Does anyone agree that the incident of the community police and the young boy is a disgrace?

washerl

yes i agree with you

snetterton

Read the FACTS before rushing to judgement. The boy was already underwater when the PCSOs arrived and he could not be seen. The post mortem concluded he was already dead by the time they got there. Even full police officers are told NOT to go into the water if the person has already disappeared from view.
This kind of comment sickens me.

firecat_mage

Before you start spouting, read the BBC report.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/itn/20070921/tuk-pond-death-call-for-pcsos-to-be-scra-dba1618_1.html

This states that the Officers were NOT at the scene until AFTER the boy had gone under and vanished.
There are no reports saying they were psychic and magically knew where to look. Instead they called for better help in locating people in these types of situations.
For the record - the Father of the boy was one of those in the water searching after 2 fishermen had saved the girl.

Personally, I would have gone in, along with most of the population, to find the boy. Whilst I in no way condone the way the officers handled the situation, they are under strict instructions in life and death situations to get the help they need and not try to deal with it themselves.

Just because they don't have the courage and human compassion to TRY, doesn't mean that they were unaffected by what happened.

Bill

Um, where were the community parents of this child?

Sam Sock Puppet

More self righteous opinions. Shouldn't you be asking a question about "Maddie"

David J

People always want to blame someone usually its their council or the police anyone but the folk who are responsible for the kids upbringing, did the parents know where their kids were....."protect us if we drown" sounds typical of todays health & safety mad world.....

catblackindia

If the boys parents had known where they were or what they were doing it would not have happened. You can`t blame the PCSOs for what happened because the boy was underwater when they arrived. The parents should take responsibility for what happened not deflect the blame.

fat tart

What happened to just being a compassionate human being?

on thin ice

It was inevitable that a question on this subject would come up. Depending upon which report you see or read the facts do seem to vary. The version I read described people seeing the little girl ( 8yrs ) being held up or clinging to her brother (10yrs ) and his head was beneath the water. It is just so terribly sad. All I can say is that as an ex police officer whenever I had reports of missing children out playing one of the first thoughts was to cover the nearby rivers and canals. I never had any special training, except retrieving a rubber brick from the deep end of a swimming pool, but I could never live with myself if, had it been appropriate, I hadn't tried. Those community support officers must live with their consciences IF they had the opportunity to try and they didn't. They didn't go in the water to try, other people did and they know the answer - I don't.
As for the principle of community support officers generally, that is a different story and gradually the public is starting to see that the Govt. is deceiving you with an imitation product.
Edit: For non UK residents. Recently normal police officers/ constables have been joined by so called 'community support officers'. The appointment of cso's is at a lower salary of regular officers although they wear virtually identical uniforms and give the impression that there are actually more police officers patrolling the streets and doing everything you expect a policeman to do than there really are. Gradually the public are finding out that cso's have very limited powers and the Govt. says they are not actually intended to arrest people or solve crimes, they are just 'the eyes and ears of the police' and are there to help them. They do have some powers to issue violation tickets, etc. if they see an offence they have a limited power to detain the alleged culprit for up to 1/2 hour max whilst a regular officer is called to effect a 'proper arrest'. The incident was of two youngsters who drowned, it being alleged that 2 cso's who arrived on the scene 5 mins before a regular constable did not enter the water to try a rescue as 'they weren't trained to do it' !!!!!!!! and that in justification for their non actions .. 'anyway the boy had already disappeared out of sight under the water'. What is not in dispuite is that other people did enter the water and at least try. You make of this what you will.
Edit: People have always given their lives in attempts to save their fellow men, esp trying to save children .. I'd rather my tomb stone said I'd died trying to rescue someone than live in shame that, if appropriate, I hadn't tried. There is a maxim that goes something like this: ' Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the refuge of fools'

Jack

YES!! I agree 100%. I have said the same many times before on here. These people are a complete waste of resources and are diverting valuable rescores away from the Police. I think we can get one "real" Police officer for every two of these jokers. Surely, that has got to be better value. Itâ€™s not just about quantity itâ€™s about quality.

Ben Gunn

When the emergency services arrived, how would they view the prospect of having three people to recover instead of one?

Kenneth C

I have not seen this story.

But from I gather, someone was drowning and the officer did nothing.

Let me say this, I am a fairly strong swimmer and I can't swim with all this gear on. It is literally 30 pounds of weight that restricts your movement when you get into the water.

It takes a minute or two to shed it on shore and if you jump into the water before pulling it off, it will take several minutes to get it off then, at the risk of your own life.

In the academy we practiced swimming with all this gear, it literally drains you of all your energy within 20 seconds.

If I am ever in the position of recuesing someone who is drowning. I will probably go into after them. But that is after I secure my firearm in my car and take all my gear off, after that it will probably be too late.

Sorry, but police aren't equipped to save people from drowning.

Karl 09

No No full normal police officers are trained not to go into the water when someone is drowning it is what they are taught they have to call the fire brigade for a long roof pole that the fire men swim in the water with.

prettywoman

**Niggle: we are BORED with the maddie parents story now,,they r taking too much of our time.

This incident is deplorable, but I doubt anyone will be repremanded for it. Unfortunately.
I 'saved' someone once. I didnt even think about what I was doing either then or afterwards. I was then shopping in safeways about a week later, and a young girl came up to me and said Mum heres that lady that rescued. ~blah~.... (cant even remmber his name) She was all over me thanking me, telling me how grateful she was etc I think at one point of the conversation (because Im a B* & I speak as I feel) I did ask why they were where they were alone...

I didnt throw myself into water to save him, or do it for praise or anything like that..I did it because Im a human and I care. And for those 'policemen' it should have been what we all call a 'natural reaction' without hesitation.

BlackSheep

Well the parents letting them play by a lake wasn't to smart either. Parents must look after their children, it's not just a moral duty...it's the law!!

moggle

Do you even know what happened??

I would think twice about the risk of going into the water. If you can't even see the boy what are they going to achieve. Their role is not that of a police officer, there are many issues and you don't know what you would do until you are faced with the choice...Here something to think on.

'A Texas police sergeant drowned in a tragic rescue attempt that claimed two lives on the Trinity River on Thursday, September 15.'

'A police officer has drowned on holiday in Australia while rescuing three children swept out to sea'

'YOUNG man drowned in the Manchester Ship Canal as horrified office workers looked on helplessly from their windows.'

Or try this idea....

Police officers who launch chases over roofs, railway lines and busy roads could be sacked for putting the health and safety of criminals at risk, it has emerged.New Home Office proposals say that any officer who knowingly flouts guidelines designed to protect themselves and the public could face dismissal for "gross misconduct".

Sharon T

If they were there and seen the boy drowning, then yes, it's a complete disgrace. Training or no training, regardless of what your job title is, human instinct would be to jump in and help, regardless of whether you'd even lose your job, this was a boys LIFE!

But taking into consideratino as to what others have said, i think the news reports may have been misleading. The reports gave me the impression that the young boy jumped in to help the young girl and the PSCOs helped the young girl out of the water and the young boy went under. That poor boy, and to think he was trying to help someone else, and he was only 10!!!

qwid_pro_quo

link the story please ... I have no idea what you're talking about

petey00petey

MIND IF I ASK WHAT YOU ARE TALKIN'BOUT?

Emmarose

My first thought was, surely they are given basic first aid training. They must be asked to attend to people who maybe have collapsed. What a waste of money they are. A community support officer is not the same as a police officer. They have not had the same training, their role is to support the police in the less criminal side

jed slade

A community policeman is just a normal police officer who has been assigned that duty.As for the rest of it,learn to swim.

CLIVE H

The so-called Community Police are a joke. I've seen them only once on my street, where before, when we had our own copper, he would be around at least a couple of time a week and knew a lot of people too and would stop to chat a while about this and that, the weather, price of beer whatever.

I think there is a cover up going on about the boy who drowned [RIP] he had gone into the water to save his sister who had fallen in. Two Community Copper arrived on the scene and refused to go into the water claiming they could not see the boy.

The Police Federation [the Union for the Fuzz] say they are not happy about what happened and that it proves that Community Policing is not working. A real cooper would have gone into the water and tried to find the boy. If someone goes under water, you've got four or five minutes in which to get them out and start pumping them etc.

curmudgeon

people from all different states and countries are on here...which incident are you refering to?

jmminnc

Did you not know it is not the policeman`s job to protect us.

They are only there to investigate your death.

Patternfall

Talking about University of Florida? Not really. He was resisting being escorted out of the building. Use of force dictates (most commonly) that you use vocal commands, then physical control techniques, then physical impairment techniques. He obviously wasn't listening to what they were saying and was trying to break free from them the entire time.

It's what will happen if you behave like that when a cop orders you to do something. If you don't agree with the cop, then do it anyways and file a complaint.

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