Si Hunt Whispers... IS IT WRONG TO "SNOOP" ON YOUR NEIGHBOURS?

[Si Hunt]

Or in old money - should people be reporting crime?

Because - someone - tell me what the difference is?

Yet use of words like "snoop" and even "Neighbour" (suggesting dobbing in Old George next door, rather than the yob from the next estate who grafitti's your garage) are used in the press to suggest this is an example of a "Nanny State". Other, more considered opinionators agree on reporting crime like squatting, vandalism and so-on, but disagree with the financial incentives offered by the government, which are seen as "bribes".

Story here

But surely whether or not money changes hands is irrelevent - all that does is to give people a reason to report the crime.

Neighbourhood Watch Schemes have been popular for years, but these people are never called "snoopers" are they?

So do you think people should be paid to report local crime ("snoop") on people?

Si.

[Rob McCow]

It's pretty sad if the only way to get people to report on crimes is to give them money to do it. What it says about society is that we're money-grabbing sum who wouldn't lift a finger to help another person, or uphold our civic duties, unless there's a fat, juicy cash reward in it for us.

It's seems the Government is aiming to build a society where no-one has any pride, no-one has any sense of cohesion or community, no-one gives a rat's hair for anyone else.

It's exactly the kind of rubbish you'd expect a target-obsessed moron to come up with.

[Jamie McCrimmon]

It's seems the Government is aiming to build a society where no-one has any pride, no-one has any sense of cohesion or community, no-one gives a rat's hair for anyone else.

They achieved that long ago. Along with wrecking education.

I agree, though. Reporting crime should be done out of pride in your neighbourhood, and wanting your area and ameneties to be respected. Doing it for the cash is shallow. I wonder how they can afford the rewards anyway, aren't we meant to be billions in debt?

[Si Hunt]

Is a person really "money grabbing" and "shallow" if they are swayed into reporting a crime by being paid for it? Ok, you'd hope you would ring the police if you saw something and I think I would. But people are busy. Maybe they fear comeback? Maybe they ARE money grabbing and shallow. Are we saying there arn't money grabbing, shallow people out there? Would we rather those money grabbing and shallow people don't alert police to crime, or get a small amount of cash and lead to the offenders being punished?

Si.

[Dino]

And of course when the computer disc containing the details of the payments and addresses of the people who grassed up people gets lost...

We do get police cars around here, but I've no idea what's going on? If we had proper police on the beat (providing you can find one tough enough to walk round here after dark...) then maybe we won't need this scheme?

[Dino]

And another thing...

That four year old who was mauled by a pit-bull cross breed in Liverpool?
The police were informed about the dogs in the house NINE MONTHS AGO but dismissed it as "Not a Police matter."

People have far too much faith in the police for their own good...

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Elect me to office and I promise an old woman with nothing better to do than spy on her neighbours on every street corner. Oh yes nanny state will take a whole new meaning! Ha ha ha ...

[Rob McCow]

There are hundreds of scams where you could plant evidence in someone's house, set them up and get the police in. Except, until this scheme was announced, there'd be no point. Now it would be an easy way to make £500.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I am sure in the Running Man there was a poster saying "report your friends and family who cash prizes". But that was satire obviously.

[Andrew Curnow]

There just seems, to me, something wrong about this proposed scheme. It may well mean that more crime is reported (although it may not) but it seems to tap into the more unpleasant, money-grabbing part of people, which is just feeding the increasingly materialist society we seem to have. I guess I think it's a situation where you either believe that the end justifies the means, or you don't. I don't.

[Si Hunt]

Where has all this talk of neighbours, friends and family come from? Surely the "scumbags" are the yobs that smashed your car window, mugged your elderly neighbour and pissed on the town war memorial? If you saw a crime and reported it without being paid, would you feel shameful and consider the yob, mugger etc a "neighbour"? If someone vandalises or theives, what does it matter where they live?

Si. :mobile

[Rob McCow]

Where has all this talk of neighbours, friends and family come from?

Si Hunt Whispers... IS IT WRONG TO "SNOOP" ON YOUR NEIGHBOURS?

Did someone mention friends and family?

From the Evening Standard:

Members of the public will receive £500 rewards to "shop their neighbours" via telephone hotlines under a scheme announced today.
The handouts will go to the first 1,000 people who provide tip-offs that lead to an "unlawfully occupied" home being repossessed.
The government plans are aimed at the illegal sub-letting of social housing. In London, £250,000 will be available in rewards.

So it's a very limited scheme, specifically targeted at squatters and the like. To be fair, I hadn't read the article either! But this is about making money for landlords and has nothing to do with the amount of urine splashed on statues of Winston Churchill.

[Si Hunt]

Well, yes. "Neighbours" is a word bandied about by the press (as you showed) and it was this that I was referencing in the thread title (hence the quotes). "Friends" was a word used by someone on this thread.

Si.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Hmmm - we ended up calling the Police about a neighbour, not something we wanted to do or took lightly. They were good friends of ours, but they just kind of disappeared from reality as they got involved in a downward spiral of alcoholism and violence.

We tried to do the good neighbour thing, and always be there, and kind of straighten out their mess. But there came a time when our best intentions were probably just making things worse - and the squalor her kids lived in was disgusting.

Kind of wish like a lot of people on the street we could have just turned a blind eye and said "not our problem", but neither me or my wife are like that. It's a horrible thing to watch someone self destruct in front of your eyes like that, and you feel you've failed as a human being / neighbour when you pick up that phone. We didn't make that call for a reward or to get at this neighbour, but simply because if left unchecked we worried how this was going to end.

It's a sad reflection on society that if you try and play the good Samaritan today or "do the right thing", there is always someone ready to hurl abuse at you and say/do something quite nasty. I often wish I could just say "not my problem" and block it out.

[Jason Thompson]

As a limited scheme it might work, but the idea overall is rendered pointless anyway, since my experience is that the police don't seem to give a damn unless someone is actually being beaten up or murdered. Only last weekend Emma called up to report a crime actually taking place on the street outside only to be told 'we'll send a car out if we get round to it later'. WHAT?!

[Jon Masters]

I think for this specific scheme the idea of dobbing your neighbours is that you should recognise who is living in the house next to you. If you see a constant different stream of people then perhaps the house is being sublet.

I've no problem with the money as an incentive - there is always a risk that if you report your neighbours for something, they will find out who the dobber was and make your life a misery from then on. The cash might be enough to tip the balance. After all, although its easy to blame the authorities for recent tragic cases like Baby P , I would hate to think I was a neighbour who did nothing even though I was suspicious something was wrong.