Is It Right For The Police To Put Temptation In Peoples Way?

[sandyRoe]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2295692/Caught-red-handed-Rogues-gallery-thieves-busted-breaking-police-honey-trap-cars-rigged-secret-cameras.html

[murraymints]

Well if it wriggles them out !

[emmie]

perhaps they had already come to the attention of the police before, and this was a way to get firm evidence. No one forces them to steal.

[ummmm]

Yes. If I seen a laptop on display in a car nothing would tempt me to try and steal it. Only thieves would do that.

[tonyav]

I'd bet that most of them have got previous.

[RATTER15]

Like ummmm said ^^^^^

[sandyRoe]

It's likely true that most of these thieves caught on camera have a record as long as your arm. Even so, it somehow doesn't seem right that the police are acting as agent provocateur.

[ummmm]

Well I think it's a sad world we live in when we have to hide everything of value.

[LazyGun]

I think on balance they are a good thing. There is a fine line between opportunistic theft and incitement, but this seems to stay just the right side of the Law to my mind.

Would you feel tempted to rob a car if you saw a satnav, or a phone or a computer on display inside of it Sandy? I would not, nor would the vast majority of the public. We do need to weed out those that do not think the same way....

[daisya]

Have to agree with ummmm. Very sad that this happens and even worse that decent people have to take drastic action to prevent things being stolen imo.

[douglas9401]

I'll tell you what's criminal, Dominic Littlewood being allowed on the telly.

[jake-the-peg]

It's very close to entrapment isn't it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment#England_and_Wales

Local to me I have also seen marginal behaviour where police have switch off the radar activated speed reminder signs before setting up a speed trap

I recall a thread a while back about someone who'd had too much money paid into her bank account and there was a lot of support for her to keep it.

If that had been put there by the Police to 'weedle out' the dishonest I'm sure there would have been an outcry

[LazyGun]

entrapment - thats what I meant, not incitement. Brain not fully engaged as yet.

I do know we have a location where the police use a car like this - but that location is actually signposted as such.

[ummmm]

Jake - that's different. Having money paid into your account is not like trying to open a locked car because there's a laptop on the seat.

[mrs_overall]

I can't see anything wrong with catching the thieving barstewards this way

[tonyav]

Neither can I mrs o.

[Sqad]

JTP

\\\\\I recall a thread a while back about someone who'd had too much money paid into her bank account and there was a lot of support for her to keep it. \\\

Good point, the difference is that the above was a "one off" I would have assumed whereas the hooded hooligans demonstrated a lifestyle.

[FredPuli43]

A simple and good test is "Did the police do no more than present the defendant with an unexceptional opportunity to commit a crime?" [R v Loosely, cited in the link, and a European case, Teixera de Castro v Portugal]

Leaving a car with something worth stealing inside it is doing no more than genuine victims do. When the police make themselves conspirators in a fake crime, to do a fraud which seems undetectable, for example, and approach complete strangers to lure them into doing something which only the great inducement of gain would have them do, then the evidence is likely to be excluded

[waterboatman]

It's intended to trap persistent offenders. Don't break into cars and you won't get caught. Simples. tch!

[society]

"Yes. If I seen a laptop on display in a car nothing would tempt me to try and steal it. Only thieves would do that. "

"Well I think it's a sad world we live in when we have to hide everything of value."

I agree with Ummmm