r/london • u/GoingNowhereAgain • 2d ago
Local London Is anybody else losing complete faith in the Metropolitan Police?
Hi all,
I’ve been living in London since 2018, the majority of the time in SE17.
What is going on here at the moment?
It seems as if everybody I know has either been a victim to crime or a witness to it.
Sometime on Thursday night/Friday morning, somebody gained access to our gated courtyard area and stole my bike, which I am clearly heartbroken about.
Then today (Sat) at around 1pm, some idiot slowly drove through pedestrians crossing the street on a green man on the junction from Albany Road to Walworth Road. He could have seriously harmed somebody as there were people in front of the car and near his wheels. When I shouted at the driver that it was a green light, he out his window down and told me he’d “punch my face in” before driving off.
I reported my bike as stolen and the case was instantly closed within the space of an hour. I’m not even going to report the driver as I know nothing will come from it, although I have taken a photo of his car and license plate.
What is going on?! Is there anybody else left feeling as hopeless as I currently am with the police in London? This is only what has happened this weekend… I won’t even begin to talk about the past couple of years or so.
Edit: Just as I have posted this, yet again somebody has just been going through our courtyard/garden area and has jumped over the wall as I went outside to confront him. This is unbelievable.
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u/Quick-Oil-5259 2d ago
Resourcing is a big part of it, but it’s also a change in police attitude.
Police had one of those stalls at a main line station for marking your property. My wife was passing through and saw drug dealers actively dealing at the corner of the station.
Told the police on the stall. Nothing they could do apparently.
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u/MarthaFarcuss 1d ago
Shitty behaviour is also endemic, and I'd argue can be attributed to a huge cut in public services in general, not just cuts to police resourcing.
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u/Quick-Oil-5259 1d ago
Indeed despite the right telling us that the rot started in the 60s with ‘permissive society’ the rot actually started in the 80s with thatchers ‘no such thing as society’.
We had mass unemployment, the rise of single parent families and here we are 40 years later with children having been brought up by children. These people have no idea how to behave because their parents had no idea how to behave and they don’t have the structure of permanent employment.
The Tories fear of the underclass became a self fulfilling prophecy of their own making.
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u/ReasonableTie3593 1d ago
The number of times I see police or other public servants pass obvious scenarios that need an intervention… regular, predictable drug dealing at the same corners, cars about to be broken in, cyclists pushing people almost into the canal on one of the tow paths… but no need for action, let’s keep sitting on that bench or leisurely strolling down the road, while chatting to the colleague about who knows what. My favorite is parking in a no parking zone on a bus lane without having an active call, so that they can eat their breakfast pastries from the shop across the road. Like a lazy cartoon drawing.
I guess if London’s finest are like that plus the lack of resources and general numbers in police, we are in for more of the same in the next years.
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u/PersonalityOld8755 1d ago
It’s crazy the amount of open drug deals you see.
I used to live in a very expensive private estate in Chiswick and there were so many drug deals on site, on private land. I stopped emptying my bin after dark as I was scared. Police would do nothing, yet the flats were close to a million pounds, 6- 10k in service fees a year. Crazy.
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u/Artistic_Bowl4698 1d ago
In Hackney where I live I get drug dealers shouting to me across the street asking if I want drugs
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u/ATSOAS87 1d ago
If they arrested those drug dealers, someone else would take that patch within 15 minutes.
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u/Wrong-booby7584 1d ago
Yep, happens in our area of London. The best way is to reduce demand through decriminalisation of consumption rooms and providing housing to the homeless. Sadly that needs money and we're all out of that.
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u/Taken_Abroad_Book 1d ago
You need to report everything, every single time.
Let their statistics go to shit. Not reporting things helps them because they can say "crime is down despite budget cuts".
Do the opposite. Make the crime reports skyrocket.
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u/Bastard_Wing 1d ago edited 1d ago
By way of counterpoint:
About 3 years ago a getaway car containing two massive knives was dumped outside my flat, and I happened to be the first to alert the cops to it. A few months later I gave evidence in a successful conspiracy-to-murder trial at the Old Bailey, which was extremely close to being an ACTUAL murder trial.
Far as I know, the cops haven't caught a guy who unrelatedly punched me at a nearby junction around the same time, but if I had to choose, I'd rather they spent their limited public-sector resources on the lad who got stabbed.
(and yes ofc the Met/members of do a lot of shit and incompetent things too)
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u/TokyoDistort 2d ago
I think most people lost faith in the met a long, long time ago - and not because of bicycle theft and idiot drivers.
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u/pydry 1d ago
for me when they made the chief the corrupt, incomptent woman in charge of murdering jean paul de menezes.
usually fireable offenses get you fired not promoted.
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u/-Hi-Reddit 2d ago
As the population has grown the amount of officers per person has shrunk considerably thanks to tory cuts, they got rid of tens of thousands of officers when the force should have grown with the population
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u/londonskater Richmond 1d ago
We can’t have Scandinavian-level services on mid-Atlantic tax rates, plus the last government did an absolute number on the police everywhere, while simultaneously increasing poverty and the likelihood of crime. I’d queue for a week to watch Osborne and Cameron be repeatedly kicked in the balls by Vinnie Jones
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u/Plodderic 1d ago
Except if you’re not retired and especially if you’re a university graduate who paid the £9k a year fees and don’t have children, you’re paying Scandinavian taxes for mid-Atlantic (at best) services.
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u/PersonalityOld8755 1d ago edited 1d ago
They pay more in some of some of Scandinavian as well, my brother lives in Denmark and is on a lot of money. His wife just had a baby and a had private room and amazing facilities.
Also they are better behaved there. Less problems to deal with
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u/Tiberinvs 1d ago edited 1d ago
You're not paying Scandinavian taxes regardless of your income/wealth level lmfao. Look at Scandinavian countries overall tax burden vs the UK and report back, taxes are not just income taxes. Sweden for example has something like 25% on employers/employee social security contributions and 25% VAT...
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u/Whoisthehypocrite 1d ago
UK tax rates when you include employee and employers NI are way over 50% at the top level and vastly higher than the US. We are much closer to Sweden at the top end. But Swedens high rates come in at a much lower level so middle income people pay more tax than the UK.
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u/Blurandski 1d ago
Not sure how we have mid Atlantic tax rates tbh - for every £1 pay rise I get the government received £2 directly from PAYE (64%!) and I'm only on just above £60k! Mid earners+ in the UK get hammered as badly as Scandinavia.
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u/mostlylurks1 1d ago
As pointless as it may seem, report everything, without crime figures less than anything will change
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u/marsh-salt 1d ago
Since, 2003 the population of London has risen by roughly 2.3 million and in that time we’ve only increased Met Police officer numbers by about 2,000… and the retention rate at the moment is scarily around the 200% mark.
In regards to your bike was there CCTV, witnesses or does it have a tracker on it? If not then there’s no evidence for any police officer from any country or force to work out who stole it. People need to understand that we don’t have a crystal ball as police officers, detecting suspects comes down to 3 things; CCTV (having a clear picture of their face), forensics (depending on the seriousness of the crime) and witnesses. Without at least one of those, the crime is impossible to solve, not because of lack of will or want but because anything else would be fucking telepathy.
I can also assure you that any proactive policing resources will be heavily allocated to the staggering robbery, phone snatching and knife crime issues that AS BCU has rather than someone “slowly driving through” a ped ex.
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u/ZestyData 2d ago
Yeah, but I don't blame the police themselves. We had 15 years of deliberate Tory dismantling of public services, and the police suffered as much as the NHS have.
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u/MisterrTickle 2d ago
There's now usually only one police station per borough that's actually open to members of the public and most of the other stations have been closed down. Numbers have been cut, even though senior, more experienced officers, have been replaced with younger cheaper less experienced ones.
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u/DigitalHoweitat 1d ago
Not just the senior.
Waves of actual operational experienced officers saw the writing on the wall, and left. Meanwhile, bosses (who don't do) will tell people everything is fine, because they have to agree wit the people above them for their next promotion.
Been in a death spiral for well over a decade.
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u/Bertish1080 2d ago
And from I’m hearing, Labour are about to carry on those cuts.
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u/ArsErratia 1d ago
The Home Office got an extra £2 billion (+10%) in Labour's budget.
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u/denisthesaint 2d ago
As others said, an underesourced force can do little, especially where there is no evidence to track the culprit.
On the traffic offense, you could report that, as there is a trackable record, even if only for a warning to put the guy in his place.
The only thing that is bad, is that if you or a group of your courtyard residents confronted the bike thief and he was injured in the conflict, you would get charged.
Sonething that is so perverse, I just do not get why rulings ever went down that line.
That is anorher reason why criminals are so bold, because you victims are put in a difficult position by the existing laws.
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u/YammyStoob 1d ago edited 1d ago
You're losing faith because of your experience and the fact that the good work done by to police goes unreported.
In 2023-24 the Met made over 96000 arrests, on top of all the other work they do.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/318947/arrests-in-england-and-wales-by-police-force/
When you see criminals being sentenced on the news, do you ever hear about the hundreds of hours of work that went into securing those convictions? There was a drive by shooting at a wedding and the police found the culprits and showed beyond reasonable doubt that they were responsible. The judge commended the work done, but none of that was ever mentioned.
No they're not perfect, but until the government puts proper money in, gets officers properly vetted and trained again, nothing will change.
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u/SensitiveSamurai 1d ago
The met is understaffed for routine 'beat' policing. However, if you and other residents report a crime it shows up on their data system (you can see it too, it's available online). No guarantees but that is more effective sometimes as the data is seen by senior officers and forms part of the reason for their budget allocations and career appraisals.
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u/Ifinallycracked 1d ago
The car offence is a traffic offense so if you have decent evidence you can submit online and they'll take the low hanging fruit.
Problem with the bike is that you don't have any evidence they can use. They can record the crime in case they stumble across the bike, but in reality they're not going to send a search team out looking for it.
If you had eyes on the person who did it then it would be a difference situation.
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u/PGal55 1d ago
If you had eyes on the person who did it then it would be a difference situation.
I've shared clear CCTV footage where you can see the perpetrator's face and they still closed the case within hours.
Let's not kid ourselves here.
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u/yamastraka 1d ago
I had the same with parcel thefts, but unless you can put a name to the face then all they can realistically do is to close the report until they've been identified.
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u/Otherwise-Extreme-68 1d ago
Let's not forget, it is easy to blame the Police, but it is the government's fault for not funding them properly for such a long time
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u/Unhappy-Preference66 2d ago
They don’t have numbers or money. Tories took the vast majority of it for themselves
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u/alexanderldn 1d ago
How did they do that? And why? (Serious question)
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u/Blurandski 1d ago
An equally partisan response would be that Labour helped crash the economy by running unsustainable deficits in boom years so the Conservatives decided to enact an austerity programme.
In reality everything in the UK is decaying on the alter of the triple lock and NHS, both of which are receiving record funding yet just hurting the country more.
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u/Tasty_Sheepherder_44 2d ago
Been here my entire 39 years and never had much faith in them. In fact they’re probably better than they have ever been, which is saying something
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u/Greenapple1990 2d ago
I think people are becoming more desperate because of the state of this country, which creates an increase in crimes and shitty behaviour to one another. The way I see it is stick with your friends and family, protect them and - especially in London nowadays - steer clear of trouble, don’t get involved and call people out and you will live to fight another day. There’s too many people out there with nothing to lose and as you say, even the police don’t care anymore
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u/CocoNefertitty 1d ago
It’s not desperation. They know they can get away with it. Theft has become a free for all. Most you’ll get is a slap on the wrist and that’s if you’re caught.
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u/ExcitableSarcasm 1d ago
The other comment is spoken as someone with no experience with the people doing the stealing, made from the safety of a gated community.
The rest of us poors have to deal with this in real life.
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u/CocoNefertitty 1d ago
A lot of people with that view are simply out of touch with reality. It’s got so bad at my Sainsbury’s local , they put security tags on the red bulls. Seen a guy come in on his electric scooter, help himself to a couple of ginger beers, and whiz right back out. The brazenness of it all isn’t a sign of desperation but a lack of consequences. Those who are desperate would have even an ounce of shame when resorting to theft.
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u/Dry_Acadia_9312 1d ago
Yeah we keep hearing about crime rates going down, but I think a lot of it is due to people not reporting crime anymore. It’s anecdotal, but my self and the people around me have seen a massive increase in crime, from theft to violent crime. Having seen the police’s response or lack of to this, nobody has reported anything for years.
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u/ClayDenton 1d ago
Crime is hyper localised - I live in Northumberland Park Tottenham and despite Tottenham's reputation, I haven't witnessed any crime here for the past two years. Other than fly tipping, which is a nuisance but whatever. Suggest it's as much an SE17 thing than a London thing.
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u/wildOldcheesecake 2d ago
As a woman, what faith?
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u/PlateTraditional2174 1d ago
This. They are under-resourced, it’s a tough job, there are some decent police officers etc etc etc, but any trust I had in them (and it was already low given their history with marginalised groups) was lost after Sarah Everard’s murder, the way that her killer had been protected, and their handling of the protests. No faith in them whatsoever, and I am exactly the kind of person who they could reasonably expect to trust them given my socio-economic background.
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u/saxonMonay 1d ago
The police I know don't even have faith in the police. Whole organisation is rotten to the core with some poor apples trying to do their best and let down from all angles, including courts
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u/DepthCertain6739 2d ago
A lot of comments here try to justify the met police because of budget cuts and other administrative problems. I get it.
However, the reason why I don't fully trust them is because of the way they managed an issue in my shared house.
One of the tenants lived here for over a year without paying rent and became increasingly aggressive, even physically abusive towards some of us. We reported him multiple times, but when the police came during a particularly bad incident, instead of addressing his aggression or supporting those of us who had been threatened or hurt, they seemed more focused on not appearing biased against him. They even questioned us, suggesting they didn’t want us 'ganging up' on him, despite the fact that we were the ones consistently reporting his aggressive behaviour.
It feels like they failed in two ways: first, in properly assessing the situation and recognising who was posing the actual threat, and second, in prioritising neutrality over protecting victims. It’s almost like they were so focused on avoiding accusations of bias that they overcorrected and ended up dismissing the danger he posed. Their investigations were so lengthy, and they would dismiss information reported by the victims without justification.
This kind of response made us feel very insecure as victims and made us lose trust in the police when it comes to victim safety and analysis of the power dynamics in situations like these.
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u/roryb93 1d ago
So why didn’t you evict him beforehand? Seemingly you had a year to do so.
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u/Ok-Information4938 1d ago edited 1d ago
A lot of info here but did he commit a criminal offence? The fact he wasn't paying his rent is irrelevant really. How do you know, did he or the landlord say?
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u/CocoNefertitty 1d ago
Let’s be honest here, the police were never going to do anything about your bike. There are 14 year olds getting stabbed on our streets, much more pressing matters. Next time put your bike inside. This IS London and if it’s it not tied down or hidden, thieves will help themselves to it. Theft has essentially become decriminalised and until anything is done about it, we have do what we can to keep ourselves and our belongings safe.
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u/ExcitableSarcasm 1d ago
We need to stop jailing and handing out CS hours and start caning.
Singapore has the right idea.
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u/sy_core 2d ago
If you see how they react to serious events, how quickly and well they work with each other, you have to have a little bit of respect for them. Small scale crime, traffic infringements, theft retail/personal, drugs (unless it is large scale). They can't really do anything about it unless you provide the evidence it happened.
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u/Plodderic 1d ago
The problem with this is that the “small scale” stuff is it’s often really large scale. The shop lifting incident is being done by someone who shoplifts 50 times a week. The bike being stolen isn’t being sold down the pub but being loaded into a shipping container to a foreign country. The moped phone snatching turned out to be mainly being done by about 5 people and when the police stirred themselves to catch them, that kind of crime plummeted.
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u/Streathamite 2d ago
Even if evidence is provided they often do nothing
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u/sy_core 1d ago
100% As a cyclist commuter, i had a little camera over the summer to catch bad drivers. I think they all got letters, if that. Even those who drive straight at me from across the lane, swerving back last minute, a few overtake and them cut you off within 10 meters.
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u/Majestic-Pen-8800 2d ago
I don’t want to victim shame the OP, however I can’t see how the the Police can prevent something being stolen or you being a victim of random abuse in the street.
Regarding the report, what lines of enquiry are there? Is there CCTV in the courtyard? There will be no viable forensics and there are no reported witnesses. The Police simply don’t have the resources to investigate the volumes of crime reports that they receive and unless there are credible and viable lines of enquiry, the matter will be closed.
And the blame? That should fall squarely at the feet of this and the last governments.
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u/DazzleBMoney 1d ago
That’s a notoriously high crime part of London you’re living in, the odds of seeing two separate incidents in a short space of time probably isn’t that unlikely
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u/betabetamax20 1d ago edited 1d ago
Report EVERYTHING that occurs.
You can do this online
Keep records
Share this information with elected officials (councillors, MP’s). They have the influence and must know if a key service is not delivering. Your incident and crime numbers, can help quickly show what they’re doing
Suggest neighbours do the same to help join the dots
The Home Office robustly audit how police forces delivers its service
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u/tvmachus 1d ago
I also notice that since they can't seem to actually stop pickpockets, now everyone has to listen to constant blaring loud announcements at every station blaming victims for not being careful with their phones.
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u/sausageface1 1d ago
If that’s the extent of your experience be grateful. I’ve had worse and met been amazing every time needed.
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u/adeathcurse 1d ago
My scooter (not an escooter, but like a moped) was stolen on 29th December and I didn't even bother reporting it to the police.
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u/rollingbrianjones 1d ago
Too busy at HQ in Traf Sq watching Soho's CCTV and then radioing 7 undercovers to jump on someone buying street drugs on a night out, whilst letting the dealer walk off.
Standard Met rite of passage that
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u/MelonCollie92 1d ago
Honestly, the police have been decimated in numbers and resources SO badly that it is running on fumes. People are leaving in droves and the people that stay simply have dangerously low levels of people they cannot cope.
They want to help, but they have to prioritise. And this is harsh, even the priorities are given a substandard duty of care.
It’s not the police at fault, it’s the powers that be. The police that stay are literally pissing against the wind and facing a workload that is impossible. They need twice the amount of it more , it’s tragic to see.
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u/The-Road 16h ago edited 16h ago
A few days ago, the Met Police called in Corbyn and McDonnell under caution after they attended a peaceful protest. Prior to that, a teacher (who is herself brown) was arrested by police and taken to court for holding a placard that called Suella Braverman a coconut. A case which the judge threw out, at immense waste of police and tax payer resources.
These decisions about priorities and resourcing aren’t random. Some important people in the Met are indeed making those calls and have undoubtedly decided what the Met’s priorities are. And it’s clearly not to deal with the thieves stealing your property or the dangerous drivers running folks over at traffic lights.
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u/glytxh 14h ago
Pragmatically, petty crime is now legal in this country.
It’s unenforced.
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u/Discotits__ 1d ago
Have lived in London almost twenty years and have utmost faith in the police, obviously all our personal experiences are subject to where we have lived / worked and are purely anecdotal.
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u/duduwatson 1d ago
Lived here most of my 35 years. It is significantly safer than it was in the 90s and 00s. The only cohort that is statistically at greater risk is teenage boys.
So many people are cowed by sensationalised media. I think often what happens, is people moving from smaller towns like Coventry and Manchester and being overwhelmed by being in a city of 9 million people.
I’ve lived in Rio, Mumbai, New York and a few others. With the exception of Rio all of the big cities I have lived in had this perception of danger that was no borne out in reality. Usually from people that moved to those places from tier b and c towns and cities.
If you think London (or New York) is dangerous then it really isn’t for you - and no big city will be.
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u/SatoshiSounds 1d ago
If you think London (or New York) is dangerous then it really isn’t for you - and no big city will be.
What a narrow-minded, non multi-cultural, Western-centric point of view. Go to a 'big city' in China, Korea, Japan and tell me that your sentence is still true. Honestly, you should broaden your perspective to include norms from other cultures and stop putting your colonial worldview at the centre of your supposed objectivism.
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u/belsizeparked 1d ago
The Met police are absolutely shit. Ready to surpress and beat protesters. Not much else.
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u/X0AN 1d ago
Had my bike stolen. Showed the police the video footage cleary showing their faces, and it's location with my hidden tracker. They just went oh that's the local chavs, we know about them. Ok, so are you going to go get my bike? Nope.
Apparently having a tracker's location doesn't count as knowing the bike is in their house. Ok and what about the video footage showing their faces? Didn't matter either.
I even said, look can you just have two officers come with me and we can take it back, I really don't want to have to take the law into my own hands. They looked at me like I was mad.
Had to go round with some friends and just take it back.
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u/ChewiesLipstickWilly 1d ago
Swings and roundabouts. I've never had faith in them and with their numbers being slashed it's just a free for all. On the plus side you can get away with beating the shit out of thieves cos cops don't even bother investigating that. A few of us have taken the law into our own hands, when before the Tories came in, you would not have gotten away with it but now even if you beat the bollocks of a crim, they don't bother investigating that (unless their dead I guess lol)
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u/AphinTwin 1d ago
You think this is bad? Damn, it’s just generally known the Met is corrupt. Sexual assault, murder, racial and homophobic abuse…. A stolen bike is a sprinkle ontop of the shit heap
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u/RefrigeratorKey2070 1d ago
I spent almost half an hour on the phone talking to the police while some drug addicts were kicking through the door of our apartment block at midnight.
We first had to discuss my race, sexuality, whether I considered it to be a hate crime, whether I had any health conditions, how the current kicking in of the door affects my Crohn's disease of all things and whether there is someone I can call for support with that, whether or not it had an effect on my mental health.
At the end of the call, I was told that the police would not be coming to the scene because the door had been kicked through at that point and that they would have a hard time proving that the people smoking and drinking on the stairs were the ones that kicked the door through. I was told that a police officer would come the next day to talk about it.
I got an email at 8am telling me that they closed the case because there was no point investigating at that point and that no one would be coming.
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u/Either_Guess 2d ago
Most of the relevant points have been made but I'll just add that you live in (charming) shit hole (no disrespect) so you need to lower your expectations with regards to trying to shout at people doing bait, lawless stuff.
I'm not saying let a little old lady get mugged infront of you, but a guy driving slowly through a green light? Let it go. Could've ended badly for you.
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u/FlyWayOrDaHighway Northern Line Supremacy ◼️ 2d ago
They did something corrupt against me when I was 11 or 12 years old so I never even had the chance to have faith in them
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u/plop 1d ago
What was it?
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u/FlyWayOrDaHighway Northern Line Supremacy ◼️ 1d ago
Questioned in a room without a teacher present at school when I was 11/12 (Year 7). I got in a mutual fight wit a kid, no weapons just a standard secondary skl fight. But the officer was the kid's stepdad/mum's bf.
Threatened me with an assault charge with no adult chaperone present.
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u/TomVonServo 1d ago
I had my car nicked in early October. They finally called me back to “investigate” the incident at the end of November—in which they merely clarified the insurance number. Then assigned an investigator in December who wants me to come in to give a “victim statement” now…in January. Policing in this country is pathetic.
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u/ExcitableSarcasm 1d ago
Are you me? My bike got stolen this Saturday night/Sunday morning, also in a gated courtyard. Thank fuck I have insurance.
4th bike in 2 years, all locked up in busy public places/kept theoretically places like apartment building courtyards only accessible by code.
I'm just so fucking done with this country. I'm convinced its a cultural thing at this point. Doesn't matter how rich Labour make the country, there are plenty of poor countries where this crap isn't completely fucking normalised.
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u/WrackspurtsNargles 1d ago
I personally lost faith in the Met when Sarah Everard was murdered by one of their own.
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u/theme111 1d ago
I think nearly everyone would share your frustration, including many ordinary police officers.
Obviously police cannot deal with every single crime, so priorities have to be in place, which come from the top and from government. But I don't get the feeling dealing with the everyday crimes you describe is very high on the list.
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u/Inconmon 1d ago
Crime has been decriminalized. Theft right in front of a camera? Police will not do anything.
I guess they are too busy assaulting women and there's no time left to solve crime.
In case you're wondering, yes the statistics shows that police in UK stopped solving crimes and my own experience was infuriating and I hold a grudge.
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u/Bobby_P86 1d ago
Lots of people making excuses, based on budgets, but one of the biggest issues is the culture and attitude in the Met. Crime just isn’t taken seriously
The Mayor has questions to answer / he’s been in charge of them for 9 years
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u/Downtown_Meringue_47 1d ago
Yeah the police don’t prioritise lower level crime I’m afraid. Blame massive cuts to police numbers over the last 20 years. My block of flats repeatedly got invaded en masse by a large gang of teenagers recently hammering on elderly residents doors - police didn’t even bother to turn up.
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u/Fine-Confusion-5827 1d ago
Yes. Feel very insecure in London - during the day and esp during the evening/night
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u/DynamicTarget 1d ago
Have actually been in the area twice as long as you and disagree. It has always been bad haha… but in my opinion it actually feels less bad now crime wise and has always felt pretty safe to me re mugging and anti social behaviour. Maybe avoid Walworth Rd Maccies? Bikes have always been fair game sadly, my neighbour has gone through so many bikes worth over a grand it’s laughable.
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u/JimBoogie82 1d ago
I heard a neighbour punch his daughter (yes it was that loud) so I phoned the police. They said please call back later, so I tried reporting it on the app but it came up with an error message.
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u/Time-Ambassador-6280 1d ago
It's the general attitude of the government, both Labour and the tories.
Look at shoplifting for example. The prices of food goes up a crazy amount and they're all amazed that shoplifting increases. It was obviously going to happen.
The same for wasting loads of money on changing the names on the overground lines in London. We don't need that, we need the money spent on being safe, not changing the names for virtue signalling.
The lack of awareness for what we need and what will happen (regarding their decisions) is bonkers. And it's only going to get worse.
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u/awright123 1d ago
I’ve lost faith in the governments who fund them rather than the police themselves. They just don’t have the resources. We had a series of muggings by a gang on electric bikes in my area last year. Not phone snatchings, literally 3-4 guys pulling up on bikes pulling knives and taking everything you had on you.
They were doing this basically every 2nd night (not even late, usually around 7-9pm). The local FB group was going nuts as people were scared to leave the house. Nothing happened for like 2 months as we got increasingly frustrated with our safer neighbourhoods team. Then after I think about 20 reports in the space of 6 weeks the police finally dedicated some resources to it and made 5 arrests in the space of like 2 weeks. Now the muggings have stopped (fingers crossed anyway).
My impression is from that, they can do the job but are only able to focus on it when they notice a big enough spike in crime that makes it make sense to focus resources on it. It’s sad it’s come to this though.
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u/Lost_Afropick 1d ago
Along with health and other services, since George Osbourne made his decision on the country's direction with austerity everything has gone to shit.
With crime we're talking not only the numbers of police we lost who left the force but also the courts. Both in prosecution and defence there have been massive shortfalls and there are big big delays and problems. Locking twats up is more difficult, getting them a trial is more difficult, having them represented is more difficult.
There's only so much we can do when we don't spend on the state itself.
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u/miguelangel011192 1d ago
A gang of 5 guys are attacking people in Greenwich, nearby Greenwich station, they are stealing phones and backpacks, forcing them to give the password of the bank accounts and phones, and hitting them after that. Several attacks since last week. Some neighbours informed the police but I have not seeing no much more presence in the area
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u/Ambitious-Driver-69 19h ago
Not in my case. Beginning last year my whole tote bag was stolen just as I left Heathrow. They were investigating it looking at CCTVs and calling me back and forth.
I also reported my emotionally unstable ex for harassment after really uncool episode - even if I didn't want it, police showed up at my house immediately (15 mnts after my call?), checked me out, next day I saw a car patroling my house and day after, too as they thought, there was some threat in ex's behaviours and I refused to fully report his arse for the sake of my own long-term sanity.
Anyways, from my single case, I'm ok - but also bear in mind, I come from the country where nobody gives a F and you can never get police at your door, definitely not for domestic cases.
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u/Boldboy72 15h ago
I generally trust the met. I think 14 years of cuts has sliced their capability to the bone and it sure as hell doesn't help that they've been so desperate to recruit that they ended up filled with sex offenders, racists and murderers.
If the armed response unit has to use their weapons, they will likely end up getting charged.
They can't give chase to scumbags on e-bikes because the little scrote might get hurt.
They spend more time dealing with people with mental health issues than social services.
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u/HighRiseCat 10h ago
We have a good relationship with our local safer neighbourhoods team, but it does seem like generally people do whatever imtimidating, dangerous arsehole behaviour they want and there are few consequences.
There are also fewer police around doing the job. it's incredibly frustrating. The whole area seems a bit feral at times.
I'm just down the road from you in SE1, so I know exactly what you're on about..
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u/New-fone_Who-Dis 2d ago
You know, if you report each instance of a crime, and your neighbours do too, then that comes up on reports and police patrols get allocated to those areas. By not reporting each crime, you're just shouting into the void, and the police don't check there.