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Police Overwhelmed By The Investigation Of Child Pornography

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mikey4444 | 07:48 Fri 03rd Oct 2014 | News
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29470001

As predicted, Police all over the UK are now overwhelmed by the work involved in investigating child pornography. In this time of savage cuts to Police budgets, how will they cope with this hugely growing problem ? Children are at risk here, after all.
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Everything is a priority isn't it.

They will do what they can within the budget it is able to allocate. They will be less overwhelmed as they make inroads, although a national force trying to cope with a global issue might be limited in effect. But find and catch the individual users one at a time and who knows. It'd be nice if they had the budget to catch all wrongdoers and reduce all crime to zero, but that can not happen in a society fit to live in, so we will always have problems.
Nope

caulk your bleeding heart Mikey

// Everything is a priority //
no everything needs to be prioritised

There is never enough to go arounds anyone's budget so the things have to be put in order. Ask mikey's wife or any NHS worker

so who sets the priorities ?

I think the Police and Crime Commissioners are , arent they ?
good idea that turned bad

Rambling a bit Mikey but I know you are up to it ....
I mentioned Lady Simey to my old mam
and she bawled: " oh her - the Red lady we called her in the sixties "
and I said: " Ah yes she was the first to say that the police should follow the priorities set by the local population. In Manchester for example Anderton ( bless !) started arresting prostitutes on a moral crusade whilst we all said drugs were a much bigger menace and no one could stop him. "

So the moral of that story Mikey is Lady Simey said in 1964 what is clearly not still being done fifty years later.

[ yeah yeah I know I am gonna get a flood of "whaaaa? lady Who-ey ? " etc ]

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PP...interesting although I have I haven't the slightest idea what on earth you are on about. Sorry.

I think that we need a wider debate on this subject. It has been demonstrated that this serious crime in increasing at a huge rate every year
and there doesn't seem to be enough money to investigate it properly. Its also abundantly clear that the Police resource being allocated is being taken away from other areas of Policing. In Britain today, Police forces are asking its own citizens to investigate so-called minor crimes themselves, and if you have a burglary or criminal damage to your car or property, you have little chance of these crimes being dealt with at all.

The Tories have been saying for as long as I can remember that they are the Party of law and order, implying that others Parties are not, and yet there is inadequate funding.
The police are never short of officers to stand on the roadside holding a speed gun.

Maybe the more serious crime of driving a bit too fast is being given priority.
Question Author
JJ......The Police can always find "resource" when it suits them. Recently 10,000's of Police officers were called to South Wales for the NATO summit and promptly disappeared again as soon as Obama got back in his helicopter.

The problem here is that child sexual abuse, which is at the heart of the child pornography issue is not really been taken seriously by the authorities in general, despite the overwhelming evidence that it mushrooming at a huge rate. One of the factors in the Rotherham case, amongst others, was that the Police were swamped by the situation.
the police are target driven. catching speeders is easy, easy money for your performance related bonus. catching paedophiles not so easy, so not so remunerative for the time they need to spend.
No mikey

they need to prioritise their work Mikey

just like you do

yeah Mushroom is saying that the police are prioritising catching speeders and not child pornography

and what you are saying Mikey but seem not realise it,
is that they need to prioritise child pornography

[ and the first person to say that police should prioritise according to the wishes of the local population was a certain Lady SImey]
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At what level would YOU put child sexual abuse and child pornogrpahy PP ?

Higher or lower that catching speeding motorists for instance ?

Do you think that the Police might have more "resource" if they were not diverted away from serious issues, into investigating themselves, when some of their Officers have been caught out ?
As I read it the problem is not a shortage of police officers, but rather a shortage of specialists capable of analysing computer hard drives. The traffic cop isn’t qualified to do that, so it’s a daft analogy. If the problem is suddenly ‘mushrooming at a huge rate’, then the goal posts have moved and therefore the current number of qualified staff is no longer adequate. I wonder if as an emergency measure the police could employ capable volunteers to swell staffing levels, as they do with the PSVs?
Higher than speeding
and lower than child murder Mikey

The fact that something might be difficult to prioritise does not mean that our elders and betters should not TRY

as you well know but may have forgotten there is not limitless money for everything
Question Author
But if the Police are being overwhelmed by child pornography investigations, then prioritising is clearly not working properly. To quote from the BBC link ::

Retired detective sergeant Sharon Girling, who was appointed an OBE for her work on child abuse investigations, said the staffing figures were "very alarming".

Maybe the Police need to look again at their interpretation of prioritising and perhaps our present Government needs to provide more funding.
It used to be the case (I imagine it may still be) that Police Officers involved in investigating Child Pornography only served a limited time in that department.........for their own mental well-being.
That would seem a good idea; except that also means experience built up wouldn't remain for long.
Hmm having scanned the posts so far I see we are in dispute about priorities. If you put all our resource to the one thing highest on our priority list then many things would not get done that need to be. One has to spread out resource. And of course anything that affect us or our loved ones seems the major issue, but ultimately a dispassionate view needs to be taken to ensure resource is allocated efficiently for maximum benefit.
It doesn't take a brain of britain long to scan a hard drive, even for deleted images if given the right software.

I'd like to see a more impartial report than from the NSPCC who have a vested interest in the Rozzers priorities.
Why dont they employ 'volunteers' like special policemen to do this specific work.

I am an IT specialist it would be easy for me to do and I am more than happy to give up a couple of hours a week if it meant putting scum peado's away.
You'd volunteer to thoroughly scrutinise thousands of images of children being abused, make notes, etc........all the while believing that you would remain unaffected?
YMB, that’s what I suggested at 09:39. Obviously stringent vetting and preparation would be required, but it’s not an unfeasible course of action.
youngmafbog - "am an IT specialist it would be easy for me to do and I am more than happy to give up a couple of hours a week if it meant putting scum peado's away.

I was contacted and contracted to an organisation that was targeting individual sites containing child abuse images.

The founding copmpany for the contract was Mircosoft, and unbeknown to be and my colleagues, we were gathering inforamtion for what became Operation Ore.

We were given software that allowed us to access the sites without the site owner being aware - obviously a stranger infiltrating rings alarm bells, so the site is simply shut down and re-set somewhere else on the web. Our software meant we left no electronic footprint, but extracted the images and contact details for the police.

Paedophiles hide in plain sight - so out of the thousands and thousands of sites I looked at the contained photos of the insides of car engines (yes there are thousands of them!) and other hobby sites over about a six week period.

I found three sites only, but the images that burned into my brain in the time it took me to hit the 'back' button remain with me now, more than ten years later.

Believe me, you don't want to lightly suggest that 'volunteers' can do this sort of surfing - it's not feasible.

Microsoft kindly offered counselling for any of us affcted, which I fortunately did not need, but the thought of doing this sort ofg thing over an extended period makes my head hurt.

What you think you could do, and what you actually could do, are pretty far apart on this subject - take it from me.

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