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| The crime figures for our region for May Five villages 10 reported crimes In Sheffield ( central) the figure was 1135 |
Last night BBC aired the second part of Police Under Pressure, which is a sobering look at community policing in and around the city of Sheffield. The programme was less about coppers banging to rights scumbag criminals and concentrated a rather depressing view on just how the force is having to cope with massive cut backs in funding whilst having to adhere to government targets in crime figures.
The simple message was clear for an fool to see.
The city police was was expected to DO MORE
With LESS police officers and FEWER support staff.
As Americans would say...you do the math!
One after another, tired looking and demoralized police staff kept on repeating the corporate mantra of work "being a challenge" to the camera, where we the audience all know that the clear elephant in the room message is you can only fire fight a problem for so long before anarchy surfaces.
The bubbling unrest between Roma and Pakistani communities in the Page Hall area of Sheffield being a sobering case in point.
We take policing for granted. In the Uk the public takes the health care system for granted
also.....both organizations are teetering on the edge of an abyss...and collectively none of us are doing anything about it.
We just expect help to be there when we pick up the phone.....
Community policing in Trelawnyd
Winnie guarding the cottage this morning
I wonder if there is a relationship between police cutbacks and our allegedly falling crime figures. You do the math... If we decide to join no further military adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria etc. there should be plenty of extra money for better police funding at home.
ReplyDeleteThe programme was worrying YP
DeleteAnd you have a good point.......
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ReplyDeleteAs you rightly say fire fighting can only hold situations for a while. Here in rural Suffolk we are fairly protected from what is going on in some of our cities. I feel for the services struggling to keep going. I do know our mental health services are in a mess. My GP said yesterday the service in Suffolk has been decimated over the last two years and if it was a cancer service there would be a national outcry (and rightly so) but having a mentally ill daughter I am only to aware how unsupporting and pathetic our service is.
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note love the picture of Winifred policing the garden, Jan B.
I had to balance the gloom somehow jan
DeleteUnfortunately, cuts and targets always seem to affect the delivery of services rather than cut out the waste.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure anyone who works in the police can identify pointless processes that waste money, as can anyone who works for the NHS.
I agree... But the level of cut backs expected from community policing in the programme seemed excessive to me
DeleteThe Government know this that's why they have recently purchased water cannons in anticipation of an uprising!
ReplyDeleteJulee GRAY? Any relation to John Gray? Perhaps his secret wife? How are the kids - Hansel and Gretel Gray?
DeleteShe's the third triplet YP
DeleteJanet, john and julee
Okay, I will be the naive/curious one who asks - Actual triplets? If so, that is pretty neat.
DeleteClone Winnie and put a Winnie in everyones' garden! Just the look on her face is enough to deter me!
ReplyDeleteThe saying, 'You don't know what you've got until it's gone', comes to mind with both of theses services and the Fire service,Mountain Rescue, Lifeboat service and so on. True isn't it? I bet there are not so many folk now that remember life before the NHS. I don't , wasn't born until '54!
She is quite a guard dog
DeleteEvery evening we go to the field and whereas the terriers are all heaped around the gate....Winnie is patrolling the field borders
A bulldog and a hoe in every garden!
ReplyDeleteThere is no answer to that.......
DeleteIt's when such things start to affect the middle class, and it will, that cuts are pulled back to an extant. Always remember, it is votes that count for politicians. We are fortunate in Australia to have compulsory voting in elections, which conservative politicians dislike intensely as they know the poorer and disadvantaged are less likely to vote if they don't have to and naturally they tend to vote Labour. Although, as is your country, there is so little difference between the two parties now.
ReplyDeleteGood point andrew ,
DeleteThe future of these public services to me seem rather bleak
oy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we're poor around here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! run! home? and lock your door!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete:0p
NURSE THE SCREENS,
DeleteIt seems the opposite in the US....there are police everywhere! And I live in a rural area but you can't go 20 miles without seeing one...usually on the side of the road writing a ticket to someone...which I guess is how they pay for it all!
ReplyDeleteI was shocked just how few police were allocated to portions of the city of Sheffield
DeleteI think in trelawnyd we have one PC and one PCSO( plastic policeman) between a large handful of villages and one small town
The money needs to be spent in the right places on the right things; and why not start with a few more prisons. Letting criminals go free does nothing for crime figures.
ReplyDeleteThe US has more people in prisons than anywhere else. It hasn't helped a bit.
DeleteInteresting perspectives ...... A new super prison is being planned and hilt only 28 miles from us
DeleteMy little village had a crime last year - two bad boys pulled up in their car, pinched a few boxes of eggs from the stand outside a smallholding and threw the eggs at a couple of cottages. How shocked we were. Not a single crime for 4 years and then that! But once again we are leaving windows open and doors unlocked while we amble round the lanes or across fields with our dogs. Police officers? Can't remember the last time I saw one, to be honest. But my own dog is as useful as Winnie - and as laid back - so I'm alright, Jack!
ReplyDeleteWe have on average 1-2 crimes a month in the local area
DeleteMuch more worrying eh?
There is no joy in being a police man/woman these days John - no thanks, far too much work and there must be a constant feeling of failure.
ReplyDeleteI would trust that Winifred to guard anything - I dare say many folk would be scared to pass her - they don't know what a big softie she is.
Well, although she is a sweetie, she is dreadfully protective of the cottage and strangely enough the field.
DeleteWhereas the terriers will sleep and sit by he gate, she will patrol the field, woofing at passing horses
A few CCTV cameras dotted about the place should do the trick. (A few? We're suffocating with them!) Then they can WATCH the crimes for which they haven't got police to go and make an arrest.
ReplyDeleteWe are the CCTV capital of the world Ray...please no more!
DeleteFear works well to keep the statistics in check. Judicious application of corporal punishment (flogging) and public humiliation (stockades) are effective forms of medicine and really don't cost that much once the trouble makers are caught.
ReplyDeleteSeriously I would put them all in the army
DeleteFrom what little I actually saw of this programme, it seemed senior police officers were spending more time compiling and analysing statistics than doing any thief-taking.
ReplyDeleteOr am I just a sceptic?
I think there was some of that.... Something I do recognize from the nhs... However , the coppers at the front line did have a point.... To do their job properly... They need more staff... End of
DeleteThe fact that £30 million can be spent on a bloody court case (the paper hacking one) is driving me nuts, imagine the good that money could have done split between the health service and the police.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous picture of Winnie, I'm fighting the urge to get a Chug at the moment :-)
Good point susan!
DeleteAnd what's a chug?
The Dad's a Chihuahua and the Mum's a Pug, ...... hence Chug :-)
DeleteI am resisting the urge .... up to now!! Not really a smallholders type of dog.
Unfortunately I don't think there's much WE can do about the state of the NHS other than keep ourselves healthy and keep paying our taxes. It's up to the politicians to make sure the NHS is properly funded and giving the best possible service to patients, but all they do is cut corners, cut funding and expect NHS staff to work even harder.
ReplyDeleteWinnie in her close up beauty photo.
ReplyDeletecheers, parsnip
Certainly no solutions from across the pond from you. Here in the US we have tried capital punishment, imprisioned more people than anywhere else, militarizing the police, and currently there's a move afoot to arm every person in the country.
ReplyDeleteOne interesting aspect is the immigration issue. The US went by the 'assimilation' theory; immigrants were woven into the culture (theoretically), abandoned their native language and customs, and (again, in theory), became part of the fabric.
This worked semi-ok when most of the incoming people were northern European and white, less so if they were Asian or people of color.
Canada went a different tact, using more an 'intergration' theory; not insisting they adopt new customs. Somehow, mostly they've managed to avoid the conflicts that can result in violence.
Largely tribal cultures like the societies in the Middle East seem to have brought their ancient animosities with them, if what I understand about the UK and Germany is correct.
I've left out the economic and other factors, this comment has run too far as it is.
Cheers
The conflicts between the new and very visual Roma communities and the Pakistani community seems to be a unique interaction. Both factions have been thrown together , the Roma people suddenly inhabiting traditional Asian areas of the city.
DeleteThe mix seems to be volatile to say the least
If they took Facebook crimes out of the figures crime rates would fall dramatically. Half my day is spent recording reported crimes where the Police are called because someone is upset about what someone else said about them on Facebook, or in a text message. The rest is split between actual domestic violence, cannabis abuse by under 16s and under age sex, they're all at it after school around here, there's not much else to do. Lower the age of consent and save the police time.
ReplyDeleteTeaching is much the same. Education is taken for granted. Everyone has an opinion, and most think they could do it better. When anything goes wrong we hear the cry of ' it should be taught in schools'. At this rate the school day will be 10 hours long, as parents continue to abdicate responsibility for teaching their children anything at all. Staff are demoralized, and the Education Secretary is a pillock.
ReplyDeleteHear, hear. Jan B.
DeleteSeeing the bulldog on patrol must make you feel much safer;) Seriously, paying for police protection must be made a priority or you are right, anarchy prevails!
ReplyDeleteThank God you're safe with Winnie.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
Our biggest problem here are drug crimes.....and thefts to support the habits. everything must be under lock and key as they sneak into sheds and vehicles in the wee hours. We have been victims. Winnie appears to take her job very seriously... the little beauty!
ReplyDeleteThere is sign up in our GP apologising for the fact that due to government cuts they will no longer open early in the morning, later in the evening or on Saturday mornings. This is in a week when I have heard several government statements on the bbc and radio 4 tell me they are enabling longer GP hours and everyone to be able to access their own GP on the weekend.
ReplyDeleteIt seems the government statements say one thing and the country experiences another.