Impressive police response in Court Lane

[Robert Poste's Child]

Just witnessed hugely impressive swoop, I think to arrest a suspected burglar - hard to tell due to number of police (I stopped counting at nine vehicles) but looks like nothing more serious as they were all grinning. Like the Sweeney, it was.

[Nigello]

9 vs 1? Hmmm. ANother example of emergency service overkill.

[Robert Poste's Child]

9+ vehicles. More like 20 to 1 in officers. Though with all due respect the 1 could have improved the odds dramatically in his favour by not attempting to break in to someone else's property.

[ED - NAGAIUTB]

Nigello Wrote:

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> 9 vs 1? Hmmm. ANother example of emergency service

> overkill.

You wouldn't say that if it was YOUR home being burgled. Reckon you could contain a burglar single handedly?

Cretin.

[alice]

So burglars all over southwark get the same response? Same old - one law for the ...

[Nigello]

It's your money that's going to waste and I really would prefer the ever-slimmer resources to be used more realistically.

Three police officers walking together chatting to each other (and not therefore necessarily taking note of what's going on around them) is reasonably common to see.

Why would anyone - including a cretin - think that it is good to have such a waste of resources? Why would stop at nine? Go the whole hog and send twenty!

Again - it's your money that's being used poorly so when your car is broken into or your wallet is pickpocketed and the police tell you they can't justify coming out to you, you (plural, not anyone in particular) may think differently.

[Abe_froeman]

It would be interesting to know how they were alerted to the burglary. To get there in time to catch a burglar on site, one imagines a very expensive silent alarm system with a direct link to the rozzers!

[DulwichFox]

I can only suppose it was someone 'Important' that was burgled....

...when the average joe gets turned over, they would probably be lucky to get a couple of P.C's later on in the evening..

DulwichFox

[Sue]

But was it actually to catch a burglar? Do we know?

And if it was, and if they caught him, why was that overkill? We have no idea if it was overkill unless we know the exact situation.

The police are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Usually threads on here are complaining that burglars aren't being caught!

[JMK]

I can confirm that at approximately noon today there were several marked police cars and vans, unmarked cars, two officers in uniform (possibly community support officers) and, I believe, a plain clothes officer who appeared to be the lead and using a radio in pursuit of an individual (or individuals?). They were frantically searching the area and roads between Court Lane and Woodwarde Road around Dovercourt/Druce and adjacent roads. Given they were up and down the roads more than once, the impression was that they didn't know the precise location of their target but that they believed him (or her or them) to be in this area and likely using the gardens to hide and evade the search. It appears as though at least one person was apprehended hiding in the garden of a house on Court Lane near to Court Lane Gardens and Druce Road.

I don't know if this was their only target and/or person to be apprehended. Similarly, I have no idea if this was burglary related. There was however a very material Police presence which was more than the "local Bobby on the beat" as indicated by the plain clothes officer and unmarked cars. I am not familiar with the Police rules for responding to reported "routine" residential burglaries - perhaps this is standard, a current area of focus or the matter was considered by the police to be of greater significance thereby warranting the level of resource?

Perhaps someone else either saw the chase commence and/or is familiar with Police guidelines to respond in such a manner

[Robert Poste's Child]

There's another thread in just the last couple of days about would-be burglars nearby, and not long ago the police did house visits to warn people that it's a hotspot (apparently the area in the UK with the highest number of insurance claims for burglary per capita) and to up their security, so maybe they've increased their presence. Or maybe it just happened to be a quiet morning and they all responded to a general alert. Who knows? The ones who weren't needed pushed off pretty quickly.

Deeply unfashionable as it may be to say so around here, I think the police did a great job. A bit more of that might turn things around. Still got a warm fuzzy feeling about it and a general sense of being a bit safer.

[uncleglen]

The police do a great job. When you think that their whole working day is spent dealing with the dregs of society and all the miserable stuff of life and yet they STILL get pilloried right, left and centre by people who should know better.

[Sue]

Robert Poste's Child Wrote:

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>

> Deeply unfashionable as it may be to say so around

> here, I think the police did a great job. A bit

> more of that might turn things around. Still got a

> warm fuzzy feeling about it and a general sense of

> being a bit safer.

Good to hear.

[Mick Mac]

Who knows whether it was a burgler or something else such that he deserved a bigger coordinated response. Hopefully it was the cat killer.

[Pugwash]

A few years ago we were broken into whilst my hubby was in the house and he came face to face with burglar who appeared very drunk. Hubby was about to ring Police when he remembered that there was a police car outside our house.

He informed officers that he had a very drunk burglar in his house - several police officers and a dog charged in the house and arrested the guy.

It would appear that this guy had broken into houses down the road and was spotted by builders, he made his way via various gardens until he got to us when he proceed to break a heavy wooden door, then some French windows to gain entry to us. Various householders reported that a man was climbing their garden fences and called police.

It sounds that this may have happened in this incident

[Leviathan]

Apparently it was a mugger

[Sue]

Leviathan Wrote:

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> Apparently it was a mugger

Hope they got the bastard, then.

Somebody I know who walks with a stick and has other disabilities, some quite visible, was mugged on Friday night - by a woman.

The police were brilliant and sent somebody round very quickly, but I doubt could have caught her.

I couldn't believe anybody would stoop so low. Good on the police for taking action where they can.

[ED - NAGAIUTB]

Nigello Wrote:

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> It's your money that's going to waste and I really

> would prefer the ever-slimmer resources to be used

> more realistically.

> Three police officers walking together chatting to

> each other (and not therefore necessarily taking

> note of what's going on around them) is reasonably

> common to see.

> Why would anyone - including a cretin - think that

> it is good to have such a waste of resources? Why

> would stop at nine? Go the whole hog and send

> twenty!

> Again - it's your money that's being used poorly

> so when your car is broken into or your wallet is

> pickpocketed and the police tell you they can't

> justify coming out to you, you (plural, not anyone

> in particular) may think differently.

So, how many officers would you expect it to take to contain a suspect in a potential 'live' crime scene? With numerous escape routes including the park.

I'm sure that like most keyboard warriors you could have wrestled them to the ground single handedly. I suspect that the reality would be that you'd run off and then complain about the lack of Police assistance.

And for the record, the average burglar is a career criminal with no qualms about doing whatever it takes to evade capture. So going mob handed is the sensible thing to do if there is a chance of capturing them in the act. The last time a burglar was caught locally and banged up, the rate of burglaries dropped through the floor overnight as they tend to be so prolific.

Police bashing seems to be a theme of yours, if memory serves. Buy the Guardian much..?

[adonirum]

Sue

I'm sure we still haven't seen the depths some in society would stoop to, so, yep,regreattably, believe it all.

[robbin]

ED - NAGAIUTB Wrote in response to Nigello:

-------------------------------------------------------

> >

> So, how many officers would you expect it to take

> to contain a suspect in a potential 'live' crime

> scene? With numerous escape routes including the

> park.

>

> I'm sure that like most keyboard warriors you

> could have wrestled them to the ground single

> handedly. I suspect that the reality would be that

> you'd run off and then complain about the lack of

> Police assistance.

>

> And for the record, the average burglar is a

> career criminal with no qualms about doing

> whatever it takes to evade capture. So going mob

> handed is the sensible thing to do if there is a

> chance of capturing them in the act. The last time

> a burglar was caught locally and banged up, the

> rate of burglaries dropped through the floor

> overnight as they tend to be so prolific.

>

> Police bashing seems to be a theme of yours, if

> memory serves. Buy the Guardian much..?

Well said!

[Jeremy]

Yeah it might sound like overkill on the face of it, but bear in mind

a) There might be several possible escape routes, through gardens, park, etc

b) If you had to apprehend a violent criminal, I'm sure you'd appreciate a bit of backup too

c) They clearly needed to catch the scumbag

[robbin]

Quite. The chances of catching a scumbag who is hiding in gardens and moving from one to another with several different escape routes is not very great with only a couple of plod available. Better swarm the place for a few minutes and have a decent chance of catching the offender, surely?

[Zebedee Tring]

With the exception of his/her rather uncalled for comment about Grauniad readers (of which I am proudly one), I agree with what ED - NAGAIUTB has said. The police are by no means perfect but in this kind of case they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. I fully support their actions in Court Lane.

No doubt if masses of police had turned up at an incident at, say, the Elephant, some of the contributors to this thread would complain that the north of the borough was getting preferential treatment at the expense of the poor folk of Dulwich.

[Jennys]

Does anyone know if the incidents in Woodwarde Road, Beauval Road and Court Lane were linked in any way?