Julie Spence, Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Police, said Judge Sean Enright's complaint gave her a chance to 'inject a note of realism' into the perception of policing.
The Chief Constable of Cambridge was speaking in an internet podcast in response to Judge Sean Enright's complaint that Cambridgeshire Police had failed to attend a 999 call. She claimed it "gave her a chance to 'inject a note of realism' into the perception of policing."
'But the fact is the best funded, biggest force in the world would not be able to attend every 999 call.
True, there are clear cases when 999 calls are a wasting time, including those who phone because their cat is playing with a piece of string, but others are not.
The Chief Inspector doesn't believe anybody really expects the Police to turn up when we call them :-
'Nor do I believe that is the expectation of most of our callers. Most know and appreciate and understand that their need may sometimes be less pressing than another's.'
Actually, Chief Inspector, people ("callers") who decide to dial 999 do tend to expect the Police to turn up. Not many of them make either silly or malicious calls, and they don't expect some invisible individual in a central control room to make a decision based on the needs of others - especially if they are calling because there's a stranger in their back garden and they are scared.
But then maybe people in Cambridgeshire don't fully understand how important it is to have Police staff, either uniformed or not, spending their time writing blogs for Police Dog instead of either answering, or responding to, emergency calls.
Rigby Town, by comparison, is lucky - on the very few occasions we, or those we know, have needed to dial 999 the Police response has been rapid, efficient and appropriate. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the ambulance service, who on one occasion took over 2 hours to arrive. Even statistical wizards haven't been able to conceal the fact that our 'local' ambulance service has been rated as "weak".
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