Graham reports back from Friends of Scholes Park meeting
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Police respond on local theft and burglary spike
by Lib Dem Team on 21 February, 2017
We asked the Police to explain what’s being done to tackle the recent spike in thefts and burglary – especially thefts from cars.
Here’s what Inspector Pete Walsh has told us:
9 CommentsHaving looked at the recent crimes recorded, the majority involve a wide time frame for the offence occurring – for example, sometime between 8pm and 7am. Other than the obvious cover of darkness, it does make it a little harder to inform our patrol plan. As you are no doubt aware, there has been a large number of burglaries in Stockport so the areas of Gatley, Cheadle Hulme, Cheadle, Heald Green, and Bramhall have extra attention from both the local patrols and Force resources, and this is likely to continue for some time. Anyone wandering the streets after midnight is very likely to be subject to our attention and initial scrutiny.
As is always the case, with limited resources and unwavering demand, it is not uncommon for all of our resources to be committed to urgent ongoing incidents such as missing persons, domestic violence, and crimes in action (ie patrols responding to a crime that is actually occurring there and then). In this day and age we are unable to ringfence patrols to patrol one small area all evening. I wish we could!
The recent incidents in Gatley have already resulted in it being our main focus overnight. I have checked and this is on our briefing for the night patrols. I assure you that it is getting our attention. I’m on nights again soon and it’s where you’ll find me!
When a crime is reported, it may be recorded by the PAD desk over the telephone. A Crime Scenes Examiner may be deployed in order to recover any forensic opportunities.
The PAD desk is a centralised Force Unit that records crime over the telephone. They can only deal with certain types of crime which have not been directly witnessed by anyone. For thefts from cars, there is little advantage in deploying an officer to the scene purely to record details that can be recorded over the telephone. It is all part of preserving resources to be deployed to positive line crimes where specific skills are required, such as recording witness statements.
The fact that PAD record a crime does not mean that the crimes are not investigated. They are simply recorded by them and then sent to the Stockport Division to assess and action as appropriate.
And, Ladies & Gentleman, this is why the politicians would have you believe that crime is falling. It’s actually getting worse but either not being dealt with or people just don’t report it because they know nothing will be done. Makes you wonder where all our taxes are going.
Thanks for all that reassurance Inspector Walsh
We will all sleep soundly in our beds now knowing that you will soon be on nights protecting us
What exactly has been done about the burglaries and thefts
Have there been any arrests
Have you informed your Officers in the Patrol Plan that you probably could do with some of that old fashioned rocket science called police work and get out on the streets and speak to people and target the problem areas
Should I join the GATLEY DADS ARMY!!!!!!!!!
Yes, how many burglaries have been solved in the last 5 years ?
I was sorry to see the criticism of the Police (I have no personal links to them). With politicians drastically cutting their numbers and back-up staff the crime increase is inevitable and the current and increasing society-wide attitude to crime (I’ll do it if I can get away with it!) including road use is encouraged by the reducing deterrence in punishment procedures. Society is rapidly gaining in complexity through population pressure with so-called social media reducing person to person contact and only stricter social personal behaviour will reduce crime. It is up to us to behave responsibly.
Have you ever read “Pseuds Corner” in Private Eye magazine?
I agree that we should all take some responsibility for preventing crime. The police have an impossible job preventing petty crime because of it’s sporadic opportunist nature. One crook in one street doing several cars can make it seem like a crime wave. Our increasingly insular lives leave the streets to the yobs, drunks and criminals at night – and let’s face it, all but the bravest right thinking citizens are too scared to be out after 11pm. All we can do is try to make the Police’s job easier by making it harder for casual thieves. It’s remarkable how many people still leave valuables on show in cars. Apart from mindless vandalism I can’t imagine thieves smashing their way into cars unless they see something worth pinching. Some simple precautions like security lighting, locking house and car doors, closing windows, locking side gates, sheds etc. will deter most opportunist thieves. That might sound condescending but believe me, my work takes me into public car parks where I regularly see windows down, goods on show, doors unlocked. It really is amazing how careless folk can be. Don’t make it easy for thieves…. there’s nothing we can do about the vandals sadly. And unless the police catch thieves in the act it’s highly unlikely they’ll investigate minor car thefts. It’s simply not cost-effective to do so with the limited resources they have. Most crime of this nature nowadays is reported for the sole purpose of obtaining a crime number for the insurance.
I agree with all you say Mr Evans, yet Victor is right: Inspector Walsh should provide us with facts and figures instead of waffle.
Increased presence they must of deployed those new invisible police cars ! After another 5 burglary’s across Gatley this month (July) the police are never to be seen.
In fact it took them over 36 hours to come and do the report, this is of course post the forensics team reluctantly coming round after trying to weasel out of doing so by inferring that the items would not bear prints that had been touched, something that must require great skill to determine having not even visited the scene. after finally doing so they spent approx 5 minutes looking at items that clearly had prints whilst explaining that they probably would not be of any use.
It is quite sad that the following night the thieves again returned and local residents had to operate a nighttime sting operation and chase them off with bats which they did do successfully. Have the police monitored the CCTV of the car chase ? NO ! Have they enquired as to what the vehicle they were in was ? NO
Do they care in the slightest about the fact that young children are in continuous danger in their own homes and parents having to arm themselves and act as vigilantes whilst paying their taxes to in theory provide a level of safety in the community. NO
In my opinion it would be solved quite easily if the passages were monitored with police vehicles who may act as a deterrent to these scumbags. The police are aware of these escape routes as they are the first to point out where they would of escaped to but seem to avoid any preventative measures with that insight.
All in all, I have lost a great deal of faith in the police service, unless of course they are delivering speeding tickets of other income generative measures designed to bolster waining budgets whilst allowing fantastic communities to suffer at the hands of real criminals.
Maybe we need a less liberal approach in Gatley and more community cohesion ?!!!
Rest assured there will be a number of police to place me in handcuffs the next time someone enters my home and I slice their throats in the process, but I guess thats just the price a hardworking taxpaying individual has to bear in 2017 Gatley.
Did not stop my bikes getting robed on Saturday night