The Unreal Criminals

As a reader has kindly pointed out, I spend most of my time dealing not with The Mob, but the mob.

The "real" mob.







In the Twenty-First Century, there are now more ways than ever to become a criminal. Whereas a 'criminal record' used to be the sacred preserve of those who actually stole, damaged things, hurt people or used illegal drugs, you can now become a crook by just carrying out some everyday activities:

• Trying to get back together with your ex-partner.
• Hanging out with your friends.
• Getting on a tube.

In this way the police nowadays can crack down on criminal behaviour before it actually becomes criminal. I therefore support any new law that makes something illegal.

One of the reasons for the successful criminalisation of the bulk of society is the National Crime Recording Standards. I go on about these from time to time, so at the risk of boring my regular readers, these are a set of rules that dictate how and when the police must record and detect crime. Under these rules, as soon as someone phones the police to report some kind of problem, a crime report is recorded and someone will then have to be held accountable for it. You will hear a lot of bloggers bemoaning this fact, because it puts pressure on front-line officers to make arrests and prosecute people in order to "clear up" the crime reports that have been created.

I think it is time that front-line officers recognised the good done by the NCRS. We used to have to accept that there was a small group of people who would constantly call the police without so much as the mention of a criminal offence. Whereas now, we can now dissuade EVERYONE from calling the police with the threat that if they do, there is a good chance they will come out of it with a criminal record. I'm sure THAT will stop them.

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