Chief Constable Pat Geenty, the lead for missing people for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), said: "Whenever we get a call and someone is reported missing, we would normally dispatch a police officer, irrespective of the circumstances of the case. So you see that's a huge demand on police resources."Yes. And..? Finding missing people is undoubtedly one of those things the police are paid to do.
In fact, ask any member of the public with an IQ above room temperature and they'd say it rated higher than arresting all and sundry in the vicinity of a crime and letting the CPS sort it all out later...
Under the plans, call handlers will class missing persons cases as either "absent", when a person simply does not arrive where they are expected to be, or "missing", where there is a specific reason for concern. This can be that the disappearance is out of character or that they may be at risk of harm.And the underclass will cotton on to this as quickly as they realised the ambulance is more likely to come at breakneck speed as long as you make sure to mention 'breathing difficulties' when all you have is indigestion.
Mr Geenty said police are sometimes used as a "collection service" for children who go missing from care homes.
He said: "What we're asking for now is that the care homes act as responsible parents, do the initial work that's required in terms of trying to find out where the missing individual is, and then if they have concerns to ring the police.
"There is an element about reducing bureaucracy, but I am convinced that the change will enable us to focus resources to protect those children that we need to protect."Now, there's no doubt whatsoever that this problem is a real one - as could be seen at Winston Smith's now sadly discontinued blog.
But the key to that is to push for others to be forced to do their job properly, not for you to change your quality of service!
11 comments:
The average UK citizen is aware that a movement of goalposts by incompetent police management is their most preferred option.
The skills and motivation required to prise plod from comfortable sedentary positions and into service, are sadly absent. The effort to develop such attributes and the resolve to integrate them within unaccountable public services (and most especially police) are unrealistic expectations.
But surely old kitten heels told the cops that their job was to deal with crime and only crime. They seem to becoming the emergency service of default, covering up the mess left by the cuts on other services
"An IQ above room temperature"?-like Theresa May you mean? She's my boss and told us to cut crime and do nothing else.
Julia I realise you put these posts on to attract MGT and the other experts from under their rocks,but the amount of time we spend on missing persons you would not believe.Mrs Fat Chav rings up about little Chardonnay or Wayne not coming home and we have to respond for the 5th time that week.Who do you think would get the blame if the chavlet actually came to harm instead of just being late back from a shoplifting or binge drinking session? The police not the parents.
I think this system will crash the first time a misper is downgraded by us and ends up dead.
Jaded
@Jaded.
If mispers happen, they should be put in proportion to how vulnerable they are.
If a continual traveller goes missing- again - then that doesn't take priority.
If there were leaders with common sense in their heads rather than idiots out for results, life for cos would be much easier.
Feral.
Wot Jaded said. I laughed when I heard this tit announcing the 'new' strategy on The Today prog earlier in the week. Round and round in circles go the Acpo wankers.
Yes, but. I was a police Officer in a city that had at least three children's homes, a mental health hospital and a number of care in the community houses.
We were getting misper reports on a nightly basis on the lines of, 'he/she should have been home at 9 pm. It is now 9.05 pm, so we have to report him/her missing. And we do not have the resources to go looking for him/her, so you have to.
It was usually the same people going missing each night and what was worse was when we actually did catch them and return them home, they would walk in through the front door and straight out of the back door, because the staff were not permitted to physically stop them ..
"But surely old kitten heels told the cops that their job was to deal with crime and only crime."
I don't think they listened to her. Would you?
"Julia I realise you put these posts on to attract MGT.."
Do I?
"I think this system will crash the first time a misper is downgraded by us and ends up dead."
About that, you are correct!
"We were getting misper reports on a nightly basis on the lines of, 'he/she should have been home at 9 pm. It is now 9.05 pm, so we have to report him/her missing."
Ah! The rule of the tickbox and strict 'guidelines'...
"Julia I realise you put these posts on to attract MGT and the other experts from under their rocks..."
WC Jaded is very well qualified in selling fairy tales and mind reading, Julia. Prior to her present job, she retailed lucky heather door-to-door and read palms from her caravan.
"Who do you think would get the blame if the chavlet actually came to harm instead of just being late back.."
Jaded, this is precisely why the police SHOULD respond to a missing persons report. And of course the police will be to blame if they act otherwise.
I would like to know though on what legal authority ACPO can dictate how cases are prioritised? Seriously, someone tell me because I cannot understand how a public service is being managed by an unappointed secretive corporation? If the Home Secretary had any sense she'd ban the organisation and sack any officer that remained a member.
As for the missing/wayward kids, when found, the police should read the riot act to the parents/guardians leaving them under no illusions that THEY not the police are responsible when they go missing. If repeated, then prosecute.
John I was with you right up to your last paragraph and then you went all Daily Mail on me.
"Read the riot act"? How would that work then? These useless parents don't give a toss and anyway lots of the missing kids are in care or childrens homes with no actual biological parents there.We can't make the parents responsible when they commit a crime.
If repeated then prosecute??? For having kids that run away?-absolute nonsense..sorry nice idea but unworkable.
Jaded
"Read the riot act"? How would that work then?
The best example I can offer is from the recent cop show from Blackpool. The scene; two young teenaged girls go off to play on the beach while parents imbibe quantities of booze at the nearby hostelry. Three hours later, blue lights and sirens everywhere as parents realise the tide has come in (right up to the sea wall) and the girls are nowhere to be found.
Anyway...
The girls have made their own way back to the hotel (a couple of miles away) and once the family have been reunited, the local cop lets rip. It was a work of art and I don't doubt the parents got the message loud and clear.
And yes, prosecute. We manage it (sometimes) for truancy, abandonment of children and mistreatment too. Surely, by definition, the parents ARE responsible for their children. Those that believe it's optional should be hauled in front of a judge who will be happy to disabuse them of the notion.
Obviously I'm not suggesting criminalising every runaway case. As always, proportionality is required but those that continue to use the police as a taxi service for their kids SHOULD be taken to task.
As for unworkable? Make it work, that's your job.
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