CONSTABLE ON VIEW (Constable Nick Mystery Book 33) by NICHOLAS RHEA

Author:NICHOLAS RHEA [RHEA, NICHOLAS]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime thriller and cozy mystery suspense
Published: 2022-01-18T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

One area of duty in which the police can impress the public with their knowledge and skill is within the world of crime prevention. This is considered one of the prime duties of a police officer—indeed, the earliest definition of a constable, which dates to the foundation of the modern police service, said that his or her duties include the preservation of the peace, the prevention and detection of crime, the protection of life and property and the maintenance of public order. Taken as a whole, this provides a wide-ranging responsibility which, due to the nature of police work, can never be subjected to a precise interpretation. Within each of those duties lies many facets which means that police officers must exercise discretion when enforcing the law, providing advice or going about their daily work; without that discretion we could produce a police state.

Because crime prevention is such an important element of police work, it entails more than just standing on a street corner in police uniform, although that alone does prevent a considerable number of minor offences. The sight of a police uniform makes people behave and that is no bad thing. However, active crime prevention (rather than the passive)—and most police forces have full-time crime prevention officers—involves a whole range of skills, chiefly of an advisory nature some of which require the police to be ahead of criminals in their thinking. Anticipating the next popular form of crime is not an exact science, but police officers can often notice the beginnings of a new trend.

In simple terms, therefore, crime prevention means advising the public how to halt, prevent or frustrate criminals like thieves, burglars, confidence tricksters, financial crooks, identity stealers and other rogues.

Sceptics might argue that genuine crime prevention is nothing more than common sense. In very basic terms that is true—if you don’t want something stealing, you lock it away or keep it out of sight. You don’t put temptation in the way of a thief. You lock the doors and windows of your house, shop, caravan or car if you leave them unattended, you secure your bicycle and never leave valuables lying around. You don’t open a handbag or wallet full of money in a public place. You don’t let people into your home unless you know who they are and you don’t buy goods at the door unless you have ordered them in advance. It’s basic common sense, isn’t it?

These are very simple, straightforward precautions for everyday situations, but in addition to crimes that come to the notice of the police, there is a huge amount which is not recorded. That makes official crime statistics quite useless with annual fluctuations and detection figures being equally meaningless. So how do the police know that unknown crimes are not reported? It is easy—how many businesses or councils never report the theft of things like pens, envelopes, paper clips, minor spare parts for cars, pieces of meat, baked buns or other manufactured products? These are crimes—staff who remove them without authority are stealing.

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