At yesterday's town council meeting, the police sergeant present, Martin Jones, rather impudently stated he was concerned that the 25 reports he received per month of speeding motorists from Crispin Yard were "not real criminals". He accorded them less weighting than other issues. Yet, we know that boy racers are of considerable concern to people in the vicinity and those who use the highway, whether other motorists or pedestrians.
Boy racers have the propensity to make life miserable for a good many people. This is aside from the very real road safety threat that they pose. The police have done little to rid the town of this problem (though, in fairness, there's probably little that they can do. It's a difficult problem and, to date, no community has managed to solve it).
In what sense, however, is a speeding motorist who is causing a nuisance and acting anti-socially not a real criminal? And if there is such a high number of complaints, why isn't this of considerable importance to the local police?
When the "Balance your Bobbies" engagement tool was available, where local people could vote for their top police objectives, the results were clear: 29 per cent felt that anti-social behaviour was the top priority, followed by a tie between dangerous driving and alcohol. This was back in 2010 but I doubt priorities have changed. It means that if you add the anti-social behaviour to dangerous driving you have 49 per cent of responses putting these categories no.1 for police action.
Boy racers have the propensity to make life miserable for a good many people. This is aside from the very real road safety threat that they pose. The police have done little to rid the town of this problem (though, in fairness, there's probably little that they can do. It's a difficult problem and, to date, no community has managed to solve it).
In what sense, however, is a speeding motorist who is causing a nuisance and acting anti-socially not a real criminal? And if there is such a high number of complaints, why isn't this of considerable importance to the local police?
When the "Balance your Bobbies" engagement tool was available, where local people could vote for their top police objectives, the results were clear: 29 per cent felt that anti-social behaviour was the top priority, followed by a tie between dangerous driving and alcohol. This was back in 2010 but I doubt priorities have changed. It means that if you add the anti-social behaviour to dangerous driving you have 49 per cent of responses putting these categories no.1 for police action.