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A year or so ago a copper in Durham told me accidents would increase because 'ordinary' - not police driving school trained - cops were to be asked to do fast response work in panda cars.
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£200k?
They should send their boys up for a game of destruction derby with our lot £720k :-P
www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/strathclyde-s-720-000-bill-for-police-car-repairs-1.1011871
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What has the size of a Moggie or Rover P6 got to do with accidents in 2009/10 ? How many of the accidents reported involved drivers who used the aforementioned ? Maybe the reporter could add the massive increase in speed compared with when a bloke with a red flag accompanied a motor vehicle.
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...What has the size of a Moggie or Rover P6 got to do with accidents in 2009/10 ?...
The remark is a quote from the driving association bloke who reckons coppers have more knocks in car parks because police cars are bigger.
Make of that what you will, but it has nothing to do with the reporter.
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I was told once that a disproportionate number of Police accidents involve reversing into things.
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Cheap, tacky reporting.
One of our cars was rammed by a stolen car the other night. There's one accident report to add. The week before that, another of our cars was rammed. There's another one.
Potential newspaper headline..Police crash two cars within days! (And with the pathetic local rag around here, with it's YTS workers (I want call them journalists), very likely.)
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...Cheap, tacky reporting...
Shoot the messenger, as usual.
To be fair to the Liverpool Echo, they've carried six pars of a statement from the police authority - nearly half the story.
The authority does say: "Where another driver is responsible for a collision, we will seek to recover the cost of the repairs. A significant amount of the 2009/10 repair figure will have been met by third parties.”
They could have made the 'we was rammed' point a little more succinctly.
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>>
>> The authority does say: "Where another driver is responsible for a collision, we will seek to recover the cost of the repairs. A significant amount of the 2009/10 repair figure
>> will have been met by third parties.”
>>
>> They could have made the 'we was rammed' point a little more succinctly.
>>
Yeah, because all the stolen cars we chase are registered and insured! (Where's that 'rolleyes' smiley)
If our local paper is anything to go by, the staff's aspirations amount to a place on the staff of the Daily Mail. Not only do they not worry about facts, the truth doesn't seem to figure much either.
Last edited by: midlifecrisis on Mon 6 Sep 10 at 22:46
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>> If our local paper is anything to go by, the staff's aspirations amount to a
>> place on the staff of the Daily Mail. Not only do they not worry about
>> facts, the truth doesn't seem to figure much either.
>>
Oh man ! Rumbled again. When the other thread about advertising in Saga etc was rumbling on I thought someone would have hit on the genius idea of advertising in the Daily Mail to bring a sense of norm in here. Where's Paul2007 when you need him ?
Last edited by: gmac on Mon 6 Sep 10 at 22:57
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Technically it does iih as it was the reporter who wrote the article and could question this at the time if he actually understood what he was reporting. I'm getting into semantics now am I not.
Last edited by: gmac on Mon 6 Sep 10 at 20:48
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...Technically it does iih as it was the reporter who wrote the article and could question this at the time...
As a reporter, you cannot question everything, and when it comes to getting comment on a story, there is no need to.
The reporter is seeking the opinion of the driving association man on the facts about police accidents.
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We'll have to agree to disagree on this I think.
Just because the interviewee is from a driving association does not mean he is above question. They even have PM's question time these days.
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...We'll have to agree to disagree on this I think...
We can, but just in case the topic still interests you....
The driving association man is not the primary source of the story, he is commenting upon it.
That's why there's not much point in questioning him in this case.
There's also a danger of going around in ever decreasing circles - putting one comment to somebody else, who gives a comment, which you then go back to the first person with...etc...etc.
If anyone strongly disagrees with the driving association man - say the local chief inspector comes on to say there are no bumps in his police station car parks - that makes a follow-up story.
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I'm sure the reporter will follow it through to conclusion and the result will be reported back, or not.
Eventually the Police must come to a conclusion through witness statements, statements from experts, those involved. Eventually this must be drawn to a close based on what fact can be drawn from statements collected by officers of the law.
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>>and the result will be reported back.
NO............It will just be reported! o:-)
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>The remark is a quote from the driving association bloke.
The actual text reads:
"He also agreed the increased size of police cars may have led to more bumps in car parks."
It doesn't sound like he made that suggestion himself, more like it was offered to him.
"..the force currently operates 886 vehicles."
I wonder what the repair bill is for a listed Co. with a similar size fleet and mileage?
Kevin...
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...It doesn't sound like he made that suggestion himself, more like it was offered to him...
Reporter desperately trying to build a page lead from some dull figures so the paper can be filled and everyone can go home?
Of course not, it's a long running and complex conspiracy against Merseyside Police - ask mlc.
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>Reporter desperately trying to build a page lead from some dull figures so the paper can be
>filled and everyone can go home?
Isn't that cheap tacky reporting?
Kevin...
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...Isn't that cheap tacky reporting?...
Possibly, but it's also a realistic view.
Many stories in local - and national - papers are bashed out quite quickly.
There is pressure to fill.
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>Possibly, but it's also a realistic view.
MLC was correct then?
>Many stories in local - and national - papers are bashed out quite quickly.
>There is pressure to fill.
So, instead of collecting and comparing data from all plod forces in the UK (which might show Merseyside in a favourable light), our intrepid reporter decides to sit on his arris and spend half an hour taking a cheap and easy swipe at them.
Must be a really satisfying job.
Kevin...
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...our intrepid reporter decides to sit on his arris and spend half an hour taking a cheap and easy swipe at them...
No, that's precisely what the reporter is not doing.
Something falls through a crack in the floorboards, so what else have we got that we can turn around quickly?
I know - there's those crash figures from the cops....
Three and a half hundred words sooner rather than later?
Yes - job done.
The story is what it is, the police have spent X pounds repairing their cars, it's up to the reader to decide if this is a lot or a little, if it's acceptable or not.
As regards it being a satisfying job, well, it has its moments, but it also has its frustrations.
No different to any other job, I imagine.
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>Three and a half hundred words sooner rather than later?
>Yes - job done.
You've just proved my point. No additional research, no additional data, just half an hour sat on his arris trying to put a slant on a non-story.
>The story is what it is, the police have spent X pounds repairing their cars, it's up to
>the reader to decide if this is a lot or a little, if it's acceptable or not.
The reporter was too damn lazy to give readers enough information to decide "if it's acceptable or not". It's fairly obvious what this reporter was trying to do:
"The cash-strapped force, which is facing cuts of up to 25% in their budget over the next four years, have announced a recruitment freeze in a bid to make savings.
But at the same time they have spent £205,403 of their £317m budget on fixing up police vehicles involved in fender benders.
Nigel Humphries, of motoring group the Association for British Drivers, blamed falling standards for the rising costs."
Do you really think that this is responsible journalism? I don't.
Kevin...
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well kevin you obviously dont watch the standard of your standard police driver its sloppy to the extreme
and answer me this
why whenever i see a police xar with wpc in the car do they always looked slouched to the extreme?
is it some cool cop look at me attitude?
seriously because i dont get it
thankfully i still do see some very responsible policemen in cars but their fellow slouchers no indicators cut corners mates really let the side down
they should be setting an example
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>well kevin you obviously dont watch the standard of your standard police driver its sloppy
>to the extreme
Bellboy, I'm not on a crusade to defend plod drivers. I've seen some pretty poor driving by panda cars around my neck of the woods.
I just can't accept puerile journalism without comment.
Kevin...
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...Do you really think that this is responsible journalism? I don't....
Kevin,
It's neither responsible or irresponsible.
The newspaper has put the figures before you - make up your own mind if you think the £200K spend on repairs is reasonable.
You are asking for more information, but it's a non-story, according to you.
It's worth a couple of hundred words, which is what it's got.
If you want more, trawl through police authority agendas, or put in a freedom of information request - then you could follow in the footsteps of the lazy ill-disciplined hack you seem so keen to criticise.
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>If you want more, trawl through police authority agendas, or put in a freedom of
>information request - then you could follow in the footsteps of the lazy ill-disciplined
>hack you seem so keen to criticise.
I thought that I'd made this clear to you.
It is not the readers responsibility to do the research. It is the reporters!
Kevin...
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>> interesting little ditto about hendon closing
>>
It was still there, up and running, this morning..... and has been for 30 years that I can vouch for.
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glad to see hendon still exists westpig
i just assume like everything else good they had their budgets cut
i certainly remember this was the best place in the world to learn road skill
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This is a 2008 figure but the Chief Constables salary was £149.466.
The figure of £200.000 is peanuts to maintain bodywork of a fleet of 886 vehicles covering 12 million miles a year many of which are done above and beyond what a 'normal' driver would undertake.
Further information here:
tinyurl.com/3acq7tn
That is not to say that some standards have fallen due to lack of training and a lack of pride and professionalism which is symptomatic of society in general. Remember that Police Officers represent the society they serve.
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Fullchat, I was actually thinking that myself!
£200k seems a very good figure actually considering your average panda may be £10k and traffic, what, £25k?
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Certainly at one time, the normal write off criteria wasn't applicable to Police Vehicle, that is in a situation where a civi's car was uneconomical to repair the Police car would be re-built. Noticed that the basis for the story was a FoI question - usually a journalistic short cut to an easy story.
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I really don't want to get into the journalism debate, having made a decision to get the hell out of the trade but I would make two points.
1 - We will all have to get used to 'puerile' journalism because the business only wants cheap kids now to fill space with whatever falls in their laps. My friend resigned from his senior position on a local newspaper just yesterday, by coincidence. The newsroom once boasted at least seven journalists, including a couple of trainees and provided an excellent local news service, doing its best to supply explanation as well as 'facts', underlined by steadily increasing sales over decades. Hardly anybody called it 'the local rag'. Now there's been just him and one trainee, the job can't be done properly and a once-respected local title has become a cynical exercise in still managing to part the public from its money.
2 - I stand to be corrected on this but I believe the word 'he' when referring to a local reporter is unlikely to be the case any more. When I left the trade there were already far more female entrants than male. I'm not sure what point this makes but I think it must be significant in terms of the nature of reporting.
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The writer of the report in the Echo is called Gary - so I assumed he was a he !
Just re-read the article, reference is made to a "Morris Miner" - was that the one with the single headlamp ? :-)
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your comments sound out my local rag to the t
mainly female
dont even work in the area
no idea of local topography
they depend on fools like me emailing a story in and waiting for them to phone me back,they duly print the story but still get facts wrong
i wont buy it the wife does to see who's died
however i do skim through it in case theres a planning application im not keen on or just to see whos been up before the beak last week
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"however i do skim through it in case theres a..."
Lonely Hearts? Women seeking men?
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I've had dealings with the local and national press in the UK and Germany. I was always impressed at the skill of the journos I dealt in twisting statements and quoting me completely out of context in the final article. I had the feeling they already had the story composed before the interview and didn't want to let facts get in the way of printing it so.
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smash it - Iffy
