Braintree district: Hate crime could be going unreported (From Braintree and Witham Times)

This is utter gobbledygook! And so ironic that it should be published only a day after being told to ‘Lower our expectations of the Police’. See Carri-Ann Taylor’s report 9:26am Friday 4th January 2013 in Halstead News

Just what is the point of reporting that a particular Police Department ‘fears that a certain type of crime is going unreported’? That’s hardly a breath-taking new revelation that is going to take anyone by surprise.Of course occurrences of crime are not being reported.

Indeed huge amounts of crime of various types are simply not reported to the Police these days because the public have simply become inured to the fact that the Police are unlikely to respond. In reality it is because the Police are hamstrung by resource limitations beyond their control as opposed to unwillingness on their part to serve the general public - although sadly the latter all too often vent their frustration towards the police themselves instead of the Politicians responsible for the sorry mess.

In recent times I have had several occasions to call for Police assistance.

A young girl was in a churchyard ingesting the contents of a Propane Gas Container. The 999 call took over 15 minutes to respond. I was simply given number of the ‘local nick’ to call. Did so – another long delay – then the busy desk officer said he couldn’t take any action right then but would ‘report it to his Sergeant’ .

Hooligans on the roof of a local pub throwing stones at passers-by. Woman in front of me struck on head. Police were called but never turned up. They said afterwards that they were too busy dealing with a stabbing up the road.

Uninsured driver crashed into my stationary vehicle. Police kept promising for an hour and a half that they were coming. Never did. I couldn’t convince the other guy to wait any longer so had to ‘let him go’.

My elderly neighbour found a ‘body’ lying outside her front door after midnight on a sub-zero freezing night. Police were called but after 30 minutes they said they just couldn’t make it and to try the ambulance service instead.

On another three occasions I have visited my local Police Station simply to hand in lost property. The average waiting time was well over one hour.
Although I do not live in the Braintree / Halstead area I don’t suppose my experiences are significantly different to thousands of others including the residents of North East Essex so it is no wonder to me that people just do not bother to report so many matters to the police anymore - and the fact that it is so hardly merits a breaking news story.

It is not only the public who are the victims of this situation. The police themselves must also despair.

I consider myself privileged to have worked closely alongside police officers of several forces investigating some sensitive and stressful matters. Without exception I found each one to be thoroughly professional and dedicated to their work with an extraordinarily marked degree of compassion for the unfortunate innocent victims involved. I have the utmost respect and regard for them and I think it is high time that our policy makers took a firm hand in remedying the situation before Police moral sinks below a recoverable level.

They could make a start by scrapping the wretched Human Rights Legislation and putting away for ever and a day the small proportion of society who repeatedly take up and waste such a large proportion of police time. The Police might then be able to commit more of their resources to the decent law abiding members of the public who really deserve their services and would genuinely appreciate it.

Where is our leadership on this issue?

and does Martinez include hate crime of black racial hatred AGAINST white people which is indemic? no i tought not

This really is a non-story ...

"Part of our strategy is that we want to reduce under-reporting of hate crime, and part of the strategy and the group’s work will be around increasing reporting."

Should read:

"Part of us justifying the wasted HUGE budget we have been afforded ... "

What a waste of tax payers money!

What the good officer actually means is that her over resourced department is short of work (they dont deal with day to day stuff you see) and if they dont get some more nonsense, sorry hate crimes to deal with, then they might be put back in uniform on 24hour shifts having to deal with ordinary people and day to day stuff.....

Goodness me, frightening thought eh?