Brickbat: Thorough Investigation

Goir / Dreamstime.com

In England, a newspaper investigation found that London's Metropolitan Police closed 34,164 cases on the same day they were reported in 2017 and 18,093 cases on the same say in the first five months of 2018. Met officials say officers have to prioritize cases because of limited resources. But the cases closed on the same day included crimes such as arson, burglary and sexual assault.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

Met officials say officers have to prioritize cases because of limited resources.

More and more Limeys are tweeting wrongthink at each other, forcing the bobbies to back burner victimless offenses like assault and burglary.

[sarcasmic]

At least the Brits are more honest. In the US those become cold cases. The cops will swear up and down that they're investigating, but they don't do shit.

[Vernon Depner]

That's especially true of property crimes. Thefts, burglaries, and vandalism usually don't get investigated at all.

[DiegoF]

I sometimes feel a tinge of sympathy when detectives are just one of many parties in the criminal justice system who complain about a "CSI effect" on public expectations in their scope of practice. Like victims will be outraged that no one is doing a trace DNA swab when someone steals their VCR or whatever. Then I remember it's no doubt part of a larger anger of raised expectations that they just plain do their jobs.

I have actually experienced cops get angry at me--from visibly and openly annoyed and dismissive to genuinely furious--when I reported serious property crimes that I witnessed to them. And we're not just talking the living dystopia that was the late 20th century American inner city, where you might think, well okay. We're talking recent times; we're even talking all places. Even--perhaps especially--in the most peaceful and insular of suburbs, if it's not the property of the locals forget it. One of the most hostile reactions I ever got was from the local yokels in such a place, when trying to report a major fencing operation I had watched unfolding before my very eyes. I was genuinely fearful for my life they were so angry. Hmm I wonder what the story was there...

[sarcasmic]

Twenty years back, in a college town, I saw some guys in a flatbed pickup stealing bicycles. They were slowly rolling down the street, systematically breaking expensive locks and tossing expensive bikes on the back of the truck. One of them was mine. I called the cops from a payphone (did I say twenty years ago? Make it twenty five) and they wouldn't do a thing other than laugh at me. I knew that stealing bikes was a business in that town, I didn't know that it was sanctioned by the cops.

[Conchfritters]

Over here if your bike is stolen you need to be like Pee Wee and go find your bike yourself.

[sarcasmic]

It's at the Alamo. In the basement.

[lap83]

Occasionally property is recovered by police. I know someone whose motorcycle was found after some kids took it on a joyride and left it (broken) at a park. Sure, it sort of just fell into their lap but if they had closed the case the same day it would be a lot harder to find the owner.

[Jerryskids]

I have to wonder how many of those quickly-closed cases involved an "investigation" of "Was the guy brown-skinned and saying something about Allah with an 'Asian' accent?"

[sarcasmic]

Probably the same investigation they do here in the States - "Can this guy afford to sue us if we don't do our job?"

[Vernon Depner]

Just the sexual assaults.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

It's more likely which are safer and easier to investigate. Why waste time getting fingerprints for a stolen TV, filter out everybody who's visited in the last month or two, come up with a list of several dozen possibles, pound the streets trying to find and question them ... when it's so much easier to read a few tweets and confirm the badthink.

[Fist of Etiquette]

If it's like the United States, the reports are only filed because insurance companies require it.

[Inigo Montoya]

Police don't have unlimited resources, so some kind of triage has to occur.

If it's a choice between catching some mischief-maker who is starting fires or raping people, or permanently stopping the sort of horribly evil bastard who fat-shames someone on Facebook?well, what do you expect them to do?

[loveconstitution1789]

If Britain would stop having police on the internet, harassing people for 'hate speech', and keeping kids with medical problems from leaving the island Britain might just have enough resources to solve more crimes.

[Inigo Montoya]

Agreed. My post was 100% sarcastic.

[loveconstitution1789]

I know, I was adding to it.

[loveconstitution1789]

Garbage Island!

Average Brits cannot have weapons to defend themselves and the crooks know that some of the heinous crimes are closed same day.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

And yet, if you post a video of your girl friend's dog doing a paw up salute, or write a nasty note to your Asian waiter, they'll damn sure throw the book at you. Those are the real crimes.

[perlchpr]

To be fair, those cases are also really easy to close in one day.

"Ma'am, does your butt hurt?"

"Yes, your honor."

"We find the defendant guilty of Causing Butt Hurt in the First Degree. Sentence is life on SJW Tumblr. Bailiff, please remove the defendant."

[Rat on a train]

So that's where the VA people went.

[SoFree]

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