Hi o sung wu. as a x-cop you know the score. In inner Sydney, we have a fair amount pf petty crime, drug and alcohol relate stuff, juvenile crime etc. With most, unless the perpetrator is on the scene, there is often little the police can do. Other than take statements and issue an event number.

Can you please comment on this one for me. Last evening I was waiting for a bus, with several other people. There was a young bloke about 25 sitting on the seat, dressed in T-shirt, shorts, runners. Was unaffected as far as I could tell by drugs or alcohol. A van pulled up, two young male constables got out, went over to him, questioned him, frisked him, even made him take his shoes and socks off, obviously looking for drugs, found nothing and left. The bloke was bewildered. I said to him, "what was that all about", he said "I don't know." ... "Do they know you"..."No"..."Gee, you gave them no prevarication". Straggled to get his shoes and socks back on as the bus was pulling up. To me they had no reasonable grounds to do what they did, and embarrass the bloke. Didn't question the old fart, or strip search him, that's me. Waiting for a bus should not be a crime, embarrassing people in public should be.

Could be that police are sick of investigating crimes then having their efforts trashed by gutless magistrates and judges who simply will not punish offenders. However, it's not the police's place to decide what they will or will not investigate; that's our decision through our elected representatives, and that folks is where the real problem lies.

Paul1405
Could you see their numbers or were they students dressed up?

" Most of these powers are set out in legislation. The following information may help you to understand these powers and what rights and responsibilities you have in different situations.

If I’m not under arrest can I be searched?

Police can also search you (and your car, boat or other vehicle and possessions) if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that you are carrying:

stolen goods or goods unlawfully obtained, for example from the sale of drugs
prohibited drugs
an item that has been, or may be, used in a serious crime, for example, tools to break into a car or house
knives, weapons or ‘dangerous implements’
a laser pointer
Police can also search you and your car if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that:

it may have been used in connection with a serious offence
it contains stolen goods or unlawfully obtained goods
it contains prohibited drugs
it contains items used for the commission of an offence
there are circumstances in a public place or school likely to give rise to a serious risk to public safety
they suspect that someone in the car is wanted for arrest.
During periods when police are given special public disorder powers they may search you or your car if you/it are on a ‘target road or area’."

No NNN they were the genuine article. they had the right gear and a wagon as well, just doing a street patrol. Redfern Sydney is a tough command for the police. There are enough low life's around who I am happy to sees the coppers kick their asses every day of the week. This bloke was not one of them, maybe the young constables were too inexperienced to tell the difference. They even went through his wallet. They did not question him in relation to any offence that had been committed, they wanted to know what he was doing. Since he was wait at a bus stop, the answer was "wait for bus."

" It's a funny feeling be described as, Constable O.40 or something similar?"

Well you're only 0.4 of a cop if there's 1000 people around. Gather 2500 people and you're a full cop. Gather 5000 and you're more than a man.

Struth the cops at the AFL Grand Final were giants among men.

"Doing Police recruitment that way gives 16.28 Police Officers per 1000 in year 2051 . However the irresistible force of common-sense gives 7x7 rate of increase , 49x2.4 =118 per 1000 in 2051 ."

Allowing that we are now in the realm of fantasy and just playing with numbers, the "irresistible force of common-sense" doesn't allow you to make these assumptions about the future since there is insufficient data points to know this way or that. We can't know whether future increases will be 7 times the last or merely 0.96 greater than the last. (In the jargon we don't know if the increase in the increase is arithmetic or geometric). We'd need more data points to make that call.

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More seriously, this illustrates a problem that modern society faces. So much of what experts offers as proof these days is based on statistics that are sometimes good and sometimes self-serving. But the majority of the population is not able to discern the difference. (Check out http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/number%20watch.htm for a treasure trove of self-serving statistics and guides as to how to discern the good from the bad).

I'd estimate that barely a day goes by when I don't see some inappropriate use of numbers or statistics...hell the whole global warming thing is based on it, the hockey stick being the perfect example.

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And finally, part of the reason for these new UK policies is because of a DECLINE in police numbers....
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/29/police-numbers-fall-by-3488-officers

Sometimes we see trends where none exist.

mhaze
I protest . Who will stand against the tyranny of number crunchers such as the topic dictator:

"Statistics quoted tend to backup this "in 1901 there was one policeman per 765 people; in 1951 one per 693; and in 2001 one per 417. " The law and police for the rich and powerful, and you have no guns to protect yourself."
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This is subversive rebellion , fake propaganda and incitement to violence . The ignorant peasants will be easily fooled as cannon-fodder for the extremist anarchists . You're a good man who failed to act and so betray victims of arithmetic and social errors.