Cut-out cops are not the answer

Our chuckle of the weekend came as we entered Boston’s ASDA supermarket to be confronted by a pasty-looking cardboard cut-out of one of our local Police Community Support Officers and a notice telling us that both plain-clothed and uniformed officers were operating in the store.
They probably weren’t.
Whilst the idea is nothing new, a senior local police officer tells us that they will help reduce crime.
And Boston Borough Council’s principal community safety officer said: “We take anti-social behaviour in our town centre very seriously and  ... the cut-outs will be placed in prominent positions ... to reassure the public that ASB won’t be tolerated ..."
This is getting to be a habit. Last year our narcissistic anti-social behaviour team pasted a giant poster of themselves on a hoarding near the Liquorpond Street roundabout to remind us that no one need suffer from the scourge of ASB.
To quote John McEnroe: “You cannot be serious!”
Surely no-one can genuinely believe that a life-sized photograph will reduce crime.
What is does show is the level of desperation that has been reached to try to reassure local people that the police and the council are doing something.
In its description of the role of a PCSO, Lincolnshire Police tells would-be applicants: “You are likely to spend most of your time out on patrol mostly working with your community. You will often be asked to patrol areas that have been experiencing particular problems, such as estates where there have been a spate of car thefts or burglaries, or where there have been complaints about nuisance youths on the streets.”
We remember the early days in Boston which saw – whenever a new PCSO was appointed – a well publicised promise to get out on the streets and deal with the issues of concern to local people.
We remember a much-hyped “clampdown” on cycling through pedestrian areas – of which nothing ever came.
We remember the celebrations when a couple of PCSOs were loaned a car by a local company – which they claimed would help them patrol even more efficiently.
And we remember the gradual retrenchment of some PCSOs to weekly “surgeries” in local supermarkets where the punters could visit them to raise issues of concern.
Anything, it seems, rather than walk the streets.
One incident that came to our attention a while ago concerned a couple whose outbuildings were broken into by burglars who had a little time to spare whilst breaking into a neighbouring house.
They returned from holiday to find two doors flapping in the breeze, but nothing taken and little real damage - so decided to put it down to experience.
A couple of weeks later a letter arrived from Lincolnshire Police saying that, unasked, they had  allocated a crime number to the incident – what a shame they hadn’t taken the trouble to shut the doors behind them at the time!
A promise was made that an officer would be in touch, but after another couple of weeks a letter came saying that as the victim’s phone number wasn’t in the book, contact could not be made. You can ring us, was the suggestion.
The recipients stuck with the view  suxch a minor that a crime not worth reporting and unnecessarily bumping up the local statistics.
But Boston Police were relentless in their pursuit – and after a third letter, an officer turned up unannounced on the doorstep.
The only real point to emerge from the conversation which followed was that the occupants of the house could not recall a time when they had seen PCSOs – or the real thing for that matter – patrolling the area.
They were assured that this would change.
But of course, it didn't.
Now, our invisible police have been replaced by a tangible presence – designed to cut crime by presumably paralysing any ne’er do wells with laughter as they make their light fingered way to the bacon counter.
We appreciate that Lincolnshire Police officer numbers have reached an all time low after losing over 70 staff through cuts.
This was used as an excuse for a 3.96% rise in the policing element of our council tax in return for which we have been promised a force that by next month “will have 97% of its officers on the front line.”
Perhaps they will be cut  out from heavy duty cardboard and made to link hands in a cordon.

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