A few weeks ago I saw an M reg Golf being chucked round a blind junction, tyres squealing, in the village (30 zone). I clocked the full reg and rang it in to Thames Valley, telling them it was being driven very badly. I saw it again and thought it was tracking oddly, but wondered if it was my position/perspective.
More recently I was on the way home when I glanced in my rear view, and there it was, two up. It overtook me (fairly safely) and went into the village some 400 yds ahead of me. As it overtook I saw again that it was not running square on the road, but that the near side rear was hanging out, as if the NSR rear wheel was about 3" outside the NSF, and the OSR about 3" inside the OSF. It had the NSR window punched out, and clear damage to the NSR wing, so it crabs down the road.
When I got home I looked it up on DVLA and AskMID - not taxed, or insured. I rang it in again, and left a message on the beat bobby's voicemail.
She came round today. The car has changed hands several times since being sold by the last recorded keeper (who lives five miles away), but it has also been rung in by another village resident, so they visited the house it was parked by, which belongs to the granny of the girlfriend of the current "driver".
Granny is going to have a word with the lad, I was told.
That's it.
Angry, I'm furious.
Sounds like another complaint is in order.
Last edited by: oldnotbold on Wed 31 Mar 10 at 17:54
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Stick it with the list of drivers with no tax, or mot, or insurance it stinks but it's getting worse.
And you can't keep blaming this lot of imigrants quite a few are british.
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Complain to the Chief Constable.
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If it doesn't count for points against a government target it not worth the plod putting down their donuts. But don't put your dustbin out a day early or the jobsworths will fine you.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 31 Mar 10 at 18:14
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Post the details somewhere, perhaps not here unless the mod are happy, but somewhere like the website of your local newspaper. That way the police will have to do something about it.
If it is being driven like that, and not insured, it is only a matter of time before there is an incident and somebody injured (or worse).
No excuse for the police not to do something about it, when there is the issue of insurance. It is a pity that the police have to be pressurised into acting, but that is the way it is.
Last edited by: SteelSpark on Wed 31 Mar 10 at 18:32
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Road Traffic Act stuff no longer a priority, blame the current Govt and Home Office mandarins for years worth of interference and targets that have senior police officers aiming at them instead.
Have a read of 'Inspector Gadget', a book by a serving police officer on the sheer idiocy of modern policing.
This car can be towed away IF a driver is with it who has no driving licence and/or the car has no insurance... under the newish powers.
I cannot see your local Police sitting up on it waiting for someone to return to it, so it'll be an entry on the intelligence system for other patrolling officers.
If it's untaxed, then try your local council for a tow away, as long as it's on a public road.
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A post event S59 notice could have been easily issued. Suggest you have a look at the website of the Police wherever you are - look for who is in charge of neighbourhood Policing - familiarise yourself the Policing Pledge and quote bits of that at him/her.
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"Have a read of 'Inspector Gadget', a book by a serving police officer on the sheer idiocy of modern policing."
You have been rumbled WP. No advertising business interests on this site ;-)
Cracking read, just finished it. Really tickled by:
"If you are having trouble sleeping check out the slightly Stalinist sounding 'National Policing Plan' ....... Its full of meaningless buzzword bingo phrases lile 'key milestones'................. the word 'target' appears 34 times. 'prison' appears once and 'punish' and 'just desserts' don't rear their ugly heads once. ............."
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>> If it doesn't count for points against a government target it not worth the plod
>> putting down their donuts. But don't put your dustbin out a day early or the
>> jobsworths will fine you.
But sell a 14 yr old a Goldfish and you do get treated very leniently, £1000 fine, tagged and curfewed. But then the woman was 66 and very likely a well known career criminal.....just never been caught !!
She should have got bird....it would have been more appropriate !
Crazy !!
Ted
>>
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>> But sell a 14 yr old a Goldfish and you do get treated very leniently
>> £1000 fine tagged and curfewed. But then the woman was 66 and very likely a
>> well known career criminal.....just never been caught !!
>> She should have got bird....it would have been more appropriate !
>>
Yes, but if you read a bit deeper, that report did state there was a bird in there with a broken leg as well...so it wasn't just the goldfish. No doubt a poorly run pet shop and this is the tip of the iceberg...and her sentence would have been community service like her son...but she was apparently unwell enough to do that, so got the tag instead
...but hey ho, that doesn't sell newspapers....not that I think the tag was needed, just trying to give some balance.
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The bird in the cage is a red herring (so to speak).
The sentence she was given was for the sale of the goldfish to the lad, if the powers that be wanted to include anything else, I am sure they could.
Whatever, the whole thing is stupid and the prosecuting authorities have got it completely wrong.
How about tagging a few thieving MP's for a start.
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>> The bird in the cage is a red herring (so to speak).
>>
>> The sentence she was given was for the sale of the goldfish to the lad
>> if the powers that be wanted to include anything else I am sure they could.
>>
>> Whatever the whole thing is stupid and the prosecuting authorities have got it completely wrong.
>>
>> How about tagging a few thieving MP's for a start.
>>
Ahh, but it seems very difficult to give meaningful sentences to people for cruelty to animals. Think there was a bloke who had a string of convictions for serious cruelty to horses (starving them to death etc) and only at the end did he get a prison sentence.
Possible the magistrate is exploiting a loophole here!
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Where was the cruelty in this case ?
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The OP wrote: ...and left a message on the beat bobby's voicemail...she came round today...
I take that to mean the beat bobby paid him a visit to let him know what was being done.
That's not bad service in itself, although the action taken does seem a bit weedy.
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This thread is just like being back on the HJ site!
'Complain to the Chief Constable!'......Has Mr X signed up again!
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damn damn and trebble damn, you should give up the area car and be a detective MLC, you found me out.
I confess I am the real Mr X!
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...'Complain to the Chief Constable!'......Has Mr X signed up again!...
mlc,
That's not such an outrageous suggestion.
Taking the original post at face value, it's not something I would do in this case.
But on t'other hand, the chief is there to police on behalf of the community, so it's not unreasonable for a member of that community to bring a policing issue to his attention.
You might think it's a waste of the chief's time, but like it or not. it's time the community has paid (a great deal) for.
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Just to bring you back to the real world. Complaints do not go to the Chief Constable, they go to the overworked shift Sergeants,who, already weighed down with the paperwork that Gordon has allegedly got rid of, have to deal with them. The OP has raised an issue and it has been noted. Any 'complaint' regarding this issue takes a substantial amount of form filling, telephone calls and time. That time can be better spent on the road, dealing with crime.
Politicians have raised peoples expectations to such an extent, the Police will never be able to satisfy everyone. There will likely be an ANPR marker on the car and it will be placed on daily briefings. What other option is there? Parking a Police car outside the house 24hrs/day in the hope it's seen driving off. If someone calls at the house, there's no action can be taken. Who is the driver? Where's the evidence that a particular person has driven it?
I see bad driving all the time on my days off. It's a fact of life.
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...Just to bring you back to the real world...complaints do not go to the chief constable
mlc,
If I complained to the chief constable, the complaint would go to him. Personally.
I don't for one minute think he will drop his latest multi-agency crime prevention initiative key indicator briefing to do anything about it, which is one of the many reasons why I wouldn't bother.
Because I live in the real world, my expectations of policing are low, which is why I congratulated the beat officer for visiting the OP to explain what was going on.
It clearly is your opinion that a complaint is this case is a waste of everyone's time, it's my opinion, too, but that doesn't mean the OP shouldn't fire off a letter if he wants to.
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>> ...Just to bring you back to the real world...complaints do not go to the chief
>> constable
>>
>> mlc
>>
>> If I complained to the chief constable the complaint would go to him. Personally.
No it wouldn't. It would go to his office, be opened by an admin assistant and immediately sent to the relevant Police Station for a Sgt to deal with.
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...No it wouldn't....
Well it blinkin' well would because I would attend a meeting he was going to and give it to him, personally, face to face, got it?
Or if I was that bothered, I would go to his house and give it to him.
Or I would hang around outside force headquarters, or I would...there are any number of ways.
I know he would do nothing directly about it, how many more times do I have to say that?
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>> I know he would do nothing directly about it how many more times do I
>> have to say that?
You can say it as many times as you like, but I'm just trying to tell you how it works. Complaints are not seen, dealt with, or in any way the remit of a Chief Constable. Complaints are dealt with by Sergeants. Very serious complaints by PSD.
As for hanging around his house or Force headquarters...good luck with that one! (I don't think you'd get into an ACPO meeting)
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It is common practice for all correspondence to be addressed to the Chief of Police, it's a polite form of address instead of just stating'The Police' or something.
As mlc has stated a complaint will be addressed by local managers (some forces an Insp, obviously where mlc is, a Sergeant, some places employ a civilian Complaints Manager).
Unless it was a most serious matter, then a Chief Constable wouldn't have the slightest idea it even existed..and neither would the 5 or 6 closest ranks to him (7 or 8 in the Met), other than some statistics on how many complaints there are.
The vast majority of complaints are complete tosh, but often have to be laboriously recorded and dealt with. It's usually a vast taxpayers waste of time and resources, one of those good ideas in theory..but dreadful in reality. Thankfully the real cases, that do indeed need thoroughly investigating are few and far between and no one minds the resources going to them..........
ho hum, it's the modern world, all the staff employed in Complaints Depts dealing with minutiae could be policing the streets and making a difference.
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>> Right on cue an example of the nonsense we are subjected to!
OTOH:
www.metro.co.uk/news/209156-police-ignored-murder-student-suspect
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And what has that got to do with people making nonsense complaints!
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It was a case of a person not initially being taken seriously. Initially considered as a "nonsense complaint". There seem to be quite a number of these (source: Google), although most are not so dire.
Last edited by: FotheringtonTomas on Thu 1 Apr 10 at 16:59
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>> There will likely be an ANPR marker on the car and it
>> will be placed on daily briefings. What other option is there? Parking a Police car
>> outside the house 24hrs/day in the hope it's seen driving off. If someone calls at
>> the house there's no action can be taken. Who is the driver? Where's the evidence
>> that a particular person has driven it?
That all sounds great and very reasonable but, if that is really what is going to happen, then why was oldnotbold only told that "Granny is going to have a word"?
>> Just to bring you back to the real world.
The real world is that people like the idiot who is driving this car around do so with impunity, because people just can't be bothered to make enough fuss.
The real world is also that many complaints are dismissed until they get enough public exposure, usually until the press get involved. Just look at the Toyota acceleration issue. Years of complaints, and investigations, but nothing of any substance until they played that 911 call on the news.
My suggestion is that oldnotbold puts it all in an email, sends it to the Chief Constable, and then CCes the other people that have been suggested, including all of the local papers.
Will it get picked up by the newspapers? Depends if there is a slow news day, but if it does I bet you that car will be of the roads in 24 hours, regardless of all the problems you (no doubt correctly) mention. If if it doesn't, it will make the other recipients think, and at least oldnotbold will have done all he can.
Best use of police time? Maybe not, but at least let's hear somebody it authority say that categorically rather than fob people off.
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>> Yes but if you read a bit deeper that report did state there was a
>> bird in there with a broken leg as well...so it wasn't just the goldfish.
The bird in question was being treated for the eye infection by the lady, and the vet's surgery, just round the corner, was aware of the leg problem. This didn't come into the prosecution.
We used this shop a lot when we had fish and it was scrupulessly clean and well run.
The reaction of some of her customers on the BBC regional news would tend to verify that is still the case.
Ted
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Doesn't sound as if that Golf is long for this world. The next time it's pulled it will be scrapped. That may well be the fuzz reasoning in South Oxfordshire or thereabouts.
They do sound a bit languid though. I suppose they hope no serious injury will be involved. It probably won't after all.
They are just waiting for the toerags to finish their implosion. Early 21st century, paradigm shift in progress, a bit dodgy.
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Email the neighbourhood policing team. I've found them, locally, to be on the ball with anti-social driving. Warned latest ned (at least 60 in a 30 and he lives on the road) whose car is supposed to be on their list to keep an eye out for. We do have a spate of racing/outrageous speeds/unsilenced vehicles so suspect there is a little group of onanists.
Last edited by: NortonES2 on Wed 31 Mar 10 at 22:03
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>> Granny is going to have a word with the lad I was told.
That may be in addition to the action the police are going to take. Are you sure you got the full story? It may be police policy to not discuss with just anyone their planned actions against another person.
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"may be police policy to not discuss with just anyone their planned actions against another person."
Yep, good point. I did wonder why the mother of the unfortunate kiddy who was brutally killed by the guy who was recently re-admitted to custody thought she had any more right than anyone else to know why he'd been re-arrested. (Bulger case? I can't remember names at this time of day)
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Smokie - he wasn't rearrested, he was recalled to prison as he breached the terms of his license. That's a Home Office directive, not a Police decision. It was the Home secretary that declined to state reasons why.
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Ahhh thanks. Still don't understand why victim's mother would have any right to know why.
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Well, a point for discussion in it's own right perhaps. Back to the thread though, I can't see any reason why officers should withold talking to the complainant about their actions in respect of such a matter. The questions that should be asked when revealing information are perhaps: is it breaking the law to reveal, is it likely to result in damaging or adverse publiciity for the individual concerned and is it proportionate to the circumstances? Can't see any reason not to be completely frank about the outcome in this case. In any case, officers are accountable to the public, there should be no secrecy without very good reason.
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>> I can't see any reason why officers should withold talking to the complainant about their
>> actions in respect of such a matter.
The action may not be in the hands of the investigating officer. In any case, at the time of the complaint the proposed action would not have been formulated. All sorts of things would probably have to be considered before action was taken.
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>You can say it as many times as you like, but I'm just trying to tell you how it works. >Complaints are not seen, dealt with, or in any way the remit of a Chief Constable.
I wrote to the CC of TVP (a lady), making a complaint. No reply. I wrote again. No reply. I wrote to the CEO of the Police Authority - reply (despite worst snow for 30 years). And a while later, a letter from the CC herself, acknowledging their shortcomings.
So sometime the CC does reply, but I guess it's not normal.
However, I've now submitted an IPCC complaint (not in relation to this thread's contents), and guess what, waiting list of four weeks to be allocated to a case manager!
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...So sometime the CC does reply, but I guess it's not normal...
onb,
Serving coppers have a very strange attitude to the chief, he is at once despised and deified by the troops.
I still don't think mlc believes I can hand the bloke a letter...
...which I know will go straight in the bin, before I get another lecture about how things work in the 'real world'.
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Send the complaint and the history of obstruction to the local Police Authority. And the deputy CC. If you think a worthwhile issue is being ignored. Ambition knows no bounds....
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Police rant, or am I being reasonable? - Bigtee
