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Police's missing shirts, handcuffs and trousers cost force


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Police officers

Shirts, handcuffs, batons and pants have been reported missing by police officers in the last three years.

Nearly 200 items of kit were recorded as lost or stolen by South Wales Police, including 40 torches, helmets, and a public protection suit.

Stolen items included a female police officer's trousers and shirt, a pair of stab-resistant gloves, handcuffs, and two 21 inches (53cm) batons.

South Wales Police said officers "take every care" to keep property secure.

Assistant Chief Constable Jeremy Vaughan said officers could be victims of crime while carrying out their duties and anyone who found police property should return it to the nearest police station.

But the TaxPayers' Alliance said it was worrying that police seemed "so careless as to lose the shirts off their own backs".

South Wales Police was the only force to provide the data to BBC Wales following a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

Torches were the most misplaced pieces of kit, with 40 going missing at the cost of £640, while some of the strangest items stolen were six female officer's shirts and two pairs of trousers.

An array of pieces of uniform, including 12 anoraks, four belts, a number of ties, fleeces, boots, helmets, bowler hats, and warrant cards were also recorded as being lost.

Meanwhile 23 handcuffs went missing - two of which were stolen - and two harnesses for storing batons and spray were also stolen.

The most expensive item lost by an officer was a riot or public protection suit, costing £170 to replace, with the total cost of replacing the missing items falling just short of £5,000.

'Regrettable'

ACC Vaughan said there were robust procedures in place to make sure all information was secure and any mobiles or radios would be disabled and useless if they fall into the wrong hands.

He said: "Despite the numerous precautions taken, South Wales Police and its staff can unfortunately become victims of crime - particularly when frontline officers are carrying out their duties - and equipment can be lost or stolen in these instances.

"This is, of course, regrettable however when faced with situations which can often be hostile and fast-paced, our priority is to resolve those situations as swiftly as possible in order to ensure the safety of all involved as well as the wider public.

"Whenever equipment is lost or stolen, each incident is recorded and fully investigated, and in many cases property has been recovered and the perpetrators prosecuted."

Source - BBC

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I don’t quite get the story? Who reports a shirt or trousers missing?

I have known handcuffs and batons to go missing in volatile situations where people get hold of them, run off in them etc. Same goes for hats and stuff.

Are they talking about when cops leave and don’t hand everything in or some things have been lost along the way? 

I know on many occasions bits of kit end up in storage as spares, or bits of uniform go to colleagues when people are leaving the service rather than go in a bag to be destroyed. It’s actually better that these things end up with colleagues.

 

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Some forces, mine included, will not issue replacement uniform unless it’s reported either lost, missing or stolen.

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I had to give a reason for new gloves. So under the Honesty and Integrity angle I admitted I'd been a tool and left them on the desk for longer than 1 minute.

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Almost all of these items are still in the job, they've just been nicked by another copper who wants the kit.

It's bad, and it shouldn't happen, but it does.

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There are times officers shifts over run ( I can think of times some have been forced to pull over 17 hours) and they've literally been so exhausted the kit was dropping off them as they walk in the station so they can get home to bed. All it takes is to put something on a bench in the locker room and not pick it up to put away and it will disappear. Not always nefarious reasons either, just because it gets muddled up with someone elses kit. Then you fill in the form for new kit or equipment and you have to put a reason down, so you put lost/stolen in the station. It might well be in someone elses locker, slipped down the back - not that they intended to, just that it was grabbed with theirs. It happens.

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4 hours ago, Growley said:

Almost all of these items are still in the job, they've just been nicked by another copper who wants the kit.

It's bad, and it shouldn't happen, but it does.

To be fair, not always the case with non-Gucci kit.

We have around 20 marked patrol vehicles. 

With the way jobs go cars can get moved around officers at locations other than the Nick and so we don't always get to 'dekit' our own car. 

So some of your kit might not end up stowed back in your kit bag. Eventually kit will end up shown somewhere, but without any note of where it is. After a few days there might be a sporadic locker room clean by one of the sgts and your kit ends up in the kit pile in the office. After a day or so that all goes in one big bag off to stores who dispose of it or reissue it.

Recently our patrol bag shelves were spring cleaned by some well meaning officers. During this clean-up a cap badge went missing from my shelf and several of my colleagues hi-His went walkies. The kit was never secured, just on a shelf, but when you move things they get lost.

As for torches they are the second most lost items After gloves. Than most stolen item in my force is bodybworn video cables - vital to download your camera. But because of how naff the cameras are they can take longer to download than you have left on yiur shift so you have to leave your camera plugged into the computer and go off duty.

Not once have I done this and returned to duty and found my cable still present. I bought 5 off eBay to cover contingencies and these have all gone in 3 months!

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On 16/12/2017 at 17:56, Mac7 said:

Some forces, mine included, will not issue replacement uniform unless it’s reported either lost, missing or stolen.

What about torn, covered in blood/puke etc??

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And damaged.......

Although it would probably be laundered, rather than replaced, if soiled with bodily fluids

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7 hours ago, Mac7 said:

And damaged.......

Although it would probably be laundered, rather than replaced, if soiled with bodily fluids

Please for the love of god dispose of kit that gets contaminated with blood, vomit etc. rather than washing it in your own machine.

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1 hour ago, Jeebs said:

Please for the love of god dispose of kit that gets contaminated with blood, vomit etc. rather than washing it in your own machine.

@Jeebs, Your post reminded me of the time I acquired a yellow reflective jacket from one of our guys from traffic.  He came in from what must have been a nasty job one Friday or Saturday night just as I was coming on duty at about half nine. It was covered in the red stuff, he was in the process of putting it in the bin in the back yard  when I rescued it. After I had sloshed it about in a bucket of hot soapy water a few times later on where we washed the cars/vans in the yard and hung it up to dry in the garage it was as good as new.

It was a nice quality warm jacket with big pockets and wore it on cold nights, especially on rural for years and years. It didn’t bother me in the slightest. Mind you this was about the  late seventies or early eighties and things were a bit more laid back then. Still, I don’t think health and safety would be very impressed with a special doing that now. They would probably look on the computer and send an email asking the traffic officer where the old one was. It was one of my better aquirements and certainly better than the one I had.Ha . Rich.

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Please for the love of god dispose of kit that gets contaminated with blood, vomit etc. rather than washing it in your own machine.
Someone told me to order a new stabbie cover due to the massive lumps of gob on it after a visit to a local drinking establishment. Enquired about it, got told 4 weeks, took it home and gave it a good wsh instead.
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Please for the love of god dispose of kit that gets contaminated with blood, vomit etc. rather than washing it in your own machine.



I’m not that daft. I had a fleece and trousers that got contaminated with blood. They was bagged and sent off to be cleaned (via the fire service i believe). I thought at the time it would be cheaper to replace them.
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28 minutes ago, Mac7 said:

 

 


I’m not that daft. I had a fleece and trousers that got contaminated with blood. They was bagged and sent off to be cleaned (via the fire service i believe). I thought at the time it would be cheaper to replace them.

 

 

Glad to hear it. 

It just needs binned and new ones issued.

I know in an ideal world it doesn’t work like that all the time. Our stores are decent enough that if you order something they usually send you two.

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