Gloucestershire woman reporting assault told by police ‘go home … because nobody wants to talk to you in this state’
A Gloucestershire councillor was told by the police to “calm down and come back another day because nobody wants to talk to you when you’re in this state” while reporting an assault. Liberal Democrat Councillor Victoria Halifax spoke of the bad experience she had with Gloucestershire Constabulary[1] a few years ago at Shire Hall[2] last week. Gloucestershire County Councillors[3] were debating a motion about policing which, among other things, said county residents deserve a swift and professional response when they call 999.
Cllr Halifax said she believes most officers are there to do a good job. “I tell my children to believe the police are there to do a good job and are trying to do a good job. I believe the majority of officers[4] are really following that as a method of operation in harder and harder circumstances.
Did you see this story? Cotswolds driver faces ‘utterly shocking’ counter claim from council after pothole damages vehicle[5] Want more local politics stories? Here are the latest on Gloucestershire politics[6] “But somebody in my very local neighbourhood was running a well known drugs house very well know to the local police officers it had been complained about often.
Many instances of action, no arrests and no warrants being served. Nothing like that. “One of my children was threatened, so I went round to speak to people in the house.
I was physically assaulted. “I went straight round to the police station to speak to somebody and report the assault. They looked me up and down.
“I was crying, unsurprisingly and they said well maybe what you want to do is go home and calm down. “This is essentially word for word. Maybe what you want to do love, is go home and calm down and when you’ve calmed down think about what happened and you can come back on another day and tell me about it because nobody wants to talk to you when you’re in this state.”
A Gloucestershire Constabulary[7] spokesperson said they are very sorry to hear about what happened to Cllr Halifax and that she is not happy with the service that she received while visiting one of our police stations to report the incident.
“Now that this has been brought to our attention we will reach out to Cllr Halifax so that we can gather more information about what happened and look into any appropriate action.”
References
- ^ Gloucestershire Constabulary (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)
- ^ Shire Hall (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)
- ^ Gloucestershire County Councillors (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)
- ^ officers (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)
- ^ Cotswolds driver faces ‘utterly shocking’ counter claim from council after pothole damages vehicle (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)
- ^ Here are the latest on Gloucestershire politics (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)
- ^ Gloucestershire Constabulary (www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk)