POLICE priorities need to move away from tacking social media rows and low-level shoplifting in large retail stores in the light of cuts in budgets and officer numbers.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation says dealing with rows between people on social media is drawing officers away from investigating crimes and that sites like Facebook and large retail outlets have the resources to tackle the issues themselves.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSomething needs to change,\u201d said Federation Chairman Steve Kent.<\/p>\n
\u201cLow level, petty Facebook issues, that\u2019s not domestic matters because we have to treat those seriously, but I\u2019m talking about the tit-for-tat silliness where people should take a bit of their own responsibility, and also low-level shoplifting in larger retail organisations.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth Facebook and these High Street stores are multi-million- and billion-pound organisations. They\u2019ve got the resources and they should have a duty to protect and police themselves better.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, with these unmanageable funding cuts and increases in demand we can\u2019t go on as we are so difficult decisions need to be made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Steve wants to see the National Police Chiefs Council unite to address the issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the cuts it\u2019s like letting the tyres down on a Formula One racing car and seeing if it will go any faster,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fairness, senior officers in Sheffield and South Yorkshire do understand this and are trying to address it, but what I want to see is for us as a Federation to put pressure on the need for there to be a joint approach by the NPCC to make some brave decisions, because I don\u2019t think chiefs are going to, quite understandably, stand out on their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen some examples of it where they\u2019ve said, \u2018We\u2019re not going to investigate low level thefts\u2019. They\u2019ve then been slaughtered by the media.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they came out as a Council and said that they are not going to deal with low level rows on social media then Facebook can deal with it or the individual can take themselves off Facebook\u2019, then that\u2019s more likely to happen isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Prevention is better than cure too says Steve.<\/p>\n
\u201cFacebook has the ability to and should have the resources to employ more staff who can then, if somebody\u2019s got a complaint the default position is to go to Facebook and Facebook will either take action and ban one individual or the other, rather than it coming straight to the police.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, Facebook can police it and stop these offenses happening in the first place and escalating it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to shop lifting, and while we would help the corner shop or the grocers on the village green, big national retailers like Asda or Tesco they have the resources to employ the staff, so they could actually have preventative measures to stop shop lifting happening in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n