I do understand the situation Nick details and his frustrations, but he is speaking from an Ivory Tower. His members of staff were only in telephone contact from a distant site in the safety of their own Control Room. The police must have based their decision on the situation they were facing: a vulnerable position on the front line.
Some of these travellers are nasty individuals. They have no respect for other people, even less for their property. In a large camp, many of them will gang together. Two police officers alone could find themselves in great difficulty if it’s the dead of night and they’re surrounded by aggressive, ruthless men who, if any injuries were sustained by the officers, would deny all knowledge.
Without a witness the police officers would be in grave danger. If there were a witness, they too would be in difficulty.
Our society and our present Government have failed to provide any resolute backing for anyone attempting to deal with these people. Human Rights laws have allowed travellers carte blanche to do as they please and go where they like when they like. Don’t forget that they have no fixed abode and, therefore, cannot be sent a summons to appear in Court. They get away with murder. No doubt some have. We’ll probably never know.
At Security 2000, we specialise in industrial estate security. In the 14 successful years we have worked in this arena, we’ve responded to many thousands of alarm activations within a couple of minutes, and have called the police service hundreds of times to confirmed intruders. Over 70 villains have been arrested to date, while a good number have received custodial sentences.
We have seen police officers wrestling with criminals in the gutters, clambering over fences, dogs ferreting for fugitives, helicopters hunting them in the air and cars chasing them on the roads (primarily at night, when most good folk are sound asleep). I have great admiration for the front line police officers. It is not with them that the problems lie. The problem is the system that forces them to work with one hand tied behind their back and then pillories them if they make the slightest mistake in ‘the heat of battle’.
Many of the policemen and women at various levels with whom I’ve spoken cannot wait to complete their service and leave. That is a sad indictment of the current state of affairs.
Back to the travellers… A few years ago some used to make camp regularly in a cul de sac in Avonmouth. We blocked the area off with huge boulders provided free from a local quarry. That tactic was successful for three months until one group called in a crane and moved the blockade to one side. To cut a long story short, eventually the Council served a final notice date for the travellers to move on. On that day, a convoy of Council officials, three tow trucks and an equal number of police cars arrived to ‘sort them out’.
The travellers had arranged for a barrister from Bristol to meet this lawful cavalcade. The result was that the Council officials and police had to turn tail. How humiliating and depressing is that? The point is that every situation is not as simple as it may seem from the comfort of a Control Room.
Until the Government finds the bottle to deal with this sort of situation matters can only worsen. The police will become more and more disillusioned as they continue to see most of their hard work in catching criminals either cast aside by the Crown Prosecution Service or met with sentences that even the miscreants laugh at due to their leniency.
My security officers have an excellent working relationship with the police service in the two force areas with which we engage on a regular basis. That’s because they deal with them face-to-face and have built up a rapport. Even appearing in Court together to give evidence adds to that bond.
Sadly, an unknown voice on the telephone will not have anything like the same effect when it comes to fostering team spirit.
