Sus*** PCSO refusing to deal with shoplifter

[Omegstrat6]

The video clip shown on the news from a member of the public challenging a PCSO as to why he won't attend an incident is pretty disgusting. Yes, he is a PCSO and not a fully trained officer but what is the point of having PCSOs then ? Yet another story to erode the public's faith in the police force.

I do appreciate that the force is under funded, it's officers facing difficult and sometimes dangerous situations and that there are likely very many good officers as well as the minority racist/***ist ones that appear too regularly in the press but clearly something is badly wrong.

A few years back I was a warehouse manager and I came back from lunch to find an altercation between a wagon driver and someone who was parked outside our back gate blocking his way. The unit was opposite a football ground and it was match day so a few coppers about. The guy who refused to move his car had a blue badge. I too have a blue badge for my son's needs so I know it does not mean you can simply park any where and the bloke was being a knob. He was causing an obstruction and parked illegally. The wagon driver was getting irate and threatening to drive through him (and he would have!) but the police officers (who looked about 12) wanted nothing to do with it. It was not a public highway and they were on match duty only! I deliberately took a note of their numbers and informed them that the wagon driver was going to drive through this blokes car (as he was refusing to move despite being illegally parked) and that I wondered how their desk sergeant would view the situation when informed of their refusal to prevent this by simply telling the driver to move his vehicle. Red faces all around and they got the driver to move. Used to know a few coppers in the past and could never have seen his sort of thing then.

[Joy_Division]

I was parked on a pay and display once in the 80's and while at work in Birmingham I got a call that required me to go home asap as one of my kids was ill. When I got to my car some inconsiderate tw*t had illegally parked in front of me preventing me from getting out of my legitimate parking spot. In desperation I ran up to Steelhouse Lane police and told them my dilemma and could they help. To be fair they got a huge bunch of keys and took me in a car down to the carpark. They tried a few keys and managed to open the parked car. We pushed it out of the way and I drove out on to the road. I got out of the car to thank them for their help and they said would i help them to push the car back into its original position again blocking the legitimate spot as they should not legally have touched the offending car. They then locked the car back up and drove off. Bloody ridiculous.

[mickd1961]

I was parked on a pay and display once in the 80's and while at work in Birmingham I got a call that required me to go home asap as one of my kids was ill. When I got to my car some inconsiderate tw*t had illegally parked in front of me preventing me from getting out of my legitimate parking spot. In desperation I ran up to Steelhouse Lane police and told them my dilemma and could they help. To be fair they got a huge bunch of keys and took me in a car down to the carpark. They tried a few keys and managed to open the parked car. We pushed it out of the way and I drove out on to the road. I got out of the car to thank them for their help and they said would i help them to push the car back into its original position again blocking the legitimate spot as they should not legally have touched the offending car. They then locked the car back up and drove off. Bloody ridiculous.

You shouldn’t complain, you wouldn’t get that level of service these days Joy!

[Joy_Division]

You shouldn’t complain, you wouldn’t get that level of service these days Joy!

No I agree I was not complaining and I was very grateful for the assistance it was the stupid fact that they should not have helped me in the first place by moving the car.