Staffordshire police spend just 13 per cent of time on the beat

“I didn't realize they spent that much time out there. The only police I've seen in 15 years have either been PCSO's on the beat (next to useless and expensive too) or real policemen showing up to some traffic-related incident.”

“Anyone who is the victim of crime and doesn't report it is an idiot.

Personally I think it's a myth that people don't bother to report crimes. If you don't report it then you can't make an insurance claim. Who can afford not to claim after they've been burgled?

A while back my mother-in-law's garage was burgled. I called the police on her behalf, spent ten minutes giving the call taker the details and an hour later a scenes of crime officer came out to check for evidence. Did this need a police officer to attend with blue lights and sirens? Of course not, but respond they did in an appropriate manner for what had happened.

Call the police if you need to. If you don't get the response you think you deserve then complain. We complain about supermarkets, holiday companies, on-line retailers etc. etc. quite readily; but when it comes to complaining about the police we do it to the local paper.

If we are accepting of poor service then we deserve to continue receiving it.”

“Patricia_62 - too sensible for most.”

“Crime is down because officers focus on those who are responsible for the most crime. A small percent of known criminals are responsible for a large amount of crime, and if those people are dealt with enough times then crime will naturally fall. Beat work is a relic of the past and only serves to reassure a few, but if you think about it, other than reassurance it achieves very little. Sophisticated targeting of high risk criminals committing those crimes most devastating to the community is the way forward in this century along with forensic work which we are renowned for in this country to ensure those that used to escape justice no longer do. That, coupled with the massive responding commitment ties the police up sufficiently to justify low beat figures. Dixon has gone. Now, there were no mobile phones in Dock Green this headline is lazy reporting in my view, a quick stir which the majority of you have exposed yourselves to. We should be proud of our police the vast majority of which deeply care about the community they serve. The rest of the world envy our police who manage the community by engagement and not threat.

I have friends in the job who reflect this statement.”

“So you want more Bobbies on the beat to cut crime. The officer comes across a burglar gives chase, burglar hops in his get away car, what do you want the officer to do - blow his whistle? You see a burglar breaking in so call the police how long do you think the response will take for a walking beat officer to get there? Officers don't have a small patch to cover, it just isn't possible for them to cover it on foot. Where there are periods of high police presence in an area, it just moves to crime to somewhere else, it doesn't stop the low life conducting their business. Crime is falling because successive government change the counting mechanism and tie up officers processing crime with a baffling amount of red tape. This has to be completed so criminals can't get off on technicalities because the correct form wasn't complete in triplicate and duplicated on 4 different forms.”

“£46994-80p weekly to keep an officer on the beat is ludicrous 10 times more chiefs than indians lol just more snouts in the trough all funded by the tax payer DISGUSTING”

“Instead of having less on the beat, they ought to have more. They ought to have a pair patrolling the more troublesome areas of the city
The city is riddled with crime, and a lot of it in my opinion is the lack of police officers you see, if more were seen on the streets in my opinion the crime level would drop.
Im not saying set lots more police on, as obviously its abut cost cutting, but perhaps they could do a rota based thing.
Places where burglaries occur would drop, places where drug dealing takes place on the streets would drop, the places where youths gather and intimidate people could be dispersed more often.
And if the force think its going to cost a lot more to have to give a bit of overtime, or pay the wages of a few beat bobbies, we surely if the beat bobbies saw people committing crimes they could radio it in, when it goes to court, him the criminals hard in the pocket and this could pay the wages of the beat bobbies.
This also would make the city a lot safer place, and a lot of people who dare not go out after dark would be able to start doing so again knowing a couple of bobbies wouldn't be far away, isn't the fact of making the city a safer place worth paying the extra bit of wage bill.
this is just my opinion, I know in the real world it wont work, but if I was the person who decides where cuts should be made I wouldn't make it on bobbies on the beat..”

“Is anyone surprised by this?????????????? I continually despair because absolutely NO ONE in authority has any intention whatsoever of doing anything about it. "Crime is going down by more than 20% per year", is it any wonder that stupid & totally incorrect stats like this are pumped out when the reality is, it's going down for one reason only, police are ignoring the public who report it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Crime is soaring & this can be witnessed daily everywhere but, if one out of ten is recorded then hey presto! It's falling! Just gets worse & honest poor people suffer, plus the elderly and less able. God help us,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,”

“Yes. I have.”

“"Armchair critics if we demand they do the job WE pay them for!"

Do you know what the job is that they do? Have you ever put yourself in danger in public service?”