October 2011
As reported by the BBC:
… Chief Constable Brian Moore urged the public not to call with things “clearly not matters for us to deal with”.
Mr Moore said cutting down on the number of irrelevant calls from members of the public was also essential.
“Don’t waste my time,” he said.
“Don’t call us for things that are clearly not matters for us to deal with.
“We don’t have the time to do that – we never have had but we particularly don’t have now.”
… The chairman of Wiltshire Police Authority, Christopher Hoare, said they were working “to ensure that the public only call the police when they need them for policing work”.
… Kate Pain, from the Wiltshire Police Federation, said officers want to get back to “core policing” and “can’t do everything for everybody”. […] “So as a result of the cuts and our restructuring we are going to have to be quite clear in our message about what is and is not a police matter.”
The message seems pretty clear. Cuts are reducing the ability of the police to perform their role. OK.
June 2012
Now fast forward now to a piece in the Daily Wail:
School truants are being hauled out of bed by police and escorted to classes in a patrol car.
Officers are clamping down on truants by calling at the homes of any pupils who fail to turn up to school without a reason.
If they are still in bed, police get the parents to wake them up before driving them to lessons.
Clearly those deep, far reaching, unprecendented cuts are having a major impact on front line policing. That or Wiltshire Police have forgotten all those things they were saying last year before telling the public how officers are being deployed to round up children and masquerade as school bus drivers.
Autonomous Mind 
Nice counterpoint – yes, what is core policing? Allowing Muslim gangs to rampage through London, prosecute for wheelie bin offences? What else.
Considering things like “truant oficers” (Not police. School “officials”), debt collectors, housing officers, etc won’t even knock on a door nowdays without police escort, what I see here is a simple case of “cutting out the middle man”. Because if it is the truant officer, or the police that “wake the bastards up”, whichever way, the police are going to be expected to be there.
It is the education department that need a good kick in the bollox as a reminder of what the police are for, in this case. AND senior police officers, who have never learned to say “fuck off” when the situation arises.
James, Must have missed the report of muslim gangs regularly rampaging thru London. Typical BBC.
Do the police actually attend matters that _are_ theirs to deal with? Or do they turn up way too late if they turn up and send you letters in case you need “victim support” Just asking…
There is only one crime you can commit – come to the attention of a bureaucrat. Police and parking wardens included in that definition. If you have their attention, you will be enforced upon, regulated, fined and worse.
Bureaucrats’ attention NEVER falls upon those who might do them any harm, such as criminals. So because they are conscientious they will dutifully enforce upon us, the basically law-abiding. Motorists, parents, business people.
Pen-pushers State. Next stop Police State.
Alan Douglas
I’m not certain – but the budget cuts in one area seem to be simply re-allocation of funds to another area – and in the case of the Police – I’m wondering about the confluence of local councils and police via the “Community Safety Partnerships” where some local councils are obviously seeking to get into uniforms and properly start ordering us all around…
Wiltshire tried to put all it’s librarians into uniform – I don’t know if they were supplied by Hugo Boss but I don’t think one can rule out black shirts with silver lighting bolts on the lapels…?