But times are hard in the UK as they are across the world. The Government has told Local Authorities to once again freeze the Council Tax, the source of income for Police, Fire, Health, Education, Cleansing and so on and so on within our Local Authorities, and in the case of Essex County Council to enable them to pay excessive salaries to the brightest and best, yeah right, to that last one......
So, anyway, with the council tax being frozen again, there is not so much in the pot to be shared out to all those services that we pay, including the Police. So, rather than reducing the number of car movements, for example - and you have to bare with me on this as my fingers fly over the keyboard and I just make this up as I go along and I have no idea what Essex Police spend on petrol and vehicle costs in terms of maintenance, insurance, etc., but, if they put all those officers rolling about in cars out patrolling the streets, think how much money that would save each year, must be the cost of a couple of Officers, at least.
But no, instead of looking at more practical ways to make savings, Essex Police along with a bunch of other forces are spending around £32 million quid on a computer system that, as far as I can tell isn't self propelled, doesn't have a built in arsenal to injure, maim or kill the lawbreakers on our streets, but like the 'real' Robocop, probably has no sense of humour either!
Apparently, according to Essex Chief Constable, Jim Barker-McCardle (never trust a man with a double barrelled name he is either a pretentious prat or is a hangover from a silver spoon family of old),
".....this will significantly improve the lives of people in the communities we serve." We will be better able to investigate crime , support victims and reduce threat and harm to vulnerable people."
Oh, will it now! How will it do that Jim, it's a box that sits in a room that needs information fed into it by people sitting on their backsides. It doesn't have a blue flashing light, enabling it to speed to the scene of an incident or a pair of legs that helps it to run towards an incident or the assistance of some poor bugger being mugged in the street, for gods sake it probably can't even jump on a push bike, like a PCSO, and set off in hot pursuit of the graffiti lout they just spotted as they were wandering about giving us, however slender it was, some sense of safety, as we see them meandering through our streets, can it do any of that Jim? No it bloody can't.
Don't get me wrong I love technology, I hardly understand any of it, but hey look, it allows me to vent like this and bore a lot of other people rather than just the few in my small social circle, so it does have it's benefits in that respect. I am sure that the benefits of 'Robocop Athena' in sharing information between Police forces, will prove to be immense, until it is hacked and then we are crying for the head of the people in charge of it........
BUT, Policemen and Policewoman, and even PCSO's, who put on their uniforms everyday and who then go out on our streets every day to be abused and assaulted by the low life in society are the ones that we put our trust in Jim, not some bloody computer, so You, Local Authorities and Central Government, really do need to pull your heads out of your asses and stop frigging about with our lives by reducing the number of Police Officers that we need to protect us from all the crap that is out there.....
