‘People are arrested for tweets yet you never see a police officer’

Telegraph readers feel abandoned by police whose priorities seem focused on policing speech

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Police forces have been failing to properly investigate incidents of petty crime, violent crime and burglaries perpetrated against Telegraph readers.
They have been accused of wasting valuable resources by investigating social media posts for alleged hateful comments, instead of properly tackling local crime.
The criticism has come following the controversial investigation by Essex Police into Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson for a historical tweet she deleted over a year ago.
Now, Telegraph readers have shared their own experiences of being the victims of crime and feeling abandoned by police whose priorities seem focused on policing speech.
Gregory Archer, 77, is a retired solicitor who lives in rural Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire on an old farmstead with his wife.
He had a ride-on mower stolen from his barn two years ago. At the same time, a neighbouring yard had a trailer stolen.
“They came across a field. They broke down two fences, one of which was a post and wire fence, and then another locked gate with a chain. So they knew what they were after, they had to cross tertiary fields to get to us and they left tyre tracks.”
Days earlier Mr Archer noticed a drone being flown over his property which he subsequently suspected was being used to scout the area.
Mr Archer reported the theft to the local police when he saw the mower was missing, to which he received the response: “Your crime has been reviewed and there are no lines of enquiry. It will now be closed.”
“They hadn’t bothered to speak to me. They hadn’t bothered to come out to get to us,” Mr Archer remarked.
“One would have thought that they might want to take a shot of the track to see if they could work out what type of vehicle they [the burglars] used.
“We also found a discarded packet near the route that they took, from which some overalls had been taken out… but they took absolutely no notice or interest whatsoever.”
For over 50 years, Mr Archer had run his solicitor’s practice where he served his local community. When he required assistance from the police, he felt they were not there for him.
He said: “I was a working member of the legal profession so I tried to uphold law and order. When you need help, and when you’re being burgled in this way, I would like to think that you will get some help and assistance from the police.”
He expressed how he felt “let down.”
Referring to The Telegraph journalist Allison Pearson receiving a visit from Essex Police investigating a tweet, Mr Archer voiced: “It’s out of all proportion isn’t it really?”
“People can be so easily offended these days. From the rough and tumble of my school days, someone called you something they shouldn’t do, you most likely laughed it off.
“But people can take offence very easily, maybe rightly or maybe wrongly, so they just call up the police and say, ‘I’m offended by this remark that someone’s made’ and the police look at it, look into it, and take the trouble to send two policemen out to someone’s house on a Sunday morning.”
Mr Archer shared his view on why the police appear to be prioritising responding to offensive social media posts over criminal acts, which he believes to stem from the Southport riots.
Reader Philip Barden had a harrowing experience involving a violent robbery.
Recalling the memory he said: “I was knocked off my bike by muggers on two mopeds. I was threatened with a taser and my watch was stolen.” Despite calling 999 immediately following the incident, Mr Barden said the police were of no help.
“When I dialled 999, I was told no action would be taken as the mugger had left.” Mr Barden said that if the police acted quickly, the muggers could have been caught. Sadly, just a few days later he was informed that the case had been closed.
Expressing his frustration with the police he said: “The fact that people are arrested for tweets and you never see a police officer demonstrates the increasing gap between public sector service providers and the public who are being let down in policing, health, education and most importantly politics.”
Mr Barden has lost faith in the police’s ability to tackle actual crime and calls for the current police services to be disbanded.
Like Mr Barden, another reader said the “completely useless” police closed the case of his stolen vehicle nearly immediately after it was reported.
“Our car was stolen earlier this year and the police closed the case the same day, obviously without actually doing anything. We then had to chase them up to reply to the insurance company, who couldn’t pay out without the police’s reply to their queries,” the reader shared.
For Terry Bull, a break in at his home left him utterly shocked by what he described as the police force’s ineptitude. He recalled ringing the police to report the crime and the officers caring so little they didn’t even bother to send anyone down to investigate or dust for fingerprints.
When Mr Bull questioned it, he claimed the officer on the other end of the line said: “Why [would we take fingerprints]? Was anyone murdered?”
Charles Sinclair was the victim of a substantial online theft to the tune of £100,000. The police’s inability to act left him on the verge of a breakdown.
He said: “It took three months before I even saw a policeman, who then spent two hours giving me every excuse under the sun as to why the criminals were too clever.”
Police officers suggested that Charles should accept his loss and move on. This distressing experience was the straw that nearly broke the camel’s back and convinced him that there is no real law enforcement in Britain anymore.
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