A furious mother took the fight against crime into her own hands and confronted ‘scumbag’ thieves this week, taking back a bike they had allegedly stolen after claiming that police officers ‘didn’t want to help.’
Hayley Tully was left fuming after a band of thugs pinched a bike belonging to her daughter’s boyfriend on Wednesday, so decided to take matters into her own hands.
The determined mother-of-two set out in the car with her daughter and soon tracked the hooligans down – wasting no time in casually hopping out and grabbing the bike back off them.
Video filmed by her daughter in the passenger seat shows Ms Tully on the roads of her hometown in Formby, Merseyside as she does a U-turn after spotting the bicycle being ridden by one of the thieves.
It comes as police forces are blasted for increasingly failing to tackle the crime that matters to ordinary people: petty thefts, mobile phone snatches and break-ins – and as they come under increased scrutiny following scandals which have revealed institutional misogyny, racism and homophobia shattered the public’s confidence.
A report out this month showed how the police’s ability to solve crimes has dramatically decreased, with charge rates collapsing to a third of what they were in 2015.
The emergency services are facing extraordinary pressures, and are taking as long as 18 hours to respond to 999 callouts such as burglaries and domestic incidents, data has shown.
The time taken to respond to ‘Grade Two’ incidents, in which there is no threat to life but the call is a ‘priority’ situation rose to four hours and 20 minutes on average in 2021, up from three hours just two years previously.
Most forces have targets of one hour for these types of calls, but worst offenders Gloucestershire Constabulary took an average of 18.5 hours in 2021. It was followed by Derbyshire Constabulary at 15.1 hours and Avon and Somerset Police at 12.9 hours.
Britain’s police were warned to get back to basics earlier this month after a damning report found that public confidence in the service is ‘hanging by a thread’ due to their failures to tackle crime.
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke urged officers to stay out of political matters and stop intervening in Twitter spats, and instead focus on deterring and solving crime and disorder.
In his bombshell report published today, Mr Cooke warned public trust in policing was ‘hanging by a thread’ following a series of scandals and officers not tackling the daily neighbourhood crime most people want them to focus on.
And he said police forces are failing at ‘the basics’ such as picking up phones, attending incidents, investigating crimes and keeping victims informed.
Mr Cooke highlighted the collapse in charging rates which have dropped by two thirds since 2014, while police-recorded crime rose last year to the highest level since records began.
‘Fewer criminals are being caught,’ he said.
‘The police aren’t always focusing on the issues that matter most to the public, and charge rates are far too low. Too often, people offend with apparent impunity, and the police aren’t targeting them consistently.’
The mother took to social media to share the footage on Wednesday, writing: ‘Why is it okay just to sit back and let these lowlifes take your property? I’m not having it!
‘The police don’t want to help, so you suss out where the little rats are and catch them totally off guard. Name and shame these horrible little rats.’
She then added a warning to friends, writing: ‘Please Beware! Look after your own stuff.’
