Stolen Bike. Known Perpetrator. How to get Police to take some action?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Profpointy

Legendary Member
Sorry for being a sensible realist. All the best with this daftness.:wacko:

are you really saying we should all mind our own business when it comes to crimes unless we ourselves are the victim ?

If so i think that's a terrible attitude.

Not sure why the bloke being bashed was any different obviously assault is more serious but still a crime.

Crimes are legally seen as a against the state / against us all, rather than merely against the victim

An unpunished theft pushes up insurance and makes the risk to our own worked-for property higher
 
OP
OP
Sheffield_Tiger

Sheffield_Tiger

Legendary Member
Phew! Finally managed to give cctv to police and on viewing it their attitude shifted slightly to talk of ANPR checking a vehicle seen dropping the thieves off etc.

This crew has had 3 bikes over a few weeks. Even if no prosecution results, if they just get a visit enquiring about a bike theft, they might think "Ok we had a good run" and leave us alone
 
Perhaps they are staying away to avoid getting embroiled in this sort of thing, or being called "the filth" by an earlier poster?
Perhaps they would have had some helpful ideas but some posts have made them not bother?

Personally I simply hadn't seen it yet.

The person that spoke to you over the phone more likely than not wasn't a police officer, though that doesn't matter as it's whatever they say that makes you forum an opinion of how we are treating it.

I'll echo what most others have said. You say you are 99% sure. That's an interesting number, as it should certainly equate to the amount of proof needed to convict at court, if a jury member was 99% sure.

However, the evidence you later gave is definitely not enough to convict - a name ordered a charger for a rare bike, Facebook shows a name the same as that living nearby. It starts with a circumstantial link, and then gets a second area of doubt. This alone isn't enough for court.

As others have said, it IS enough to knock the door... But what will that alone gain. Will it simply let him know we are on to him and actually give him opportunity to dispose of items.

Is it enough to get a warrant... That's down to the mags or the JP on the day. Actually, I think it is. I got one in very similar circs once, so personally I'd give that a go.

CCTV is a big one. If it's good enough, I'd do the warrant, knock the door, and arrest him if it was him, and subsequently search. My concerns would be what if son/partner opened the door? No arrest, no search, gives him a head up to get rid of the bike.

A few different ways that they can play it, none of which is going to happen until you've had a visit (which I see you've now had).

The usual excuse - no, I hate that word, the usual REASON why - police numbers have been slashed and unless you are in physical danger your job probably sits on the list as "next available unit" for over 24 hours as other higher priority jobs keep taking precedence.

The job I mentioned above, someone reported a stolen camera lens to me. They had found it on eBay, linked the seller to Facebook, found an address. The same day, I tried for and got a warrant, went round to the house, searched it, found the camera, dealt with the offenders and put the matter to bed.

It took four of us all day on that one job. We wouldn't be allowed to do that any more, they couldn't justify losing four response officers for that long. Modern world of policing.
 
Personally I simply hadn't seen it yet.

The person that spoke to you over the phone more likely than not wasn't a police officer, though that doesn't matter as it's whatever they say that makes you forum an opinion of how we are treating it.

I'll echo what most others have said. You say you are 99% sure. That's an interesting number, as it should certainly equate to the amount of proof needed to convict at court, if a jury member was 99% sure.

However, the evidence you later gave is definitely not enough to convict - a name ordered a charger for a rare bike, Facebook shows a name the same as that living nearby. It starts with a circumstantial link, and then gets a second area of doubt. This alone isn't enough for court.

As others have said, it IS enough to knock the door... But what will that alone gain. Will it simply let him know we are on to him and actually give him opportunity to dispose of items.

Is it enough to get a warrant... That's down to the mags or the JP on the day. Actually, I think it is. I got one in very similar circs once, so personally I'd give that a go.

CCTV is a big one. If it's good enough, I'd do the warrant, knock the door, and arrest him if it was him, and subsequently search. My concerns would be what if son/partner opened the door? No arrest, no search, gives him a head up to get rid of the bike.

A few different ways that they can play it, none of which is going to happen until you've had a visit (which I see you've now had).

The usual excuse - no, I hate that word, the usual REASON why - police numbers have been slashed and unless you are in physical danger your job probably sits on the list as "next available unit" for over 24 hours as other higher priority jobs keep taking precedence.

The job I mentioned above, someone reported a stolen camera lens to me. They had found it on eBay, linked the seller to Facebook, found an address. The same day, I tried for and got a warrant, went round to the house, searched it, found the camera, dealt with the offenders and put the matter to bed.

It took four of us all day on that one job. We wouldn't be allowed to do that any more, they couldn't justify losing four response officers for that long. Modern world of policing.

The amount of fines that the police could make from speeding motorists in that time! In the mean time, Johnny Burglar is hard at work, making good profit with little interference from the authorities.

When Mr Burglar does get his collar felt, it takes 2 officers to make the arrest, 1 to ensure that the jungle of health and safety regulations are rigidly enforced, and 1 to ensure all the forms are filled in accurately. Burglar gets off with a suspended 23 second jail sentence and gets back to burgling. The police force add to their statistics and its a job well done.
 

Tim Hall

Guest
Location
Crawley
The job I mentioned above, someone reported a stolen camera lens to me. They had found it on eBay, linked the seller to Facebook, found an address. The same day, I tried for and got a warrant, went round to the house, searched it, found the camera, dealt with the offenders and put the matter to bed.

It took four of us all day on that one job. We wouldn't be allowed to do that any more, they couldn't justify losing four response officers for that long. Modern world of policing.
Thanks for that @CopperCyclist . I had a camera and lens stolen from my (unlocked) car last year. I found it on Preloved at a Cash Generator in Peckham a few days later and informed Surrey Police. As it was for sale in London, they had to involve the Met. Camera and lens duly recovered, arrest made but due to lack of evidence they couldn't make the charges stick.
Daft question: Are the policing cuts a continuing thing and are police numbers down further this year than June last year? I was amazed at the time and effort both forces put into it, all because I was daft enough to leavemy expensive kit in the car and forget to lock it. So that if a similar thing happened this year, is it less likely I'd get such a stunning result? (I take a lot more care removing valuables and locking my car now)
 
Personally I simply hadn't seen it yet.

The person that spoke to you over the phone more likely than not wasn't a police officer, though that doesn't matter as it's whatever they say that makes you forum an opinion of how we are treating it.

I'll echo what most others have said. You say you are 99% sure. That's an interesting number, as it should certainly equate to the amount of proof needed to convict at court, if a jury member was 99% sure.

However, the evidence you later gave is definitely not enough to convict - a name ordered a charger for a rare bike, Facebook shows a name the same as that living nearby. It starts with a circumstantial link, and then gets a second area of doubt. This alone isn't enough for court.

As others have said, it IS enough to knock the door... But what will that alone gain. Will it simply let him know we are on to him and actually give him opportunity to dispose of items.

Is it enough to get a warrant... That's down to the mags or the JP on the day. Actually, I think it is. I got one in very similar circs once, so personally I'd give that a go.

CCTV is a big one. If it's good enough, I'd do the warrant, knock the door, and arrest him if it was him, and subsequently search. My concerns would be what if son/partner opened the door? No arrest, no search, gives him a head up to get rid of the bike.

A few different ways that they can play it, none of which is going to happen until you've had a visit (which I see you've now had).

The usual excuse - no, I hate that word, the usual REASON why - police numbers have been slashed and unless you are in physical danger your job probably sits on the list as "next available unit" for over 24 hours as other higher priority jobs keep taking precedence.

The job I mentioned above, someone reported a stolen camera lens to me. They had found it on eBay, linked the seller to Facebook, found an address. The same day, I tried for and got a warrant, went round to the house, searched it, found the camera, dealt with the offenders and put the matter to bed.

It took four of us all day on that one job. We wouldn't be allowed to do that any more, they couldn't justify losing four response officers for that long. Modern world of policing.
Good work there, however recently they have tightened up on giving warrants, it's quite tricky now.
 
@Tin Pot ,yep cuts continue. My Force started on about 8000 Officers in 2015, we will be down to about 5000 by 2020.
Calls for services have gone up by 50% per day and recorded crime has gone up. It's not a good mix.
 

Leaway2

Lycrist
What I see here is all the traffic wardens have turned into PCSO's. I see them walking round in pairs. Has this made no difference? I know they are not Police as I know it. In fact I really don't know what they are.
 

Tin Pot

Guru
@Tin Pot ,yep cuts continue. My Force started on about 8000 Officers in 2015, we will be down to about 5000 by 2020.
Calls for services have gone up by 50% per day and recorded crime has gone up. It's not a good mix.

Whilst my experience with the police is poor, I recognise my issues are low on the Richter scale - I hope that violent crime is better handled.

I expect the police to be no better or worse than anyone else is at their jobs, ie usually terrible.

I don't know any industry where demand is down and resources are up.

So...we're all in similar oil tankers heading for similar reefs.

The problem specific to the police is that our entire civilisation is based on one single stone - our (citizenry) voluntarily granting you (state) the monopoly on violence. If you fail to act, or act incorrectly...well you know the rest.
 
OP
OP
Sheffield_Tiger

Sheffield_Tiger

Legendary Member
Totally different, sorry you cant see the difference in circumstances. Good luck with getting the Police to do a dawn raid .
Thanks for your wishes of luck, even if they weren't meant entirely genuinely

Guess what happened this morning?
Guess what's locked in our wages office awaiting forensic examination?
And there's more, but I shan't add it to the internet at this point
 
What I see here is all the traffic wardens have turned into PCSO's. I see them walking round in pairs. Has this made no difference? I know they are not Police as I know it. In fact I really don't know what they are.

They're basically walking sign posts. Or Town Customer Services.
 
Good work! I'm glad your persistence paid off.
And there's more, but I shan't add it to the internet at this point
Your call, but I'd be interested in hearing what happened. It might also be useful if google brings someone here with a similar problem.

Having been the victim of a workplace theft, I know; it's your community and it feels personal. In this case it was computers and our server was lying in pieces in the car park - they dropped it. I still got paid for the days we couldn't work, and the overtime to repair the damage, so I wasn't financially hurt, but it's still infuriating.
 
Top Bottom