Topic ID 1440
Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire & Essex Police Forces to Merge. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4825524.stm
Reply ID 17782
[url="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/20/npolice20.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/20/ixnewstop.html"]No 10 ignores advice to halt police mergers[/url]
Reply ID 17784
good discussion forum, More like web address tennis!
Reply ID 17785
Just promoting informed discussion [;)]
Reply ID 17787
"I'm sorry. We cannot attend your call right now as all our officers are busy. Please press 1 to report a murder/rape/assault. Please press 2 to report a burglary/car theft...."
Reply ID 17790
[url="http://www.herts.police.uk/crimedatabase/site/content.php?article_id=2289"]Amalgamation Statement from Herts Police Authority and Constabulary[/url]
Reply ID 17791
The staff answering the 999 calls have to be fairly well skilled in extracting lucid & relevent information at a time of high anxiety. I doubt that shipping the calls to india/abroad is an option. It's hard enough talking about an electricity bill. Word from on high in our office is that there will be a new number for non-emergencies, too. I do wonder what this centralisation means for number of police in town on a weekend / relocation costs / new buildings to accommodate police staff (god knows, they're overcrowded enough already) etc. etc. etc.
Reply ID 17793
Yeah probably 08457 999 999 so they make on each call made.
Reply ID 17795
The new number is something like 112. You will have to decied whether it is an emergency or non-emergency before you call. If you call 999 for a non-emergency situation you will get told off. It's nice that they have passed the onus on the general public to decide whether something is an emergency or a non-emergency.
Reply ID 17796
quote:I see their point of view as in the past I have phoned police station's front desks with something minor (my car's been keyed/that van's blocking the road etc) and if people are phoning 999 for this it hardly constitutes an emergency. The new number does surmise that people wanting to report a matter have common sense...!
Originally posted by JohnSmith
The new number is something like 112. You will have to decied whether it is an emergency or non-emergency before you call. If you call 999 for a non-emergency situation you will get told off. It's nice that they have passed the onus on the general public to decide whether something is an emergency or a non-emergency.
Reply ID 17798
The number is 101 and it starts in the Summer http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4786082.stm Judging by some of the calls taken on 999 you wonder about the sanity of some people: - an elderly West Country woman who dialled 999 because her TV remote control was out of reach - a 31-year-old who called because she had sniffed deodorant by accident - a 22-year-old woman who had a blackhead which would not stop bleeding after she had squeezed it - a south London man wanting to know how much it would cost for an ambulance to take him to a private hospital - a Surrey woman who dialled for an ambulance because she had shampoo in her eyes - a model who called Gloucestershire Ambulance Service when she broke her fingernail - a man from Suffolk who summoned an ambulance crew to remove a dead rat, which he said was smelling, from his loft - other callers have demanded advice from the emergency service on managing a sick pet, booking a taxi and removing glue from their fingers, tips on how to alleviate a hangover, a cold, and even help with a crossword
Reply ID 17799
Common sense yes, but take this example. You see a young man wearing a hoodie looking into a number of cars in a car park. Do you dial 999 or 112? The young man sticks a brick through window of one of the cars and takes something out of it. Do you dial 999 or 112? He runs off and disappears round the corner out of view. Do you dial 999 or 112?
Reply ID 17800
999 is free 101 costs you 10p As if we are not paying enough for the police force already (Another inflation busting 6% rise in council tax) And considering that the police are slowly offloading responsibilities (especially in the Traffic Department) I am wondering where the money is going?
Reply ID 17801
quote:and electricity, and gas. Are these combined forces gonig to fit into less buildings or will all new, shiny big ones be bought/leased further spending their budgets? Sir Ian Blair has changed the Met's logo at a vast knock-on cost (by inserting "together" in their tag line) so the example of spend-o-rama is well and truly set.
Originally posted by jez_p
999 is free 101 costs you 10p As if we are not paying enough for the police force already (Another inflation busting 6% rise in council tax)
Reply ID 17802
quote:112 is the same as dialling 999,has been around since mobile phones made an appearance. Herts Police have a non emergency number 08453300222.
Originally posted by JohnSmith
The new number is something like 112. You will have to decied whether it is an emergency or non-emergency before you call. If you call 999 for a non-emergency situation you will get told off. It's nice that they have passed the onus on the general public to decide whether something is an emergency or a non-emergency.
Reply ID 17803
Sorry, the number is 101 as jez has stated.
Reply ID 17805
quote:You can actually call either number and the same people will answer you. 112 is the pan-European number for the emergency services. It is used here so visitors from Europe know which number to dial for an emergency. One thing you may not know is that if you ring 999/112, your call is actually answered by the standard BT Operator (100) staff, who then direct the call as appropriate. The Operator has your name and address on their screen before you hear their voice. That enables them to send the boys in blue to the house where the little kid thinks it's funny to call 999 constantly. There's a 3 strikes and your out rule (unless they got me, where it was one strike and their out!). The operator is presented with your address & number as a precaution. If the call is disconnected with background noise or you sense it was forcefully disconnected, the operator contacts the police (from one of up to 5 available areas) with the callers details. Apologies for going off topic!
Originally posted by JohnSmith
Common sense yes, but take this example. You see a young man wearing a hoodie looking into a number of cars in a car park. Do you dial 999 or 112? The young man sticks a brick through window of one of the cars and takes something out of it. Do you dial 999 or 112? He runs off and disappears round the corner out of view. Do you dial 999 or 112?
Reply ID 17814
quote:None of the above, he's just knicked your mobile. [8D]
Originally posted by JohnSmith
Common sense yes, but take this example. You see a young man wearing a hoodie looking into a number of cars in a car park. Do you dial 999 or 112? The young man sticks a brick through window of one of the cars and takes something out of it. Do you dial 999 or 112? He runs off and disappears round the corner out of view. Do you dial 999 or 112?
Reply ID 20798
[url="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2264315,00.html"]Merger of police forces is scrapped[/url]
Reply ID 20826
Yay a Tory Style U Turn (No Doubt Tony Blair will try to blame the previous government for that too)
Reply ID 21034
I suspect that the proposed mergers had nothing to do with policing, and everything to do with carving the country up into regions. (How do you get a job on the East of England Regional Assembly, by the way? No one elects the members, but there they are all the same, telling us we have to have several thousand more homes in the area.)
Reply ID 21036
quote:Exactly, & who invented the Eastern Region & the other regions ?? The EU............... Do I smell a conspiracy here ?
Originally posted by Peter
I suspect that the proposed mergers had nothing to do with policing, and everything to do with carving the country up into regions. (How do you get a job on the East of England Regional Assembly, by the way? No one elects the members, but there they are all the same, telling us we have to have several thousand more homes in the area.)
Reply ID 21037
Hello Spitfire, I think there is a conspiracy. They decided to have a referendum on establishing the Regional Assembly in the North-East, I think about 18 months ago. It was thought that the area would be the most sympathetic to the plan. Anyway the "No" camp, consisting of individuals up against the immense resources of the Government (not to mention the BBC), won decisively. Then they set it up anyway. They didn't even follow the standard EU practice of holding a second referendum because the first one didn't go their way. (I'm thinking of Denmark concerning the Maastrict Treaty, and Ireland with the Nice Treaty.) If you destroy the fabric of a nation, its fragments are a lot easier to rule. The idea is that the more the Regions promote Brussels, the more money they will get. Long live Herts Police!
Reply ID 21042
quote:It was actually central government that told the East of England Regional Assembly to find the space for new homes.
Originally posted by Peter
(How do you get a job on the East of England Regional Assembly, by the way? No one elects the members, but there they are all the same, telling us we have to have several thousand more homes in the area.)
Reply ID 21044
Of course it was! Pass the onus onto the unelected, and you haven't got to worry about your votes.
Reply ID 21046
quote:The regional assemblies were established in the late 1990s, at the same time as the regional development agencies. The recent referendum rejected a directly elected assembly.
Originally posted by Peter: They decided to have a referendum on establishing the Regional Assembly in the North-East, I think about 18 months ago. It was thought that the area would be the most sympathetic to the plan. Anyway the "No" camp, consisting of individuals up against the immense resources of the Government (not to mention the BBC), won decisively. Then they set it up anyway
Reply ID 21048
So should the North-East have been asked, "Do you want an unelected assembly?" I think the Government and all the big guns would have had even more egg on their faces.
Reply ID 21052
But they were - the creation of regional assemblies was a Labour manifesto commitment in 1997. I imagine it wasn't why people voted Labour in 1997, but it formed part of the package.
Reply ID 21058
Regional Assemblies, which happen to cover the same geographical areas as the Elected European Parliment members represent.
Reply ID 21080
I'm a part-time WEA tutor. I used to teach for the Eastern District; but now it's the Eastern Region, with changed boundaries to conform to Government Regions. These, as Spitfire says, are constituencies in the European Parliament. Slightly off-topic from policing, I see they want to celebrate 50 years of the EU next year. Well the EU is only 13 years old, a creation of the Maastricht Treaty. Before that it was the EC; before that it was the EEC, or Common Market, the thing we joined without being granted a referendum. (It came later with a change of Government). So really it can be argued that the only countries that have actually joined the EU are the recent members from Eastern and Central Europe.
Reply ID 21081
And people accuse ME of pedantry! [:D]
Reply ID 21104
quote:In this area the government doesn't have to worry about votes anyway except in isolated pockets [:(]
Originally posted by Peter
Of course it was! Pass the onus onto the unelected, and you haven't got to worry about your votes.
Reply ID 21112
True, but increased housing involves wider issues that are very sensitive nationally: water shortages, and immigration to name two of them. But I agree it's quite noticeable that the safer the Tory seat, the greater the number of houses it is required to accommodate. Of course the Regional Assemblies don't have to worry about upsetting people, because they don't need our votes to keep their power. The more I think of it, the gladder I am that they won't be controlling the police. How dangerous to have unaccountable assemblyers (I can't think of an appropriate title for them) in charge of the not-so-local Constabulary! Not that that would have happened immediately following the mergers, but I bet it would have been envisaged.
Reply ID 21114
Playing devil's advocate, why is a "local" police force better? Under the current system it can be very difficult to get a useful response from them when you want to report a crime etc. Would this be any worse if the police covered several counties? Personally I doubt it. I am not defending regional assemblies' policies but they are actually composed of elected members of other bodies which nominate representatives to them rather than being "self appointed"
Reply ID 21116
quote:Not that much different from the existing system then. http://www.herts-police-authority.org.uk/
Originally posted by Andrew
I am not defending regional assemblies' policies but they are actually composed of elected members of other bodies which nominate representatives to them rather than being "self appointed"
Reply ID 21149
Hello Andrew and Steve, I must agree with you about police response - the only time I had to ring them, about a year ago, the standard was abysmal. The alarm went off where I work, only about 10 minutes after I'd left it. Normally it's because of a fault somewhere; but this time it was obvious what had done it. You could see three men trying to bash their way in through one of the side doors. I rang the police and told them ... and they bombarded me with questions whose only purpose seemed to be to waste time. Meanwhile the men managed to break down the door, only to find an inner one, locked from the inside. (Rather amusing, that was, to think of all the effort to destroy the outer door, followed by jubilation at their achievemtent, leading to dismay that they had to get the crow bar out all over again.) They gave up and went to drive off; and all this time we were still engaged in leisurely conversation. I wanted to give them the number of the car as it sped past. "Before you tell me that, I need to know ..." I lost my temper and interrupted: "If I don't give you the number now I'll forget it!" Grudgingly, she took the number down. The police eventually turned up via, I believe, the pretty way, and told me severely I must do something about the door they had smashed. But I think the standard of policing would be even worse if the police force comprised several counties (that's assuming they let us keep the counties.) At the moment they don't know where Hoddesdon Clock Tower is when you ring them up - that's what happened when someone I know called them from there. If their HQ were, shall we say, Bury St. Edmonds, they wouldn't know where Hoddesdon was. I still say the real aim of the mergers was to regionalise the country.
Reply ID 21152
I have to say that on the two occasions I've reported crimes in progress, they've turned up before I put the phone down - probably within a couple of minutes. But then I live in the town centre and they're probably close by.
Reply ID 21172
Hello Steve, It's good to hear you say that. You want to be able to rely on the police, and accounts such as yours give me a little reassurance. That (touching wood) was the only time I had to call them, and perhaps I was just a bit unlucky. One thing I ought to mention: I do hear they are cluttered with excessive regulation. I can believe it, because we all are. Apparently they're loath to arrest anyone because the paperwork involved takes about 2 hours, which must be a right pain if it's your time to knock off work. It's a theory of mine: the more paperwork an organisation gets, the less efficient it becomes.