I have found them to be completely useless in every interaction I have had with them!
My last contact with them rather sums it up:
I saw someone who had tried to burgle my flat (also reported to the Police) crossing the road a few 100 metres from my place. He was carrying a large basket with roses and visible bottles of wine in it. There was a florist shop near me that also sells wine so I phoned the Police and told them what I had seen and which shop the goods were likely to have come from. I then went off to work for the week (I worked away from home so didn't return for several days.).
When I returned home, I went to the florist's to ask if it was indeed them that had been the victim of the burglary; they confirmed that they had indeed been burgled on the night in question and that they had found the rear entrance to the shop wide open when the came in to work on Monday morning.
I phoned the Police and insisted on talking to CID and then recounted the entire story to them including the fact that the guy had a very particular accent (I had spoken to him when he tried to break into my place). The Police officer I spoke to said "Oh! I know who that will be" - then apparently they got a search warrant and went round to his place and found loads of bunches of dead roses and empty bottles of the type of wine that was stolen plus the basket I had seen him carrying!
The filthy little scum-bag was remanded in custody as he was already on bail for other burgaries. It seems highly likely that he was responsible for dozens of other break-ins in the village including three to one shop that resulted in them going out of business as they could no longer get insurance.
