in the ' Stolen Ribs' section and the general view of the police response to nicked kit.

I thought I put my experience of the local police response to my tender being nicked ( Only £850- not much compared to some boats value, but still boatings not about value when stuffs been nicked !).

I found it had gone at 7am, I casually had breakfast and went to the local station at about 10 am. Filled the forms in & to be honest didn't expect to hear any more again. However , the local marine crime officer was 'in' so came down to have chat- he remembered me from chatting on the local slipway ! ( 1st Points in the bag for him) .

He said he would nip round 'later' - I understood this to maybe mean 'never' so I walked home to find him sat on the doorstep with a PCSO ! ( more points ) He then knocked on everydoor in the road, and the roads nearby to see if anyone had seen anything. (Alas nothing- but more points !!). He had already requested the CCTV footage from the cameras near us - but had a call to say that there was nothing they could use - just cars in the local roads - with 'maybe' my SIB & engine in the boot .....( even more points )

As he left a Crime Scene officer turned up to look for anything they could use - tool marks or finger prints.(Yet more points ) Again nothing was found.

I was very impressed by all this for my little SIB & engine !

In the following few weeks I have had several calls from the Poole Marine Police asking for any identifying marks on the boat/engine as they had ' a few' they though may be mine. ( more points for following it up) The other evening they even turned up at the house with an engine to see if it was mine. ( Yes - more points) I was out but they then bought it to where I was (8 miles away! ) for me to look at ! ( Nope it wasn't mine ;( - but more points than I thought possible)

So all in all I have had an absolute 1st rate service from the police.

I'm wondering if I was just lucky, were they quiet , or is the local Dorset marine section just 'good' ?

Whats other experience - boating related only ...........

Pete

PS- I wont tell you what they are like when actually 'on' the water......

HUMBER P4VWL · 18 November 2010, 12:57

good to hear good stories, but i think if you lived in a rough inner city area or a run down northern coastal town the service would have been very different as they would not have had the time to imho spend so much on resources for a dinghy.

I don't mean that antagonistically as if they could do that for everyone then the country would be much better off. However if they can put that much time and effort in to your case in Dorset I would have thought the Police as a whole should be sending staff to other areas of the country where ASBOs loiter in streets smashing old people's cars in every night of the week and things worth much more than £850 get nicked every hour.

At the same time, I am sorry for your loss, there is nothing worse and i have experienced it myself.

PeterM · 18 November 2010, 16:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by HUMBER P4VWL

good to hear good stories, but i think if you lived in a rough inner city area or a run down northern coastal town the service would have been very different as they would not have had the time to imho spend so much on resources for a dinghy.

I don't mean that antagonistically as if they could do that for everyone then the country would be much better off. However if they can put that much time and effort in to your case in Dorset I would have thought the Police as a whole should be sending staff to other areas of the country where ASBOs loiter in streets smashing old people's cars in every night of the week and things worth much more than £850 get nicked every hour.

At the same time, I am sorry for your loss, there is nothing worse and i have experienced it myself.

I do see both sides and while being pleased they took it so seriously am sure , and would prefer, them to deal with drugs/violence etc. I am very lucky to now live in a 'decent' area. Having lived in central Bristol & Stoke on Trent I know they face a very differant set of problems.

I was just very pleased that a 'small' crime was taken seriously. I was left thinking they had done all they could when it woudl have been very easy to dismiss it on the basis of ' its insured , we will never catch anyone, so why bother'.

Its easy to feel police 'dont care' so thought I'd share a good example.

Apart from from drama while on the water I know kit being nicked is my next biggest worry.

So I'm just wondering what others have thought/experienced....?

lauchiemb · 18 November 2010, 16:30

I live in a northern local town and I suffered a non boat related burglary and contra to Mr Humber P4 had a great experience (apart from the burglary itself).
On realising I had been burgled I called the police on the 0844 number. They turned up within less than an hour (they aim to arrive in under an hour). This was at about 9.30 PM. After taking all details he set off to bang on all the neighbours doors.
Next day a cute police woman called ellie turned up to let me know that there was no cctv around but let me know about how many crimes there are in the area and what they do to minimise crime in the area. We had lost jewellery so she said that they do a magpie search which means going round all the pawn shops and jewellers seeing if stolen items have turned up.
Later on that day a CSI lady turned up and found footprints on a sofa and in the garden that I had not seen. Very polite and efficient.
I thought they were fab and we are just a northern coastal town!
P.S. Jewellery taken will be claimed on insurance and might just buy me a tasty little RIB for next season...

HUMBER P4VWL · 18 November 2010, 20:25

I lived in SOTrent for a year, nr uni, horrible. Flat burgled 4 times, basically told that's what happens here. Left v quickly.

Burgled in Chester on welsh border over 20 times in the last 10 years as we own business units, despite alarms, CCTV and now gone dogs as they bit two people grrrr police experience there very varied. Sometimes excellent sometimes awful

Police in n Wales Anglesey when boats been broken in to twice and tools gone. Boat moved once and friends stolen. Police useless!

Just depends I suppose. Not knocking them in general, but to retire at 49 with 2/3 salary isn't right. Some forces have more employees on payroll than there are working. Hmmmm

JABS · 18 November 2010, 20:45

Didn't your friend protest when he was being stolen?

kerny · 18 November 2010, 21:05

My wife had her car damaged with paint remover we new who had done it , also video evidence from a house where it was parked , we contacted the police it took them 3 days to turn up after constant phone calls , they told us to claim of our insurance what a laugh , also took them a week to visit the house with the cctv, the owner of the house with the cctv had second thoughts because of the time delay ( I think he got scared after having plenty time to think about it) so the police didn't pursue it and the tw**s got away with it . Okay this was 5 yrs ago so they might have improved since then ,,, "I think not" . Police in more affluent areas probably have more time to investigate petty crimes compared to City's . My gripe over .

willk · 18 November 2010, 21:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by JABS

Didn't your friend protest when he was being stolen?

He was probably delighted

Kraken999 · 18 November 2010, 21:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by HUMBER P4VWL

Just depends I suppose.

You're right. Police Officers are drawn from a cross section of society. Consequently you get some good ones and some not so good ones. Just like you get some good builders and some not so good ones etc etc. So it can be the luck of the draw.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HUMBER P4VWL

Not knocking them in general, but to retire at 49 with 2/3 salary isn't right. Some forces have more employees on payroll than there are working. Hmmmm

Police Officers don't retire at 49 as a rule. They used to retire after 30 years service. So if you joined at 18 then it would follow you could retire if you wanted to at 49. But generally they prefer to recruit older people with some life experience. That is no longer the case and hasn't been for quite a while now. They have to work until 60 now (65 in MOD Police). (I can't imagine rolling around the gutter with some drunken thug at 60 on a Saturday night.)

One of the reasons they got 2/3 of salary pension was that the life expectancy of a retired Officer was around 7 years so they didn't draw it for long and in order to get that you paid 11% of your salary in super annuation. Yes that's right 11%! So they got back what they paid in if they lived long enough. If they didn't survive long then the job proffed. If they did live long then they proffed. A bit swings & roundabouts.

Of course it's a bit different now with longer life expectancy. Which is no doubt why it's changed a bit. Fortunately I'm one of the few left who can retire at 49 in a couple of years time. Although I wont have done a full 30 years having transferred some HM Service pension entitlement into the pot.In fact I'll probably have no choice as under Police Regulations I can be required to retire then so they can thin us out to help the country's deficit problems.

Added to this most commute their pension for a lump sum so don't get 2/3 anyway. This of course is again cheaper in the longer run for the job.

Often hear the green eyed 2/3 moan so thought I'd just try and put it in perspective. but proud to hear that we're not being knocked. To be honest 30 years of dealing with societies dregs and the frustration of trying to get some justice done is wearing and probably plenty enough so looking forward to a change now.

What will I do if I make it? Spend that communtation on RIB and engage with normal people.

I'm proud to hear some recieve good service. Dissappointed many don't. Here in the West we are course blessed with low crime rates which does afford us more opportunity to put the time in. Would I return to city policing. No way.

Best wishes.