13 mins on hold to Brixton police.... [Archive]

Mrs Magpie

07-03-2007, 08:54

detective-boy

07-03-2007, 09:07

They're fucking shit, aren't they?
Yes. Very.

You up for doing some structured research on the subject? I'd be happy to work on it - it's been something that has pissed me off for a while.

The Urban75 "brand" would probably engender some media interest as a recognisable community interest group. I have also got contact with a journo from the Mirror who has half expressed interest in doing something similar anyway.

Mrs Magpie

07-03-2007, 09:09

Count me in too DB.

Bazza

07-03-2007, 10:17

I've spent a lot of time watching the police at work in Brixton and (undercovers aside) they are absolutely useless. A lot of the time, it's almost like they just want to hurry up and leave a scene as soon as possible.

Not saying I could do any better mind.

editor

07-03-2007, 10:30

Was that one of the stolen vehicles being raced around the estate until about 6:30 am? The police did arrive for a short while, then the Fire Brigade, but as soon as they'd departed it all started up again. Personally I'd forget about ringing the police station number and dial 999 ('crime in progress' are the magic words to utter). Someone's going to be killed and it's happening nearly every night.The very same. Someone was going to get killed the way that those twats were racing around the estate. After their first hour of (unchallenged) racing around the estate they went across the road to hassle the supermarket staff (fuck knows how they put up with their shit) and then, as you say, resumed their racing activities.

They then rammed another parked car up the street and decided to brick in the windows of the stolen car.

And all the time this was going on, not a single adult came out to raise their voice in protest. That says a lot about the fear these little scrotes must engender - and they only looked about 14-16 too.

d-b: who do I complain to about the lack of response?

Mrs Magpie

07-03-2007, 10:33

Last year a seven year old was hit by a moped...dunno if it was nicked though. Also an elderly bloke on the estate was a victim of a hit-and-run a while ago. Luckily neither were badly injured, but it's only a matter of time before someone is killed.

Minnie_the_Minx

07-03-2007, 11:53

Maybe if you got accidentally on purpose got yourself nicked, you might get to speak to them ;)

Mrs Magpie

07-03-2007, 11:55

d-b, if more than one person dials 999 for the same incident does there tend to be a better response to the incident? I'm wondering about co-ordinated phone calls....

aqua

07-03-2007, 12:06

I'll never forget the one and only time I spoke to Brixton police was after my car got broken into when I was out clubbing, I needed the number from the police to get my windows fixed through the insurance company etc (I lived in Hull at the timeand didn't fancy the drive home!)

their comment to me was "well what do you expect, parking in Brixton" :rolleyes:

Minnie_the_Minx

07-03-2007, 12:28

Blagsta

07-03-2007, 13:51

When we reported our car stolen, we gave all the details over the phone (twice!), yet still had to go down to Brixton station and tell them it all over again 'cos they had no record of the call. The woman on the desk then accused me of having stolen the car.

Brixton police really need to sort their public relations out!

detective-boy

07-03-2007, 14:05

A lot of the time, it's almost like they just want to hurry up and leave a scene as soon as possible.
Sadly too common - and has been for years - I went to war with my team at Brixton about precisely this ten years ago.

It's an effect of the law of unintended consequences - they count response times, they don't count quality of what you do when you get there ... :rolleyes:

detective-boy

07-03-2007, 14:07

d-b: who do I complain to about the lack of response?
If I were you I'd write to the Borough Commander at Brixtion, and copy the letter to the Commissioner and to local MP's / councillors.

Sounds like there's two things to complain of: (a) failure to deal with something they obviously knew about (judging by Mrs M's post) and (b) absolutely abysmal failure to answer the phone (sprinkle liberally with other examples of poor / delayed answering of phones / front counter service.

detective-boy

07-03-2007, 14:10

d-b, if more than one person dials 999 for the same incident does there tend to be a better response to the incident? I'm wondering about co-ordinated phone calls....
Probably not - it might make a bit of a difference but if all the calls say the same thing they'll happily grade six calls the same as one. It wouldn't do any harm though.

Mrs Magpie

07-03-2007, 14:11

And all the time this was going on, not a single adult came out to raise their voice in protest. They do get challenged on part of their route...I heard at least two adults yell at them.....but I know you can't quite see their entire route round because you don't have the sight-line....

detective-boy

07-03-2007, 14:12

Brixton police really need to sort their public relations out!
Brixton are no worse than anywhere else in the Met to be honest.:(

maximilian ping

07-03-2007, 14:17

i'm sure the police are paranoid about this kind of complaint. go for it re letter. national papers would not go with it cos happening in thousands of streets in britain - would have to be extreme example - eg involving death or no response from police in 3 months. SLP would

editor

07-03-2007, 14:20

They do get challenged on part of their route...I heard at least two adults yell at them.....but I know you can't quite see their entire route round because you don't have the sight-line....I watched them rev up the car and do countless handbrake turns at will (with the occasional excursion up your end) for at least an hour without a voice being raised in protest.

They were missing other parked cars by inches, yet no owners came out to remonstrate with them. They must feel invincible.

Mrs Magpie

07-03-2007, 14:24

Personally I'd forget about ringing the police station number and dial 999 ('crime in progress' are the magic words to utter).So d-b, do you think this tactic would be out of order in the circumstance outlined by me and the ed?

ringo

07-03-2007, 14:29

Reported a stolen car 2 years ago at Brixton nick. Half way though the little turd took a call from a colleague upstairs and started complaining about having to deal with the public and what a nuisance they were. 18 months later they rang me up to see if my car had turned up.
Which fool put that huge orange wall in the reception? It has the exact opposite of a calming influence on the waiting room.

TopCat

07-03-2007, 15:39

Could you capture their antics on film? TV loves this sort of stuff and the police hate being made to look like mugs...

Mrs Magpie

07-03-2007, 16:55

All the cctv (for which the residents have to pay) has been out of action for about a year as the local moped thieves systematically destroyed each one.

detective-boy

07-03-2007, 20:45

So d-b, do you think this tactic would be out of order in the circumstance outlined by me and the ed?
Absolutely not - if there is a crime being committed, and nothing is being done about it after a reasonable period, or if you are not sure whether or not the police are aware, then of course you should ring again.

If people or property are in danger it would be perfectly legitimate to use 999.

Stanley Edwards

07-03-2007, 22:21

And all the time this was going on, not a single adult came out to raise their voice in protest. That says a lot about the fear these little scrotes must engender - and they only looked about 14-16 too.

Yourself inculded? Has the community spirit been killed by reports of gun toting teenagers or, just a fear of teenagers who are left unpoliced by parents/adults/police/community workers??? Or, were they joy riders from another area just taking advantage of a poorly policed estate?

What's going wrong?

editor

07-03-2007, 22:59

Yourself inculded? Has the community spirit been killed by reports of gun toting teenagers or, just a fear of teenagers who are left unpoliced by parents/adults/police/community workers???Apart from the fact they joyriding wasn't directly outside my house , if I'd gone out there and got involved on my own, I would have become their new numero uno target.

They already dish out a ton of grief to the shopkeepers opposite and I'll be fucked if I'm going put myself in the firing line.

Last year some bloke was getting beaten senseless outside my block. The beating was very noisy and went on for ages. People were on their balconies looking, yet it turned out that I was the only person who rang the police about it.

Not good, is it?

Gixxer1000

07-03-2007, 23:09

Bit of a vicious circle isnt it? People are to scared to get involved subsequently the Police cant take action unless they catch the kids redhanded.

editor

07-03-2007, 23:16

Bit of a vicious circle isnt it? People are to scared to get involved subsequently the Police cant take action unless they catch the kids redhanded.If it was going on directly outside my house I would have intervened, but I'm not going to go wandering around the estate to take on other people's battles.

There were many, many houses right next to these fuckwits and - presumably - some car owners too - but as far as I could see none of them rang the police or got involved in anyway. And that's a bit odd when it's happening literally on your doorstep. Are people really that frightened?.

Gixxer1000

07-03-2007, 23:20

Are people really that frightened?.

Rhetorical question.
Would you have been prepared to testify if necessary?
(dont get me wrong Im as likely to look the other way myself)

editor

07-03-2007, 23:39

Rhetorical question.
Would you have been prepared to testify if necessary?Seeing as they were all "hoods up" it's unlikely that there's anything I could have added.

Of course, if the fucking CCTV was working....

Johnny Canuck2

07-03-2007, 23:56

By way of counterpoint, my wife came home with my son on Saturday night; I'd been on the computer in the basement, probably talking to you lot. She asked if I'd seen the police activity outside. Turns out there was a police car sitting in the intersection outside our house, with lights flashing, as well as cars in the two closest intersections.

My wife approached the cop in the car: he said that someone had recently ditched a stolen car nearby, and they were trying to flush out the thief with dog squads. About five minutes later, a helicopter with a searchlight was overhead.

They stayed for about an hour, concentrating on the hospital grounds across the street. I don't know if they got their man, but it was gratifying to see that there was a prompt police response in the area.

About a week earlier, my wife had dialed 911, when she saw some dodgy characters ripping the aluminum gutters off the house being demolished across the street. They were running, smashing out windows in order to get the frames. It took the cops about ten minutes to get there, and the guys had left in their van. However, they stopped them in traffic about a mile away.

Stanley Edwards

08-03-2007, 08:41

...
Not good, is it?

Sounds fucking awful. I've lived on and, visited estates that don't have a problem with teenagers simply because the older 'wronguns' keep them in line. Not an ideal solution, but it works. In some cases I even wonder if the official law allows the unofficial policing to carry on :confused:

agricola

08-03-2007, 08:55

As an aside, what phone number did you use, and when did you call?

I ask because Brixton's call reciept and call dispatch (along with the rest of Lambeth) has, for the past nine months, been part of the new (centralized) C3i system - its no longer based at Brixton.

Mrs Magpie

08-03-2007, 16:20

I would imagine the 7326 1212 number....easy to remember for us old'uns (Old Scotland Yard number was Whitehall 1212...featured in British films of yore fairly often)...
anyway...another eyewitness account of the night in question...

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=5734770&postcount=303

detective-boy

08-03-2007, 20:38

...another eyewitness account of the night in question...

http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=5734770&postcount=303
... and complaining that the police "caused" the joyriders to crash. :rolleyes:

Mrs Magpie

08-03-2007, 20:46

Yeah, but she's right about the fire brigade though....I remember when I was locked out of my flat with my baby inside and the gas on (the door slammed in the wind while I was putting the rubbish out) and the fire brigade let me back in with a credit card type thing...I said, oh I thought you'd put your shoulder to the door and I'd have to get a locksmith in....the fireman said, no madam, that's the police.......

editor

15-03-2007, 10:09

The fuckers were at it again last night, roaring around in another stolen car at 3.30am.

detective-boy

15-03-2007, 15:01

...I said, oh I thought you'd put your shoulder to the door and I'd have to get a locksmith in....the fireman said, no madam, that's the police.......
The fire brigade may have been happy with their people carrying that sort of stuff ... but it was a disciplinary offence for a police officer (because allegations were made that they had it for planting on suspects, something which I don't suppose arose too much with the fire brigade ...). Yet another effect of the law of unintended consequences ...

(I once managed to break open a door which, er, wasn't even locked ... well, you don;t think of trying the door handle first, do you!)

editor

19-03-2007, 00:03

...and there's another stolen car being driven around at wildly dangerous speeds. Those cunts are going to kill someone soon.

Choc

19-03-2007, 17:54

yes it is unbelievable!!

(just makes me think that these days you don't want to be a public sector worker like the police or midwives. get the worst press, the biggest workloads, but at least the police is paid better for it)

to be honest let's face it none of the police officers down here in brixton really wants to work here. frankly i wouldn't want to pick the telephone up either...

grim but true. :(

toggle

19-03-2007, 18:08

to be honest let's face it none of the police officers down here in brixton really wants to work here.

I've had a few police claim it's one of the more popular choices of where to work.

editor

19-03-2007, 18:16

They were back driving the same car around at 3am this morning too.

It's like their own little we playground where they're free to do as they please.

Choc

19-03-2007, 18:17

I've had a few police claim it's one of the more popular choices of where to work.

do you reckon?

maybe for the newly qualified to get experience?

i guess it s a bit like being a teacher in one of the most deprived areas or in fact a midwive in a south london hospital...:rolleyes:

if i was a police officer i would most likely prefer to work in kent or cornwall or another remote area like this...

firky

19-03-2007, 18:24

Did they play music whilst you waited?

toggle

19-03-2007, 18:28

depends. did they join the police to see some action or to have to deal with people who live in an area where there is nothing better to do than look out the window every day and report strangers to the police as suspicious characters?

I'd also say that a friend enjoyed teaching a lot more in a school where getting the kids into class was a major achievement than where the parents wanted to complain every time their kid got other than an A

Mrs Magpie

19-03-2007, 20:01

A lot of younger cops like to work in inner city areas because it looks good on their CVs and/or because they think it will be more exciting (I was told this by an older Brixton Officer who was born locally).

guinnessdrinker

20-03-2007, 21:20

to be fair to the police, lots of people get told to get crime reference numbers for regular things. I have just reminded a southwark bureaucrat 2 hours ago that insisting that people get reference numbers for a window accidently broken by a kid playing football, or even more ridiculous, when the wind had broken the window (true!) was wasting their time, and people who were reporting serious incidents, or being burgled or something, were being put on hold as a result. I had this thread in mind at the time.

Mrs Magpie

21-03-2007, 20:49

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6475655.stm

agricola

21-03-2007, 21:02

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6475655.stm

That survey is remarkably uninformed, if the reporting of it by the BBC is accurate.

detective-boy

21-03-2007, 21:13

Looks like Dee Doocey has beaten us to it! Will be interesting to get hold of a detailed copy of the research ....

* Wanders off to look for a tame Liberal ... *

editor

01-04-2007, 23:22

editor

01-04-2007, 23:23

Fuck me! Someone's rung the police and they've actually turned up!

detective-boy

02-04-2007, 08:12

Fuck me! Someone's rung the police and they've actually turned up!
Yeah ... but did they actually do anything ... and if they did, did it resolve the problem (or, at least, the symptom)? ...

editor

02-04-2007, 09:04

Yeah ... but did they actually do anything ... and if they did, did it resolve the problem (or, at least, the symptom)? ...Well, the kids ran off and shut the fuck up with their racket for the rest of the night, so that was something.

detective-boy

02-04-2007, 09:29

Well, the kids ran off and shut the fuck up with their racket for the rest of the night, so that was something.
We'll put that down as the symptom, at least, then! :rolleyes:

luba

02-04-2007, 09:47

It's another delightful night tonight. We've got some moronic cunt in car skidding around at high speed along the pedestrianised streets for the last hour, some tosser buzzing around on a mini moped and a bunch of charmers smashing something or another to pieces outside.
The something or another being smashed to pieces was a garden wall to the end bungalow. I have rang the police countless times and i shall do so everytime i hear those idiots.

editor

02-04-2007, 09:48

Why don't any adults come out and confront these cunts?
If some little scrotes were tearing my wall to pieces, I'd be out like a fucking shot.

Mrs Magpie

05-04-2007, 16:24

The wall demolished is that of an elderly disabled person I believe....people did confront down my end, but now they've started ramming things, people are scared. The night that the wall was rammed several people called the police. The feeling is that the police don't take crime on estates seriously and if it was happening in a posher area things would be different. The estate landlords leafletted about it (in one of the most badly produced, garish and unreadable forms I have ever seen) asking people to phone Crimestoppers with names (like we actually know who these people are...) and to contact a number at Brixton Police Station....unfortunately they were so busy trying to use as many different fonts and wordart effects as possible they forgot to include the number :rolleyes:

Mrs Magpie

05-04-2007, 17:05

The wall demolished is that of an elderly disabled person I believe....Yeah, just checked with one of his neighbours....he's very old and not at all well.....the vast majority of people in the bungalows are elderly and/or disabled.

Mrs Magpie

07-04-2007, 07:26

Found out yesterday that someone who challenged them had all his car windows smashed.....

editor

07-04-2007, 09:03

Found out yesterday that someone who challenged them had all his car windows smashed.....FFS. That's terrible.

detective-boy

07-04-2007, 10:06

It sounds like it's time for some professional witnesses to be deployed - once it has got to this stage the scum begin to think they are untouchable and with all the will in the world you cannot expect residents to put themselves on offer and even the best police patrols (and it doesn't sound like the neighbourhood team for that estate have any sort of grip on the problem at all) still leave lots of gaps in which the scum can perform unmolested.

ska invita

07-04-2007, 10:15

15 mins before I gave up.
They're fucking shit, aren't they?

My mate was on hold an hour and 10mins - when he got through they gave his some bullshit about getting the wrong number - he should have called the "safer communities unit" or some such.

Why don't any adults come out and confront these cunts?
This is exactly what my mate did, adter having kids throwing stones at his windows for two weeks he lost the plot, came out and chased them, then stood outside his house ranting and raving for a bout an hour -

The kids kept trying to come back and each time he threatened them with violence.

What was interesting was the reaction from neighbours - some people came out and laughed at him - one couple told him to make sure he "hurt them" if he caught one.

What made him most mad was that not everyoe came out and supported him - although it looks like the same kids have been pissing off loads of people on his street (elm park). Would be good if adults came together and stood up together, rather than sniggering from the sidelines, as some did.

Its been a few days now, and the stone throwing has stopped - however you're right there is every danger that this just ups the stakes and they'll smash you up even worse in some other way.