TVP they are no different from any other police force in SE England – sometimes they are lenient, sometime they can be really harsh.
they act on the level of disruption caused by the rave; and you can’t expect cops to just let things go if locals or building owners are complaining the area is being trashed.
Sadly there has been too much vandalism and rubbish at certain raves, people only started addressing these issues when rigs started getting confiscated more often.
There is a fair amount of crime at a rave – there is often criminal damage to the surroundings (you get numpties who think its fun to break into adjacent places) and it is of course an unregulated drugs market (legal clubs have some sort of “veneer of respectability” with bouncers at least attempting to stop overt drugs use).
I think the cops are smarter than many realise.
What they have been doing over the years is working out “what sort of crowd” attends raves; which they can do very easily by taking down numberplates (each car has to be owned by an individual) and doing “PNC checks” on individuals (all of us must have had one at least once whilst leaving a rave)
By and large if you are a “normal raver” with a job or at college, and who doesn’t blatantly wave drugs in front of coppers’ noses or is careless about stashing stuff, you will be left alone.
Even if you are a DJ or own a bit of a rig, its not quite contstant pressure otherwise half the people I know would be in jail (although they do keep an eye on you if they think you are doing illegal raves)
but – there are a number of people who attend raves in stolen cars, who are addicted to drugs, who thieve their way through life because they don’t have jobs, who fight in the streets, who burgle places and are well known to the Police.
When these sorts are seen at raves, the cops tend to judge the crowd by its “lowest common denominator” (and often its the “wannabe gangsta” types who are first to sling bottles at the Police when they see them…)
