The Policeman's Blog

The difference between now and the '70s is one of personal attitudes. People back then were more aware of their responsibilities within society, instead of merely honking about their rights. In the '70s, 'family' was the norm and people tended to have kids because they wanted them, rather than simply breeding because a) they're too drunk and stupid to take precautions or b) they want the benefits.
Yes, there was the three day week, Love Thy Neighbour and measles, but I'd still take it over this glorious Socialist paradise any day...
 

Poor foresight, planning and economical factors produced the sprawling grim architecture of Council estates, the new ghettos of a feral underclass. It is easy to categorize every family by their address and the mistake is one that residents are familiar with, having experienced prejudice from every other social group. The stigma that binds them together also makes it difficult for them to take on anything but the estate culture, or an acceptable veneer of it. Resentment of authority is de rigueur and by fitting in, middle class aspirations are subconsciously renounced. They hold their own Courts and mete out their own punishments. The decline has not yet reached the bottom and continues to spiral downwards through poor management and allocations policy. Before the bulldozer has consigned the worst estates to rubble, the bad elements of it have been decanted into a more desirable one. Instead of having a concentration of villains, the contamination is dispersed to a wider area. Rehousing problem tenants by deliberately sandwiching them between two decent ones, has been a disaster. What took time to develop as good community relations is destroyed rapidly by it. Police are left to tend to symptoms and cannot treat the disease itself. Housing Associations may hold the key by fragmenting these estates through innovative redevelopment. Probationary tenancies are inevitable but the question of where to house the worst tenants remains. With some justification, you can imagine internment camps although for sure, this commonsense solution would be impossible in the present political structure. The wise police officer is also in tune with very sensitive politics here and dangers open to misinterpretation of comments to the media.
 

I was a child of the 70s. Cost cutting national politics has failed communities moving them from self reliance to dependence. Worse still a lot of that dependence is upon centralised public services whose first priorities are the performance indicators they have to hit. What we need is for the removal of performance indicators and the culture of managerialism. Those at the sharp end: Constables, community nurses, teachers to be given the discretion and responsibility to make real decisions. Managers will need to let go. Politicians need to accept that the public services are not there to provide statistics to evidence how well their policies and initiatives appeal to a particular segment of the electorate . . . . . . . . I'm dreaming though . . . . . . . Sorry.
 

I'm often surprised at how often i visit the Childrens homes on our borough. The Kids there have a better standard of living than i do!

But what surprises me more is the amount of times i get called to a house where the children are upsetting their mum/dad/baby-father and they in turn tell me to take their child...

That is, just "take my kid, i cant deal with them anymore!" Not "can you talk to them please??" but just "Take them..."

Honestly, until Parents stop seeing their child as a fashion accessory and/or a way to get free housing and free money from the gov. then this will never end.

Peckham PC.

PS- a merlin for a missing kid, and all the enq. usually taken me and Hour+, and that includes hunting down the Insp. so that he can just nod that another 14year old has run away for the 20th time that month.

ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!
 

In the 70s Kane would have had a father in the house.

In the 70s his parents would smack him if he played up.

In the 70s it wouldn't occur to his older brother to call the police. when that happened

And in the 70s his parents would be arrested and held in the cells for 32 hours by West Mercia Police - for smacking their mouthy 10 year old (he told his mother to f*** off).

Nor in the 70s would Worcestershire Social Services put both the kids on the Child Protection Register (for 'emotional abuse' by the parents !)
 

Oh alright - "And in the 70s his parents would NOT be arrested and held in the cells for 32 hours by West Mercia Police"
 

Rubbish, of course it happened in the 70s, and back in Dickens' time too. But the difference was that the police just said to the family, "Well why should we look for your kid if you can't be bothered to", so no one searched for the child and let them come home of their own accord. Now, every missing child could be another chief inspector fired, so a risk-assessing process kicks in and everyone falls over themselves to cover their arse in case the unthinkable happens to the child while no one was bothering looking for them.
 

I can nly speak for 1977 on, but it sure as hell did happen then. Like PC Bloggs said, we just didn't bother that much if they were regulars. The parents soon caught on, and didn't bother reporting it.

In care homes, social services reported them missing because it was 'policy' but they didn't give much of a damn. Several times I have returned a 'child' after no small amount of effort and watched as the 'child' walked through the front door and out of the back, without a care worker making the slightest effort to stop them. I was immediately asked to catch and return said 'child' by staff. I would decline until the appropriate form was completed.
 

I have been to the house of child misper to find the parents both watching TV. When i asked them why they were not out looking for their son they thought i was being cheeky.
West Mids PC
 

In the seventies you had me and Raymondo sorting it all out then we got transported to the eighties and it all went t!ts up.
 

There are, in my area a disproportionate number of MFH reports in respect of children in council "care." Mostly it is girls who would prefer driving around in cars with older men with all the booze and drugs they need. All it costs is the sex.
There are some boys that go missing from care but they don't tend to put themselves in the same sort of danger.
I generalise, obviously but we spend a lot of time and effort in finding these girls and trying to intervene with the adults.
This is a chronic problem that is not going to get any better any time soon.
Council Care Oxymoron
 

I was stationed in a sub division where there were three children's homes, a mental health hospital and lots of 'care in the community' type hostels.
Most nights we had atleast six mispers on the go ranging from girls staying out late, 136 patients who climbed out of the window and care home children doing their own thing.It was down to a judgement call as to which ones should be taken seriously. At the end of the day they all had the potential to end badly, but we never had the resources to deal with even half of them properly, especially if it was a Friday or Saturday night. And what was particularly annoying was the fact that if the children's homes and hospital had been properly resourced, the mispers would not have gone missing in the first place.
 

I've had a spot of bother today, kids, coppers, cameras, cctv, and a big waste of police time!

Is it a problem of attitude? I.E. now vs 1970's?

I'd be interested in some views.
 

Re PC Bloggs' comments, things were not this bad in the 1970s.
Missing kids did happen, of course, and I agree that the police response was different then. But there were fewer broken homes and more powers to deal with kids who did go missing. Whereas now, the police (and the care home staff) can do absolutely nothing other than pander.
It truly is a mess, modern Britain.
 

I understand the frustration caused by all about the same kids going missing...
But, how does an illegal immigrant with a full beard and over 5'10" manage to convince the local authority they are only 15... Then be placed in a hotel/bed sit (foster carers) and go missing because they know they are going to be deported.
The pain about this is that No one has a photo, no real name, no passport, no ID, No clue, but as they are a minor and in the care of the local authority - let alone not touched by immigration (bearing in mind they have deeper voices than many of our immigration buddies)... Yet we still have to go through the motions, paperwork, checks, PNC, circulations knowing we will never find them, Now thats a waste of time!
 

It's about fathering.

Sorry, mums, but your role becomes increasingly less important as the young lad starts shaving. It's just a fact of biology.

We need fathers to be ... fathers.

I don't think you can legislate for that but we can all do something about it where we can - in our own homes - and try and influence attitudes informally.

In fact, it's not an exaggeration to say that the future of society depends on it.
 

"Did this happen years ago? In the 1970s, say?"

Yes. My Father was in the job 1953 to 1982, and myself from 1978 till 1981, when I went into the R.M.P.

Both my Father, and my time was mostly spent "Kiddy lost in Woolworths, can you find it", or with the local "Normal suspects" who went walk about on average 3 times per week.

But it was not just "youths", we had two old age pensioner nursing homes on my patch, and THEY were just as bad.

Bundesmarine Polizei.
 

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