Re: Cambridge Police are too busy with serious crime
Anyone who lives in Cambridge will know that Cambridge police are far too busy dealing with serious crime to deal with minor stuff like "walking on the cracks in the pavement (more than once per day)". Their approach to (e.g.) cycle theft has been a bored shrug for years, so I confidently expect the same response. Curtain-twitchers will get the thrill of filling in a form, the police will send them an email thanking them for their help, and nothing will happen. Everybody wins.
I wouldn't be so sure. Policing these days is about targets and quotas. The current UK police clear up rate is a pitiful 7.8%. Investigating real crime obviously involves effort, for which the Police and criminal justice system is very poorly resourced.
Hiring a company with a high capacity printer to churn out fixed penalty notices or cautions for posting by the thousand is cheap and would improve clean-up rates immensely.
Fifty thousand crimes reported, forty five thousand dealt with each for the cost of a postage stamp and a bit of toner gives a 90% clear up rate, even with the dismal rate for the 5000 "conventional" crimes in there. Doubtless this will swiftly lead to substantial performance related pay rises for those plods with scrambled egg on their hats and a nice surprise in the Queen's birthday honours list.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
