Police have launched an operation to tackle youths who are riding motorbikes and quad bikes illegally in a country park.Oooh! We know how to tackle them, don’t we, readers?
Oh.
Police are considering measures including writing warning letters to young riders' parents to warn them of the consequences of their children's actions.*sigh*
Understand your cynicism, but it can and does work. A few years ago i had a similar problem on my patch. Took a lot of time and effort, time which i would not have now due to cutbacks in staff, but the issue was resolved.
ReplyDeleteEnded up seizing a few bikes, issued over 50 warning letters and got the public on side and supporting me in what i was doing. Pointed the bike riders in the direction of proper off-road tracks and local farmers who didn't mind a spare field being used.
Haven't had any complaints for a couple of years and at the beginning was having several a week.
Issues for us were restrictions in tackling them (Health and Safety brigade). Not allowed to chase or physically stop them....else we could end up with a potential manslaughter charge. And you know how sympathetic the press would have been to us in that regard!!
The council could not provide anywhere themselves due to public liability insurance issues.
It may be hard to believe, but we do sometimes get it right. I've even had a member of the public apologise to me as he had previously said the police never did (effing) anything about it.
I'm sure there must be a few others in the job who didn't receive the murderous thug training. And i can assure you when i was dealing with some of those off-road bikers i got plenty of the old "haven't you got anything better to do? Shouldn't you be out catching thieves and rapists?"
Same as when i am doing speed enforcement, i am there because members of the public have complained about something. We answer to our local councillors over problems so we can't just ignore issues.
The cutbacks are going to give you plenty of articles on how useless we are.
Clothing line is expedient. Piano wire is expensive and oh so hard to tune.
ReplyDeleteWell the Old Bill certainly manages to ignore complaints where I live - including those from local councillors!
ReplyDeleteWe are plagued by motorcyclists who use this rural area as a racetrack, with one local town featuring as a central gathering point. A drop of sunshine and out they come, not in dozens but in hundreds. the noise and the danger begins at dawn and ends at dusk. Sundays are so bad that many locals try to avoid using the roads.
Every year at town and parish meetings across the area, complaints are made. Every year another excuse is found for why the Police refuse to enforce the law against motorcyclists with the alacrity they show for nabbing Mrs Miggins doing 35 mph in a speed trap and pretending that's 'a major contribution to road safety' (C.)
This is a problem that has been going on for well over a decade, has been the subject of countless letters published in the local paper and repeated official complaints but nothing seems to motivate Plod to do anything of any use.
So forgive me if, speaking for this area of the country at least, the complaints about 'cutbacks' fall on deaf ears.
So many problems could be solved by timely and adroit use of the machine gun.
ReplyDeletePrivate land is private land and any use of motorcycling on private land is a form of tresspass. - a civil offence - so don't blame the old Bill if they aren't able to stop it. Instead, have a go at, a) your local councillor, b) your MP, c)the Prime Minister and possibly the Lord Chief Justice to have trespass made a criminal offence. From experience, a local farmer plagued by this sort of thing discovered that a load of tacks, pins and similar, spread along paths on his land tended to stop this sort of thing. He said that if he ever found out who was dropping the tacks, etc, he would have a few strong words to say to them!
ReplyDeletePenseivat
There's never a pitbull about when you need one.
ReplyDelete"The cutbacks are going to give you plenty of articles on how useless we are."
ReplyDeleteI've been blogging, what, four years? I've not had a shortage yet. As Uncle Badger shows.
"...to have trespass made a criminal offence."
That's planned for squatting, isn't it?
"There's never a pitbull about when you need one."
Blimey, we'd have to crossbreed them with cheetahs!
Cross note:
ReplyDeleteMy local news says that a council has had to take down a skate park which turned out to be rotting under the ramps and could have collapsed unpredictably.
I realize not everyone likes skateparks but they seem to keep a number of youths usefully amused doing something physical, exciting and slightly dangerous. Therefore I'm generally in favour of them.
Not surprisingly, the council hasn't got the money to replace it immediately so the locals are having to fund raise themselves.
But if we had spent a fraction of the money we've wasted on the Olympics building skate parks and off-road tracks all over the country, we'd have a generation of happier, healthier and more knowledgable riders and boarders by now.
Surely there is something natural about wanting to ride a bike, a motor bike, a horse, a board? Scooters are not expensive and are an excellent way to start learning about mechanics.
If we cared about youth rather than about Lord Coe's monstrous ego, we would have far less of a problem. I'd rather see a teenager enjoying themselves than a bunch of politicians preening themselves having done nothing more energetic than help themselves to our money.