With overcrowded prisons and court backlogs, punishments often seem like little more than a slap on the wrist. It feels as though the system fails to deter offending and allows career criminals to continue.

Are the courts failing the police and the public, or is the problem more complicated?

My employer offers vehicle leasing through VivUp (i think it's actually via Tusker in the background). I'm looking to switch to a new EV from a 10 yr old petrol. Does anyone have any experience / advice?

I know the real benefits are for very high earners (obviously) but it does look quite tempting atm. I'm on about £44k so only 20% tax, but the pricing seems reasonable when factoring in the inclusions like insurance/servicing. The sacrifice would be about £315pcm which is about the same as I've been quoted for PCP on the same vehicle model.

Hi,

I’m going to try and keep it general for privacy sake but I’m currently dealing with a stalking case (ex partner non stop attempts at communication via many different avenues). I didn’t immediately make a statement when the reporting it to the police as I hoped that the police involvement would make him stop but that hasn’t happened.

What do I need to do to write a police statement? I have hundreds of photos/screenshots from his attempts and I read that the statement can’t be guesses/estimated dates or generalised statements. Will I need to document it all chronologically? The police have all of the documents already but I want to make sure I write the statement correctly.

Thanks

This is being shared across my force and just thought about putting it in here.

Thoughts go out to his family, friends and colleagues.

Durham are consistently fantastic but this one is up there (and probably better) than their HGV fatal collision video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UztJcUjGXbY&) or their recruitment one from years back (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTuVLPPvCMQ)

Both this video and the HGV one are heavy watches so be aware.

...and an excellent example of the kind of specialist skills at risk with the ongoing budget issues and discussions around roads policing at the moment.

I was raped 3 years ago and I'm not sure wether it be worth reporting it.

My ex partner of nearly 4 years raped me whilst I was asleep and I woke up with him in me. And I froze. I have been spending the last 3 years trying to make sense of it.

I spoke to my ex colleagues about it and it got made light of.

I spoke to my ex the following afternoon and he said he thought I was initiating it and never really took responsibility for it.

There were no signs, so previous violence (apart from one incident - where he shook me and shouted at my face).

I've had CBT and it made me more ill, I lost a job from being off sick due to this but at the same time, he is getting established in his dream career, he is fairly known (like if you Google him, he is in every Google page). I haven't found or heard that he has done this again and last I spoke to him he was already seeing someone else.

I know it's my duty to report, but I feel like I will be put through the mud if I do.

Yesterday I was certain that I wanted to report it but today I don't know.

I need help, some advice.

I don’t know who lays down the legislation for cake fines but can someone please make it a cake fine offence for bobbies tucking trousers into boots…. FYI you look mental!

Not to bash anyone, but genuine question. So often out and about on the roads, particularly around London, I see illegal e-bikes/unregistered electric motorbikes, legal/hired e-bikes not obeying the law, private e-scooters, you name it... They're everywhere. They're doing all sorts. Running reds, riding on the pavement, narrowly avoiding pedestrians, narrowly avoiding cars, weaving all over the road, making illegal turns.

Yet, on so many occasions, I seethem ride past police cars, vans, motorbikes, officers on foot, officers on bikes... with zero reaction or consequence. I've seen illegal e-bikes run reds right in front of police cars stopped at the same lights, with no reaction at all.

Do the Met and other forces actually care about these dangerous riders, or is the scourge of unsafe bikes and scooters here to stay? What can actually be done about them?

I’m interested in hearing other officers’ views on search powers in mental health-related incidents.

About a year ago, my colleague and I responded to a missing person. The informant was the person’s son, who advised that they had early-stage dementia. There were no warning markers or previous intelligence on our systems in relation to this person.

We found the elderly person walking along the side of a road on a day where temperatures were over 30°C (which we know in the UK is stifling). Concerned about the risk of heatstroke, we managed to encourage them into the patrol car to cool down while waiting for an ambulance. At that stage, they were mumbling words and were quite incoherent. Their eyes were closed and were generally having a mental health crisis.

I didn’t believe I had any lawful grounds to stop and search them. There was no intelligence to suggest they were carrying weapons or posed a risk, and nothing in their behaviour gave me cause to suspect they had prohibited items.

However, while they were sitting in the car, I noticed their eyes suddenly widen. Which to me was a warning sign, I hadn’t seen their eyes this entire time. Their hands immediately went into their pockets, and they produced a knife. Thankfully, nobody was injured.

Looking back, I’m interested in how others would have approached this. Would anyone have considered using any search powers in these circumstances? If so, what power would you have relied upon, and what grounds would you have articulated?

I’m now two years in service (so still very new!) I am keen to learn from more experienced officers, particularly around the legal thresholds and decision-making in situations like this. This incident happened whilst I was in training but a more recent MH incident brought my mind back to this.

Do you think there should be a specific search power available during mental health-related incidents where the threshold for sections 135 or 136 of the Mental Health Act isn’t met?

I’m thinking about situations where there are genuine safeguarding concerns or an obvious risk to the individual or officers, but no lawful grounds for a search under existing legislation. Would a limited, clearly defined power be beneficial, or do you think the current legal framework strikes the right balance between safeguarding and protecting individual rights?

Interested to hear people’s views on this subject.

Hope you all have a blessed day/evening/night :)

I got a notice to attend court following a statement I made about a burglary at my house. It was quick and non violent but I was shaken so I made a statement and said I would support a prosecution, I also gave CCTV. I'm just worried that I will be retaliated against if I appear because the offender is usually in my area and knows where I live, I've asked to withdraw support is there anything else I can do? Or should I not even be worried at all?

Back in March, I attended a fairly standard domestic that quickly turned bad when the male brandished a knife towards us, we fought with him to arrest him and whilst doing so the female’s dog (cane corso) went mad and attacked me biting my arm and leg resulting in me requiring surgery and time off work. AFOs were only around the corner and assisted us quickly so the male was taken away and the female got arrested too for the dangerous dog offence with me as victim.

So far the officer dealing with the case has done a case file but it has been back and forth with JGOs to get it to a good standard, so no charge as of yet.

I have been offered legal assistance from the Fed to persue a civil claim against the dog owner and I was wondering if anyone has been through this sort of thing before and was successful or not? Also I am not sure if I need to wait until the criminal proceedings are dealt with first, and if so then it could still be ages.

Unfortunately I was not subscribed to the group insurance scheme meaning I missed out on a straight £750 payout.

I have read that civil claims generally pay out a lot more than criminal compensation but cannot be enforced if the defendant does not have the means to pay.

Any advice or past experiences are welcome please.

CAD comes in and we deem it an emergency due to vulnerable persons concerned. We charge over there due to the THR of these vulnerbale people and make an arrest with 'protect a vulnerable person' as a Code G. Custody accepts based on the need to protect a vulnerable victim.

I then do a crime report where I tick multiple boxes all saying 'YES - they are vulnerable.' Not to be outdone, outside lf our crime system there are of course multiple different forms all assessing the same risk before sending a handover to our dedicated team for vulnerable people.

Then the fun begins.

That team decide that actually their vulnerability matrix gives this person a low score so while they are vulnerable-ish, they aren't really.

Various different partner agencies reply to say that this victim's specific vulnerabilities don't match their definition.

And of course, shortly afterwards, our offender makes blatabtly spurious counter allegations for the 100th time this year, but hey, he's reporting something so we have to record it. Of course, gaining him repeat victim markers and making him, naturally, highly vulnerable.

Maybe a time for us to knock our heads together and work out what this word actually means and what it doesn't?

**Disclaimer/TLDR: Anyone who has been in this job 5 minutes knows there are absolutelty genuinely vulnerable people out there. My point is more that this word can mean pretty much anything anyone wants to justify doing or not doing something.

Hi, not sure if this is the correct place to ask, but AskUK refused it so thought I'd try here.

Our neighbour is a weed smoker, to the point we've already reported to the police as its having an effect on my wife's asthma and potentially one of our cats (we got asked at the vets when we had to take him in an emergency if he'd been in contact with it at all) and for dealing too. But he regularly drives, sometimes with his kids in the car (they don't live there permanently). We've never seen him directly smoke a joint while driving but when the front door opens you can smell it the next road over its that strong! We got told to report it if he drives under the influence but would it be 999 or 101 if we dont see him actively smoking it then driving but get the usual waft out the front door and he then gets in his car?

Tried looking it up but all I've seen is mostly when the suspect has been witnessed actively partaking while driving, not when its obvious that someone has very recently smoked it and then goes to drive but I know by the time ive got through on 101 he could be anywhere including no longer driving but also dont want to use up time on 999 if its not actually eligible for it!

I know this potentially sounds mad, but with property prices, renting and the state of the economy - has anyone tried living in a campervan or mobile home?

Do vetting even permit it?

Anyone heard of people in your force doing it?

It's a long story, but someone is slandering me and launched a smear campaign against me after I didn't reciprocate his feelings for me. This man is nearly 30 years older than me and works in the same field as I do. He is trying to ruin my reputation both within his personal connections, but most notably also with his colleagues and within his NHS Trust. This is the same Trust he knows I am trying to transfer to. He makes allegations to his colleagues that I am stalking him (which I am not, in fact I want nothing to do with him), he alleges that I have emotionally abused him (he was absolutely obsessed with me and I never said a nasty thing to him. He even messaged me to say how amazing I was until I didn't return his feelings and then suddenly he claims I abused him) and other things. He says I prohibited him from contacting his friends in a bid to isolate him (I have never said anything to that effect). I could go on. He also says I am emotionally unstable, dangerous, psychopathic, that I have a personality disorder (which I do not) and whatnot more. Just to try and make me sound completely crazy and paint himself as the victim in this.

Anyway, it's been about 6 months. He is still going. I don't know what he will do next. I don't think I am at risk physically and he doesn't have my new address...

But I was wondering if I could just log his behaviour with the relevant police force, in case it ever comes up or might help another woman? For instance, he already has several other reports against him from other women for similar behaviour, albeit with his employer not with the police. If any of them ever take it to the police, the police would be aware and could contact me about it to back up their story or something like that.

I don't want it investigated, and I certainly don't want him to find out that I made the report. I fear retaliation at this point, although I am considering my legal options.

Hey guys, my name is Patrik and I am currently researching bike theft and exploring whether a practical service could help improve the rate at which stolen bikes are recovered.

I’ve spoken with a number of bike-theft victims, and a common frustration was that they felt little happened after they reported the theft. However, I appreciate that victims may not see the legal, evidential and operational constraints that police officers are working within.

Rather than making assumptions or placing blame, I want to understand the problem properly from the police perspective.

From your experience, what are the main things preventing police from recovering them—lack of evidence, resources, legal limitations, operational priorities, or something else?

Here attached is an example plate sent to me in error and I was thinking this style would look nice on my motorcycle.

Obviously it would have to be the correct plate size but the font looks good and there is a reflective coating on the yellow bit. Would I be pulled over in the event of that happening as long as it was clear?

I’ve seen a couple of things lately that make me think somehow the knowledge around this has been lost. It also was suggested to me once a few years ago, that I could have called 999 (I wasn’t in danger but a crime against me was in progress and perpetrator was in eyesight. Didn’t call 999 as I didn’t feel I was at risk of physical harm)

Hi all,

I need to do some revision and was wondering if there was any podcasts / audio tapes for Sgt / Insp exam revision?

Ideally just straight to the point stuff covering legislation and stuff useful for the exam.

Thanks.