Public service paperwork

I have a burglary on my workload. It’s not a priority crime because even though we’re talking about a loss of about £2000 the premises burgled was a community centre, not Mr and Mrs Middle England’s detached house in suburbia. If this had been a burglarly dwelling then CID would have dealt with this and it would have got the attention it deserved. Well, probably. As it stands I’m investigating it, between going to 20 jobs a shift without a meal or a ahem, comfort break.

I did pretty well with this to start with, I got statements, SOCO evidence, interviewed the suspects and stood a reasonable chance of conviction – mostly because my colleagues had caught them in the act, less because of my investigative prowess. I spoke to CPS and got some advice on how to proceed, not the immediate decision to charge that I had expected but not much work needed so I trotted off and over the next couple of weeks got the extra couple of statements they needed to secure a charge before returning to CPS.

I made the mistake of speaking to a different CPS lawyer on my return. Having been told “just get this” I now got “hmm, get this, this, this, this and this”. 9 months later and after several re-bails we’re still going and I’m trying no to get too optimistic as “this, this, this, this and this” have now nearly been done and I’m to return for a decision.

It therefors comes as no surprise to me at all that THESE DOCUMENTS were left on a home office desk for months on end and 25 rapes, 3 attempted rapes, 29 paedophiles, 17 other sex offenders, 5 murders, 9 attempted murders, 13 manslaughter convictions and 29 robberies committed by Britons abroad go unrecorded over here.

I do wonder how many meals breaks and bathroom visits they squeezed in in this time though…