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2024: General Discussion

Matt N said:
In a positive move, it would appear that Alton Towers have taken the lead of Thorpe Park and added QR codes to report anti-social behaviour into their ride queue lines:
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But they’re meaningless unless something actually happens when you use it. Having used the Thorpe one I’m unconvinced this is anything more than lip service.
 
Tom said:
What exactly happened? Did they come back with any response at all?
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I called out 2 lads queue jumping on saw. They waited for us on the stairs after the ride and intimidated me and my daughter by getting up far too close to us and preventing us going down the stairs. They only stopped when their mother came to find them. Reported it and never heard a thing back.
 
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Alix said:
I called out 2 lads queue jumping on saw. They waited for us on the stairs after the ride and intimidated me and my daughter by getting up far too close to us and preventing us going down the stairs. They only stopped when their mother came to find them. Reported it and never heard a thing back.
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To be honest, the ride staff probably don't know about concurrent reports whilst currently on position. It probably gets recorded by guest services and if anything can be done about it, they'll do something, but if not it'll just get reported with no action taken.

The information allows the park to build qualitative data about common themes that occur within the park, such as repeat offenders or common areas of abuse. Then tailor ways to reduce anti-social behaviour from there...
 
Bert2theSpark said:
To be honest, the ride staff probably don't know about concurrent reports whilst currently on position. It probably gets recorded by guest services and if anything can be done about it, they'll do something, but if not it'll just get reported with no action taken.

The information allows the park to build qualitative data about common themes that occur within the park, such as repeat offenders or common areas of abuse. Then tailor ways to reduce anti-social behaviour from there...
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The poster says security will come to incidents, in my experience they don’t. We were being intimidated in a secluded part of the ride, and no body came. I have no idea where the next train load of people were, but no one came down those steps to see what was going on for what felt like an age, and it only stopped when their mother came to find them.

My experience of reporting a concern is that they do naff all.
 
I’ve used this system twice- once at towers and once at Thorpe and had a really positive experience of it!

At towers I reported a group graffitiing in the smiler queue and vaping. About 15 mins after reporting a stern announcement came through the tannoy about not vaping. Not sure if anything happened over graffiti.

Best experience was a Thorpe. Queue jumper entered swarm queue at the start at the started to push through. I challenged and he just pushed past. He kept going and going cutting most of the queue. I reported to Thorpe on WhatsApp. Within 5mins security where coming through the queue and person on WhatsApp was saying they’ve seen him in CCTV. Could not seen the end result but imagining he got chucked out! It was brilliant how quick the response was! Last visit to Thorpe I saw so many security in queuelines and around it was like the Thorpe park police on mass!
 
VerticalLoop123 said:
I’ve used this system twice- once at towers and once at Thorpe and had a really positive experience of it!

At towers I reported a group graffitiing in the smiler queue and vaping. About 15 mins after reporting a stern announcement came through the tannoy about not vaping. Not sure if anything happened over graffiti.

Best experience was a Thorpe. Queue jumper entered swarm queue at the start at the started to push through. I challenged and he just pushed past. He kept going and going cutting most of the queue. I reported to Thorpe on WhatsApp. Within 5mins security where coming through the queue and person on WhatsApp was saying they’ve seen him in CCTV. Could not seen the end result but imagining he got chucked out! It was brilliant how quick the response was! Last visit to Thorpe I saw so many security in queuelines and around it was like the Thorpe park police on mass!
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Were you visiting on a "family friendly" day?
 
Maybe they would first have to be asked to leave a queueline or whatever space they were in and then if they refused to co-operate at that point they would be asked to leave the theme park. At that point if they refused to leave the theme park/resort I'm thinking that they would be trespassing so the police could be asked to physically remove them. Obviously if someone was more of a problem and was physically kicking off then someone could perform a citizen's arrest. Or have we been banned from doing that too now as well? @pluk 's comments would be helpful here.
 
Dave said:
That’s Tesco’s decision, the law doesn’t stop you using reasonable force to protect yourself, others or property.
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It’s also why Thorpe Park security generally have body armour and handcuffs etc, they are ready for trouble. Whereas Tesco are more there to watch and prevent instead of react and potentially get hurt.
 
jon81uk said:
It’s also why Thorpe Park security generally have body armour and handcuffs etc, they are ready for trouble. Whereas Tesco are more there to watch and prevent instead of react and potentially get hurt.
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Well they certainly don't prevent given how shoplifting has gone through the roof in recent years!

Are Thorpe (or Towers) security guards legally allowed to cuff people?
 
Steve74 said:
Well they certainly don't prevent given how shoplifting has gone through the roof in recent years!

Are Thorpe (or Towers) security guards legally allowed to cuff people?
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Yes, security guards can handcuff you if they are needed to detain, and can also use “reasonable force” to detain if required. It would have to be quite a serious situation though, and it’s more of a case of detaining people until the police arrive to take over and perform an arrest if appropriate.
 
Ride availability was appalling today.

The park was dead but a lot of downtime and 50-60 mins queues on most rides.

Was not impressed.
 
Steve74 said:
Well they certainly don't prevent given how shoplifting has gone through the roof in recent years!

Are Thorpe (or Towers) security guards legally allowed to cuff people?
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Not sure on the handcuffs but they're perfectly entitled to make a citizens arrest. They're also perfectly entitled to remove people by force if necessary from private property, and use reasonable force to defend themselves and others.

So are the aforementioned Tesco guards. I worked in a store years ago (was Tesco actually) that actually had a holding cell. A team of 3 guards used to nick people and lock them up until the old bill arrived (sometimes, they actually did arrive!). That was in the days before looting shops became almost completely legal however. It'll be company policies that means they just have to stand and watch now rather than the law because companies know that it's unlikely anyone will come to help (thanks Teresa May) so they don't want to take the risk of someone in their employ being harmed (for litigious reasons of course).

As a customer you'll likely have more freedom and autonomy to do something about it than anyone who works there, and you're perfectly entitled to legally. I'm known for nabbing them in competitors stores, much to my dear lady's annoyance, yet can't do it in my own workplace because I'd get sacked. The days of nicking scumbags, and even defending yourself from attack sometimes (they can, and have, sacked people for this) are long over for us retailers. If Merlin have a bunch of orange SIA badged heavies bouncing people out the parks in this climate, then good on 'em.
 
Matt.GC said:
So are the aforementioned Tesco guards. I worked in a store years ago (was Tesco actually) that actually had a holding cell. A team of 3 guards used to nick people and lock them up until the old bill arrived (sometimes, they actually did arrive!).
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In the Blackpool Pleasure Beach documentary you see that they have (or had) holding cells in the park so wouldn’t be surprised if other parks at least used to have similar.
 
I can't comment on cuffing guests - but certainly from having visited both Towers & Thorpe Park, it is clear that Thorpe's security is more geared up for trouble with the body armour and cuffs. This does question the effectiveness of the metal detection / bag x-ray at Thorpes entrance (but having said that, quite a few of the bladed items in my kitchen drawer are ceramic or plastic). Let's face it, something like a Bic biro would be an effective - albeit crude - weapon if used with some force (yes, I have watched Jason Bourne films to much).

Ejections from Towers are extremely rare to the point where they just about never happen (unless on those two "family friendly" days when there is a notable police presence on-park anyway). Due to the remote location of Towers there is nowhere for ejected guests to go, so unless an entire group is ejected, the guest(s) who have been ejected are likely to cause trouble in the local vicinity.
 
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