Over the last five years you have been under a great pressure to reduce crime. To do this, you have skewed the way you report crime. You handle crime according to the type of crime that is 'reported'. Example, Shed breaks were separated from Burglary and burglaries appeared to reduce by 60%. Massive reduction, big pat on the back, lots of happy idiots in brass hats.
You had another trick, Call Centres. Group all calls into one place in the County, staff it with Civvies from all over the county, and that failed to work well, Call Handlers went off sick with stress, Calls were badly recorded as the Handlers were only allowed a few moments to deal with each call. The computerised recording system was written by people from another country and locally ‘adapted’ at great expense. The same crime could be recorded ten different way by ten different handlers.
Then you started to ask for MORE information, so, a caller calls in for help, and gets asked their name, christian name and surname, (or family name if not a christian) date of birth, their address including postcode, where they are calling from, and only then do they get a chance to talk to the handler. As they talk, the handler is trying to complete the information boxes on the screen, and it has to be done in the right order or the screens don’t work and the handler has to ask the caller to wait.
The caller gets frustrated, for rather than seeming accepting their call for help, the handler seems to be orchestrating the call to meet a hidden objective. At the same time, the handler verifies on another screen that the address given matches the address on public record, and that the caller who states they live there is confirmed by the electoral roll information.
If the address has been flagged as a vulnerable address, then a whole host of extra questions have to be asked. If a PNC check comes back on the name of the caller, or for the names of a resident at that location, then another raft of questions have to be asked.
If a vehicle is involved, the PNC is used to confirm it is taxed, not reported stolen, and it is insured. Verify its details, VRM, Colour, registered owner.
The handler having gained all this information then elects to rank the call and identify one of many offences so that the call can be categorised. This is the ‘initial recorded crime’, or a ‘No Crime, Advice given’ solution.
If it ‘IS’ crimed, then the duty inspector, or his number two, or standby number two, or advanced thinker is nominated. He runs a quick check over the information gathered and elects to float it further on the initial crime recorded, or, if he feels he knows more than the handler, will re-categorise the call in a new category, and this is the crime that gets recorded for posterity and acted upon by the duty officers, or those that are coming on the next shift as the current lot are busy.( its not the final crime, for if other crimes are revealed, it may change to something entirely different, or even a 'no crime').
The call handler may have seen the flag, a small check mark, or tick-in-the-box that states the address has had a crime reported from it at some time in the last three months. If he did, or if the supervisor did, then the crime location becomes a ‘repeat offence location’ and is treated with a tad more urgency, it will become a higher priority for the next shift.
There is no box for a crime reported many times over many years, ha ha, THAT does NOT exist. Repeat offenders that come from different addresses, or change their names, or , hells teeth, ‘lie’ to the police do not get seen as repeat offenders, and as the handler may not take a call from that person for another six months, there is no local familiarity to suggest a series of repeat calls. Call handlers work shifts and have time off too, so they do not do week in and week out call taking and therefore repeat offenders are often lost.
You have resources, precious few and they are needed for important jobs, and if one of them chases off after a hooligan in a stolen car, half the cars in the county suddenly find a reason to be involved, thus reducing the impact of policing in other areas. A Bobbie may turn up at the caller location, see nothing happening and report in that it’s all quiet, the TK is empty and there is no sign of the caller. Off he goes to the next hit. The kids shuffle out of the hedges and from behind bins, high five each other and throw something at the nearest house.
Continuity and Coppers do not go together.
Next day, a tired self important sergeant off nights comes goes into their stores and flops his worn trouser belt on the counter saying “it’s not long enough, I need a longer one’, we say we don’t have longer ones”, he complains and leaves....
The copper remembers the fact we don’t have a belt big enough to go around his fat gut, but not the name of the caller we had screaming abuse down the phone because the neighbour has ripped up her hedge and killed her cat with a spade and we had shown up and arrested her husband who was trying to calm things down.
You could say this is the truth, or you could suggest I have a vivid imagination and made it all up and therefore suggest it doesnt happen this way, Go on, you know you can get away with it.
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