Stupid calls to North Wales Police.
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Posts
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Interesting article on your news page Wrexham.com. which I assume has been taken from the article that appears on the BBC news site. It leaves me in somewhat of a quandry as it does not appear to contain the full text of the quote made by Supt. Goss, which states:-
“Non emergencies should be reported by calling 101; people can also log on to the NW Polce website to report MINOR incidents such as drink or drug driving”Forgive me if I am being stupid but I was under the impression that NW Police treated all manner of driving offences seriously ((if the number of speed vans and the amount of breath tests carried out are indicators (73 per 1000 of the population- the highest number in the UK)).
I personally cannot think of a more serious driving offence than DUI yet it would appear that it has been relegated to the minor league.
Perhaps the omission in your article gives some indication that Supt. Goss has realised what a ridiculous statement he made and is now trying to extract his foot from his mouth.@BenjaminM 17208 wrote:
Interesting article on your news page Wrexham.com. which I assume has been taken from the article that appears on the BBC news site.
No, its the press release issued by NWP. We didnt have the time to convert the aac audio files so had it queued up for today.
The BBC has cut n pasted content from Wrexham.com before, not the other way around :D
@Rob 17214 wrote:
The BBC has cut n pasted content from Wrexham.com before, not the other way around :D
That may well be the case (in the past) but I know specifically what I read 2 days ago and the quote I referenced from that article was unanambiguous in its’ content and meaning.
I stand by the direct reference. Perhaps Supt. Goss would do us the courtesy of explaining what he meant by the statement or, as is more likely to be the case, stating that it was never said or taken ‘out of context’.
We’ll see shall we?
I agree with Benjamin’s views on DUI….so will Supt Goss, perhaps his choice of words was unwise. I think his comments will be based on offences that have occurred, so a member of the public phoning in with their suspicions…as opposed to following a weaving car on the A483, or witnessing a drunk person climbing into their car in the town, which would clearly be a 999 call. The NWP website is also a bit contradictory, as Drink/Drug Driving appears under the minor incident reporting area of the website….not helpful or clear.
[IMG]http://www.north-wales.police.uk/contact/minor-incident-reporting.aspx[/IMG]
Rather than being ‘a bit contradictory’ on the NWP website, it is very specific when it cites drink/drug driving as being a minor incident, reportable via 101 or the report form on their website.
For it to appear on the official website it is reasonable to assume that it must form the basis of the NWP policy or else it wouldn’t have been used as an example.
Just imagine for one moment that if the non urgent route for reporting had been taken ( as per their guidance) and 5 minutes later an innocent pedestrian or other road user is injured, or worse – how could that be explained to a loved one or relative? See how far they get then in justifying their tardy attitude to a serious criminal offence.I do not drive under the influence and anyone who does deserves to get caught and have the book thrown at them, but if you compare the number of positive tests to the number of motorists stopped it is really a very very low percentage. It is policing by intimidation and fear. It would be much better if they targeted poor and erratic driving instead of sitting in a lay-bye and dragging everyone in off the road.
Sure any driving offence is as serious as the next one. All can lead to serious accidents and all can lead to death. Drink driving, speeding, driving whilst using your mobile phone. All can have very serious consequences.
In your article “10000 drivers…etc”. I couldn’t fail to notice that NWP have apparently amended their reporting procedure for drunk/ drug driving.
Could it be, that in some small part, this thread has been instrumental in making them rethink their approach?
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