Text a cop
 

It appears we've cracked it, our wonderful Home Secretary Jackboots Jacqui has announced a new way of reporting less serious crime (all crime is serious if your the victim) Instead of ringing 999 you should text 66101 and a police office will contact you within 24 hours, ya reght. Well there's one thing about our Jacqui, when she finishes in politics, she'll have a ready made job as a Stand Up Comedian:rolleyes:

Re: Text a cop
 

effen joke just phone vigilantes r us

Re: Text a cop
 

'The initiative, which is part of a new Home Office drive to make police forces more responsive and accountable, is meant to help people who might not be certain how to report minor crimes.
Its introduction follows the failure of the new non-emergency number 101, which was introduced in 2005 to ease pressure on the 999 system but abandoned two years later.'

Text 66101 for police instead of calling 999 - Telegraph

I fail to understand how if Joe Bloggs didn't grasp the telephone number to ring for 'minor crimes', and that that initiative failed, how the introduction of a similar text scheme will be more successful.

I can certainly think of more important ways the police could have perhaps used the £3.5 million poind budget the scheme's cost.

Re: Text a cop
 

life just gets stupider with these Dimwits who think they know how to help the oiks.:rolleyes:

Re: Text a cop
 

I have to say cashy that most of us oiks are far more intelligent than these planks, we can see it ain't going to work, yet when you live on cloud Cuckoo land must be very hard for them to understand the rudiments of real life:(

Re: Text a cop
 

Everyone knows you can access the police by dialling 999.

Perhaps the £3.5 million pounds that this scheme cost couild have been better invested in a system whereby the 999 operator directs a call to either an emergency or none emergency police response department. After all that's already done now, depending on which of the emergency services is required.

If your a vunerable person alone in your bed, and you think you hear someone breaking in to your house downstairs, you don't really consider whether what is about to happen may be a seriuous crime or not, or indeed feel like you want to start texting the none serious crime number if someone is only nicking your milk bottles.

Perhaps Jacqui Smith is losing touch with the reality of the world, aided by the fact that she has 24/7 police protection available.

Re: Text a cop
 

i can just imagine some of these texts they will get from kids, will take em more than 24 hours to decipher em.

Re: Text a cop
 

What about community police stations that are in place just to deal with non- emergency situations. Locals would then have the number to call their local station rather than 999

Re: Text a cop
 

So what about those, including the many elderly people, who don't have mobile phones? Yet another headline-catching gimmick from a gimmick-obsessed government. :mad:

Re: Text a cop
 

I'm guessign this is part of the bigger picture of community engagement and a couple of other directives public sector have targets on.

So for example, engaging the younger members of the community with a service that they are comfortable with, for say a bullying hotline, youth events, other advisory services.

It is also being launched with some councils for crisis management, such as unforseen school closures, strikes or closures etc.

We currently in Lancashire have running, an emergency services text service for those hard of hearing or speech impaired, so that they can key a keyword to a shortcode number, ie FIRE or POLICE, with an explanation of what is needed. A system then 'translates' that text into an email that is sent to the control room. They can in turn reply back, using email which is turned into text message for the user. A two way conversation can be had, using the recepients mobile phone.

More and more people are looking at communication via a mobile phone as a cost effective way of communication. Text messages are a hell of a lot cheaper than stamps, you can minimise paper usage and so the need to cut down scores of trees, and are more responsive (you dont have to ait half an hour to speak to an operator)

Be interesting to hear your thoughts....

Re: Text a cop
 

It's going to be a bit of a ****** if you need to report your mobile phone has been stolen :D

Re: Text a cop
 

to me it should be all about providing the public with the best possible service to report things n that is not it. are my thoughts onlyme.:)

Re: Text a cop
 

lol @ cashy and lancs

I think it depends on how they expect it to work. The scheme in lancs is an emergency service, the control room act straight away. Its been rolling for a few months and i believe it has been used 40 odd times already, not a huge amount, but its not a figure we'd want to be high.

As more people these days have access to a mobile phone than they do the internet, I think its a great way getting information across to people quickly and efficiently.

Re: Text a cop
 

The point is that the police don't respond now to 999 or 101 so why spend £3.5 million on another scheme when they don't respond to the ones already in place. This government is top heavy with gimmicks and clueless people putting them in place

Re: Text a cop
 

9-9-9

Ring, ring.

'Hello, what service do you require?'

'The police please, there's someone in my garden.'

'Please hold caller I'll just tansfer you to the right police department.'

Seems simple enough to me, though of course if people know it's a non-emergeency they should call the correct number themselves, but that's not always possible.

Re: Text a cop
 

nt sure f dis is srs r nt so txtn 2 say smn nikd me car big bloke wearin blk trakkis n bsbl cap wiv 2 m8s wrn blk tshirts lst sin em ediin dwn accy rd doin 60

*reply*
MI5 is currently searching for an enigma machine to decode your message!

Re: Text a cop
 

I don't see anything wrong with texting the police ..it dosent replace 999 so what's the problem?..the "grumpy old man" syndrome ..I mean any sort of new service is always ridiculed.

Re: Text a cop
 

Er...it's costing £3.5 million pounds, and it comes right after the last scheme, which cost a similarly large amount of money, has been proved not to have worked.

Re: Text a cop
 

£3.5 million?.. peanuts!... considering that most insurance companies require a reported crime number that you get by phoning up your local police station .. and then the police having to call you back with a crime number ..I don't see that as practical and sure its costs more than £3.5 million...you lot need to get in touch with progress and embrace new technology!

Re: Text a cop
 

Your blind one party loyalty is quite charming.

Everyone knows that if this had been the initiative of a Tory government it would be an effin' waste of money, and that it was Thatcher givin' more power to the effin' corrupt pigs who'd battered the miners, the effin' fascists.



:rolleyes::D

Re: Text a cop
 

I'm not blind..charming?... there are only two political parties that have governed this country in the last 90yrs... so you takes yer pick and run with it.

Re: Text a cop
 

technology is fine - if it works
modernisation is fine - if it works
progress is fine - if it works
however another hare brained scheme from the government that will not work on the back of another hare brained scheme which didn't work. methinks you need to embrace the fact that the greatest waste of government resources and taxpayers money IS THE GOVERNMENT.

Re: Text a cop
 

It's actually three, if you count the war time coalition government as not being one of those two major parties.

I look forward to the day where I'll read anything remotely like constructive criticism of the Labour party.:rolleyes:

In my opinion Jacqui Smiths and Hazel Blears, and quite a few of the former Blair Babes are idiots, and Bessie Bradock and Barbara Castle would wipe the floor with them.:)

Re: Text a cop
 

:D..yes.. I will embrace that!

Re: Text a cop
 

I know that this new service will be intended for incidents of a less serious nature, but does anyone know if there is an SMS service available for serious situations?

I was wondering about this the other day actually in one of my staring into space mind-tangents.
Can people send a text to 999 requesting police assistance if they are in immediate danger?

I'll make a 'for instance'. If a girl is being followed, she puts herself at risk by making a call, as putting the phone to her ear makes her less aware of the movements/actions of person behind her. Being able to discreetly send a text message (as most of my generation are well trained in from classroom disobedience) would solve the problem.

Sorry if this is seen as a thread wander.

Re: Text a cop
 

As stated previously, yes there is an emergency service that you text. Primarily used for hearing and speech impaired, but can be used in examples such as this.

Lancs Police and Fire & Rescue have this service, and it has been use, tested and proved sucessful.

I think its a cracking idea to proactively encourage community engagement. We dont kick off about initiatives using websites, and more people have access to a mobile phone that they do the internet.

Re: Text a cop
 

If you are too stupid to be able to look up Police in the Phone book or at www.bt.com you are probably incapable of sending a text message anyway.

I wonder how much we are paying these idiots to think up these ideas. We have been reporting minor crime for years before mobile phones were even thought off.

I can't believe some people idea of non serious crime either. I was at a Neighbourhood Watch meeting the other week and they were talking about a group of youths that were fighting on a nearby street. Someone was saying the non emergency number was not being answered at Greenbank. I said that someone led on the floor with a group kicking him is a 999 call.

I have used 999 while on the motorway to report debris in the road as you don't know the local Police to phone when driving down the M6. They thanked me and said they would send a car to sort it out. When I told someone the story they thought I was wrong to phone 999 for that. the Police must have agreed with me that preventing a pile up was an emergency.

About a year a go I reported a car drifting from lane to lane on the motorway almost out of control. The driver was an elderly lady and she looked very unwell. About half an hour later the Police phoned me back to thank me for reporting it and to say she had been taken to hospital after they stopped her. That was a 999 call as well.

Re: Text a cop
 

I can see it as a good idea for people with speech and hearing difficulties but not for everyone else. When you phone the Police they ask you questions to help them determine what they need to do. I can't seeing it being as effective as talking to a person if it is done by text with a 24 hour turnaround. Its bad enough when you get the press 1 for this and 2 for than phone lines.

When did you last phone 999 and they did not respond?
Whenever you phone the Police and it is not an emergency type call always ask for the incident number. You can then call them back later to ask how they are progressing the issue. Also if the issue occurs again, phone back and quote the same incident number. Do not let them open a new incident.

Re: Text a cop
 

The idea of reporting a crime is for the Police to investigate and catch the criminal that stole your car. The idea is not to issue a number for your insurance company then put the phone down and flick the kettle on until they have to give someone else a number.

Re: Text a cop
 

But how many people in that situation would remember to give all the relevant details in the first text? They then have to wait for a reply to see if the Police got it or if the text system is having a go slow.

When you phone the Police you get trained staff who will ask questions to get the right information out of you instantly. They will also advise you what to do if you think you are being followed. the fact that someone following you hears you are speaking to the Police might actually deter them from doing anything. The silent text and slow text chat between the girl and the Police would not have that effect. I think she would also get the reassurance to know that she was talking to someone who could stay on the line while the Police arrive in the same way they do when you phone an Ambulance advising you how to look after the injured person.



I am not saying text is a complete waste of time. I think having a national emergency number and a separate national non emergency number like 101 is the best way. They should have stuck with it and promoted it more. Teach it to kids in school and make it a free to call from all phones like 999 is. I had never even heard of 101 until this thread.

Re: Text a cop
 

The thing is that the elderly, who probably need help from the police won't even have a mobile phone, when I say old I mean people in their 70s 80s an 90s. I know for a fact that if I'd have sad to my father if you have any problems text the police, he'd have thought that all my dogs weren't barking, not one for technology was my old man:D:rolleyes: