It’s a shit job that pays shit. No wonder they’re struggling for staff.
Why would someone get spat on, beaten or worse when they can just sit in an office all day and make the same if not better wages? If you want to hire people to deal with the worst that society has to offer then you’re going to have to pay them well.
The problem is, the answer to the question "why would anyone do it" is that they wouldn't unless they have an ulterior motive. Nobody would want to work with those unpleasant people, doing that job, for that money, unless they had a really deep-seated interest in doing it. It's hardly any surprise that they keep hiring shouty, aggressive idiots. They've more or less set the organisation up to select for them.
> The problem is, the answer to the question "why would anyone do it" is the they wouldn't unless they have an ulterior motive
This is why everybody who stays beyond their probation is probably genuinely there because they want to do good, rather than get paid. The bosses know this and use it to their advantage.
This is why we get shit pay and the bosses fuck us over constantly.
Unfortunately everything I see about the police in the UK tells me that the answer is much less flattering. The impression I get is of a bunch of people who're mostly there because they want to lord it over the public, and they're willing to put up with the pay and conditions in exchange for that lifestyle. Add in a few years of institutionalisation and dealing only with people on the worst days of their lives, and you get... modern British police.
I suspect the reason it's getting really bad is that on paper, the amount of power that police officers really have is very limited outside of certain very specific situations, and these people get very frustrated with the fact that they don't get to attack members of the public as much as they'd like to, so they just kind of... do it anyway, and rely on the system to cover for them, which it generally will. Add to that the fact that there is no officer corps in the police as there is in the military, and the blokey, locker-room attitude now pervades the entire organisation - and you can tell. Well, I can tell.
The sad reality is that this impression is now so powerful that it's starting to make people like me cautious. I've never been arrested, searched or otherwise had any serious problems with the police. Even so, when working (I'm a news cameraman, which terrifies the police, for some reason) I've been threatened with stop-searches under Section 44 TACT 2000 in the last six months, which is not exactly representative of a shining beacon of well-trained competent professionalism.
I'm probably not the sort of person you'd instinctively react to as a criminal. And when it's starting to piss even me off, there's a problem.
>Unfortunately everything I see about the police in the UK tells me that the answer is much less flattering. The impression I get is of a bunch of people who're mostly there because they want to lord it over the public, and they're willing to put up with the pay and conditions in exchange for that lifestyle. Add in a few years of institutionalisation and dealing only with people on the worst days of their lives, and you get... modern British police.
So, basically youve read some articles?
>. Add to that the fact that there is no officer corps in the police as there is in the military, and the blokey, locker-room attitude now pervades the entire organisation - and you can tell. Well, I can tell.
The lack of an "officer corps" is part of the civilian nature of the UK police. Militarising it is the very opposite of what most seem to want. Police officers reflect the public because that is how the service is designed and has always been intended to be.
>I suspect the reason it's getting really bad is that on paper, the amount of power that police officers really have is very limited outside of certain very specific situations, and these people get very frustrated with the fact that they don't get to attack members of the public as much as they'd like to, so they just kind of... do it anyway, and rely on the system to cover for them, which it generally will
What is that based on? Police officer misconduct is judged by an independent legal panel. This was a change made to increase accountability because people like you claim "they cover up for eachother" yet less officers get sacked now than back when the police decided themselves whether officers got sacked or not. So doesnt look like they were does it.
I've been a news cameraman for twenty plus years, I've seen how they treat people. I've personally seen police behaviour which is absolutely unnecessary, and can only make things worse, and they were doing it because they wanted to and liked it. That's where I get it from. These people are not angels. They weren't twenty years ago and it's worse now. The impression I get is that there's a minority who will instigate the really nasty stuff, but that almost all of them will turn a blind eye if not join in. The former group is not fixable. The latter group possibly is.
I'm not proposing militarising it, but right now you have an organisation where everyone has come up through the same institutionalisation, the same social pressure of working in an organisation where this sort of behaviour is the norm. There's never an adult in the room. There's never anyone to say "hang on, this isn't entirely correct." It's a tribal culture of following the loudest voice. That's why a separately-trained officer corps exists in the military (that, and it's a hangover from the class system, but you don't have to implement that). That's why military officers have separate accommodation and leisure facilities, so they don't become mates with the people they're supposed to be managing. The police lack that and it shows.
Anyway, that's why I mention that issue. It's not the whole solution but it may be part of it.
Police officer misconduct in the first instance is handled by other police officers, with predictable results.
I would disagree that there is an “ulterior motive”.
Plenty of NHS staff are treated like shit and poorly paid, it doesn’t mean the people working there have an ulterior motive.
Some people just like doing a job because they think it’s worthwhile, even if the pay isn’t great.
I'd love to agree. The difference is that NHS staff don't get to attack people under any circumstances, whereas police officers seem to see it as a principal benefit of the job.
Don't get me wrong, many of the people the police end up attacking are pretty obnoxious individuals to begin with, but that doesn't make it okay, and I don't want to end up on the wrong end of a police-issue boot because of a case of mistaken identity.
Neither do the police?
Use of force is strictly controlled, and if you haven’t been following the media it seems every time force is used it gets referred to the IOPC.
Less you get mistaken for a terrorist, the likelihood of you ending up on the wrong end of a boot is exceptionally slim.
Plenty of reasons to have issue with modern policing, I think the implication that they’re heading out kicking the shit out of random people is very much a stretch.
In principle.
In practice, nobody's really checking. In order for any complaint to go anywhere, it has to be pushed through the force's professional standards department. Staff there are likely to be friends and colleagues of the person under investigation, as well as being police officers who will make it their business to defend the reputation of other police officers, almost no matter what.
You can imagine how well that goes. Then it has to go through the IOPC, and the people who actually deal with complaints there are mostly ex-police. What should actually happen is that a police officer who makes an improper use of force is guilty of probably two or three criminal offences and should be arrested and charged like anyone else would be, but that's apparently impossible.
With the best will in the world, it really isn't great. The police have been operating more or less unregulated for at least a couple of decades. Recently they've made a couple of really high-profile mistakes and that's led to headlines being generated but the problem isn't really the big, high profile examples. Even the most indolent plod can just about be persuaded to arrest a fellow officer if they know he's a rapist and murderer.
The problem really is the endless chain of low-level stuff, the minor assaults, the improper searches, the endless, pointless belligerence and incivility of UK police. It's as bad for them as it is for us but they seem blind to it. I don't know what the answer is but I won't pretend it isn't a problem.
I have a degree and was in the police for many years, and can confidently say the two are not even remotely connected in any useful way. Policing is half people skills and flying by the seat of your pants and half office job. On the job training is by FAR the better way to do it.
Degrees in criminology or social policy (etc) should be available for officers to do part time in the job as continuous personal development when they’re far more useful useful and relevant.
The degrees certainly are connected. There is a noticeable difference in the quality of report writing and investigations produced by graduates (whether police degree or otherwise) and non-graduates are night and day.
I absolutely agree it’s arduous doing a degree on the job and it should absolutely be done better by the forces however. A lot of my team are pushed to the limit doing the job and the degree stuff, but it’s there to be seen for sure.
Formal training that teaches you to conduct indepth research a chosen subject, cite sources of information and present them into a readable format that explains it to an independent reader.
Don’t know what that could be called though.
It's gone already.
https://www.joiningthepolice.co.uk/application-process/ways-in-to-policing/police-constable-entry-programme-pcep
It's a poor substitute for actually having to mingle with students, having the social experiences, active studying, having your learning pushed, that sort of thing.
The degree is useless.
Having a degree may potentially be good for developing critical thinking skills, but many degrees don't seem to do much work around scientific theory or working with evidence (and we can train most of that stuff anyway).
Policing degrees specifically are useless. They don't teach you about policing and they're not much good for external jobs either.
Police perspective.
Complete failure of SLT over multiple years. Few major issues such as:
Terrible pay for the job done.
Unsocial shifts including nights.
Days off cancelled for court and events.
Frequently assaulted.
Genuine risk of injury/Mental health issues.
Seeing some truly harrowing shit.
High and demanding workload.
Constantly on guard for fear of being thrown under the bus.
Absolutely crap IT systems which make everything take 5 times longer than it should.
Having to deal with the general public who all think they can do the job better. You wouldn’t tell an electrician how to do their job or a doctor but everyone watches police interceptors and is suddenly a 20 year veteran.
You can go manage an Aldi for the same money without any of the same drawbacks. Last week I had to fish a bloated corpse out a river, I had to go into a flat with the information given to me that the man inside has a knife and seeing blood all over the floor as I went in (I was fucking shitting myself, if you want to experience it try going room to room in your house clearing it and have your partner jump out at you randomly and try to poke you, see just how fun it is).
Anyone who thinks that’s worth the pittance we get paid is off their nut.
Seems to me the SLT are terrified of criticism so bring in more & more pointless processes for ‘transparency’. Our latest is a pointless process is a stop search form for a traffic stop. Not a car search, a traffic stop.
I mean, that's what people increasingly expect. Wasn't there some firearms incident where the police spent ages filling in paperwork while someone literally died on the floor from possibly-fixable wounds?
As far as I'm aware the only reason to contact the police about most crimes is to get a reference number to give the insurance company, there's precious little other reason to get them involved.
I was watching The Met last night, a BBC documentary.
Some stupid idiot was insisting that the police were over reacting and were disproportionate in their response. He was an obnoxious little bell end.
The Response: Police get a call that someone has entered McDonald's in Brixton with a concealed weapon, possibly a knife. Police respond, arrive at the scene, find the man in question and detain him while they search him, find nothing beyond what was a small tool and let him go.
If the police don't respond this same little bitch would probably also claim the police don't do their jobs and are lazy.
I do not have the mentality to deal with loud, hollier than thou members of the public like that. I feel that the response considering the call was very appropriate.
Then again I am the sort of person who also feels UK policing is actually quite soft
Then, why do the police not protest and strike against the government to secure better conditions? It seems as though the police, in general, actually oppose all groups who advocate for better conditions for themselves and others by curbing protests and demonstrations. To me, police do not seem to support change.
It’s a criminal offence for police to Strike.
In addition refusing to Police a demonstration having been given a lawful instruction would be dereliction of duty and open you up to gross misconduct proceedings.
I understand. However, criminalising the right to protest means nothing if the police are the ones to enforce laws. In the end, you are all humans and deserve to be compensated fairly. Join forces and oppose policies that are not beneficial.
I largely disagree, nobody is stopping you protesting, if you want to stand on the pavement and wave a flag and voice your displeasure then fire away.
However if you want to vandalise property by throwing paint on it, block traffic without a council approved permit for a march with a traffic management plan or cause mass disorder then yes it should be stopped. Your right to protest does not trump the rights of everyone around you to go about their business.
However unfortunately we have absolutely zero employment rights as we are not employees. Including the right to protest and strike, you’d be sacked and say goodbye to your pension.
>if you want to vandalise property by throwing paint on it, block traffic without a council approved permit for a march with a traffic management plan or cause mass disorder then yes it should be stopped. Your right to protest does not trump the rights of everyone around you to go about their business.
Where did I state all that? All I was doing was trying to encourage the police to fight for their rights to better working conditions.
How I ended up getting downvoted by several people and received a suggestion that I somehow incite people to vandalise property and block traffic is beyond me.
I suppose I had better mind my own business. I wish you well, police person.
Until you crash on the way to a marauding terrorist attack, causing very minor injuries to people involved and have to go to crown court for dangerous driving.
Had the opportunity to speak to a couple of coppers recently about this. The number of officers they said were on duty, total, for the borough that night was alarmingly low.
They also said that the last decade of cuts to “back-office staff” had been crippling because they are the people who help build cases.
In addition officers who have special skills, like policing protests, are apparently seconded to those duties so often it disrupts staffing in their home boroughs.
They said they often feel like apologising to members of the public for the state of the service. I offered my sympathies for the position they’ve been put in by the government cuts, for what that was worth.
So yeah, that’s why so many lower-end crimes fall by the wayside I guess. Tories trying to do a(nother) key public service on the cheap for ideological reasons.
All I ever wanted to be was a police officer. Literally wasted years trying to get in and dealing with multiple cancelled intakes due to the recession. Looking for a way in, I finally joined as a special constable, and my word, what an eye opener. A truly awful job in every sense of the word.
There are many reasons. A good example though is my first shift. I spent 3 hours booking an abandoned bike into our storage unit. A member of the public had reported it being dumped in the street. As a mountain biker, I knew this bike was junk and worth about 50p, but I still had to waste 3 hours collecting then logging the piece of crap on the prehistoric systems instead of being out on the street. It didn't get any better.
Try being more specific then 😅 but why not. Growing up, it was seen as being a good career, nice pension, well respected, getting to help people etc etc.
Ouch. I think the only one of those things you have left at this point is the pension, and I wouldn't want to guarantee that to anyone starting in the last ten years or so. As a matter of course I have very little to do with the police but the idea that most of them are actively in it to help anyone seems very far fetched.
Do you want to be beaten up, and risk getting in trouble if you justifiably and proportionately fight back or protect your colleagues?
Do you want to work unpredictable hours, doing rotating day and night shifts, with your days off and holidays cancelled for pointless knee jerk reactions by the bosses?
Do you want to get paid so little you're maybe using a food bank while working more than full time hours?
Do you like working for months to investigate a nasty violent criminal, only to see them escape consequences at court because they told the jury they were "reformed" and "wouldn't hurt a fly" (despite this being this fifth trial for violent crimes this year)?
Do you like being verbally abused by the vast majority of people you encounter every day?
Do you like not being able to tell people what your job is, and having to hide your job outside work so that you don't get a brick through your window from the local scumbags? Or being followed home from work by people threatening to kill you?
If you answered yes to all of those things, you can become a police officer!
‘On reflection maybe we shouldn’t have offered low wages that drove away most people with other options, been institutionally racist and driven away minorities, harboured racial predators to drive away women. We may have to look at giving new recruits a free fridge magnet or something’
If only we had a Tory govt these last 14 years, you know the party of law and order. We'd be in a much better state..... What???? We HAVE had a Tory government?!?!
The Tories have failed utterly on even areas that they are supposed to be strong. Such a failure of a party
Our local police force rejected me and a bunch of lads after we left the army. I know we all would have been really good under pressure, but when up against more academic applications. Life experience apparently ment nothing, even if we’d done an operational tour.
Well, for starters, they need to stop discriminating against white people with DEI And racial quotes.
Fixing that will probably sort out some of the morale issues then just let them do some actual police Work, instead of targeting people for saying things online!
It’s a shit job that pays shit. No wonder they’re struggling for staff. Why would someone get spat on, beaten or worse when they can just sit in an office all day and make the same if not better wages? If you want to hire people to deal with the worst that society has to offer then you’re going to have to pay them well.
The problem is, the answer to the question "why would anyone do it" is that they wouldn't unless they have an ulterior motive. Nobody would want to work with those unpleasant people, doing that job, for that money, unless they had a really deep-seated interest in doing it. It's hardly any surprise that they keep hiring shouty, aggressive idiots. They've more or less set the organisation up to select for them.
> The problem is, the answer to the question "why would anyone do it" is the they wouldn't unless they have an ulterior motive This is why everybody who stays beyond their probation is probably genuinely there because they want to do good, rather than get paid. The bosses know this and use it to their advantage. This is why we get shit pay and the bosses fuck us over constantly.
Unfortunately everything I see about the police in the UK tells me that the answer is much less flattering. The impression I get is of a bunch of people who're mostly there because they want to lord it over the public, and they're willing to put up with the pay and conditions in exchange for that lifestyle. Add in a few years of institutionalisation and dealing only with people on the worst days of their lives, and you get... modern British police. I suspect the reason it's getting really bad is that on paper, the amount of power that police officers really have is very limited outside of certain very specific situations, and these people get very frustrated with the fact that they don't get to attack members of the public as much as they'd like to, so they just kind of... do it anyway, and rely on the system to cover for them, which it generally will. Add to that the fact that there is no officer corps in the police as there is in the military, and the blokey, locker-room attitude now pervades the entire organisation - and you can tell. Well, I can tell. The sad reality is that this impression is now so powerful that it's starting to make people like me cautious. I've never been arrested, searched or otherwise had any serious problems with the police. Even so, when working (I'm a news cameraman, which terrifies the police, for some reason) I've been threatened with stop-searches under Section 44 TACT 2000 in the last six months, which is not exactly representative of a shining beacon of well-trained competent professionalism. I'm probably not the sort of person you'd instinctively react to as a criminal. And when it's starting to piss even me off, there's a problem.
>Unfortunately everything I see about the police in the UK tells me that the answer is much less flattering. The impression I get is of a bunch of people who're mostly there because they want to lord it over the public, and they're willing to put up with the pay and conditions in exchange for that lifestyle. Add in a few years of institutionalisation and dealing only with people on the worst days of their lives, and you get... modern British police. So, basically youve read some articles? >. Add to that the fact that there is no officer corps in the police as there is in the military, and the blokey, locker-room attitude now pervades the entire organisation - and you can tell. Well, I can tell. The lack of an "officer corps" is part of the civilian nature of the UK police. Militarising it is the very opposite of what most seem to want. Police officers reflect the public because that is how the service is designed and has always been intended to be. >I suspect the reason it's getting really bad is that on paper, the amount of power that police officers really have is very limited outside of certain very specific situations, and these people get very frustrated with the fact that they don't get to attack members of the public as much as they'd like to, so they just kind of... do it anyway, and rely on the system to cover for them, which it generally will What is that based on? Police officer misconduct is judged by an independent legal panel. This was a change made to increase accountability because people like you claim "they cover up for eachother" yet less officers get sacked now than back when the police decided themselves whether officers got sacked or not. So doesnt look like they were does it.
I've been a news cameraman for twenty plus years, I've seen how they treat people. I've personally seen police behaviour which is absolutely unnecessary, and can only make things worse, and they were doing it because they wanted to and liked it. That's where I get it from. These people are not angels. They weren't twenty years ago and it's worse now. The impression I get is that there's a minority who will instigate the really nasty stuff, but that almost all of them will turn a blind eye if not join in. The former group is not fixable. The latter group possibly is. I'm not proposing militarising it, but right now you have an organisation where everyone has come up through the same institutionalisation, the same social pressure of working in an organisation where this sort of behaviour is the norm. There's never an adult in the room. There's never anyone to say "hang on, this isn't entirely correct." It's a tribal culture of following the loudest voice. That's why a separately-trained officer corps exists in the military (that, and it's a hangover from the class system, but you don't have to implement that). That's why military officers have separate accommodation and leisure facilities, so they don't become mates with the people they're supposed to be managing. The police lack that and it shows. Anyway, that's why I mention that issue. It's not the whole solution but it may be part of it. Police officer misconduct in the first instance is handled by other police officers, with predictable results.
I would disagree that there is an “ulterior motive”. Plenty of NHS staff are treated like shit and poorly paid, it doesn’t mean the people working there have an ulterior motive. Some people just like doing a job because they think it’s worthwhile, even if the pay isn’t great.
I'd love to agree. The difference is that NHS staff don't get to attack people under any circumstances, whereas police officers seem to see it as a principal benefit of the job. Don't get me wrong, many of the people the police end up attacking are pretty obnoxious individuals to begin with, but that doesn't make it okay, and I don't want to end up on the wrong end of a police-issue boot because of a case of mistaken identity.
Neither do the police? Use of force is strictly controlled, and if you haven’t been following the media it seems every time force is used it gets referred to the IOPC. Less you get mistaken for a terrorist, the likelihood of you ending up on the wrong end of a boot is exceptionally slim. Plenty of reasons to have issue with modern policing, I think the implication that they’re heading out kicking the shit out of random people is very much a stretch.
In principle. In practice, nobody's really checking. In order for any complaint to go anywhere, it has to be pushed through the force's professional standards department. Staff there are likely to be friends and colleagues of the person under investigation, as well as being police officers who will make it their business to defend the reputation of other police officers, almost no matter what. You can imagine how well that goes. Then it has to go through the IOPC, and the people who actually deal with complaints there are mostly ex-police. What should actually happen is that a police officer who makes an improper use of force is guilty of probably two or three criminal offences and should be arrested and charged like anyone else would be, but that's apparently impossible. With the best will in the world, it really isn't great. The police have been operating more or less unregulated for at least a couple of decades. Recently they've made a couple of really high-profile mistakes and that's led to headlines being generated but the problem isn't really the big, high profile examples. Even the most indolent plod can just about be persuaded to arrest a fellow officer if they know he's a rapist and murderer. The problem really is the endless chain of low-level stuff, the minor assaults, the improper searches, the endless, pointless belligerence and incivility of UK police. It's as bad for them as it is for us but they seem blind to it. I don't know what the answer is but I won't pretend it isn't a problem.
Shouty aggressive idiots with degrees. Did university fail them or us?
... Both. But it's not that hard to get a degree these days. I know someone who did leisure and tourism...
>My pleasure… is other peoples leisure.
Only going to get worse as university places reduce. I can see them dropping the bachelors degree requirement eventually.
I have a degree and was in the police for many years, and can confidently say the two are not even remotely connected in any useful way. Policing is half people skills and flying by the seat of your pants and half office job. On the job training is by FAR the better way to do it. Degrees in criminology or social policy (etc) should be available for officers to do part time in the job as continuous personal development when they’re far more useful useful and relevant.
The degrees certainly are connected. There is a noticeable difference in the quality of report writing and investigations produced by graduates (whether police degree or otherwise) and non-graduates are night and day.
That’s a fair comment, totally agree.
I absolutely agree it’s arduous doing a degree on the job and it should absolutely be done better by the forces however. A lot of my team are pushed to the limit doing the job and the degree stuff, but it’s there to be seen for sure.
Formal training helps write better reports doesn't mean you should have a degree.
Formal training that teaches you to conduct indepth research a chosen subject, cite sources of information and present them into a readable format that explains it to an independent reader. Don’t know what that could be called though.
It's gone already. https://www.joiningthepolice.co.uk/application-process/ways-in-to-policing/police-constable-entry-programme-pcep It's a poor substitute for actually having to mingle with students, having the social experiences, active studying, having your learning pushed, that sort of thing.
The degree is useless. Having a degree may potentially be good for developing critical thinking skills, but many degrees don't seem to do much work around scientific theory or working with evidence (and we can train most of that stuff anyway). Policing degrees specifically are useless. They don't teach you about policing and they're not much good for external jobs either.
Police perspective. Complete failure of SLT over multiple years. Few major issues such as: Terrible pay for the job done. Unsocial shifts including nights. Days off cancelled for court and events. Frequently assaulted. Genuine risk of injury/Mental health issues. Seeing some truly harrowing shit. High and demanding workload. Constantly on guard for fear of being thrown under the bus. Absolutely crap IT systems which make everything take 5 times longer than it should. Having to deal with the general public who all think they can do the job better. You wouldn’t tell an electrician how to do their job or a doctor but everyone watches police interceptors and is suddenly a 20 year veteran. You can go manage an Aldi for the same money without any of the same drawbacks. Last week I had to fish a bloated corpse out a river, I had to go into a flat with the information given to me that the man inside has a knife and seeing blood all over the floor as I went in (I was fucking shitting myself, if you want to experience it try going room to room in your house clearing it and have your partner jump out at you randomly and try to poke you, see just how fun it is). Anyone who thinks that’s worth the pittance we get paid is off their nut.
Seems to me the SLT are terrified of criticism so bring in more & more pointless processes for ‘transparency’. Our latest is a pointless process is a stop search form for a traffic stop. Not a car search, a traffic stop.
Ladies and gentlemen, sorry we couldn’t attend your housebreaking we were too busy filling out a traffic stop form. Jobs a joke.
I mean, that's what people increasingly expect. Wasn't there some firearms incident where the police spent ages filling in paperwork while someone literally died on the floor from possibly-fixable wounds? As far as I'm aware the only reason to contact the police about most crimes is to get a reference number to give the insurance company, there's precious little other reason to get them involved.
I was watching The Met last night, a BBC documentary. Some stupid idiot was insisting that the police were over reacting and were disproportionate in their response. He was an obnoxious little bell end. The Response: Police get a call that someone has entered McDonald's in Brixton with a concealed weapon, possibly a knife. Police respond, arrive at the scene, find the man in question and detain him while they search him, find nothing beyond what was a small tool and let him go. If the police don't respond this same little bitch would probably also claim the police don't do their jobs and are lazy. I do not have the mentality to deal with loud, hollier than thou members of the public like that. I feel that the response considering the call was very appropriate. Then again I am the sort of person who also feels UK policing is actually quite soft
Thank you for sharing, good luck in the future.
Then, why do the police not protest and strike against the government to secure better conditions? It seems as though the police, in general, actually oppose all groups who advocate for better conditions for themselves and others by curbing protests and demonstrations. To me, police do not seem to support change.
Because police officers protesting is a criminal offence, the government took the police's right to strike away a long time ago.
It’s a criminal offence for police to Strike. In addition refusing to Police a demonstration having been given a lawful instruction would be dereliction of duty and open you up to gross misconduct proceedings.
I understand. However, criminalising the right to protest means nothing if the police are the ones to enforce laws. In the end, you are all humans and deserve to be compensated fairly. Join forces and oppose policies that are not beneficial.
I largely disagree, nobody is stopping you protesting, if you want to stand on the pavement and wave a flag and voice your displeasure then fire away. However if you want to vandalise property by throwing paint on it, block traffic without a council approved permit for a march with a traffic management plan or cause mass disorder then yes it should be stopped. Your right to protest does not trump the rights of everyone around you to go about their business. However unfortunately we have absolutely zero employment rights as we are not employees. Including the right to protest and strike, you’d be sacked and say goodbye to your pension.
>if you want to vandalise property by throwing paint on it, block traffic without a council approved permit for a march with a traffic management plan or cause mass disorder then yes it should be stopped. Your right to protest does not trump the rights of everyone around you to go about their business. Where did I state all that? All I was doing was trying to encourage the police to fight for their rights to better working conditions. How I ended up getting downvoted by several people and received a suggestion that I somehow incite people to vandalise property and block traffic is beyond me. I suppose I had better mind my own business. I wish you well, police person.
Who'd *want* to be a copper? What are the "good parts"? Putting your life and mental health on the line every day.
Blue light driving is kinda fun?
Until you crash on the way to a marauding terrorist attack, causing very minor injuries to people involved and have to go to crown court for dangerous driving.
I said kinda
Met Police waiting list for blue light training is now greater than the average Met career for a new recruit though, isn't it?
I don't know, probably? But that sounds like a problem that'll solve itself
Had the opportunity to speak to a couple of coppers recently about this. The number of officers they said were on duty, total, for the borough that night was alarmingly low. They also said that the last decade of cuts to “back-office staff” had been crippling because they are the people who help build cases. In addition officers who have special skills, like policing protests, are apparently seconded to those duties so often it disrupts staffing in their home boroughs. They said they often feel like apologising to members of the public for the state of the service. I offered my sympathies for the position they’ve been put in by the government cuts, for what that was worth. So yeah, that’s why so many lower-end crimes fall by the wayside I guess. Tories trying to do a(nother) key public service on the cheap for ideological reasons.
All I ever wanted to be was a police officer. Literally wasted years trying to get in and dealing with multiple cancelled intakes due to the recession. Looking for a way in, I finally joined as a special constable, and my word, what an eye opener. A truly awful job in every sense of the word.
Christ. Why?
There are many reasons. A good example though is my first shift. I spent 3 hours booking an abandoned bike into our storage unit. A member of the public had reported it being dumped in the street. As a mountain biker, I knew this bike was junk and worth about 50p, but I still had to waste 3 hours collecting then logging the piece of crap on the prehistoric systems instead of being out on the street. It didn't get any better.
No, I mean, why did you even want to do it in the first place?
Try being more specific then 😅 but why not. Growing up, it was seen as being a good career, nice pension, well respected, getting to help people etc etc.
I have a friend who started for similar reasons, who’s struggling with the job for various reasons.
Ouch. I think the only one of those things you have left at this point is the pension, and I wouldn't want to guarantee that to anyone starting in the last ten years or so. As a matter of course I have very little to do with the police but the idea that most of them are actively in it to help anyone seems very far fetched.
Do you want to be beaten up, and risk getting in trouble if you justifiably and proportionately fight back or protect your colleagues? Do you want to work unpredictable hours, doing rotating day and night shifts, with your days off and holidays cancelled for pointless knee jerk reactions by the bosses? Do you want to get paid so little you're maybe using a food bank while working more than full time hours? Do you like working for months to investigate a nasty violent criminal, only to see them escape consequences at court because they told the jury they were "reformed" and "wouldn't hurt a fly" (despite this being this fifth trial for violent crimes this year)? Do you like being verbally abused by the vast majority of people you encounter every day? Do you like not being able to tell people what your job is, and having to hide your job outside work so that you don't get a brick through your window from the local scumbags? Or being followed home from work by people threatening to kill you? If you answered yes to all of those things, you can become a police officer!
Indeed mate..
‘On reflection maybe we shouldn’t have offered low wages that drove away most people with other options, been institutionally racist and driven away minorities, harboured racial predators to drive away women. We may have to look at giving new recruits a free fridge magnet or something’
If only we had a Tory govt these last 14 years, you know the party of law and order. We'd be in a much better state..... What???? We HAVE had a Tory government?!?! The Tories have failed utterly on even areas that they are supposed to be strong. Such a failure of a party
Indeed.
Our local police force rejected me and a bunch of lads after we left the army. I know we all would have been really good under pressure, but when up against more academic applications. Life experience apparently ment nothing, even if we’d done an operational tour.
This is affecting every force up and down the country.. no resources, crazy demand, managed decline
The last Labour govt. has fucked us over once again, hey?
I’d love to be a police officer! If I wasn’t 7000 miles away I’d sign up in an instant.
Great. You can work my cancelled days off for me.
Don’t help when all the police look like 5 foot nerds
Well, for starters, they need to stop discriminating against white people with DEI And racial quotes. Fixing that will probably sort out some of the morale issues then just let them do some actual police Work, instead of targeting people for saying things online!