Police are a Waste of Time....

[Fish]

:rant: My wife has recently took over responsibility of a Lloyds Chemist and has a problem with a repetitive thief.

He is known to the staff who all tell him to leave as soon as he is spotted in the shop, they have supplied his full name also to the police. After checking the shelves and CCTV on his departure, it is always found and seen on the CCTV that he has taken stuff, mainly sunglasses at this time!

The police are called, sometimes they arrive in around 2 days, sometimes not at all and have to be chased! Today when 1 arrived after he (the thief) stole around 10 pairs of sunglasses on Friday, it was reported to my wife that he had been in again on Saturday and more items had been taken after reviewing the CCTV after he was spotted in the shop and thrown out. This was told to the police officer today who said "he couldn't do anything about that incident, they had to call that in separately as his time was premium and he was only their to address Friday's incident"!

She offered him (the policeman) the CD's of the CCTV showing the thief clearly stealing items on Saturday again so it proved that this thief is targeting my wife's shop but he refused to take them from her!

My wife has said that she was and is now made to feel like a nuisance caller when reporting this thief and the attitude of the police when arriving is one of "what do you want us to do", he is probably just stealing to feed his drugs habit! Who is he to generalise and stereotype this person without doing his job first and also come across as though he's justifying the thief's actions!

Its very uncomfortable for my wife and all the young female assistants in the shop to confront these individuals, especially if they feel that they can't call the police unless a situation arises where they feel threatened or at worse, a physical encounter occurs!

Whilst the police display such attitudes like this showing no empathy or support to those reporting these crimes, however minor, it is no wonder that people can't be bothered to report crimes and that crime figures which are apparently low, are in-fact, probably as high if not higher than ever!

Maybe if they weren't constantly queuing up in Greggs they could do more policing with their time :rant:

 

[Fader]

When I first left the Army I did a stint well 20months as security Manager for Next and covered both the Bluewater & Lakeside sites. The policing of these stores was a lot like you describe in that some of the officers basically couldn't give a rats ass. If we apprehended someone before leaving the shop the police would come along and if it was a major haul they had to take action as the culprit was there, but the more minor losses done by known offenders they seemed to not care about and just brushed off like they couldn't care less.

What I found worked to turn this around was to create a Civil recovery file over a period of 6-8 Weeks that catalogued all known losses to theft whilst also reporting each incident to the police and noting each time what their actions or lack of were. Then after the period was up we managed to seek an audience (visit) with one of the desk sargeants from the local plod office and presented him with the file of total losses and police action, to say his Jaw dropped when he saw the financial loss and how much could be recovered in a court through civil recovery both to us as a company and the state in fines is an understatement. He took it away and 3 weeks later all the stores in Bluewater were presented with a civil recovery file and dedicated phone number to call as well as a liaison officer. After that each call out led to them looking at it and where possible recvoring costs to us and them for manpower, they even now have dedicated meetings once a month between the liaison and all the stores where everyone shares info on known offenders and trends in theft.

It worked there and maybe could be something your wife could look at as once you put £££ signs in front of the police they do sit up and take notice as to them the odd £10 maybe nothing but when you show them over a month it is 10 or 20 times that they do listen.

 

[user2009]

The attitude that the officer could only deal with 1 incident is very poor, if the theif had come back in under his nose would he say the same? no. It was a classic fob off to make hos job easier.

You certainly need to be doing something yourself as has been mentioned, a civil banning order then action when he trespasses on the property again would be ideal in addition to what the police are/should be doing

 

[In_The_Rough]

As I have said many times on here regarding various incidents where the Police are involved they are only interested in a few things like Drug smuggling, Rapes, Murders and Organised Crime on and don't forget the area's where they squeeze some money from the motorists, anything else forget it.

 

[Hobbit]

When I first left the Army I did a stint well 20months as security Manager for Next and covered both the Bluewater & Lakeside sites. The policing of these stores was a lot like you describe in that some of the officers basically couldn't give a rats ass. If we apprehended someone before leaving the shop the police would come along and if it was a major haul they had to take action as the culprit was there, but the more minor losses done by known offenders they seemed to not care about and just brushed off like they couldn't care less.

What I found worked to turn this around was to create a Civil recovery file over a period of 6-8 Weeks that catalogued all known losses to theft whilst also reporting each incident to the police and noting each time what their actions or lack of were. Then after the period was up we managed to seek an audience (visit) with one of the desk sargeants from the local plod office and presented him with the file of total losses and police action, to say his Jaw dropped when he saw the financial loss and how much could be recovered in a court through civil recovery both to us as a company and the state in fines is an understatement. He took it away and 3 weeks later all the stores in Bluewater were presented with a civil recovery file and dedicated phone number to call as well as a liaison officer. After that each call out led to them looking at it and where possible recvoring costs to us and them for manpower, they even now have dedicated meetings once a month between the liaison and all the stores where everyone shares info on known offenders and trends in theft.

It worked there and maybe could be something your wife could look at as once you put £££ signs in front of the police they do sit up and take notice as to them the odd £10 maybe nothing but when you show them over a month it is 10 or 20 times that they do listen.

Definitely sounds worth a try. And if there's no joy, try the IPCC.

 

[DappaDonDave]

Give the local security firm a call, everywhere has one. A couple if days work will see them rough up and hand deliver the thief to the police.

 

[Iaing]

Can the pharmacist not dispense an extra large dose of methadone to the thief? That should see him off for good!

As far as the police are concerned, yes they should in an ideal world, be doing more. But it seems that ' minor' crime like nicking sunglasses, vandalism and burglary are too much trouble. They're too busy nicking motorists and investigating complaints by the PC brigade!

It's sad but probably the best solution is a ' young female assistant ' less and a private security guard more.

 

[chrisd]

Complain to the new Police Commissioner, they are not going to want bad publicity if you were to go to the press!

 

[Imurg]

Complain to the new Police Commissioner, they are not going to want bad publicity if you were to go to the press!

Assuming you know wbo yours is.........

 

[Fader]

Assuming you know wbo yours is.........

7

Haven't a clue who ours is at all!

 

[chrisd]

7

Haven't a clue who ours is at all!

Here in Kent it's Ann Barnes and I know for a fact that she will take any complaints really seriously.