Victoria?
Skyhigh Ulser - what's yer problem, then?
Either you support the programme or you don't. If you'd rather spend the money putting more plods on the street, fair enough but consider this....
The police work a 24-hour shift system, takes four people to fill one post every day - one early, one late, one nights, one resting. Factor in annual leave, sick leave, court appearances and so on and the acknowledged figure is 5.25 people on the payroll per single post.
If there are four Divisions or Districts with three stations each working a 24-hour roster, to provide an increase of ONE person available on duty on every tour on every day - that's ONE at any ONE time in each station - will require an extra 63 people on the payroll.
Now how much does a Plod with 5 or 6 years service get paid? Or haven't you worked that one out yet.
Now we come to how far one PC can walk during a tour of duty how much ground can they cover and then start figuring out how many it will take to provide eyes over an entire Division or District.
The Americans call the helicopter in police service a "force multiplier" and that is the key to understanding (if that's within your capability Skyhigh) the effectivenessof the helicopter in police service.
They can't be everywhere at the same time but they do need to be able to see everywhere when they're out there.
What are you proposing - that we all lock our doors and keep the shotgun under the pillow? If you don't trust the police and the service they provide to you, this isn't the place to get a result.
You need to be dealing with people in a very different place - if you have the balls for it!!
Go to bed, you need the sleep - and don't forget the shotgun!
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