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A waste of time

Tuesday, 19th February 2008

There's a letter in today's Times picking up on a line in my Times piece last week:

Sir, Stephen Pollard writes: “I haven’t reported \ to the police. What’s the point? The police can’t even be bothered to deal with assaults” (Feb 14). However, I would come to the exactly opposite conclusion.
Recently my bag was stolen on a train. I assumed, like Mr Pollard, that it was not worth reporting, but out of sheer bloody-mindedness used the British Transport Police’s telephone at Euston to advise them of the theft. Within a few minutes a community support officer arrived to take the details, and half an hour later she was arranging the retrieval of the relevant CCTV footage which, together with my statement, was forwarded to the police at Swindon.
There a police constable ran through the video, identified the malefactor making off with my bag and circulated his description and image to all the relevant stations. In addition, I have been given regular updates by phone on any developments. I could not possibly have expected more.
Far from railing at the police for their lack of interest and action, I feel faintly embarrassed that the theft of a cheap bag containing little of value should have been taken so seriously.
While the police will doubtess fail to meet our expectations all the time, if we fail to report the crimes that do occur the police will never even get the chance to meet these expectations.
John Heard
West Wickham, Kent

It's a fair point. All I can say in response, however, is that twice I have been the victim of a minor assault. Both times, the police simply ignored my report.

I was on the escalator at Charing Cross Station. Suddenly, as we neared the bottom, the person behind me - who I hadn't seen - lashed out at me and hit or kicked me (I had no way of telling which) in my neck and I collpased. He then calmly walked past me and walked to the platform. I could see him, and the tube train he was getting on.

By chance, there was an attendant standing at the bottom of the escalator looking up. He must have seen what happened as it was, literally, right in front of him. I asked him to tell the driver to stop the train and to call the police and have the man arrested.

"For what?", he asked. "For assaulting me! You must have seen it, it was in front of you" (I had fallen at his feet). "I didn't see anything. I don't know what you're talking about".

By then, the train had pulled out, and with it my assailant. So I went back upstairs and asked at the control room if CCTV would have captured the incident. They told me I'd need to get a policeman. So I asked them to call one; he turned up after about fifteen minutes. He told me I was making a fuss over nothing and I'd save him and myself al lot of time if I forgot about it. "What harm did it do?", he sneered.

To cut a long story short, the policeman was useless - deliberately so. I did indeed report it and got him to take down all the details. And that was the last I heard. I made an idiotic mistake and did not get the man's name. When I rang the police a few weeks later to find out what was happening, I was told there was no record of any incident, or of me. I could come to the station and report it if I wanted.

What would have been the point? I would like to have pursued the policeman more than my assailant by then, but did I really want to extend the annoyance for weeks, probably months, and end up - even if things went as I hoped -giving evidence against him in a disciplinary hearing. Life is too short.

The other incident was late at night in a busy road when a man walked up to me for no reason and kicked me in the groin. Luckily he missed the 'key' area and I was only in pain for a couple of days.

I walked to the police station the next day and reported the attack, in full knowledge that I was wasting my time. I'm still waiting to hear how the inquiry is going. It's only been ten years, so I'm sure they'll call me back with a progress report soon.

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Lee Jakeman

February 19th, 2008 9:38pm

It's the British TRANSPORT police who acted so efficiently. I've heard many good things about them. Next time you're assaulted, perhaps you should report it to them rather than the metropolitan police?

Stephen Pollard

February 20th, 2008 8:58am

Actually, Lee, I did. The tube assault was ignored by the Transport Police, the assault in the street by the Met.

Michael

February 20th, 2008 11:02pm

When I was mugged in Battersea (not seriously, but he did make off with my wallet), my first priority was cancelling my credit cards, and my flatmate had to bully me into ringing the police. I'm glad I did, though, as they were superb - not only did they respond admirably quickly, but they even picked up the miscreant the next day, and caught him trying to dispose of my wallet when they did so. I hear he pleaded guilty.