Puzzled by non-policing police

I couldn’t believe my ears, this morning (2.1.18) I heard the Chief Constable Dave Thompson say there were “1,400 officers and PCSO’s solely for neighbourhood policing, that’s all, they don’t have other roles, they don’t investigate crime, they are there for the public at neighbourhood level”.

So is the chief constable telling us that those 1,400 officers when they have a crime committed on their area that other officers have to investigate local crime? Well that certainly sounds ludicrous, local officers not investigating local crimes, this is like saying we have 1,400 firemen who do not attend fires!

I was under the impression that the role of police officers was that of prevention and detection of crime by investigation, if we have 1,400 officers not doing this, is it any wonder the detection rate is at an all time low and is this fair to the residents and council tax payers of the West Midlands who have a right to have all crimes investigated by all police officers. If we have 1,400 police officers and PSCOs not doing what they are paid to do the residents of the West Midlands are getting a second rate service with first rate cost in council tax.

On the same day I then read that more police stations are to close but Lloyd House had unveiled a £33m new look, I bet that was nice for the chief constable, at least he’s got a station to go to, the public have even less, even reporting a crime on line I had to wait weeks just for a crime number and the matter would not even be investigated.

So with all the stations closing and more in the pipeline can I ask those in power if I can have a reduction in my council tax for we continually have our service cut but the payment always goes up.

I guess I will have more chance of growing a third set of teeth before that happens!

Pete Lowe

Brierley Hill