Wednesday 14 March 2012

Must….Bite…..Tongue!

Life-size cardboard cutouts of Lincolnshire Police officers and PCSOs are to be placed in stores in Boston.
And they’ll be as much use as the real ones?
Inspector Phil Clark said, "We are working closely with local businesses to tackle shop theft and reduce the impact such offences have on our local economy.

"Similar cutouts have been used in other parts of the country with very successful results".
Have they indeed? You mean, if they aren't stolen?

Or maybe, that's your cunning plan? Get all the mindless, bored, shoplifting teenagers targeting them, instead of bottles of WKD?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Inspector Phil Clark said, "....white noise....blah blah blah blah,,,white noise".

A salt and battered said...

Cardboard plod has been a great success in Huddersfield. Honest, always on duty with a smile and not as thick as the real thing.

Michael Fowke said...

I don't know about the real cops, but I thought the PCSOs were made out of cardboard or plasticine or something.

Anonymous said...

The only police officer I have seen in that last week was a cardboard one in the local pound-shop entrance (well except for the time I think I saw a police car zipping towards the station with blues and twos going - it was 6 o'clock, can't miss shift change).

Guess where is the antisocial behaviour blackspot of the city? yep, outside the pound-shop. perhaps we should swap Inspector Clark for a cardboard one, at least there be less verbal diarrhoea.

Anonymous said...

They'll probably be more successful than the real thing.

GalaPie said...

The flaw here is that these are inspired by the idea that seeing a policeman out of the corner of the eye pricks the conscience or at least makes people think twice about the consequences of being caught in the act. Unfortunately, this requires the would-be criminal to actually *have* a conscience in the first place, something that seems pretty rare, and as for consequences... Well, Julia provides plenty of examples in this blog as to why that's not much of a deterrent!

Stonyground said...

There has been a life sized cardboard policeman at the Beverley branch of Morrisons for years. I always wondered what it was there for.

jaded said...

Cardboard policemen? A gift to the anti's on here Julia but I suppose you have posted the odd pro story recently.So much so that you are now a "turncoat puppet" whatever that is.

I see MTG is back despite that insult.

I assume CR will be popping up next.He wont be able to resist the headline on here.

Captain Haddock said...

Well, at least the Chief Constable won't feel the need to advise his cardboard cut-outs about how to keep their sarnies fresh ..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-13069089

Lincolnshire Police .. Taking bullshit to a new level ..

Macheath said...

Doesn't basic animal psychology suggest that the 'mindless, bored, shoplifting teenagers' will become so accustomed to the cardboard officers that eventually even real ones will be no deterrent?

Anonymous said...

Inflatable cops are known to have a deterrent effect. One suspects they are a bot like real ones in this - the deterrence works until the scum find out they don't do anything.

JuliaM said...

"Guess where is the antisocial behaviour blackspot of the city? yep, outside the pound-shop. "

In daylight?

"Unfortunately, this requires the would-be criminal to actually *have* a conscience in the first place..."

Spot on! Or at least, a fear of consequences. And since there are no consequences...

"A gift to the anti's on here Julia but I suppose you have posted the odd pro story recently."

Whenever there's a chance to do so. There aren't that many chances. In part, that's because 'bad news sells'.

"Doesn't basic animal psychology suggest that the 'mindless, bored, shoplifting teenagers' will become so accustomed to the cardboard officers that eventually even real ones will be no deterrent?"

Indeed it does. You'd think all those direct-entrant, degree-level cops would know that...

James Higham said...

And the cost?