Sunday 14 November 2010

Priorities

I had lunch today with a long-standing mate who I haven't seen for quite some time. Now, he works in the Met as a Detective Sergeant and quite often tells me stories about his experiences in work that are of the; 'you couldn't make it up' variety, pretty much along the lines of Inspector Gadget. Anyway I thought I would pass on this little story he told me today.

He's currently investigating a fatal stabbing in London which occurred in broad daylight. Naturally the road in question was covered by CCTV. So as part of routine inquires, tapes made at the relevant date and time were requested. However there was a problem...

Upon reviewing the tapes they could identify the victim, and the start of a fight with another man, but instead of zooming in to make identification clearer, the civilian camera operator zoomed away to a different part of the road.

Why?

Because he/she had noticed a car driving illegally in a bus lane on that road and they wanted to record the details, because that was the local council's priority. When the camera zoomed back to the fight the victim was lying on the ground having already been stabbed and the assailant had run off. As a consequence of the operator's actions the CCTV footage has proved useless at identifying the perpetrator.

And there was me thinking that CCTV "is one of the ways we keep people safe and make people feel safer in our communities"

4 comments:

  1. Excellent 'story', TBF.

    It also raises an interesting point that local authority's "priorities" over ride common sense and camera operator's initiative? So driving in a bus lane is more important and carries a higher sentence than attempted murder? Not what the justice system says!

    Jesus H! You cud not indeed make it up!

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  2. Exactly WfW, and unsurprisingly this is relatively tame compared to some other stuff he tells me.

    Unfortunately at his request I've had to leave out some details, for obvious reasons, including the Council involved.

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  3. "We in the USSE care nothing for the life, for life is replaceable, but breaking traffic laws is an act of anarchy and is therefore the start of the slippery slope to rebellion, and that must be quashed without mercy."

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  4. Bloody hell!
    Are the coppers now planning to prosecute the driver for obstruction of justrice, for diverting the camera operators attention?
    Wouldn't surprise me

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