Are the UK Police too soft?

Wobbly

I don't think it's so much the Police that are too soft, but the system they have to work within is the problem. Parliament produce the law, not the police.

j.pee69

Not the police that are soft it's all the dogooders, race equality boards and judges and parliament that are too soft!!

zoe856

The police have been stripped of their power over the years due to human rights intervention etc. Therefore everyone has lost respect for them. I say arm the police, that would make criminals sit up and take notice. As for taking the law into your own hands, I dont think thats the best way forward, it would just lead to retribution crimes.

the mofo

we'd kinda prefere to be respected rather than feared. but i agree with what you saying.
Ive been a copper for years and we are just too soft.
The problem is, that when you let officers be harsher, the system is then open to abuse by people who join just for that reason.

rogerglyn

They are handcuffed by Politicians and corrupt judiciary.

sharon b

It is not the police that are to soft it is the COURTS the CPS the government
Respect
shaz

hatfieldnomi

Oh this is good. The police have targets they have to meet and if they meet them all by say friday then the drunks will get away with everything. However if they don't meet target then you will see them very busy on a friday night. Of course the police are soft its all about paper work and targets.

Committed to the cause

It's pretty obscure at the moment, the police seem to want to arrest school children for picking berries from a tree (this actually happend recently) whilst when it comes to a burglary the police dont even bother coming around any more. Its absolute madness, they need to scrap the law and start again from scratch, its a shambles.

D B

on trivial things no - on really important things yes.

katy

only in their heads

sarah1962

you should all be scared of the police, that is the way i was brought up, no respect these days, all the best, most of the time it is out of the police's hands ,stay safe

naplusultra

Is a difficult question to answer, They hate answering minor offence calls, ie shop lifters etc. Takes 2 officers, time they interview them and charge them, shift is over. So things like folk peeing in street etc they tend to ignore. Or just warn the person. My dad was a copper in the good old days, swift kick in the b*m solved many problems. Sadly that is no longer possible. regards

Ian UK

Trust me, we would be harder if we could be but our hands are tied with all the procedure, laws and red tape that bind our hands.

We have to be able to justify everything we do, which is fair enough but it does make life very difficult sometimes and as others have said, its the government that leads us that plays a big part in the Police being seen as 'soft'.

If the punishment fit the crime then things would be a lot different.

Have a look at the Police and criminal evidence act 1984 and the human rights act 1998 to see some of the things that we can and can't do. These things were brought in to protect people from dodgy practices but they've now got to the point where they're twisted and abused by the people we are trying to convict.

The Moaner Loser

The police aren't soft by nature, but with all the institutions surrounding them, they have to be soft.
I mean, parliament controlling how they act, pressure groups against certain actions (even if the action taken was right) and the media jumping on any form of mishap or brutality within the police force.
It's awful I want them to go back to being effective!

Alfie

Ali. Problem is that as Police officers, a complaint is made (usually by someone whinging ) officers have to follow it up. If an offence has been committed, then it has to be dealt with. Discretion is gone. But then if police did use (or were allowed to use) their discretion, someone else would whinge and cry that the other person was let off so why can't i? Stop moaning and stop being petty minded, and people wouldn't get nicked for picking berries.

dcukldon

I think its more the politicians are to blame, the police work within the boundaries set by Parliament and the courts don't dish out sentences to suit the crimes committed being a police officers is now an uphill battle..

Northern Lad

I don`t know about too soft, but they are stupid.
Arresting a young kid for using chalk on a pavement, they lost my respect a long time ago.

Bear

Chris, unfortunately the British Police have been steered this way by weak governments. The rights of the offender comes before anything else and there are no deterrants anymore. I do however disagree that it is better to take the law into your own hands.

ilikebeinglost

It's a lot better than them being too hard.

spacedog_cadet

The police are not too soft at all, neither is the system. The alternative to what we have is a whle load of false arrests, bigotry and corruptness. Like most governemnt institutions they have targets and are evaluated on them, they are monitoried closely and their performance affects how they are funded.

Taking the law into your own hands is the idiots solution, before you know it you will be up at court explaining why - you won't have any luck doing that - and will end up with a criminal conviction.

My view is that the police in general are always prone to corruption no matter the country and have to have stringent controls upon them. I would advocate the recruitment of more police support officers and give them the role of community contact policing and leave the serious stuff to the police force.

Joan el guiri

Yes. They are soft in the head and a laughing stock in the rest of the world.

What other force (even the Zimbabweans!) would admit formally to being 'institutionally racist'
(a crime!); 'institutionally homophobic' (another crime) and to be target driven to the extent of arresting kids for throwing cucumber slices!

They have lost much of the authority they had in the past by showing themselves to be , (and formally admitting to be) stupid, homophobic racists.

They also prey on nutters and junkies, not drug barons and pushers, despite the fact that they (the police) say most crime is drug related.

Police officers overseas tell English police jokes like people in England used to tell stupid Paddy jokes, Polack jokes in the States. and van der Mere jokes in South Africa.

Sadly our police are a laughing stock, the world over!

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