I have noted the comments about the police and my faith in them in the thread by Dave who had his Omega rammed, so now, after saying what I did in that thread, I now state I know what the actual situation is, and why some of you think "the police are useless".
It is not the individual police officer that is useless, but the justice system that is "broken", as described by one blunt Chief Constable. The Police Service has been stretched to beyond breaking point by government cuts that you, me and everyone else has allowed the politicians to do. Cutting 20,000 from their number after 2010 was always going to have this effect, and the recent decision to reverse that is a step in the right direction, but in reality, with society now being more violent and crime ridden, with diminished respect of the police and physical attacks on them causing higher number of absences from work, we, society, require far more officers. It will be at least two years before those now in training can become fully effective officers upholding the law, protecting the public, and gaining experience with maturity.
The average officer I meet is "doing the job" to the best of their ability, but their morale and confidence has been badly knocked and they are so often frustrated that their lack of physical numbers and time inhibit them from fully achieving what they are not only paid to do, but excelling to the level their professional pride is screaming out for.
The CPS and the rest of the judiciary does not help as the frequently few officers tackle serious crime, and after reams of form filling, interviewing witnesses and suspects, with the taking of multiple statements, leads to a decision of the CPS wishing to take the case no further, or downgrading the possible charges to allow for a more certain positive court outcome, or deciding there is "insufficient evidence for charging". That is a decision based on the risky nature, from the point of view of the CPS, of taking a matter to court and incurring costs - yes that is in itself a major factor.
One case I was advising the police on involved highlighted this "sensitivity" to risk. I cannot give full details of course, but in essence it was:
An alleged mass attack on a house and 4 people, with two children, by a group of women, who allegedly (to all): physically assaulted two men, including sexual assault, one with learning difficulties; caused criminal damage to property; threatened a 6 year old child with physical harm, including a threat to "kill"; general committing of "hate crime" over one persons sexual orientation (which was a false assumption); verbal threats to "fire bomb" the house, and general criminal disorder with breaches of the peace, all following previously alleged on-going acts of harassment and incitements to cause acts of violence, which, allegedly continued after the main incident. The main attack was witnessed by a large number of people, including independent observers.
The outcome after months of police work, and much personal effort by one PC, and his DI, with me constantly communicating and advising between all parties, was a decision by the CPS to not press charges as at court there could well be a fatal element to legal proceedings as one adult witness, who was one physically assaulted, including a sexual element, and has learning difficulties, was hesitating over his original identification of a suspect, although positive identification had been confirmed by other witnesses. The risk of him faltering in the witness box was considered too great. Another major flaw was that the police had taken too long to bring the case to the stage of pressing charges!
The system had also destroyed this case from the start, as when this incident was transpiring numerous 999 calls were made, but due to a mistake in the grading of the call and a lack of police resource at that time, a Sunday afternoon, it was not until 2 hours plus that officers arrived on the scene, by which time the alleged committing of offences was over. The police therefore could not identify the suspects, and relied on the victims statements. The officers did carryout door to door enquiries, entering a particularly key property to the affair, but any suspects had disappeared.
For me this case highlighted so clearly how the police are so handicapped from being able to enforce the law and bring about justice, due to the politicians. The PC's involved, and the DI, although very professional in their reactions after this case had been dropped, even though with the latter's support I was able to advise the main victim to lodge an appeal of the decision with the CPS, they were not happy. In fact one said he was "gutted" and angry. That is what is letting our police down, and causing them to question why they carry on. It must change, and change as quickly as humanly possible.
Much higher, fully enforced, sentences for anyone who assaults, let alone worse, any emergency worker, must be a matter of urgency. As I mentioned before, the benefit of higher numbers of police officers will take at least two years.
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