threating youngsters

[Mike in Marple]

It is important that every occurance that occurs is reported directly to the police.  They allocate resources occording to the number of crimes that have occured, so it you don;t report the distubances then they don't appear on their stats.

The more you report, the more important we will become.

On a slightly separete matter, is anyone else cocerned by the reports in the press that more importantance is being placed by the police in clearing paper wok than actually being on the street solving crime?

However, I think that PC Francis especially, as well as the other Police Officers in Marple, should be commended for their active involvment in the community.

I have had similar problems with CCTV in Marple. I once came home to find a very well known local youth (I say youth but its pushing it a bit, he must be well into his 20s by now yet still acts the same as the next generation on scallys! ) in my house. I gave chase to him (maybe stupid but it was broad daylight, I knew him as my brother went to school with him, and the anger seemed to take over). I chased him all down the precint (from the Pineapple right through to the other side near Natwest), then across the road, through the co-op carpark until he started running through the park. I gave up at this point as there weren't many people about and he isn't the nicest of characters.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, non of the CCTV cameras we ran past showed him or me...what are they looking at then if it isn't people?!?!

[Peter]

Q1. Yes, it's manned by full time operatives. As I understand it they are all routed to a single control room where they can be selected at random. It is only any use however if the camera happens to be pointing in the direction of the offence. Some cameras are cowled so that you do not know which direction they are pointing, most are not which means the offender knows if he is on camera or not. The reason for this is, I believe, that the cowled cameras record a much inferior picture.
Q2. I recently asked the same question myself and was assured that yes, a good number of convictions in Marple have been secured by camera evidence.
It is worth remembering that unless you report an offence, such as your daughters assault, then the film is unlikely to be examined. If you do report it then they will check the film and if the offence was captured then they can hopefully identify the culprits and take proceedings against them.
Logging complaints on this forum is a useful way of us all tracking crime in Marple but does not in anyway replace reporting to the police. Remember even though you get cheesed off with the police response we must all keep reporting crimes otherwise the authorities will keep telling us that crime is down.

Late this afternoon my 14 year old daughter was set upon by five girls (14 & 13 y.o.) in broad daylight near Marple baths. Three of them were known by my daughter, with no previous trouble, in her classes at Marple Hall. She was alone and in their eyes easy pickings. Pulling her hair, thumping her, knocking her to the floor and covering her in spit.....why?

Q1 cctv, is it connected? If so who mans it, and do they want any volunteers
Q2. Has anyone been prosecuted from Marple cctv?

:p Yes, I agree - it's disgusting - where are the police officers when all these louts are about - I was just leaving Bargain Booze the other night and there was about 12 youngster hanging about outside - being very loud and swearing at each other.

it was along the stretch of Marple Fish Bar

[alan@marple]

It just make me feel sick to once again hear of another incident involving these louts. Who of course are never so brave when alone

Which take away was it? I would like to know so that I can warn my daughters and elderly Friends

Last Friday night, at approximately 11:00pm i went to get a take away being tired from work that day.  When i was waiting for my order a group of young lads aged 15 to 18 walked past and decided to hurl abuse at me and several other customers. The owner closed the shop shutters in a hope they would flee, but instead they started to kick and punch them. When we all had our orders the shutters were let up and we all felt confident they might of got fed-up and left, but they were stood a few yards away and started shouting to us "Don't even think about coming out here, you'll get you head kicked in!" in which they were hitting the windows to get peoples attention.
As you can imagine it does worry you that these young adults are thinking and acting this way towards others.
But whenever an incident has occured in Marple where a person i know has been involved, 90% of the time police claim that no-one was seen on CCTV. Are the cameras focusing on main hot points for crime? or just focusing on the roads all the time?

Maybe if there were policemen on foot friday and Saturday nights, the working people of Marple might not feel as threatened to go out locally to grab a bite to eat!