The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Victim support should be more than a website
It wasn’t the best week Peterborough police have ever had. Two stories figured prominently on the city’s news agenda. Firstly, there was the shocking incident atMcDonald’s in Hampton where a five-year-old boy was left injured and traumatised after being attacked by an older girl believed to be suffering from autism.
Then there was the case of Ricky Nash, a visitor to our city, who was driving along a city centre road one morning with his young family when their car was shot at.
What links these stories is that the police response, to what appear to be significant crimes, has left the victims dissatisfied.
Mum Jessica Collins said she felt her son was being failed and that there was no justice for him.
Meanwhile,Mr Nash, who tackled the gunman himself, said simply: “I don’t think the police have done enough.’’
I agree with both these victims of crime.
But both incidents smack of a lack of resources, or to be more specific, not enough police officers.
You don’t have to be Hercule Poirot to realise the McDonald’s incident is likely to be a complicated and time-intensive investigation with limited likelihood of a conviction.
Normally, any report of a gun sends the armed response unit hurtling to the scene. A few years back they even swooped on a car in Peterborough in which a child passenger had a toy gun.
I don’t blame the police for that – better safe than sorry – but it does indicate what sort of response a suspected firearm incident should get - and clearly didn’t in Mr Nash’s case.
A few months ago, police and crime commissioner Jason Ablewhite implemented an average £12 increase in our council tax to pay for 55 more officers. It doesn’t seem to be enough.
I am in awe of the rank and file police officers and the job they do facing terrible situations and sometimes terrible people.
But, I am more and more disillusioned by the politicians and the career senior police officers.
Do they have the will and the competence to deliver a service anywhere near to what the public wants?
Ironically, in the same edition of the Peterborough Telegraph which featured the stories of frustrated victims of crime, there was news of a new initiative from Mr Ablewhite.
He revealed the launch of a new website which “provides victims and witnesses with clear and simple information about available support and how to access it, whatever the crime.’’
I don’t presume to speak for Ms Collins and Mr Nash, but I’d risk a few bob and bet they don’t want a website telling them how to “access support’’.
What I suspect they want, like most of the rest of us, is for incidents to be properly and promptly investigated by a living, breathing, police officer.