West End cops not protecting

THE EDITOR: From time to time letters appear in the newspapers from aggrieved citizens about their disappointment with the response by the police at the West End Police Station, Diego Martin, to complaints.

I have my own litany of complaints with respect to that station, since I have called it from time to time to report the excessive bar noises in my area, especially at night and early morning, which disrupts my sleep.

The stock answer from the station is always, “We’ll send the patrol” – a patrol that never seems to turn up. On many occasions I have called at least three times in any one night, with little or no response.

Over the past few weeks cars have been driven in the Covigne Road and Spaniol Lands areas blasting disturbing music after 6 pm. This can go on to about midnight.

A call to the West End Police Station a few evenings ago to report the nuisance (and to give the registration number of one car) resulted in the constable who answered telling me I should call the station when the cars are passing.

When I pointed out that was exactly the purpose of my call, that the cars were passing and disturbing the peace, a long pause followed before he gave me the station’s stock answer, “We’ll send the patrol to check it out.”

Well, several more evenings have gone by and several more breaches of the peace have been committed in what used to be an extremely quiet neighbourhood and “the patrol” is yet to make its presence. Yet the officers on the Beyond the Tape TV programme will pretend not to know of these infractions.

In the meantime we remain under-protected and underserved by our so-called “protectors” and “servers.”

CLYDE ALPHONSO

Diego Martin