One morning, a few years ago, whilst taking the dogs out I found a discarded pair of number plates at the front of my house. In the early hours of that same morning I recall being woken by a car directly outside my house and voices but in a broken sleep I'd drifted off again and thought nothing further of it as it wasn't unusual to hear people on the street as the house opposite us has about six cars on the drive so I thought it was one of them. However whilst walking the dogs, I saw a CSI van outside our local vets, I know the staff there and they disclosed that the previous night they'd been broken into and the drugs cabinets had been targeted. Having checked my CCTV, it was evident that those responsible for the vet break in had most likely been those individuals I had heard outside my house, the times matched etc.
I contacted the Police and advised them that I had potentially recovered a pair of number plates from a vehicle used in crime and that I had secured the plates in my garage & would they like to collect them, they confirmed they would. Days later (just like Rushy's post) the plates hadn't been collected. I recontacted the Police, a PC and a PCSO attended in a van to collect them. The PCSO knocks on my door and explains why she has attended, I asked if she was with an Officer and she pointed at the van. Here in West Yorkshire PCSO's can not seize anything evidential. The female Officer shouted to me from the van, saying she wasn't getting out it was too cold. The PCSO went to pick up the plates and I stopped her asking if she had any latex gloves, she didn't have any so she just picked them up and I watched as she threw them in the van before the PC drove off.
The number plates were evidence, they'd been kept in a dry location, I'd handled them with gloves and it had been dry overnight prior to me picking them up so the opportunities to secure evidence from them to identify the offenders was fair to middling.
A few days later, having reviewed the log relating to the collection of the plates, I contacted the attending Officers Sgt to establish what had happened to the plates as there was no information on the log stating where they had been taken. My role at this time was to review logs and recover jobs which had been dealt with in a poor manner to ensure standards were being met etc, so my reviewing of the log was for a legitimate Policing purpose. There should have been a P Number representing a property reference number. Subsequently I was advised by the attending Officers Sgt that regrettably the PC who had attended had thrown the plates away, so basically disposed of potential evidence which could have linked a suspect/s to a burglary where prescription drugs had been stolen. Apparently it wasn't the first time this Officer had done something similar and yet she's still in the job to this day.
There is literally no hope going forward for a reliable service from a certain element of the Police and unfortunately that negatively reflects on those Officers who do an outstanding job and daily go above and beyond to help members of the public and victims of crime.
