WHEN Angela Mannion's house was burgled she was sure the thieves would be caught on CCTV cameras on the street outside her home.But when she asked police and council chiefs to examine the Leeds Watch camera footage she was told they wouldn't – because the job was too time consuming.
Police told Ms Mannion, 29, the eight hours in which the offence happened would take too long to analyse.
When she contacted Leeds City Council she was told they would only look through one hour of footage.
West Yorkshire Police have now apologised to Ms Mannion.
She said: "I even offered to sit through the tapes myself but they wouldn't allow it.
"There could quite easily be footage of the burglars lugging my TV off up the street but they were not interested. Whoever has done this could be responsible for lots more offences."
The break-in at Bellbrook Place, Harehills, Leeds, took place some time between 3am and 11am on November 29. Burglars stole a 42-inch TV, laptop, digital camera, £350 Christmas cash and the passports of Ms Mannion and her five-year-old daughter Ava.
She added: "The officers said that unless I could pinpoint exactly when the break-in took place there was nothing they could do. That's absolutely crazy.
"I wasn't at home at the time of the break-in. You expect a burglar to target properties when no one is inside so there must be countless other crimes that will also get ignored.
"If this is their policy it is absolute nonsense. It seems pointless spending money on these cameras in the first place if they don't take advantage of them properly."
She added: "To make matters worse, my house insurance had just lapsed, I am still paying for the TV and this week I have been made redundant. It all feels like one massive kick in the teeth,"
Police said a senior officer has contacted the complainant and "expressed our regret in terms of how this incident was handled".
A spokeswoman said: "Following the incident we undertook extensive enquiries to arrest potential offenders and recover stolen property.
"We have agreed a course of action with the complainant to take this investigation forward."
A spokeswoman for Leeds City Council said: "Leeds Watch are not permitted to release CCTV footage to members of the public. All the relevant information regarding this case was provided to the police."
I mean, I can see how the use of our surveilance state system would be wasted on the trivial act of crime prevention, It is after all, only there to make sure that the normal, hard working citizens behave themselves , and do not step out of the party line.
Lazy bastards. Viva la revolution!
1 comment:
I remember when I was burgled that they went and helped themselves to petrol at s well known brand of supermarket that just gave half a million pounds to the Labour party
I told the police they'll have been caught on CCTV there
Did they want to know No they couldnt be bothered
I finally got my DVD player back after 11 months when they raided a premises, the surround sound system however must have been junked as they only nicked part of it
No sign of the laptop or the bike or the digital camera
The police let the bastard who remodeled my jaw out on police bail and of course he was never seen again either
The police are ineffectual losers
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