a reply to:
newsaddict
Although I am not often one to support any element or suggestion of lackadaisical or slovenly response from our constabularies here in the UK, I have
to lend my weight to the "hold your horses, not all is as it seems" camp here.
You will note that the piece in the article you linked to truncates at the point where the spokesperson for the constabulary was saying that there
are several reasons for the failure to attend, having just pointed out the process which determines the urgency and severity of the situation, in
order to prioritise response to incidents in an effective manner.
The piece could have continued from there, but did not, it just left the detail hanging. I get the impression that more was said by the spokesperson,
than was published in the online article to which you linked, and that the piece was designed to leave people wondering, more than it was designed to
explain the situation in an unbiased manner.
Now, with that said, six hundred calls is a fairly big number, but not statistically relevant, although the relevance of statistics to the victim of
a crime or serious incident is virtually nil as well. It is vital that we understand this crucial point however, before forming opinions based on such
little detail as we have at the moment:
For proper opinion to be formulated on this subject, a case by case review of each failure to attend would have to be enacted, to establish whether
the failure to attend a particular shout was justifiable either because of the nature of the incident itself ("Hello? Yes, my microwave won't open and
give me my dinner"), or because the incident being reported, though serious, was not serious enough to divert officers from a more serious matter. So
for example, a person calling to report a prowler, while a manhunt for a murder suspect seen with a gun goes on across the other side of the county,
for example.
There are many instances where the police get things straight up wrong, and many of those instances are a result of institutional failings, and the
failure of the law to adequately protect the people of this nation. However, it is important to ensure the validity of any negative opinion related to
this specific topic, otherwise all we have is senseless cop bashing, which, thought tempting at times, achieves very little of any worth.