Kids, in my day this person was called a policewoman Who was it who said they were going to be 'tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime,' it's okay, you can put your hands down. Well, the Hampshire Constabulary via the coffers of Hampshire County Council have hit on a novel area down in the Avon Valley area of Hampshire - they've shut the police stations!
When I was growing up, ten miles north of Bournemouth there was a joke in the late seventies that you couldn't get arrested after six o'clock on a weekday or at weekends, because the police car would have to drive six miles to get to the town where I lived from the nearest open station - the one in my town having closed as soon as Anna Ford said 'Here is the six o'clock news'.
Well in the town where I work, the nearest police station open after eight o'clock is 20 miles away - not twenty miles by motorway, no it's seven miles down an A road with a 30 m.p.h speed limit, followed by dual carriageway. It is only ten miles to the nearest police station in Dorset but Hampshire and Dorset police won't help each other.
Anyway, and please don't tell your friends about this, it's working. The removal of a visible police force has seen a reduction in petty crime - how bizarre is that and what does it say about human nature? It reminds me of those people you see on the road at night who watch you drive down the road and pull out at the last minute because they can only gauge your distance from the amount of blindness caused by your cars halogen headlamps - criminals are turning down the opportunity because the sporting element has been removed.
Of course this could all be a load of cajones and nobody has told them that cutbacks in the police budget means they could burgle a string of houses and be on the cross channel ferry before the old bill gets on the case.
2 comments:
Actually, Paul, it was pointed out to me a couple of years ago that policewomen don't exist anymore. There are only police officers, some of whom happen to be female. WPC's are a thing of the past. :-)
Not that long ago, Northumbria Police opened a brand new Police Station in a failrly seedy part of the city. You guessed it : it isn't open 24/7 by any means. If I'm getting pertrol on the way home from work then I drive past it and it seems to be shut after about 5:30 on weekdays.
In the town I work police officers are a thing of the past!
Actually Shy you gave me an idea - the drop in crime figures could be because there isn't anybody about to tell! It's an urban version on the tree falling silently in the forest theory. If there aren't any police officers about then there aren't any crimes (strokey beard moment eh?)
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