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[mythoughts]

http://www.whtimes.co.uk/content/whtimes/news/story.aspx?brand=WHTOnline&category=News&tBrand=HertsCambsOnline&tCategory=newslatestWHT&itemid=WEED28%20Mar%202008%2009%3A40%3A41%3A447

A GIRL was allegedly sprayed in the face during an attack last night.

Police closed off Stanborough Road in WGC at 10.40pm on Thursday while they searched the area for weapons.

[Mighty Hatfield]

no i dont think so. i think possibly the number of petty (and by that i mean no hospital stay required) attacks are up, or percieved to be up, due to people now reporting everything, whereas in the past phoning the police was possibly more of a big thing.

But i definately think that these sorts of crimes are now commited by and upon, increasingly younger age groups. They seem only too ready to stamp on someones head or knife them in the back, and thats just not cricket.

[Lid]

When I did report two girls that were putting kitchen knives in the road, to try and burst car tyres, and took photos from my window - I got told that I could get in trouble for taking photographs of young children and to be careful. To be fair, they did go off to speak to the parents and I didn't get in trouble from the police or the parents/kids.

Whilst obviously I agree children should be protected, that kind of statement from the police is ridiculous. As long as you haven’t taken lots of close up shots of one or two specific children in particular, then you have done nothing wrong. Indeed there are no laws in the UK stopping you from taking such photographs, although sometimes there are private regulations that prevent this, such as in council facilities.

I once had one policeman tell me that taking photos and videos could infringe the human rights of the subjects, only to be requested later by another policewoman to take my own pictures of incidents involving youngsters! And anyway what about all CCTV the cameras? Incidentally if you want to privately ask someone to simply review the CCTV footage of a serious incident, it is nigh on impossible (believe me, I tried)! And yet who pays for this technology?

[mythoughts]

Where was that quote from Lid...it's not in this thread?

[Lid]

It seems we had technical issue with a maintenance routine on the forum earlier today and a couple of posts were lost. I believe I have got them back now, apart from one from which this quote came from. I have PM'd the author and asked them to repost it.

[jonmorris]

(I'm going a bit off topic, and can't remember exactly what I posted earlier - except to say that I believe less people bother to report things to the police these days).

In relation to me being told off for taking photos, there's an ad in the paper at the moment telling us that anyone taking photographs out and about is a potential terrorist (you couldn't make this up). Obviously they're not going to round up tourists, but are we to seriously believe that taking a photograph of a building, a car, a railway train or whatever could mean you're out scoping for a potential terror campaign?

Of course terrorists possibly DO take photos to do research and many might also use more than one mobile phone, but how dare the Government attempt to brainwash the public into thinking that everyone else could be a terrorist. I don't really fancy being reported to the police when someone sees me making a call on one phone, while checking email on my BlackBerry - and I take photos in public all time time as a journalist. I have an authorised press card that the police can check, but I already get enough grief from supposed experts that say I can't take photos in public (all wrong, I might add). Now I'm going to be arrested under the prevention of terrorism act!

Anyway, sorry for wandering off topic.

[Lid]

Photography is one of my main hobbies and I take loads of photos in public places with a large camera and flash, so I agree with your concerns. Why should we have to feel persecuted while trying to enjoy a perfectly legitimate pastime?

[pjb]

Photography is one of my main hobbies and I take loads of photos in public places with a large camera and flash, so I agree with your concerns. Why should we have to feel persecuted while trying to enjoy a perfectly legitimate pastime?

Because people in power have realised that the best way to increase their power is to scare us all into believing that we are in terrrible danger, by telling us things like: there are lots of terrorists/paedophiles out there. 

Then they tell us: but don't worry, we'll keep you safe.  As long as you give up ever more rights and allow yourself to be treated even more like children instead of responsible, self-actualising adults.  (Obviously not in those exact words.)

And far too many people fall for it.

[LUKE]

Ive seen first hand just how voilent things are getting and its on the increase because everyone knows the police dont do anything
they just want to drive about in the safety of their cars because most of the time they are outnumberd or just cant be arsed to do anything
and most are just about to uphold traffic laws so they can screw some fine money for the council

[AL9]

I would be almost certain that while more crime is being reported in total, the willingness to report crime - based on the likely outcomes. ie no investigation, or no arrest, or no prosecution etc - mean that a larger percentage of crime is unreported.

So, more crime is being reported but more than ever is not.

[Shaun]

The Chuds come out after dark................

[mythoughts]

http://www.harlowherald.co.uk/content/hlwherald/news/story.aspx?brand=HLHOnline&category=NewsHarlow&tBrand=HertsCambsOnline&tCategory=newslatestHLH&itemid=WEED08%20Apr%202008%2015%3A10%3A13%3A203

[shapps]

I met with Hertfordshire Chief Constable Frank Whitely yesterday and he showed me some graphs which are supposed to show how people view crime in Welwyn Hatfield.

The upshot was that Hertfordshire and Welwyn Hatfield remains well above average for the country in terms of actual crime, but that people's perception of crime is much higher than the reality. All of the indicators bar one showed an improvement in people's perception of crime too.

One interesting find is that people don't feel that car break ins are a real problem locally. Out of the 7 other constabularies which are deemed to be comparisons to Welwyn Hatfield, we apparently worry the least about our cars being broken into. But what makes this interesting is that our car crime is not unusually low. It's just that the perception of car crime is lower here than elsewhere.

These are all figures will all be available in detail on their website next week:
http://www.herts.police.uk/

... and no doubt here, the Welwyn Hatfield Times, etc.

Grant.

[mythoughts]

I met with Hertfordshire Chief Constable Frank Whitely yesterday and he showed me some graphs which are supposed to show how people view crime in Welwyn Hatfield.

The upshot was that Hertfordshire and Welwyn Hatfield remains well above average for the country in terms of actual crime, but that people's perception of crime is much higher than the reality. All of the indicators bar one showed an improvement in people's perception of crime too.

One interesting find is that people don't feel that car break ins are a real problem locally. Out of the 7 other constabularies which are deemed to be comparisons to Welwyn Hatfield, we apparently worry the least about our cars being broken into. But what makes this interesting is that our car crime is not unusually low. It's just that the perception of car crime is lower here than elsewhere.

These are all figures will all be available in detail on their website next week:
http://www.herts.police.uk/

This is really, really bad news...we are above average for actual crime and people feel it's even worse than it actually is....how bad can it get? Also Grant, people aren't bothering to report crime anymore (as I'm sure you're aware)... perhaps because it impacts negatively on house prices? I'm sure everyone knows someone that hasn't bothered to call the police even though they have cast-iron evidence of criminal activity...it's a UK trend...even when people have been killed witnesses keep quiet.

[Broadside]

Grant,
I wonder if those crime stats, in Hatfield's case, would be higher if CCTV's were installed in the town centre to monitor the constant vandalism that shop keepers constantly bemoan ?