Bag's Rants

Is making things right really an issue?

A few years ago a friend of mine was picked up and taken to a police station because he was walking in an area where a flasher was spotted. He was on his own about 100 yards from his house on the way to the local shop via the back streets. Screech of brakes.... What are you doing here? On the way to the shops. Get in we want to talk. Twenty minutes later he was ten miles away in the 'local' police station. An hour or so later after a fifteen minute 'chat' he was unceremoniously ejected out of the front door of the police station as a case of mistaken identity as the description was so far off it was clearly not him. Incidentally the real culprit has never been caught although after a nine months 'reign of terror' he has been absent. My friend had to make his own way home as the police refused to give him a lift back. Not part of their jobs apparently. Picking them up, transporting them miles away and then dropping them off with no help is clearly within their remit as they do it all the time.

So to find a force that actually pays to return vulnerable people to their homes or where they were picked up is actually good news. As it is a budget item though and worth £20K pa it is now an issue. Read more here.

As we consolidate our forces. More and more people are going to be traveling some distance to their 'local' office whilst under arrest for some nebulous offence. Our new one will be 30 miles away. Is it really being unreasonable to expect a lift home? Is it really acceptable to uproot someone with no money, incorrectly dressed and take them any distance and drop them off? Are we all to prepare like we are in the SAS? I would imagine that real criminals would be prepared or have a plan for this sort of thing but Joe Public? I would start carrying some gold coins and a silk map but the chances are that it would be an arrestable offence to carry gold around. Or more likely the silk, torn from the a silkworm would be deemed as cruelty.

posted by Bag @ 11:02 am