‘Our government has destroyed our police’

• WE’RE on our own, it is now clear we have been abandoned, left unprotected, finally.

Our government has destroyed our police. They have slashed officer numbers, cars and support vehicles, and forced the closure and sell off of the majority of our local police stations.

In West Hampstead over this past year we can now see the results; weekly burglaries at shops and homes; out of control moped gangs; weekly vandalism and car break-in thefts; endless anti-social behaviour.

I have tried to recently use the pointless 101 service. It is clearly just a PR exercise, ironically named after George Orwell’s famous room that contains our greatest fears. In this case it is the confirmed fear that the police no longer answer the phone.

You are greeted by a pleasant voice immediately telling you that there will be a “significant” wait. Having tried it for over a week around 10 at night to repeatedly report regular anti-social behaviour I can attest that “significant” wait is generally around 35 minutes-plus on hold.

I only got through once (40 minutes’ wait) where a weary PC took my information and hinted that nothing would actually happen other than my report would be logged. I have now given up calling as every night this past week the phone now simply rings way over 30 minutes.

Last week I even stopped two of the neighbourhood support officers who I have actually only seen once this year. I gave them my details. I emailed them. Nothing. They gave me a nice smile though.

There simply aren’t enough police and resources any more. The Met themselves even famously hinted they had “low prioritised” what they termed “small crime” or green-lighting the complete breakdown of public order and safety as it is more commonly known.

The fault lies completely at the feet of this uncaring government. I have always believed in the “broken window” policy of policing. Show criminals that every small crime will be chased up. They will be chased and caught.

Be visible. Let the public see their police force is among them and ready to catch petty wrongdoers and criminals. Instead we can now access our police by email or Twitter.

The police are financially broke, under-resourced, demoralised, unavailable, invisible. The thin blue line has snapped.

I’d hate to call 999. I’m guessing you’ll get directed to FaceTime or WhatsApp with the one remaining detective who has been given an Uber account and an iPad (service not available bank holidays, weekends, night-time).

Logging crime is now the norm. As is doing nothing about it. We are on our own.

PHIL RYAN
Agamemnon Road, NW6