Police crime figures

[Neil]

21 hours ago, Fishinginthelongdrops said:

I only saw them on the west side of the site to be fair. Silver Hayes near levels always had a few. Entering the Pyramid field from San Remo side and around the perimeter of the Other stage field. Often in groups of 5 or 6.

that sounds like them staying close to the hospitality area.

[tarw]

14 minutes ago, Neil said:

that sounds like them staying close to the hospitality area.

That’s where all the badduns stay @Ayrshire Chris

[stuie]

Don't forget that, while they want the festival to go smoothly and they will bust dealers, they don't really want us non-residents buggering up their low rural crime statistics. 

 

[giantkatestacks]

6 minutes ago, stuie said:

Don't forget that, while they want the festival to go smoothly and they will bust dealers, they don't really want us non-residents buggering up their low rural crime statistics. 

 

Yarp.

[Iphigenia]

On 7/8/2024 at 10:55 AM, Fishinginthelongdrops said:

Did you struggle to read the part where I said it was great the festival feels a lot safer?

 

You don’t need uniformed police to feel safe, do you?

 

Ignorance is bliss 💥💥😁💥💥

 

 

[Crazyfool01]

we had our tents rummaged through early on , mate was home and they'd shone torch in his and had already had a rummage in mine and turned my mattress over , I got back a few mins after and may well have seen them ... reported it straight off to a couple of Avon and Somersets finest who seemed to be coincidentally in the area ... didnt go down as a stat though as dont think anything was taken ... reportedly only after cards / cash and phones ... they left a couple of power banks .... the rest was in the Lockups .. Say it again but please use the lockups 

[efcfanwirral]

38 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

we had our tents rummaged through early on , mate was home and they'd shone torch in his and had already had a rummage in mine and turned my mattress over , I got back a few mins after and may well have seen them ... reported it straight off to a couple of Avon and Somersets finest who seemed to be coincidentally in the area ... didnt go down as a stat though as dont think anything was taken ... reportedly only after cards / cash and phones ... they left a couple of power banks .... the rest was in the Lockups .. Say it again but please use the lockups 

To be fair the only stuff I'd expect people to steal is my phone and wallet (and ticket), and all are on my person at all times. Anything else would be strange things to take! 

 

That said, our gate manager told me he'd heard of people bursting into tents when people were in there and shining lights in people's eyes while their mates grabbed phones etc

Edited July 9 by efcfanwirral

[Crazyfool01]

3 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

To be fair the only stuff I'd expect people to steal is my phone and wallet (and ticket), and all are on my person at all times. Anything else would be strange things to take! 

 

That said, our gate manager told me he'd heard of people bursting into tents when people were in there and shining lights in people's eyes while their mates grabbed phones etc

thought they might go for powerbanks ... glad hat didnt get trashed mind ... didnt think it would get stolen but had forgotten that aspect 

[efcfanwirral]

4 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

thought they might go for powerbanks ... glad hat didnt get trashed mind ... didnt think it would get stolen but had forgotten that aspect 

I would've thought the same with powerbanks - maybe they're just more prevalent now than they used to be and they'd just be weighed down with so many? Though I'm still surprised at the amount of people who don't seem to bring them. 

 

Yeah very good that the hat got left alone!

[Ayrshire Chris]

On 7/8/2024 at 2:57 PM, tarw said:

That’s where all the badduns stay @Ayrshire Chris

Yeah that’s us, the Wicket gate posse.  Don’t mess with us when we’re full of Pimms and Sushi. 

[4AssedMonkey]

Think I saw 4 uniformed Police officers all weekend and none on horseback.  That's way lower than previously.

 

To be honest, if you had a c. 2.5 square mile town with a 200,000 population you'd probably expect a more visible presence than that.  Realise Policing a festival isn't the same as a town, but I think the point stands.

[Rula912]

Probably an unpopular opinion but I think Avon and Somerset police do an absolutely brilliant job of policing the festival.  It can’t be easy to get the balance of visibility, engagement, reassurance and response to crime right and I think they get it spot on. 

[incident]

6 minutes ago, Rula912 said:

Probably an unpopular opinion but I think Avon and Somerset police do an absolutely brilliant job of policing the festival.  It can’t be easy to get the balance of visibility, engagement, reassurance and response to crime right and I think they get it spot on. 

 

Don't think that'll be unpopular tbh.

 

Over the years, most of the complaints I've heard about policing have been about forces from surrounding counties using punters heading to the festival as a way to artificially bump up their arrest statistics - specifically, searching cars heading to the festival in the hope they could find a tiny amount of weed. Michaelwood Services was notorious for this, and for a long time was a no-go area for people who knew the score. Thankfully reports of this seem to have become a lot less common.

[gigpusher]

Can't say I even noticed any police at all this year and usually I do so they are obviously doing a decent enough job of being unobtrusive.

[tarw]

22 minutes ago, incident said:

 

Don't think that'll be unpopular tbh.

 

Over the years, most of the complaints I've heard about policing have been about forces from surrounding counties using punters heading to the festival as a way to artificially bump up their arrest statistics - specifically, searching cars heading to the festival in the hope they could find a tiny amount of weed. Michaelwood Services was notorious for this, and for a long time was a no-go area for people who knew the score. Thankfully reports of this seem to have become a lot less common.

Yes over the last fifteen festivals I’ve only ever had positive experiences of the police on site. They appear to do their job sensitively and are my daughter still has the water pouch with Avon and Somerset bags on that a mounted officer gave her a decade ago. 
Don’t know if they were from a different county but I remember lay-bys on the approach to the festival being taken over by police and suspicious vehicles being given very extensive searches 

[clarkete]

On 7/8/2024 at 12:38 PM, Fishinginthelongdrops said:

Policing for safety is absolutely necessary. I’m just not sure that groups of uniformed police are the most appropriate and effective way to do it.

 

Are you old enough to have been at the festival before the police were on site? 

 

I can assure you that when it was all done by security it didn't necessarily feel safer to some folks. 

[Skip997]

2 hours ago, clarkete said:

 

Are you old enough to have been at the festival before the police were on site? 

 

It was great, drug stalls on every corner 

[clarkete]

3 hours ago, Skip997 said:

It was great, drug stalls on every corner 

 

Yeah, tbh never saw a problem with that aspect, but I've mentioned here before I did ever see a bunch of security with pickaxe handles getting out of a land rover to deal with something. 

 

As with any organisation...who guards the guardians? 

[Pinhead]

3 hours ago, Skip997 said:

It was great, drug stalls on every corner 

Came around and sold you the wares in your tent. Didn't even have to move!

[Pinhead]

I remember old bill coming round the tents back then too tho. Once they came up to my mate putting together a not unreasonable sized bong and put their hand over the top of it and said, "you don't wanna be doing that do you", and he said yeah, then they just walked off, he carried on, no issues.

[Superscally]

On 7/8/2024 at 8:35 AM, The Nal said:

 

You're not supposed to. Undercover filth all over the site.

Weather forecasters???

[Jackal1]

Thursday morning a camper van had around 6 police on push bikes plus a van and 4/5 security guards around it. Seemed to be searching inside and bringing various rucksacks out. One guy cuffed and taken away. 
I had only gone for a water refill!! 
 

We also spoke to a couple of policemen and they said they no longer had horses on site as too many people stopped and wanted pictures with them which then caused problems! 

[clarkete]

11 hours ago, Jackal1 said:

We also spoke to a couple of policemen and they said they no longer had horses on site as too many people stopped and wanted pictures with them which then caused problems! 

 

Ha ha, policing methods changed due to selfies  🐎

[Ayrshire Chris]

I saw one guy obviously dressed as a cowboy for Shania. He was wearing  a paper cowboy hat, a paper waistcoat and paper trousers. The police arrested him for rustling. 😉

[DeanoL]

On 7/11/2024 at 10:40 PM, clarkete said:

 

Yeah, tbh never saw a problem with that aspect, but I've mentioned here before I did ever see a bunch of security with pickaxe handles getting out of a land rover to deal with something. 

 

As with any organisation...who guards the guardians? 

Yeah you go back on here far enough you'll find horrendous stories about the likes of Stuart Security. Far rather the police personally!