Speed cameras still working and bringing in revenue across the country. ANPR vans and cameras still working the roads. Was one at the bottom of my road on Friday. Parking wardens still active in my area.

From the few articles I have read it appears that cases of really high speeds have increased since the shut down, resulting in higher fines and penalties.

A burglary happened in the next street last week and I spoke to the chap yesterday from my window and he said that he has had no visit from the police as yet. So no change there then.

Morrisons posted that they have had a big increase in booze thefts. Our corner shop ( has not closed or decreased hours) has had more attempted shop lifting in the last few weeks. So maybe burglary has declined a bit but social problems have increased many fold.

regards

Crime fell anyway last year in the UK (don't know why), so it might be hard to tell what's caused by the lock-down and other factors. No figures yet for the lock-down period so it's all speculation.

My guess is there will be a massive spike in fraud. To keep the economy going the government launched a number of gigantic financial support schemes very quickly. Hundreds of billions of money have been flung at the problem in just a few months. Given the emergency it's unlikely that any of these schemes have been carefully thought through and impeccably administered. And loopholes, high-transaction volumes and imperfect supervision are excellent for large-scale white-collar crime. 80% Furlough claimed for thousands of non-existent staff? Dodgy PPE and Vaccine Contracts? Price gouging? Corruption…

Crimes like Domestic violence and child-cruelty also likely to rise. As the kids aren't going to school, and are locked down with their abusers, who knows what's going on?

Sadly, bad people always take advantage of bad situations. All they need is opportunity.

Dave

Domestic violence has increased sharply.

Burglary is down.

Apparently drug money is collecting in UK cities because it's become difficult to launder it…

Neil

Councils will get "emergency covid-19 council tax powers" next year to make up the shortfall

Government criminals always make a profit

A friend's son is a policeman and he reports that, locally, minor crime have dropped considerably. This is due to the closure of pubs, so not alcohol fuelled fights at closing time. One could say it has gone domestic.

I did get the impression that the police do not like trying to enforce the 2m separation rule.

JA

whoa it's been a long time.

Sup yall.

True. But then it wasn't easy to manipulate LIBOR either! Ponzi Schemes are tricky to organise and ENRON featured much creative naughtiness. ENRON was triggered by careless deregulation of the US Energy Market by President Reagan – bad implementation of a good idea opened Pandora's box. Time will tell!

Dave

Then there was the car crime in NZ recently when 97 vehicles were stolen from a fenced enclosure over one weekend. Doubtless the company will improve security after that little episode. Most vehicles have been recovered (probably because the roads were quiet and traffic flows easily monitored and by virtue of the gang not being that clever). Organised crime has not yet been organised sufficiently to hammer the furlough payments – yet. But they might well be looking at it seriously🙂 .