i emailed the general enquiries a way back with a note to pass it on.

they were fine taking a report online initially last year when they had a dedicated email address.

Well I think that there will always be people with alternative lifestyles, and measures should be in place so as not to exclude them. If the local force has a website, and they all do, then it's not asking too much to add a reporting form and route it to the appropriate team.

To be fair and without checking all the English forces websites, of the ones I looked at only one didn't already have this facility, and with the OP's force two. There should be a common policy so they all do it without exception. I'm surprised they each go their own way.

Does the local force of the OP not have a Twitter account?

Just send a simple Tweet to the along the lines of:

@XPolice I want to give you some info on a potential crime but I do not have a phone. What can I do?

I dunno but I'd guess they don't take social media sites seriously, and to some extent I can see why. I don't know why you're hassling the OP anyway?

yes, it doesn`t make sense either, to reduce the options, maybe it`s temporary.

it`s not just alternatives either, anyone could be in a situation where they cannot use the phone for any number of reasons but do have internet access.


i don`t have a twitter account, it`s not my thing but it really doesn`t matter because i sent the front desk an email a couple of hours or more since.

no automated response though, frustratingly.

thank you all for responding

When since was replying to her on an internet forum "hassling"? Wind yer neck in!

OP - you can create a Twitter account in seconds, but in any case it probably looks like you have sorted it anyway, they will get round to looking at it eventually.

http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/re...cr-repform.htm

they`re two or three forces away and across the other side of london to where i live, but thank you for looking, appreciated.

if i`m honest i was feeling a little pressured but i`m a bit rabid-headed just now.

I've looked at more of the forces websites now working down the list alphabetically and each has their own individual way of processing non-emergency crime and incident reporting via Contact Us, although one force didn't have a Contact Us at all.

Some make it easy to find the form and some less so. More than I thought don't have a form at all. One took me all round the houses before giving me a link back to police.uk where I started from originally.

I've spoken to Radio Merseyside and they want me to call tomorrow before the show starts and speak on the Roger Phillips phone-in.

I suppose I better get on checking out the rest of the forces websites and keep notes. Then Rog won't be able to dispute what I say.

My mistake then; I took it from this http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...799&highlight= you were in the Reading/ Wokingham area.

Which is your local police force?

Must be one of Kent/Essex/Suffolk judging from the "other side of London" comment...

oooo i might see if i can listen to that


ah no, i was staying at my oldest daughter`s for a while when her husband was posted away at short notice, i live in cambridge.

these are the cambs web options:


https://www.cambs.police.uk/contactus/

i am actually half deaf, i should have thought about that.

and then i saw this and wondered if they are taking the piss :

Hmm, you're right. that's a poor show, given that most forces let you do an online incident report. Still, at least you can praise their officers - they even helpfully put it top of the list!

Crumbs! No pressure then.

I've carried out some background research now and I think I'm on to something. For a start you can't report an emergency or a serious crime online, it's 999 or nothing. Same with the British Transport Police. There's no national online crime reporting tool either if you want to leave contact details.

For fraud and suspected terrorist activities it's different. You can report to Action Fraud any time day or night with their online tool and it's constantly monitored too. MI5 have an online form for the terrorist stuff.

I haven't checked out all the 39 forces yet, but one at least who does have a non-emergency/incident reporting form doesn't monitor it frequently.

I skim read an interesting report from Her Maj's Justice Inspectorate about the national crime recording process. Looks like they carried out research along the same lines as me as they've noted points I've picked up on.

As to Missing Persons, although it's no use now, there's 2 national agencies both of whom work with local police and will pass your information on, and you can report sightings or information to online.

Missing Persons Bureau (National Crime Agency) - via Contact Us you can send an email, which is their preferred method of contact. I don't know how often it's monitored though.

Missing Persons (this is for runaway kids too) - via Help Us Find Someone, then Sightings and giving information, you can email or complete their online form. Again I don't know how often it's monitored.

i didn`t listen, i realised where i was, i can`t be streaming owt here.

how did it go?

i got a response on facebook in the end but not before i posted to ask if anyone looks at the messages [as they`d updated the page a few times without responding].

cambs constab. are [locally] notoriously bone bloody idle.

Oi netty luv, [ who always manages to steer the thread to talk about her problems ] , what about the old guy, any news ?

it wasn`t me who started the telephone interrogation, other than that i don`t care what you think so you can stop waving your little fishing rod about before it takes your eye out.

he`s been missing a week today and there is not one bit of news, nothing at all .

Hi D,

I called Radio Merseyside at 11.30 like they said but the line was busy. I couldn't get through until after the show started but the producer Jimmy McCracken didn't sound that interested. They didn't call me back.

I managed to check out all 39 English forces to see how many allow online reporting of non-emergency crimes and incidents and 14 forces you can't report at all online. Another 3 forces - one is only for victims, one not for reporting information, and one not for reporting crime. It was hard work finding the online form link on some of the forces' sites, they don't make it easy.

However 2 forces (Essex Police and Surrey Police) mention a new national online reporting service run by police.uk where you can leave contact details and they will respond to within 24 hours: https://report.police.uk/. You could use this in future.

I wrote down what I was going to say and double-checked all the info I had. I might try again tomorrow, see how I feel.

ah that`s a shame c, it`s a very discussion worthy subject and i know how bloody long it takes to get all the shizzle together.

that national service is a good link, thank you. you`d think they`d be plugging these things like they did with nhs direct etc instead of making it a mission wouldn`t you?

Yeah, it was a total surprise finding the national link on the Essex Police site (and then later for Surrey). I conducted several searches on Google using different strings as well as general enquiries like anyone would make, but the national link didn't come up, and even on the police.uk site following their own page links there was no mention of it.

My guess is that they're trialling it at the moment maybe with just those 2 forces acting as pilots. Perhaps they'll roll it out with a fanfare if/when it's been implemented into all forces' individual computer systems. If so I've spoilt it for them.

i hope so, i think it`s pretty essential, it`s not difficult to put people off reporting crime or giving information about one and i think it would encourage folk.

even if you do have a telephone, it`s quick and simple to fill in an online form in the first instance rather than hanging on the phone.

I'm editing my posts whilst you're quoting the non-edited ones. It's going to look funny if anyone else is reading this, still never mind.

That report I mentioned yesterday from HM Justice Inspectorate (HMJI) says "increasingly victims, witnesses or other third parties may report an incident online". They note that " ... all forces operate different processes for deciding if a crime should be recorded".

I think it would be fair to deduce that the police are primarily focused on traditional methods of deciding and reporting. Doing it all online instead is low on the radar and they haven't got to grips with how it should be done.

Instead we have this haphazard, disorganised approach where each force goes its own way, which is poor food for us.

Just to add, I hope he is found safe and well.

I have information that may be important to a case but not important enough to go outside and make an effort.

It's the police's fault for expecting otherwise.