Dawlish News
Thieves are said to have targeted numerous vehicles overnight or in the early hours of the morning after noticing valuable items were on display or that the vehicle was unlocked.
People may be more inclined to call the police if it wasn't for a non emergency line that is not fit for purpose. To top it off they charge you for sitting on your phone for 25+ mins.
Last time I called 101 about a disturbance I had to phone three times and each time was over 10 minutes with no answer. As the situation had got worse I felt I needed to phone 999 as their was an escalating probability of damage/danger to person/property.
The 999 handler on hearing the fact that I had initially called 101 3 times with no joy and the situation had escalated. Argued with me that I should not have called 999 as no damage/injury had actually happened. To finish it off she said that she may report me for wasting police time!!!!!!
As a former police officer myself I am quite capable of accessing a situation and coming to an appropriate action. This handler was rude, verbally aggressive and unwilling to let the caller (me) explain the issue without interrupting time and time again.
She eventually agreed to assign a unit. When the officer arrived. I advised him the issues I had with the call handler. He said he would rather people called 999 if a situation looked as if it was going to escalate. As this meant he could nip it in the bud before things got out of hand.
Many people do not realise that actual policing at a street level is not just patrolling (not that I see much of that these days), but stacks of paperwork, interviews and court attendance. It's not like they depict on tv by a looooooooooong way.