Thursday 1 May 2014

"Ask a Policeman" poster (1979)

Crime was always one aspect of policing that hindered the police force from doing its job. That's why, in 1975, the department of justice proposed the radical idea of cutting back on the numbers of crimes that would be tolerated during any given year.

The 1975 crime figures were as high as 100,000, but by 1977 the total number had been reduced to 65,000. This was largely due to a polite but firm public information campaign which targeted offenders, informing them of the new, official crime ration, and explaining just how much pressure the average police officer was under.

Many lawbreakers were sensitive to the needs of the police and either stopped committing crimes completely or only committed those that were legal. Many helped out by leaving incriminating evidence at the scenes of crimes and in 1979 a consortium of gangland bosses even held a charity knee-capping event, the proceeds of which went to the police pedicure fund.



7 comments:

  1. two days ago i witnessed a felony: a guy taking an old lady's purse away, although the lady seemed not terribly enthusiastic about it. so i made this citizen's arrest and took him prisoner. i was bringing him to a scarfolk police station but he refused saying that he wasn't that terribly enthusiastic about it also. should i ask a policeman about this lack of civic cooperation?

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  2. Clearly I'm not reading the poster correctly, it seems to me the poster is instructing the police to ask other police what to do and to correspond by mail?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, mail. You have obviously not had your update. Report to the Town Hall immediately.

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    2. Luckily I'm across the pond, so I must regretfully decline. I'll send a letter.

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  3. They send me back the letter because emergency letters needs an extra charge.
    I had to leave home for going to the post office, so the burglar put the house on fire.
    But this time, I've asked the good stamp for my letter to the firemen.
    At the post office, they said that they wasn't asked to give the appropriate information.
    I triple-reread the poster and found that they was right.
    I hope that I will never become a dead supply teacher because I don't understand all the complexity of our administration.

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