Forum Topic

Police

Yesterday afternoon two police officers having a stroll in Chelverton Road, I said, haven't seen any police for ages, they said yes we are the only ones for the area. I said to the ladies well you have a nice day for it. So what has happened to all the Police.

Barbara Stevens ● 1707d13 Comments

Suzy, there appears to be a few people missing, perhaps they have had a tip off.

Barbara Stevens ● 1704d

I was driving back to Putney through Rocks Lane last Tuesday 1 June at about 2-30 /40 pm when I saw an increasing number of police (in bullet-proof vests).  About 6 were wading through the long grass on Putney Common.  Reinforcements were being added - I saw a police van with more police officers at the beginning of the Lower Richmond Road.  I havent seen any announcements in the news about what they were looking for but it looked like an urgent (man/woman) hunt.  Did anyone else see this?  Has anyone heard anything?

Suzy Johnston ● 1704d

That should have been promise!

Philippa Bond ● 1705d

Philippa, numbers are here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_PoliceInteresting there is a so-called spk cops enquiry going on:https://www.ucpi.org.uk/We need less "stasi" and more bobbies on the beat.

Ed Robinson ● 1705d

Wasn't there a problem of 20,000 more police?  Of course trained and experienced police cannot be just pulled out of a hat.

Philippa Bond ● 1706d

It's nice to see a bobby on the beat. A few times I've seen an officer with a bit of scrambled egg on his cap who presumably had a meeting at the police offices (not sure what to call it as it's not really a station as such) and decided to take a walk around. I would allocate bobbies away from monitoring Twitter and social media and towards walking the beat.

Karl Henry ● 1706d

Philippa that is a very important fact.Police number are up to 2010 levels but the police are no longer local. Police just like everyone else require toilets, tea breaks etc. Time from them to get from their station to the area that they patrol also needs to be considered.They have become a reactionary force. Visibility does not seem to be considered necessary by politicians. Question is if visibility doesn't work why do politicians and VIP get visible police??

Ed Robinson ● 1706d

And since land is very valuable lots of police stations have been sold off.

Philippa Bond ● 1707d

We do have the National Crime Agency ...

Michael Ixer ● 1707d

In 2010 Thereas May as home secretary made the mistake that Margaret Thatcher never made in the 1980s and agreed to a Treasury demand to cut police budgets by 18%.Over the next five years the number of police officers in England and Wales fell from a peak of 144,353 in 2009 to 122,859 in 2016. At the same time the number of specialist armed police officers has fallen from a peak of 6,796 in 2010 to 5,639 in 2016.That's what happened to all the police.

Matt Palmer ● 1707d

Exactly Michael, cyber crime is not dependent upon location and therefore should be dealt with by a nationwide force.With the Met's multiple roles local policing is always going to be bottom of the priorities.

Ed Robinson ● 1707d

More police on the street would seem to be the way to deal with some types of crime - from reckless cycling on pavements, snatching phones and bags, picking pockets, drug dealing, etc. Numbers may be back to 2010 levels but since then police resources have needed to be diverted to form units to combat new types of crime such as those in the cyber world. 

Michael Ixer ● 1707d

Barbara according to the stats there are 32,766  (excluding 1,874 Special Constables).That is almost upto 2010 levels.Can anyone see how people and costs are divided up?The met covers all sorts of things including national roles it is difficult to see what share we get locally.The consensus seems to be that we need more visible policing where as the politicians are taking us in the opposite direction!

Ed Robinson ● 1707d