Police time and costs.

Local-womanizer

This is not a rant about the police:)

I was watching night cops last night,very enjoyable show.In one call out the cops had to deal with a very annoying drunk.They arrested him and brought him back to the station.There he kicked off and it took around 6 officers to search him in the cell and book him in etc.Violent enough lad so he was.

All this must have taken well over an hour to get him in the cell.

Then we were told he received a £50 fine.

I mean £50 wouldent even be a weeks wages to him and he will probably do the same thing again in a week.

I have 2 Questions,

1)How much would it cost the taxpayer for an instance like this with regards police costs?

2)£50 seems extremely leniant.Surely a person should be made to pay enough to cover the cost of his detention etc. or is that too expensive?


I dont know how the cops display such patience towards assh***s like that tbh.Just seems unfair that we have to contribute towards drunkards and common criminals...

Random

I always get p!ssed off on these shows when you see the resources that appear to be thrown into car chases and fights etc and at the end of it after making it so over dramatic it's sumarised with "there wasn't enough evidence to convict" (even though you just watched 10 mins of camera footage!!) or else "yah, he got a fifty quid fine .. that'll learn him".

I've seen other cops giving people too much of a hard time for nothing though. Fining someone fifty quid for cursing on a street is just a joke.

2 sides of the coin I guess.

Eru

Most police initiatives are not designed to cover the costs but to have a positive impact on society and therefore probable shouldnt make enough to pay for themselves.

Fines for public order is similar to speed cameras and general traffic matters. If the system is generating more income than it costs then its a reflection on society and the systems effectiveness.

the problem with these systems, as you have pointed out yourself is that its just the same again and again with no actual impact on the activity itself. I dont have an answer to the problem in all honesty. Perhaps increased fines for every additional offence may work with eventual jail terms or other penalty kicking in similar to the penalty points system which has a bigger impact on speeding than any amount of fines.

Of course then your talking about bringing minor public order offences to court which means even more expense on the taxpayers shoulders. If you can come up with an effective way to deal with these offences without spending a lot of money and resources you would certainly have my gratitude and probable most peoples.