Could Cumbria have stopped Bird More Quickly?

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

The press as usual jumped straight on the back of the police following the recent terrible events in Cumbria.  What happened to this country?  Anyone with any common sense whatsoever can see how difficult it would be for a generally unarmed police service to stop such a person quickly, particularly in a rural area.  We seem to be on the side of our military at the moment, so what happened to the relationship with the police?  It may have something to do with the way the last government pushed them into victimising easy targets and concentrated their time on producing statistics rather than concentrating on the basic principles of policing, prevention of crime, protection of life and property and then bringing of offenders to justice, in that order.

Too many senior officers are no longer POLICE officers, they are just playing along with the politicians and dancing to their tune - Shame on them.  Maybe a few more old fashioned senior police officers should stand up for the right things and leave the political correctness to those in parliament.  Maybe then our police officers would get some respect back from the press and the public.

What do you think?

[guy incognito]

I wholeheartedly agree. I have nothing but sympathy for those involved in the incident, but no Police force in the world can stop something like this from happening. One only has to look at America to see similar shootings in a country where Cops are armed to the teeth.

The Police are not mind readers and no matter what previous dealings Cumbria Police had with this individual, I'm sure they didn't see this coming.

Even when there are obvious concerns about individuals, their human rights or legal constraints can sometimes hinder positive action by Police. Sadly it wont be the last such rampage, but I'm not sure if there is any real solution. 

I've not read a lot about the aftermath of this, but I was proud to hear stories of unarmed cops rushing to the scene to do what they could. Yes, it's their job and I would expect nothing less, but people forget that Police Officers are ordinary human beings that have to do extraordinary things.

[johnboy]

If anything the went overboard on the back of the other shootings recently, the money and effort employed on this is amazing, and look at the moaning.  Still, that will neever change.  The police could give some of the public a free gift and some of them would still find something to moan about.  Keep smiling.....

[Salforal]

To answer the original question, 99.99% no (I'm a Cumbrian officer but wasn't involved). There was one factor that MAY have made a difference (but by no means guaranteed) but I'm not going to state what that was in public forum, as I value my job!!

[enforce-logic forum administrator]

I sometimes wonder if these things got sorted out before too many layers of TAC and press and all manner of every which type of ADVISOR gets involved, then maybe it wouldn't have got out of control.
One does wonder where the original intelligence from HMP on the prison release was sitting, but having said that, his release date was known, a bit more notice would have helped.  I imaging the call was logged somewhere in a pile for consideration by an advisor!
 

[johnboy]

I'm sure they will find loads of money to investigate it to oblivion, someone will make a load of cash on the back of an enquiry.  Everyone except Moat will be at fault.