Our thanks to Len J for this:
Hi Mike,
A little story about a personal experience.
Last week my son was knocked off his bike by a car on the school run. Thankfully he just received a bruised hand. The driver, a female, had signalled him to cross then proceeded to turn right at a junction and hit the back of his bike. She did not stop to see if he was ok but stopped about 50m further down the road to check the damage to her car. She then drove off. This was a hit and run on a child of 12 years old. His mum reported the incident to the police. The police sent her a form to fill in under the self-reporting scheme , no doubt to save money or due to a shortage of officers. Now had this been a call about a DV incident, how would the police have reacted? Would they have dared to ask the victim to fill in a form under the self-reporting scheme or would a van load of police officers have been sent to the incident?
The politicising of DV has surely had an impact on police morale and resources to the point when the police do not prioritise a hit and run. My son knows who the driver is and where she lives yet no police van has turned up outside her door to take her away for questioning. Ridiculous.
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