Police Incompetence?

Off-topic
1

About 1 month ago I went to the Post Office to collect a recorded letter, I went there with my mum. She went inside to get the letter and I was in the car in the passanger side. I was reading a magasine when I felt the car nudge and heard a bang, looked to my right and saw someone back into the door. Came out tapped the back of their window and waved my hands but the person failed to stop and just left.

My mum and myself both saw this, we informed the insurance and the police. As far as I was aware this person failed to stop after causing an accident and this would be a criminal offence… right?? WRONG!!!

According to the police the “person” said they had no idea… so I went back at the place of the accident and guess what I found the car. I took photos of their back bumber our door etc etc… enough to prove that they lied to the police and that they caused an accident and failed to stop. Went back to the officer in charge and gave him the photos.

This is the reply:

"Good Morning X,

Further to your email below, we have taken no further action due to the fact that there was no independent witnesses and that the accident was damage only, all cases are quality checked for their evidential value, and in this situation the possibility of getting a successful prosecution at court are reduced.

Your insurance company will be able to trace the registered keeper through their databases and will be able to act on your behalf.

Also if you require any more advice the citizens advice bureau can be consulted.

Regards

X X"

So… this sums up to one thing (of course only against idiots that deserve)… I can take out any Mirrors while riding my bike, I can use my knee pads and scratch any car doors , I can damage any vehile and there is nothing the owner can do. I am sure at 30 to 70 mph there wont be any independent witnesses that can come forth, if I stop at a traffic light and scratch a car or take a mirror again who will see me??? Also if God forbids you are involved in an accident and your only witness is the person that was with you and that person is related to you… their word means ****… so you might as well get a mate to stand in and be your witness (no relation to you whatsoever except that he saw the accident), also if someone damages your bike or car and you see them do it… there is nothing you can do about it except pay out.

Please correct me… but WTF am I paying taxes for??? If you only have 3rd party you are trully forked in this country!!! I though causing damage and failing to stop was a criminal offence… lying to the police about causing and accident and failing to stop is a crime no??? preventing the course of justice or whatever…

Please shed some light… and tell me what can be done… we can leave the Insurance deal with this… but I can’t believe if you cause any damage to a vehicle you get away… I think I am starting to see what Arnie is so pissed off about… I never run into the police and never got in trouble but it really does look that the people that deserve to get done never do… yet the people that don’t deserveit get the end of the stick just because they have a funny number plate or because they work cash in hand or whatever reason…

2

sounds crap!
dont suppose the post office had CCTV?

3

I believe there are cctv, but they use them to read number plates and send parking ticket only. My bike was damaged just in front of CCTV (in a private car park), I contacted them (and also the police), but I am still waiting to receive any information!! It did happen end of August 2007. Next time I will not loose time to contact police, management company etc… - Maybe my case was considered not important!!!

Eman

4

Sorry to hear about whats happened Andrei but you need to educate yourself a bit fella before you go blaming the Police.

I’ll help you …

Lesson number 1 - The law is an ass, the Police don’t make these laws the just assist in enforcing them. If there is insufficient evidence for a prosecution the CPS will not take this to court (thats right, the CPS, not the Police).

Lesson 2 - the pictures you have taken showing the damage show just that, that there is damage, it does not show how it happened, it does not show that the other driver was aware and it does not show anything else.

Lesson 3 - your summing up is slightly off as if you commit criminal damage as suggested then you will get arrested for it so it can be investigated. Traffic stuff, people are not arrested unless it is extremely serious, as the vast majority of people do have prangs etc etc.

So, you’re blaming the wrong people here, the Police enforce the law with the resources they have - The goverment make the laws and decide upon the resources, who chooses the goverment … oh, that will be the public … so please retitle you thread “Public Incompetence”.

Ta.

5

Oh, just to add, I have no doubts at all that you’re telling the truth and the other driver knew exactly what had happened but as I said, people ‘use’ the system to their advantage and it is heavily weighted in their favour.

6

that also sounds crap!
did you try the old freedom of info thingy on them?

7

My experience with the police is that they are grossly incompetent. Four weeks ago 35 cars on my avenue were vandalised. Contacted the police and reported it. They said they would be out to take photos etc. One month later and no one on my avenue has been contacted by the police. No investigation, they are just not interested. The scrote who did the damage was nice enough to carve some initals into everyones car, which I thought might be of some significance but the police didn’t seem to think so!

8

thats a bit harsh !!

if the police are so bad , why not join up and show them how you could do a much better job !!!

or perhaps the police are a waste of time alltogether and we should scrap them and spend the money on some nice statue for the embankment, and well put Trojan ! not forgetting that of course T J F !

9

Like any workforce, the Police are overworked and lack the proper resources. It is frustrating, but in this situation no one was hurt and it wasn’t a road traffic accident, hence why the Police won’t waste manpower and time on it…except for the one Officer who has obviously spent his time interviewing both you and ya ma, and the other driver. With all the reports he’s probably had to write, he’s probably spent the best part of 2-3 shifts dealing with it.

The trouble is, the person knew they’d pranged ya mum’s car, who couldn’t hear or feel it? People like that shouldn’t be on the road if they say they never heard or felt a thing. However, the Police have to be diplomatic and take both versions of the story on board and then decide if the CPS will deal with it. Something like this will go 50/50 with Insurance companies and the CPS know that so won’t bother to deal with it.

With regards to independant witnesses, it can’t be anyone that’s related or living with you. Again its frustrating in a situation like this, but I can see why the authorities don’t allow it…people in the past played the system to make money so ruined it for genuine claims.

I had a silly tart in a VW Polo who decided to jump into a parking space at a supermarket that I had been waiting longer for. She got out and started screaming at me and stamping her feet before getting back into her car. When the keeper of the car next to us came along and offered me her space, I got out and tried to let her know…all she did was lock the doors, put her hands on her ears and started making high pitched screaching noises. I got back in my car, reversed and let the other driver out, in the meantime, she parked up and flicked her hair at me as she walked off. I wouldn’t mind but she had no intention of using the supermarket and was just using the free parking so that she could go and do some shopping in the town without paying the 20p for the centre car parks. Her parking was bad and although I tried to give her enough room I thought, “Balls to it!”. I came back to my car to find it had a nice dent in the passenger door. The best I could do was inform my insurance company about it and give them her vehicle reg. There was no point as my Policy would go up. To this day, I still can’t believe she ever passed her test or got a job cos if she behaved like that in normal day to day life then I’m surprised she hasn’t been treated like the spoilt brat that she is.

I do have her reg in my memory bank and if I’m on the bike and see her car I’ll accidently/on purpose knock her wing mirror or summin.

Tell ya ma to ram the other car next time and deny all knowledge! :Whistling: :smiley:

10

my Two Brothers exhaust got stolen off my bike and the thief was kind enough to leave lovely fingerprints all over the bike as he wrenched it off. I informed the police and kept it covered and called three times to chase up for when they would come to get imprints, that was two years ago …

ps I have taken my cover off and used it since then :smiley:

11

I believe the Police does not have enough resources (time, money, people, etc…) to deal with all the cases. and I believe they do their best. For this reason I am not going to report any small incidents that could happen to me, this for 2 reasons:
I loose my time for nothing
the police loose time to listen to me and to prepare a report.

Eman

12

You should have bought your own finger print kit and sent them the evidence…LOL!!I’m doing a Forensic Course online with an American Uni and have a fingerprint set that they sent me…maybe I should offer my services!? :cool: :smiley:

13

Is this car there on a regular basis? If it is, why dont you take your open container of gear box oil and as you are walking past it “accidentally” stumble and, without noticing spill some of your gear box oil onto said cars bonnet. May not sort out problem with damage to your car but, it will ease your pain somewhat.:D:P:)

14

We’re all agreed that these types of situations clearly suck.

But to be fair it’s not really the fault of the Police, as Trojan points out the CPS are the prosecuting authority and to be frank based on what you’ve said they wouldn’t be interested in bringing a failure to stop at the scene of an accident charge. For starters the other driver has a legal defence, namely that they’re unaware that they caused any damage plus there was no injury.

You also need to understand that the Police are measured in terms of detections and the CPS by cases won, it’s a classic case of two ‘metrics’ almost being diametrically opposed. It’s quite laughable but the whole ‘improvement’ agenda in relation to the Criminal Justice system is really just a rehash of the concepts used to f$%k the NHS up.

So in a sense your enemy is not the Police but actually the CPS, as they won’t submit a case unless they’re sure they can win it!

This is why the Governments ‘Citizen Focus’ programme is such crap as it defines success as the customer (that’s you) in question having a feeling of ‘Satisfaction’, I’m guessing it’s safe to assume you don’t feel satisfied.

Ironically of course it’s always down to the Police to communicate the result, yet they literally are just the messenger.

In the end this matter is a ‘civil’ one and it’s really down to your Insurance Companies to slug it out. The only other option would have been to have placed yourself in front of the offending motor as they tried to leave, in which case they probably would have tired to run you down… mind you I guess you’d have a case then…

15

Oh come on, what’s happened to good old VENGANCE!:stuck_out_tongue:

16

I would like to but couldn’t afford the pay cut. I would love to sit around eating donuts and watching YouTube all day. Is there a whole team now dedicated to just watching YouTube?

17

I think you’ll find that they call that ‘Criminal Damage’ :w00t:

18

Yawn, you couldn’t do my job mate …your turn for the schoolboy taunt !! :stuck_out_tongue:

19

I could’nt be a copper, far to difficult a job!

20

I would be a policeman but as above couldnt afford the pay cut and more importantly I would find it very hard to apply laws that I dont agree with :smiley: …also I would have to arrest a lot of my friends :smiley: