LOSING CONTACT

FURTHER to the article on page 8 of the Rossendale Free Press 22nd January 2021 (‘Welcome review of contact with police’, The Rossendale Scribbler) with reference to making Police officers more accessible, I offer my recent experiences.

A few days after Christmas I reported an incident to Rossendale Police.

To do this I went online and used the Lancashire Constabulary, contact a local officer page and received a reference number.

Over two weeks went by and I received no response so I tried again.

This time I attempted to send a full report, however this did not work because when I pasted my report into the Police form it stated some characters were unacceptable.

This list included a bracket sign and the word “and” so I tried to cut back the report size but it was still not accepted and therefore the report could not be sent.

Getting more frustrated I decided to send an email on the 17th January and quoted my previous attempts and the reference number.

I then received an email back from the Police saying they did not recognise the previous reference number they had given me.

On the 19th January I was asked in another email if I had contacted a local factory to look at CCTV footage.

Personally, I do not see it as my task to do police work, but maybe I’m wrong.

On the 20th January I received another Police email to say that CCTV that captures the alleged offence would be needed and it appeared it would not.

I have not heard anything more from the Police at the time of writing.

I will be very upset if part of my increasing Council tax bill says that the Police need another 5% to pay for their ever decreasing services.

Indeed, given all the reductions in Police numbers and effectiveness I think a refund might be needed.

A final question – Was policing more effective when we had local Police Stations in the days before internet reporting, unacceptable characters and CCTV?

R C Barker

Stacksteads motion to give greater support to those in most demanding social need. Tony Chilton

Bacup