Rules, Rules and More Rules

 

One problem with the Police is all the petty rules. Remove a lot and we’d get a much more efficient and visible service.

Take yesterday. I have been plagued for the last few days, by nuisance calls on my mobile phone. Nothing serious, but a lot of noise, like a party, from a hidden number lasting for six or so seconds. I suspected it could be a boiler room trying to sell me dodgy shares.

So I phoned my mobile phone company and asked them to act. They said they needed a complaint number from the Police, which I got quickly from Suffolk Constabulary with no problem. The mobile phone company, then said they couldn’t find out who was sending the calls and it was up to the Police. Privacy laws? Data Protection Act?

I didn’t bother to waste the Police’s time on this rather trivial matter. But surely we need simple procedures for everything, so that one call sorts it. Not endless toing and froing from one agency to another.

Internet based methods for the reporting of many matters would make things a lot easy for most people and the Police, but they’d probably ruin the crime statistics.