Hampshire Constabulary mounted a massive operation over two weekends in June after the unauthorised racing, attended by more than 450 individuals, shut the back road near Micheldever over the May bank holiday weekend.
Excellent! A police force actually doing something!
Now, a senior councillor has questioned whether Hampshire Constabulary should have prioritised other operations, including cracking down on child exploitation and county lines drug dealing.
Err, those things don't tend to advertise themselves as happening at specific times and places, Andy...
Cllr Andy McCormick, Labour leader on Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, said that "there must have been something that went wrong" with the force's intelligence.
Clearly, you aren't displaying much yourself:
Over the first weekend of the operation, two sulky traps were seized and three individuals were subject to section 35 dispersal orders, with no racing or associated criminality taking place.
Additionally, police cracked down on unrelated driving offences, including one drug driver, three drink drivers, one "motorist dealt with for drugs offences" and five uninsured driver.
Anyone else would consider this a great result.
But on the second weekend, no arrests, dispersals or seizures took place.
Anyone else would consider this a great result too! But not Andy:
Speaking to The Gazette, Cllr McCormick said: "That is a hell of a lot of resources with not a lot to show for it.
"They must have made a judgement call and thought it was a bigger thing than it was. I don't know if their intelligence was off or if they cancelled at the last minute.
"Taking over a public road at the last minute is quite a big deal so I can understand why they wanted to dedicate the resource they did.
"I am tempted to say that there must have been something that went wrong with the intelligence at the last minute. There is more to it."
No, actually, there really isn't. I can understand why you'd think so, but this is actually what we want and expect the police to do. And the results we want from them.
H/T: Ian J via email
3 comments:
They deserve a gong for doing what so few forces do - taking action against those who regard themselves as above the law. Mind you, that will be the most travelling the scummies have done since Pontius was a pilot.
Voters please take note, Cllr Andy McCormick is not on your side. He is on the side of law breakers who close off public roads and disrupt your life and your ability to go about your lawful business. Don't vote for him again, ever.
"They deserve a gong for doing what so few forces do..."
It's a strange world where you can get honoured for doing exactly what you're paid to do and no more, though...
"Voters please take note, Cllr Andy McCormick is not on your side."
I doubt the voters look any deeper at him than the colour of his rosette.
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