Shoplifters given food vouchers instead of punishment - Polidicks

[quote]Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis has suspended the scheme in the county with immediate effect. Other forces including West Midlands Police have also reportedly issued vouchers. Officers in Staffordshire have handed out seven vouchers to ‘individuals in need’ since March, while PCSOs in the West Midlands are believed to have issued vouchers to people they suspect to be a shoplifting risk as a ‘preventative measure’.[/quote] [url]http://www.expressandstar.com/news/crime/2013/08/12/shoplifters-go-free-and-get-handed-food-vouchers/[/url] source What is your opinion on this do you think people should get rewarded for a crime or do you think it is a preventative measure ??

erm... they were only stealing food to eat, it seems kinda reasonable actually.

It's quite sad that people have to steal food to survive.

Funny how we feed prisoners who have broken the laws of the land but not the people who have done nothing wrong. The system is fucked. I'm not saying we shouldn't feed prisoners. I'm saying we should feed everybody.

My personal opinion is that they should get given the food stamps but also get given community service in food centre to see what they do to help the needy

It depends what kind of shoplifters. Around here most shoplifters are just bastard teens looking for free candy.

Would be nice if supermarkets were to take some of the good products that run past the sell by date and distributed them to local shelters and the like. I know that some of them do, but a huge number of them just bin perfectly usable food, on account of it not being sellable. That way, homeless bankrupt people wouldn't have to shoplift, and it would help everyone. It's a shame that this scheme was suspended, as it makes sense - a large number of shoplifters are likely people who can't afford food.

[QUOTE=Alex_DeLarge;41808550]Funny how we feed prisoners who have broken the laws of the land but not the people who have done nothing wrong. The system is fucked. I'm not saying we shouldn't feed prisoners. I'm saying we should feed everybody.[/QUOTE] It's in Britain and I am pretty sure they are supposed to feed everyone in social crisis, probably with some conditions (like proving that you are actively seeing employment/it's clear that you have bigger family than your job can feed). I presume these guys were somebody who couldn't fulfil the conditions for some reason and had nothing to eat. Even from entirely pragmatic point of view, even if we looked at the person as a "parasite" (and I still wouldn't be sure that that's the case), as long as it can be proven that they won't shoplift anymore/won't cause more than particular amount of damage, it's cheaper to keep a parasite alive on food tickets out of the prison and occasionally deal with a shoplifting case than it is to keep them alive in a prison where you have to not only feed them, but also house them and watch over them.

[QUOTE=Terminutter;41808585]Would be nice if supermarkets were to take some of the good products that run past the sell by date and distributed them to local shelters and the like. I know that some of them do, but a huge number of them just bin perfectly usable food, on account of it not being sellable. That way, homeless bankrupt people wouldn't have to shoplift, and it would help everyone. It's a shame that this scheme was suspended, as it makes sense - a large number of shoplifters are likely people who can't afford food.[/QUOTE] Why don't we start some kind of petition for them to do that? All they do is throw it in the bin so something like that would be really nice.

I'm for feeding the needy. I mean, if you think of it by doing this it's removing any incentive for them to steal food to survive which eliminates the crime. That's not to say that there aren't those out there who shoplift items they don't need just because they're greedy.

[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;41809937]Why don't we start some kind of petition for them to do that? All they do is throw it in the bin so something like that would be really nice.[/QUOTE] You'd need more than a petition to convince their legal and PR departments to give out non-sellable food to people Imagine the PR hit and legal troubles supermarket x would take if a headline hit the news reading "homeless left sick by food from x"

I was working night shifts at a grocery store. I have to take all the overstock off and put up the new shit. The amount of over stock in [b]1 night[/b] would be enough to feed Africa several times over. It's absolutely absurd how much perfectly good food is tossed because the "special edition" ends or some bullshit.

[QUOTE=fishyfish777;41810287]You'd need more than a petition to convince their legal and PR departments to give out non-sellable food to people Imagine the PR hit and legal troubles supermarket x would take if a headline hit the news reading "homeless left sick by food from x"[/QUOTE] Food past the sell by is perfectly edible nearly all of the time, and often tastes just as good. You typically get a good 3 days between the sell by and use by dates, (depending on food type, of course) and shops bin food at the sell by. (and in the case of some places, they actively destroy what they throw away) You might poison yourself if you ate something after the use by, but even then you've typically got a one or two day grace period, unless it's pork or something.

[QUOTE=rovar;41812283]I was working night shifts at a grocery store. I have to take all the overstock off and put up the new shit. The amount of over stock in [b]1 night[/b] would be enough to feed Africa several times over. It's absolutely absurd how much perfectly good food is tossed because the "special edition" ends or some bullshit.[/QUOTE] You ought to sneak it out somehow and drive it to a homeless shelter or something, they'd love you for that. [editline]8:05PM[/editline] ahh, [B]was[/B] working

[QUOTE=Terminutter;41808585]Would be nice if supermarkets were to take some of the good products that run past the sell by date and distributed them to local shelters and the like. I know that some of them do, but a huge number of them just bin perfectly usable food, on account of it not being sellable. That way, homeless bankrupt people wouldn't have to shoplift, and it would help everyone. It's a shame that this scheme was suspended, as it makes sense - a large number of shoplifters are likely people who can't afford food.[/QUOTE] its a serious legal liability unfortunately, it's the reason that universities and restaurants throw away most uneaten food

As someone who's family in the past had fallen on hard enough times that 'lifting was necessary, I say its a good thing that they are getting vouchers rather than punishment.

[QUOTE=rovar;41812283]I was working night shifts at a grocery store. I have to take all the overstock off and put up the new shit. The amount of over stock in [b]1 night[/b] would be enough to feed Africa several times over. It's absolutely absurd how much perfectly good food is tossed because the "special edition" ends or some bullshit.[/QUOTE] I throw out almost 300 doughnuts every night at my job. Feels bad doing it.

How about nobody should have to starve no matter what their situation? Shouldn't access to basic necessities such as food and water be a human right?

[QUOTE=W00tbeer1;41813713]I throw out almost 300 doughnuts every night at my job. Feels bad doing it.[/QUOTE] Do you ever take any home with you?

it's sad that in this day and age people who have to steal to eat would be thrown in jail to rot just for it