pointless trying to get police to act on an immediate problem

[Revolution]

Walking down a busy street in Bristol on my way to but a sandwich and I pass a shiny 4x4 jaguar parked half on the pavement half on the road, right in front of a zebra crossing - on the zig-zags.
I returned 5 minutes later and the jag is still there but immediately adjacent to it is a police patrol car, stationary, as there is someone crossing on the zebra. I walk out to the cop car and say to the officer in the passenger seat "Are you going to do anything about that" pointing at the jag
to which he replied "what's the problem?"
"well, I think that parking on a zig-zag is against the law."
"Could you get off the road." he said and they drove off.
Even if Boris Johnson makes good on his promise and gives back the money to get 20,000 of the 21,000 police officers back on the street.......What is the point?

[Oldjohnw]

I was just having this conversation earlier today. It is often said that he police don't go after this or that crime because they are focused of another crime. But I was wondering, just which particular set of criminal activity are they focused on? Apart from the wasted effort in going after an alleged paedophilic ring in the House of Commons which turned out to be based on a total lie and cost millions. Or arresting largely peaceful protesters. Or even going after poor old Cliff Richard.

[Brucey]

just today I parked my bike and when I returned five minutes later I found that some berk in a white van had parked it across the pavement, on double yellow lines, so that no-one could walk in the gap. Someone had squeezed through the gap somehow, and had taken out their frustrations on my bike!

Grr!!!!

[mig]

get them back on the street but not in a car.

[mercalia]

Walking down a busy street in Bristol . . <SNIP>

should have taken the cops number and taken a picture with your phone and shopped the cop

[thatsnotmyname]

As above - clear fixed penalty PC30 offence. Did you get their badge numbers?

[whoof]

I was just having this conversation earlier today. It is often said that he police don't go after this or that crime because they are focused of another crime. But I was wondering, just which particular set of criminal activity are they focused on? Apart from the wasted effort in going after an alleged paedophilic ring in the House of Commons which turned out to be based on a total lie and cost millions. Or arresting largely peaceful protesters. Or even going after poor old Cliff Richard.

Not a comment on the original post but a possible answer for your question. Violent crime with a lot of this being knife crime. Was speaking to a serving office and he said a huge amount of police time was spent dealing with stabbings and beatings, many perpetrated by the victim's partner under the influence of drink/drugs. Today's local paper has a story of a stabbing. Witnesses state attended by 6 police cars and eight hours later the police were still at the scene doing door to door enquires. Another about a shop being robbed by a man with a meat cleaver and another about a man jailed for slashing his partners face and hitting over the head with a bottle.

[nirakaro]

But I was wondering, just which particular set of criminal activity are they focused on?

I was chatting the other day with a friend who volunteers as a'daft old git' in police training events (he's very convincing ). He says that a large proportion of police time (and training) is spent dealing with the demented, the inebriated, and other dafties who might harm themselves, rather than the scallies who might harm others. Used to be the province of mental health professionals, once upon a time...

[Revolution]

As above - clear fixed penalty PC30 offence. Did you get their badge numbers?

Again - what's the point? If I had, I would have been told that "they were probably on their way to a more important crime" (I've had that before when I reported cops driving past pavement parkers)

[Johnocyprus]

I can’t help but think the point is that had you had been less disrespectful to the cop you might have got a better response. Pointing and saying “So are you going to do anything about that” Is not going to bring about the best of anyone. When somebody is rude or ignorant to me I’m afraid I’ll do the minimum for them.
Next time try “ Officer that car’s in a dangerous position, can you do something about it.” You may well find you in turn are treated differently. You may on the other hand think there’s no reason to be courteous to the police because you pay their salaries.
On the News last night there was video footage of a cop being attacked by a nutter with a machete. I thought of that when I read the first post in this thread, who’d be a copper?

[thatsnotmyname]

As above - clear fixed penalty PC30 offence. Did you get their badge numbers?

Again - what's the point? If I had, I would have been told that "they were probably on their way to a more important crime" (I've had that before when I reported cops driving past pavement parkers)

If they were parked up - as you said - then it's unlikely they were on their way to a crime of any sort.

[niggle]

But I was wondering, just which particular set of criminal activity are they focused on?

I was chatting the other day with a friend who volunteers as a'daft old git' in police training events (he's very convincing ). He says that a large proportion of police time (and training) is spent dealing with the demented, the inebriated, and other dafties who might harm themselves, rather than the scallies who might harm others. Used to be the province of mental health professionals, once upon a time...

Please can you try and use less derogatory terminology than "dafties" for people with mental ill health in future, but yes it is certainly a big chunk of work for the police, and mental health workers cannot deal with it on their own because of lack of legal powers to detain, whereas the police do have the power to take someone to a place of safety. A lot of joint working is involved and actually the key person in a detention under the Mental Health Act is the approved social worker.

[Revolution]

As above - clear fixed penalty PC30 offence. Did you get their badge numbers?

Again - what's the point? If I had, I would have been told that "they were probably on their way to a more important crime" (I've had that before when I reported cops driving past pavement parkers)

If they were parked up - as you said - then it's unlikely they were on their way to a crime of any sort.

No they weren't parked - they were stationary, behind another car waiting at the zebra crossing.

[thatsnotmyname]

Again - what's the point? If I had, I would have been told that "they were probably on their way to a more important crime" (I've had that before when I reported cops driving past pavement parkers)

If they were parked up - as you said - then it's unlikely they were on their way to a crime of any sort.

No they weren't parked - they were stationary, behind another car waiting at the zebra crossing.

Either way - it doesn't sound like they were in much of a hurry to get anywhere.