Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
31 December 2010
08:5686921#1
Many of you will have had the new leaflet called Policing in Kent dropping through your letterboxes in the past day or two. This is of course a police publication and in it they flag up some of their positives, which is fair enough I suppose in your own publication.
But what worries me most of all is not police performance up to now, which appears to be quite good statisticswise, but the concern is what are we to expect from future police performance.
Why the concern? Huge financial cutbacks is the short answer.
In the editorial piece on page 2 the Police here in Kent are expected to continue giving us a solid performance with a cut in funding of £53,000,000. Yes a staggering £53million. Everyone including the Police try to blag this up saying it wont affect frontline performance...although secretly and reading between the lines you can tell they are reeling.
The politicians in government give us the usual bull about needing to maintain the same level of performance but with much less money. But this is clearly impossible. We all know dont we that money is the ezssential fuel for success in almost everything. The easiest illustration is football. All the football clubs with money are at the top..a simple lesson...end of.
Without this staggering amount of money you can therefore be reasonably assured that your streets will NOT be policed in the same way, fewer criminals will be arrested, fewer crimes will be solved, all sorts of criminals will be let out of the system earlier, response times will be slower...and even in relation to the debate running on that other thread about cyclists on pavements...nobody will be around to enforce the law on anything of such a lowly nature as the resources just wont be there.
These cuts are the policy of the Conservative led government, a party that was once the party of law and order!!
So sadly we all need to get to grips with the fact that we are due for an increase of unpunished criminal activity, not a happy situation for any one of us.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
31 December 2010
09:1786922#2
You are right on that one Paul,+all the unrest we are going to see in 2011 with all the cost of living going up like V.A.T and the lost of 100.000 jobs or more in the services we get ,(Or will not get) we could go back
to the 1980s with the return of the fighting on the Streets etc,,+there will be less police about to stop it.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
31 December 2010
10:3786933#3
Your football analogy is flawed, PaulB. Money is the reward for reaching the top as well as the fuel used to get there. You might as well credit a lottery winner's success to his wealth.
But I agree, there are concerns. I have no doubt the savings are possible without seriously impacting the front line, but I have little faith in the police's ability to reform their own working practices and systems with greater efficiency in mind.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
31 December 2010
10:4086934#4
Scaremongering PaulB.
The bigger danger to the maintenance of law and order is the weakness of our judicial system and the weak so called 'punishments' handed out. Now if you were having a go at Ken Clarke I would agree with you.
Guest 663- Registered: 20 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,136
31 December 2010
11:1186937#5
I do not think it is scaremongering barry people have a right to be worried it is logical that certain things will not be covered,the people in Goverment will not be affected it is the man in the street,my nephew has just become one of them front line policeman I do not envy him his job
Guest 682- Registered: 19 Jan 2009
- Posts: 146
31 December 2010
11:1986939#6
It is scarmongering Jan - the police, like every other organisation, need to look at the way their services are provided and how they could be provided more cost effective.
Less paper and form filling and more bobbies on the beat - take a look at how many Assistant Chief Constables there are in Kent for starters.
I don't knock the police as their job is difficult especially with the continuing threat of terrorism but I do think they could spend their time better at times.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
31 December 2010
13:1586955#7
i tend to agree with paul on this one, i do not see any change in policing methods.
we all know that most of their time is taken up with paperwork, the home secretary said back in may that a lot of these forms would be withdrawn.
as far as i know none have so far.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
31 December 2010
13:1986958#8
Nigel well said.
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Guest 671- Registered: 4 May 2008
- Posts: 2,095
31 December 2010
14:0786963#9
Peter.
If your analogy is correct............." Money is the reward for reaching the top as well as the fuel used to get there.".....................
Why has nurse's pay been frozen for two years and increments amounting to around £500 per year, going to be taken from them?
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"
31 December 2010
15:1886969#10
So right Barry #4 ... weak judges and sentencing do not help at all. Seems it just encourages more crime as they know nothing will be done apart for a slap on the wrist if they get caught.
Nigel #6 the police definitely need to find new ways of doing things. They do work hard, too much red tape maybe.
We have all had to re-think how we do things at the moment, especially with limited budgets, but there are ways and means and most times a solution is found.
p.s. great to see you Nigel.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
31 December 2010
15:3186970#11
GaryC, I do not know the answer to your question but I do know it has nothing whatever to do with this topic. By all means start a thread on NHS front-line services and I shall gladly contribute.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
31 December 2010
16:0286975#12
blimey,
firstly nigel, have called off the search party, glad the local tories have seen the light and allowed you to post again.
so much has happened since you disappeared, but best leave that to other threads.
on the cutbacks within the police im sure with that amount of dosh cutbacks theres no way front line services can all be protected.
although i share the view that maybe looking at policing priorities could be looked at.
of course the police hold regular pubic meetings where you can set the priorities but look at other threads and is cycling on pavements a top priority? if it is like any other organisation, what don't the police do to achieve it?
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
31 December 2010
16:0686978#13
lets have a wait and see policy shell we.
next years headlines should be intresting reading,being all crime up by 50% by easter with it peking around october.
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
31 December 2010
18:1287008#14
I couldn't agree more with Barry's point about weak sentencing and judges being so out of touch. To me that is the biggest failure of the judicial system and a massive incentive for petty criminals to work up to be bigger ones.
Roger
Guest 690- Registered: 10 Oct 2009
- Posts: 4,150
31 December 2010
18:1487009#15
Interesting PaulB, I was going to start a thread on this yesterday but couldn`t download the pic. It was an interesting magazine to read, and makes one wonder why we`re not a completely law abiding society. With plenty of phone numbers in there, it looks well worth the cost of printing and distributing it. I was facinated by those devices the police use for noisy scooters. I was always under the impression that youngsters loved the noise, or maybe thought they sounded sporty with it, whereas in fact I find out now it makes them go illegally faster. 48 mph in one case as opposed to the legal 30mph. Did everyone get this magazine by the way?
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
31 December 2010
18:3887024#16
again roger there is the bigger picture
judges are often restrained by number of years they can dish out
although i admit many are out of touch with reality.
prisons are already over full so judges and the wider establishment are having to reduce prison numbers before they can give tougher sentences(if thats the way it goes)
then theres the old debate about is prison the right answer?
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
31 December 2010
18:4687029#17
There's also the question of are the right people in prison or not :? Should we have foreigners in our prisons - should they serve their sentence in their home country ?
Should non-violent criminals (embezzlement, tax evasion, fraud etc.) go to prison, or should their assets be taken away as punishment ?
Roger
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
31 December 2010
18:5287038#18
i got my copy colin, funnily enough i intend to start a thread on it too.
see who gets there first.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
31 December 2010
18:5487042#19
roger
i partly share your view
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
31 December 2010
19:0987052#20
Axe the CPS and transfer their budget to the police. The police do most of the work anyway, the CPS merely duplicate much of that work and cause delays in the justice system.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Tell them that I came, and no one answered.