Police didn't respond?

Question

My little motorbike was stolen in the middle of the night last Tue/Wed. I have since found out that a neighbour saw it and phoned the police as a crime in progress. He also got a very detailed description of one of the thieves. But the police didn't come out or take a statement from him. If they had it would have been easy to find the 5 youths carrying the bike down the road. I phoned them again about it a couple of days ago with this new information and they said they'd phone me back but they didn't. What do you think I should do? Should I complain to the police authorities?

Answer 1

Yes, you should complain. What you should also do is check with your friend whether she was given a crime reference number. This is usually a number followed by the date of the report. Once you have this number you can call up your local police on the non emergency number and state that you have new information relating to the crime with the reference number -- of so-and-so date. This means they can link all the intelligence to that one incident and ensure it's dealt with correctly. It will also help in your pursuit of the complaint. If your friend was not given a ref number, ask them to ring up and get one as there will definitely be a log of her call.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Do you know what crimes they were dealing with at the time of the theft? Your call may have been in progress, but they could have been at a more serious in progress call. It happens. Sometimes I can go to a call like this, start searching the area, and get called off to respond to a domestic dispute where a man is strangling a woman. Sorry, have to go. The strangling will always override a property crime.

Another thing to think about: Do you know what their staffing levels were at the time of the call? At my department, we used to have 8-9 on a shift. With dwindling budgets and retirements, we are now down to 4-5 for most of the night. We even dip down to 3 and a Sgt. after 2 AM on some nights. If we get a rape investigation, officers can get tied up for 3 or more hours with all the steps we have to take in a case like that. And with staffing levels down, it sucks! That officer is off the streets for that time. Not all departments have a detective division to take those calls. It's becoming more and more where a patrol officer is responding to these calls. We are asked to do much more with much less. The citizen's rarely want to increase the budget to add the cops back that retired.

I assume that since you called a few days later "with new information" you filed a report. If not, ask for one. Even with a very good description of one of the suspects, that doesn't mean the police can automatically find out who the person is.

Let's say I gave you a description like: White male juvenile, short brown hair, clean shaven, pocked-marked face, wearing a 49er's red and gold hat, about 5'-9", 160lbs, with a black "Metallica" t-shirt, blue jean shorts, and a pair of red Nike shoes. It's a pretty good description. But who is it? I don't know. Do you?

I know how you feel, though. I had my house broken into and a bunch of my things were stolen (including all my camera equipment, lenses, filters, macros, ETC.) I wanted to take someone's head off, but I didn't know whose. I immediately suspected my neighbor's kids. Just a hunch, no proof. It's a human response. You're pissed off and have no one to vent it on. Even worse in your case, you have a description of the person you could vent on.

I wish you luck. It is truly frustrating to have something you worked for stolen by some random punks.

Answer 3

The police would be more interested if you were a big business. As an individual it seems you have little chance. I had my bag stolen not so long ago - I had a detailed description of the thief and also his phone number (bizarrely, since he'd phoned me using the number in my diary, to tell me he had my bag!), but the police did nothing. I would suggest you phone them every day for a week or so and see if that gets you any further, before you make a complaint - give them a chance to do something about it.

Answer 4

Welcome to the world of New Labours law offensives. I live in a small town in the west country. This time of years we have 20,000 people here including visitors and a large holiday camp. I phoned the police at 9.30pm. I was put through to the centre that is 50+ miles away. They then passed it to the local station 40 miles away. I reported an incident and was told it would be given to the nearest officer. God knows where he is I am still waiting. Its too much paperwork. I was told by an officer they could not arrest a man because only two were on duty and they had to take him 25 miles to book him in. We have a police station but it works 9-4.30 only. Sometimes it stays shut. We have lost the faith we once had in our police and justice system and John Ried did nothing this week to change it.

Answer 5

as a results of fact they are laid low with budget cuts and there are not sufficient police on the line to do each and every thing. a guy who's breaking right into a house or a vehicle twist of fate gets greater priority than some homeless guy finding for replace. Pay to have an far greater than officers on the line 24/7 so they are able to investigate each and every criticism.

Answer 6

Complain! Get the local papers involved!
Just a tip, think I saw it in Back Street Heroes, or may have heard it somewhere. Some fella was woken at night by some lads breaking into his shed or garage. They were after his bike. Called 999, was told he'd have to wait 40 minutes or more. He has a think, rings back and says he thinks he can see one of them carrying a gun. (It's night, so it's dark. Could be anything!) Armed police were on site in around five minutes. Bike was saved and tea-leaves banged up!

Answer 7

Definitely complain - their job is to protect us from crime and to solve crime. Just because you don't drive a bloody expensive car, doesn't mean it isn't important!

You need a crime number to be able to claim from your insurers, so they do need to give you this!

The truth is, that from the description, they probably have a damn good idea who took your bike - and it's a sad fact that the police often won't respond straight away because they just don't want confrontation!

I hope you either get your bike back or that you can claim from your insurers.

But the fact remains that it's probably very low on your local police's list of priorities...

Answer 8

Yes, make a complaint. There seems to be a problem somewhere. To me, obviously someone does not know it is happening. It should not be that way. Not sure what the problem is, but red flaggs may need to be raised.

As to why a report and statement was not taken......it may have been conveyed to the police in a confusing way what the call was or a statement was not needed if they indeed did looked. Something is wrong somewhere.

Answer 9

your case would not be classed as that important ,,if there was another call with someone being attacked or a car crash with injured people ,you would not be priority ,,so yes make a complaint but dont expect anything to come of it ..where i live at night there are four police officers to cover six regions...........and if you get a special he has no power of arrest or stop and search .he can only ask the person to declare what he has on him and even then he cant arrest him.....,,so my advice would be get your own info and go sort these people out.

Answer 10

Nothing new!!!!! the polie are only interested in other crime. My sons car was vandalaised three times in six months but they have done absolutely nothing about it except take down details. One of the guys was caught for going into a neighbours garage and drinking beer. He was one of the guys that did it...they arrested him for what? for drinking beer because they had his DNA and it was a breaking and entering case. My son's car had £6,000 damage done and his new car radio £600 was taken out, wires ripped out and the soft hood ripped....so....a can of beer is worth more trouble....thats the way the law works these days!!!!