Complaint to Police re: Quick Pick Stick
The cause of this complaint was deliberate criminal damage to an item of our equipment
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The emailed complaint below, sent 25th June 2009, is pretty self-
There are earlier emails which form part of the story, and are not posted on the website at this point in time.
Names mentioned in the complaint, except for that of the author, have been replaced by a letter followed by five dots.
Dear Sir/Madam
Log No. 1104 of 02/06/2009 Crime No. DE/09/6075
It is with some dismay that I feel obliged to make a formal Direction and Control Complaint against the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary. I am aware of the huge pressure on resources, and tried to register my concerns without making a complaint by using the website contact form on 12th June, and sending four emails to Police Enquiries and a letter to the Chief Constable the day following. It appears that the Professional Standards Department will not carry out an investigation as the complaint is not about the conduct of any individual, but the investigation does need to be very high level on account of the principles involved.
I feel great respect for the Police, acknowledging their considerable efforts to serve the public sympathetically as they strive to maintain law and order. In contrast, government seems obsessed with money and more concerned with dominating and controlling the minutiae of the lives of its citizens, seemingly for its own benefit and advantage. I would argue that it has completely lost the plot and is unable to see the wood for the trees. The ‘system’ has become so unwieldy that it is now essentially oppressive and coercive to the extent that it is subverting freedom and democracy.
Both the police and public suffer as a result. The incident of criminal damage central to this complaint is the direct result of the insensitivity, and in my view incompetence, of Exeter City Council. The Summerway Campaign has categorised the Council’s behaviour as the ‘Eddie Syndrome’ – Screw up big time, bully the vulnerable and ignore the consequences. (See website and YouTube videos.) As many of the fundamentals of this well documented situation appear on the www.summerway.org website, there is no need for elaboration here.
It is now over three weeks since the incident. The main concerns giving rise to this complaint are as follows:
• I have not yet had significant, if any, direct contact with the investigating officer, and am currently unaware of his or her name. Initial efforts were satisfactory considering the unavailability of an investigating officer at the time the offence was reported, but we have never got down to business since.
• As far as I am aware, no witness statements have been taken, although someone has recently spoken to Mr B..... by telephone. Mr C..... told me he had still heard nothing when we discussed matters this evening (25th).
• I have no idea whether ‘C.....’, which is probably the real name by which he is known, has been positively identified. Certainly, I have not been offered the opportunity to identify this youth.
• This whole incident has been allowed to become cold, and the youth is probably laughing at the police and us, thinking it all a great joke and that he has got away with his vandalism.
• With the recent introduction of ‘Restorative Justice’, this might well be a missed opportunity to affect this boy’s outlook and attitude without creating or adding to a criminal record. Having met him for the first time about a fortnight earlier when he and a friend persistently disturbed the evening service at a local church, an unreported serious imposition on the congregation, we would have had quite a lot to discuss and resolve.
• I have been asked to address future correspondence to Acting Superintendent J..... V..... . Were this a straight forward matter of criminal damage only, that might be appropriate. As this matter is so vital to an understanding of local community, and with the City Council behaving in so destructive a manner towards it, it is surely worthy of the attention and intervention of the Chief Constable himself. The principles involved are not parochial, and I suggest far too broad for simple delegation.
I look forward to participating in a thorough investigation into these matters.
Yours sincerely
Jim Harle
Membership Secretary, Summerway Junior LTC
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PS I heard from PC W..... late this afternoon by telephone, and am expecting to hear from her again, and perhaps to meet, over the weekend. I welcome this, but it does not alter the substance of this complaint which was fully prepared late last night and awaiting dispatch this evening.