These are the comments below Samuel Port's
article about Richard Graham's Facebook post on his bike being stolen. Nothing controversial, yet, but that may change...
TrollhunterX
2 MIN AGO
Firstly, it's stunning that the clickbait carp I have to scroll through to get to comments is five times longer than the article itself.
Secondly, £15 reward? How stingy is that? More likely to encourage anyone seeing the bike to keep it to themselves.
Yes, with funding cuts and Covid, I can see how 101 calls. and provision of crime reference numbers, would be affected. It looks like our MP is stirring, and I'm sure he's ignored plenty of appeals for help from his constituents over similar matters. It's a little late to try to look like he's an intervening force for reform of services.
Lastly, it was a little stomach-churning seeing Justin Butler addressing Graham as 'Boss' on Facebook. Guess he'll be following fellow club owner Dawn Westgate in standing for council, next elections?
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BishopHooper
3 HRS AGO
Well..well....well.... Richard complaining about lack of Police.
Let’s not forget here readers, it was HIS party that made massive cuts to police numbers, so if there isn’t enough officers available to deal with every little crime, that’s on you Richard. You voted through those cuts. Secondly, if he hasninsurance, he will be able to claim and get a new bike... let’s hope he gets his replacement from somewhere like the Gloucester Bike Project.
The timing of this however is somewhat suspect..... let’s not forget his recent spat with Martin Surl about funding, followed by his old bike ‘mysteriously being stolen’. It was if this was all set up to allow Tricky Ricky the chance to sling some more mud at Martin Surl and sing the praises of the Tory PCC candidate who has no experience in policing or crime prevention.
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ktgl03
3 HRS AGO
He didn't wait 33 minutes. He says he hung up after 10 minutes, took a call and then called again. He doesn't say how long the incoming call took, but even 5 minutes means he was holding for little more than 15 minutes for a non urgent call. Clearly the bike wasn't very secure either.
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alwall
4 HRS AGO
Welcome to the reality of the huge cuts that your party imposed on the entire public sector including the police service Mr Graham
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Grumpy007
4 HRS AGO
It's his party that cut police numbers
I've also added Richard Graham's Facebook post, and the responses it received (including Justin Butler's 'lick lick, slop slop' one):
WARNING: this is about crime reporting and may be too nerdy for some.
My several hundred mails a day, range in subject from murder and rape to noisy neighbours & parking tickets. I see a lot of life, second hand.
But dealing with other people’s problems isn’t the same as facing them yourself.
So here’s my little story about something many go through - bike theft.
I have 2 bikes: Cherry & White and Trek
Cherry & White (Raleigh) cost £25 from (sadly gone) Kingsholm Bikes. She’s slow & steady.
Trek cost £100 from Mitchell’s in Barton St & is quick but no mudguard
Whichever I’m using, which depends on how far I’m going that day, I tie up to the lamp post outside my office in College St.
On Fri Aug 14th I came back from a factory visit to the office about 5.15pm: and tied Trek up while chatting to 2 of our City Protection Officers (CPOs).
At just after 8 that evening, when I left, Trek was gone. So I started to walk home and bumped into the same CPOs (these guys are active & a precious addition to city centre security).
They rang to check if any CCTV had captured the theft (College St, like all our City Centre, is covered, but sadly the camera was pointing the wrong way at that time). Then I spoke to the 2 PCSOs passing in their van (Fri eve city centre patrol: they’re active too). Both teams told me to report the crime on 101.
I rang for about 10 minutes, then took an incoming call & tried again. 33 minutes later I got through to a helpful woman who gave me an incident number and suggested I look on Facebook Market in case the bike was there.
Exactly a week later I got a text from the Police with a crime number.
How does this stack up? In many ways pretty well. Partly because the theft was in the city centre early on a Fri eve, CPOs and PCSOs were physically close to the scene of the crime: and I had the advantage of knowing them. They cd not have been more helpful (and the former had witnessed me tying up the bike 3 hours earlier).
Would everyone get the same service? I had several messages (and saw others on FB) from Abbeymead earlier this year from constituents who claimed the police had said they were too busy to log (or do anything about) bike thefts - and I suspect these bikes were a lot more valuable than mine (at least in cash terms). I can’t be sure, and welcome short comments.
Having a bike stolen is not the end of the world and although I’ve only had Trek for a few months, Cherry & White hasn’t been stolen in 13 years so I don’t buy the line that every bike gets instantly stolen in Gloucester.
But I am left wondering a few things:
1. How long is reasonable to wait when dialling 101? Is 33 minutes normal? What is the ‘service target’ of how long we should expect to wait for a reply? Are resources increased at peak times?
2. How long should a crime incident number take to be texted to you? Is a week normal? Again is there a service target and if so what is it?
3. How many recorded bike thefts a year in Gloucester are there and what patterns are there? (Has anyone done a mapping exercise?) Have patrols been increased to the areas of highest theft?
4. How effective is registering a bike? What % of stolen bikes are recovered in total and for registered bikes (in our city)?
5. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, are all thefts of bikes registered as theft and given crime numbers? Or are some just given incident numbers, and if so what’s the breakdown of the two and why the different treatment: is there a danger of crime being under reported?
6. How well known in Gloucester is the difference between an incident and a crime number and do 101 handlers explain the difference?
6. Without ‘service targets’ how can the efficiency of any crime reporting service be measured?
7. If such targets and reports exist, does the Chief Constable provide the PCC with the details: and are such reports automatically generated to include stats on eg how many calls are not answered because the caller was not prepared to wait for 33 minutes and just gave up?
8. What has the PCC agreed with the Chief Constable on such targets for crime reporting for 2020 and for 2021?
And there’s one more issue.
The core answer to my recent questions on the PCC’s failure to bid for the Safer Streets Fund was that it didn’t apply to Gloucestershire because the County was too safe. In fact the latest stats tell us that Gloucestershire is not (as the Dep PCC originally claimed) the 3rd safest county: we are the fifth safest ‘area’, meaning the 8th or 9th safest county. And for residential burglaries our county is the worst in the SW Region. Which implies that more should be done to drive residential crime down: and bike thefts from homes (not lamp posts) may be part of that increase. Are they?
To summarise - my bike being stolen is completely irrelevant, except in one way: it has made me report a crime myself. I now want to know more about what service my constituents should expect, and what improvements, if need be, are being planned.
So I’ll mail these questions to our Chief and our PCC, and meanwhile let me know about your experience (factually please and no abuse of anyone or anything).
Meanwhile am offering £15 to anyone who can return Trek to me: here’s what she looks like (slightly fuzzy). No mudguard.
Tracy Millard
Sorry to hear this Richard. Several months ago husbands car got broken into on the drive. Have to say response from police was very quick, within 15 mins were at house with dogs on trail. Unfortunately nothing came of it, even though we had footage and the police indicated they had a lead.
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David Osano
Hello Richard Graham saddened to read you have lost Trek and indeed as unfortunate as it may be , it helps to highlight the services for which subscribe to ie policing. I believe there is a case to be made with regards to reviewing incident and crime numbers and unfortunately not many in the public domain will the the difference and the impact of incorrect reporting. That being said , wouldn’t this be attributed to the Chief and the PCC directive in how crime is reported ? It will be interesting to see what an FOI request says about crime reposting and classification. Hope you do find Trek soon though 👌🏽
3 d
Lee Dopson
Evening Richard. Funny you mention Abbeymead in your post. Not totally bike related, but Abbeymead, a ‘nice area’, is going through some real trouble at the moment and your constituent’s quotes seems only too common. As we’re not the City Centre we don’t seem to have those visible patrols. Short of the blue lights racing along Abbeymead Avenue that is!
Cars, garages, homes are being broken into nightly. Most have clear CCTV of the perpetrators and they don’t seem to venture far as they’ll be back the next night, a couple of streets further along. Any nighttime patrol, with the CCTV image/description of these people would, I suspect, very quickly pick them up and bring them to justice. But currently it feels like we’re allowing these people easy pickings.
Sorry to hear about your bike. Take care.
3 d
Justin Hudson
Sorry to hear this Boss! I reported a hate crime one month ago !! Still awaiting one response from the Police! 🤷🏻♂️, todate - NOTHING.
I’m an avid advocate of our Police - but I do question a month wait - 💭💭
3 d
Dawn Dolphin
I tried to report an incident on Monday evening the first time at 8.15 lasting for 35 minutes. The second time at 8.57 lasting 28 minutes. Neither call was answered. As it was this incident escalated and needed a 999 call which was made by someone else which is why I hung up the second time.
3 d
Nick Tucker
Of course, if YOUR government hadn't cut police budgets to the bone then the service you received may have been different. YOU were in a position to prevent the cuts, YOU did nothing.
1 h
James Frizzle
Nick Tucker This.
46 m
Lorraine Stephens
Please let us know how you get on with your questions to the Chief and the PCC, would be interesting to see what answers you receive.
1 d
Tom Carter
That moment when somebody who got into politics to gorge on expenses and help his friends avoid taxes realises what he was supposed to be doing all along...
This might surprise you but public services need money
I wouldn’t recommend a stint in Q.I.
33 m
Mohamed Ginwalla
Well said I have few story tell but would like to meet u Graham please and also Mr Surl u all have my numbers its same for last 20 years
3 d
James Thomas
This is the only pic I have with my fishing kit on it.
Nice to meet you in town today👍
12 h
Mohamed Ginwalla
So Emma u gave up what imprison u got ?
3 d
James Thomas
Hi Richard this has been a strange day for me today!.We briefly spoke today in town outside boots when you ask me and my friend to look after cherry and white as you went into boots.
I had just locked my bike up before hand sadly after a long visit in town I came back this evening to a chopped pad lock on the floor gutted to say the least.
It there is any knowledge or advice you could give me it would be greatly appreciated
Regards James
Image may contain: bicycle
12 h
Ben Archer
It's almost like reducing police numbers to 1986 levels was a bad idea or something? 20,600 less officers in 5 years.
That drop of 20,600 represented a 14% fall since 2010. After accounting for the growth in population, the number of police officers per person fell by 19%.
From 2010 onwards Teresa May launched a war on the Police, you were elected in 2010 so I assume you must have noticed this.
Whether you were in a position to do anything about it is another matter; but it remains a fact that it happened on your watch.
While increased police recruitment is something to the current administrations credit, numbers are still nowhere near what they once were.
As at 31 March of this year, there were 129,110 full-time equivalent (FTE) officers were in post across the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales (source ONS).
So even with the recent increases, that is still over 11,000 fewer officers than there were in 2010 (and quite a large percentage of that new number are still in probation or training).
Even with the increase, thats still over 250 fewer officers per force...and for more rural forces like Gloucester, even more so as additional funding has disproportionately leaned towards the Met and other forces.
If you want to do something productive, maybe more time lobbying your colleagues to get police numbers back up to where they were, and less time writing to chiefs who are trying to do far more work, with far less resources, would be a better way forward.
Image may contain: text that says "Police officers: how many are there? Full time equivalent police officers at 31 March 1977 to 2018 in England and Wales* 160,000 140,000 120,000 100,000 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 *excudes transport police, those on econdm leave 2000 2005 2010 2015 career breaks or maternity/paternity Source:Home Source: Office, Police Workforce, England and Wales, 31 March 2018: tables, table S1: and House of Comons ibrary Research Paper 01/28, Police Service Strength (2001) ulILEact"
1 h
Dominic Britt
Laughable - most people who have bikes nicked never see them again - the Police, you see, have to prioritise what they attend to because you clowns have cut their budgets to the bone.
You’ve also done away community officers who used to lease with communities to protect the vulnerable and reduce petty crime.
For a £25 bike... I’m surprised you weren’t charged with wasting police time. Do you actually ride it or is it a hollow gesture to get onside with your half-witted Prime Minister?
4 h
Rob John
Mr Graham,
I think a good course of action would be to investigate the damage your government has done since coming into power to your local force.
Then, with this knowledge, assess what little impact on your life having to wait a week for a crime number for a non-emergency matter compared to the hundreds of officers under immense strain to keep your constituents safe with little-to-no help from your fellow party members and indeed PM.
1 h
Emma Wicks
My husband and I both tried to report anti social behaviour at the playground near our house (a group of teenagers, making a lot of noise and breaking glass). We tried 101 a few times (between 8 and 10pm), waiting at least ten minutes each time, but our calls weren't answered. It doesn't seem good enough really.
3 d
Darrell Taylor
I've had 3 mountain bikes stolen over the years in Gloucester and it does make you angry. These days i don't cycle into town, instead I pay £4 on the bus. My bike cost £400 and it's not worth the risk.
21 h
Louise Proud
1 d · Edited
Helen Heaven
£15 reward?? 😂
4 h
