What's wrong with community policing?

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
well looks like my boy and his idea of the Brown Panthers might be the only alternative to the police...

maybe in a couple years, i'll get me a gun and we can chase out the criminals.

[Urban Ranger]

The problem is not with the police but with existing policies. For example, once you make drugs legal, most of these violent crimes would just vanish.

[Cruddy]

As I write this, a whole bunch of cops are staking out a local flat.

It seems they got a tip off about a drugs enforcer who had a gun... and when they went to arrest him, he pulled it out. So now there's like 200 cops, half of them tooled up, "segregating" one guy with a handgun.

Community policing in the UK is a political slogan. All too often the community cops get pulled off their beats to take up the slack elsewhere - especially in these times of "terrorist" alerts.

Personally, I'd like to see a 2 tier police force similar to France or the US - the local cops who know the area and the national cops who get assigned as trouble arises.

Shame it won't happen, but there you go.

[Kirnwaffen]

i'll get me a gun

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Cruddy
It seems they got a tip off about a drugs enforcer who had a gun... and when they went to arrest him, he pulled it out. So now there's like 200 cops, half of them tooled up, "segregating" one guy with a handgun.

You guys don't have anything like SWAT teams? Maybe the SAS is needed

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
D'oh. There's neighborhoods in LA where you don't want to go in anything less than a Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

martial law rocks

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


You guys don't have anything like SWAT teams? Maybe the SAS is needed

The official title for these police units is Tactical Support Groups. Essentially, they are ordinary police vehicles with a couple of MP-5 semis in the boot ("trunk" in US speak).

These cars are out on patrol every day. When there's a gun incident (mercifully, not every day in the UK) they concentrate on that one spot. Hence the reference to "half being tooled up to deal with 1 gun man".

The SAS are operationally limited in terms of law enforcement. The Home Office (boss of all police forces) has to hand operational control over to them. VERY rare - usually a case of political involvement. From what little evidence is out there, I understand that the operational troop is out on "exercise" every day of the year - just in case they're needed in a hurry. Very similar to the TSG behaviour.