Question for you:
You are a Chief Inspector, and you attend the parade at the start of a shift (which is rare for you to do). During that parade you hear for the first time that one of the Constables present has been awarded a nationaly recognised gallantry award. This is a huge achievement for the officer and the Force.
After the parade, would you;
a) Take the officer aside and congratulate him personally?
b) Ignore the whole issue?
c) Send an angry email to his Inspector complaining that some of the other officers were dressed incorrectly during the parade, and that the Sergeant did not conduct the parade in what you regard as a correct manner, making no mention of the bravery award?
The Chief Inspector at F Division chose c) as the answer.
Note to self; Personal ambition is all very well – but let’s not forget the context within which we serve, and get so obsessed by the ‘points’ to be earned by highlighting uniform standards and crime statistics that we cannot see the imense damage we have just done to morale. In the final analysis, noone will remember the Sanction Detected rate on that day, noone will remember if a Constable failed to iron his shirt – but they will remember this crass stupidity and lack of imagination forever.
I’m embarrassed to wear pips this week. I’ve seen some poor leadership in my time, even in war, but this is the bottom of the barrel.
I’ve given up saying ‘you couldn’t make this up’.
Sounds about right.
or You could be the ‘new’ chief super of a divison who challenges officers as to why they are in the station.
‘why are you still in the station?’
‘I’m on the front desk as part of my attachment,sir’
‘no excuse get out there and do some work.’
‘Sir. I’m on the IPLDP and not allowed out without my tutor.’
‘No excuse!’ where is your SGT?’
There followed a little heated debate with the skipper having to back down!! MADNESS.
and my excuse?
‘Booking in some property,Sir.’
We got this new boss ‘due to their motivational skills’.
I see they both went to same motivational course at Bramshill then.
Don’t be embarrssed by the pips boss, not all managers are muppets.
Sounds about right but when will anybody get promoted for saying well done,That box isn’t on the promotion forms!!!
What a superb bit of leadership from on high!
My Congratulations to the Officer who received the Award.
I’m afraid that I’ve seen very little in the way of leadership since I joined the Police. There are plenty of managers and supervisors who know how to deal with any given situation by going down a list of resources and either demanding them or noting on the log why they weren’t needed but very few who will actually get out there and take a lead. The most impressive leader I have seen is a fellow PC on my shift who has years of experience in all sorts of policing and is so switched on at incidents I am completely in awe of him. Sadly he keeps failing the Sgts exam.
Dear me. It sounds like the office I used to work in, where everyone wore striped shirts and braces and liked to poo from a great height on everyone else. Was the chief inspector, in a previous career, an assistant in an architects’ office?
Good wishes and respect (I am not wearing a hood when I say that) to the gallant copper.
Alice -it’s nice to hear from you again, I have tried to leave comments on your Blog but your anti-spam system prevents me (my browser problem not yours). Great posts recently, thanks for dropping by.
That is appauling, but then I have seen the exact same thing happen
Why didn’t he say something to the officers dressed incorrectly ? Why didn’t he speak to the sergeant ? Because it would be a confrontation situation and he has not got the bottle. Death by memo, managment by email. We need help fast, fresh eyes to see through all the crap. Perhaps Jamie Oliver can help. Even though we all witness this kind of things every day, I feel angry. The CI is a rude word.Grade A. Well done to the brave officer.
Leadership, any senior manager in the police service (FORCE) couldn’t lead a p*** up in a brewery.
God, he’s the type of twat I’d never get tired of punching.
My superintendent in a recent meeting declared that we were no longer ‘Response’ officers . The reasoning behind it? He didn’t like the word ‘response’ and called us local ‘patrol’ officers.
What planet did he come from? The same as your Chief Inspector’s I presume.
A bit like the ACC who came out of his safe office to walk the streets on operation pointless. When he was at the scene of an incident, assistance was required. A double crewed unit broke their neck to get there to get bollocked by him for not having their helmets on.
You couldn’t make that up could you!
We have a weekly video from our Ivory Tower and the only one I ever remember was where the CC complained about dirty cups being left in an internal office at one particular station he had happened across… at least while Rome burned, Nero was playing some music.
I think that’s actually really sad.
Congratulations to the officer who received the award. Can I ask what it was for?
Well honestly, a man fresh from Bramshill Centrex tries to challenge accepted cultural norms and what does he get? Abuse! The next thing I know some female muslim convert will refuse to shake my hand…..as if!
Congratulations to the officer receiving the award, commiserations to the numpty who ignored it.
It probably will not help to know that the same kind of Knob infests the ambulance service as well.
Gadget: Please pass on my congratulations to the Constable. I imagine whatever he did to earn the award was a courageous action and took a very special person.
As for the Chief Inspector: Please email him and ask for his resignation.
Seriously though I have had a (non-police) boss like him and there is nothing more destructive to morale.
Just one more highly paid prat, who wouldn’t know gallantry if it was presented to him on a two week residential “workshop”
For what it’s worth, (I have no pips) pass my congratulations to the officer concerned, who has achieved something his “superior” never could.
Congrats to the officer…shame it wasn’t recognised by the boss, but great you picked up on it here.
We have managers like that in the ambulance service. Several times i have asked for thanks and commendation to be passed onto colleagues who i feel deserve some recognition. I normally email it to their line manager, but now copy it to them as it is normally the only way they find out that anything positive has been said. It’s a real morale booster to get thanks and commendation and a real morale killer when the person who should be passing on the praise ignores it.
Andy C Don’t say ’superior’ ahhhhhhhhhhhh. They are only senior in rank. No one is my superior absolutely no one. Well done to the PC I hope he realises that we all appreciate his actions that merited the award.
What would he say at our parade? Today it involved one officer stapling his hems on his trousers as they are so cheap they come down the first time you wear them, us discussing who wanted the shit job on the screen and whether to have a takeaway for refs. We also touched on how we would cope with only one blue light driver until 4pm. I’d like to see that CI man a vehicle for us! On nights it usually involves a brew and a huge bag of chocolate whilst we all try for a sugar rush to last us through the night. And finally, I got a bravery award in December, my Inspector mentions it nearly every time I speak to him, but not heard a dickie from our CI!
superior :-
a. higher in position or rank; being above or beyond the influence of; too dignified to be affected by; showing a consciousness of being better than others; supercillious; snobbish.
Sorry Gary I’m with Andy C on this one.
Inspector Gadget,
I’ll swap you your Chief Inspector for a Nurse Manager who started berating the nearest staff about the smell of burnt toast in the dept despite the looks of increasing horror on their faces as they had just unsuccessfully been resuscitating a housefire victim and cared for his newly bereaved relatives.
Now to me the smell of crispy flesh and toast are at opposite ends of the spectrum but I suppose if your last clinical experience was with Florence Nightingale and you like slinging your weight about then who am I to comment.
For me this one is also in the if I hadnt been one of the staff standing there with my mouth open in horror I wouldnt have believed it either.
So, do we have a swap?
Lucy
Lucy
No, you keep her. Cheers for the comment.
I think the sad thing, illustrated by the original posting and subsequent comments, is that non of us is really surprised by these people. It is the extra lashing od disappointment that we take away with us that really hurts, in all jobs and professions. It is a sort of viral infection – sad times.
Congratulations to the officer concerned.
Unfortunately, there are more useless (being v polite) bosses who do not have even a shred of common sense in their bodies than good ones.
Hum chief inspectors on parade. Never seen that in the rural hinterland post I work from. Well, its not a rural hinterland by any means, its just not the same place as their office so we never see them. Unless, of course, everything has gone completely balls up and we are to have a collective bollocking or slap on the back “chins up chaps”.
To be fair, some of the higher ranks have made a good impression. One of the superintendents came in to see us after a particularly nasty job to make sure we were all ok etc, which was fairly impressive seeing how it was late on a Sunday.
Still, never mind. Rumour control has it Chief Inspector posts are to disappear. As apparently are sergeants, (to be replaced with “senior PC’s”) which I can’t say I’m all that impressed with………
Sir,
I have to say in a positive light that the majority of our senior officers are fairly good at not being to hung up on the uniform and would have congratulated the officer publically (makes them look good). However not so long ago in our force which I shal not name but merely state lies between Hants and Devon some ACC or DCC was disgusted that officers were seen to have ‘flappy jackets’ not correctly zipped up. It seems that he forgot, being desk bound, that our jackets do not fit over body armour.
Congrats to the officer an award well deserved I am sure.
Senior PC’s?? Whats that all about then? Is it so we can be seen more fluffy and approachable by the liberal softies?
The most important rank in any Police force is constable.
The other “ranks” are merely there to facilitate the constables’ work.
Ideally they should be keeping unnecessary shit away.
If they can’t do that then they should just keep themselves away.
A society gets the Police force it deserves.
Similarly, a Police force gets the (senior) officers it deserves.
And, if you accept the situation it will continue, and worsen.
Refuse to accept bad manners and boorishness, from whatever source.
Challenge rotten leadership.
(That sort of leadership can put lives at risk.)
We are very upfront with our seniors; they need us far more than we need them.
We very carefully, and respectfully, look after those whom we manage and supervise.
We don’t take shit from anyone, especially not politically appointed “senior” officers.
But then we don’t police a country run by New Labour apparatchniks.
(Thank heaven.)
Congratulations to the recipient of the gallantry award.
Best wishes to your good self.
Jeffrey
In reply to Jeffrey P, as a PC I agree with you but in my force, sorry service, the PC rank is lower than a snakes belly. we are only there is serve the paper clip counter and pen pushers with paper work in order to keep then in work. On a positive note the pen pushers and paper clip counters are VERY good at giving out bollockings to us (PC) if we forget to submit the most insignificant piece of paperwork/form.
UNIFORM standards???? To impress who? I and the rest of the general public wouldn’t have a clue if an officer was strictly dressed correctly or not but I would certainly notice – and appreciate – an act of gallantry.
Some Chief Inspectors can’t see the wood for the trees. Jerk.
Thank you Gary for a very valid point. I will try and use the word “senior” in future.
If I were to come into your packed parade room, and beat that CI to a pulp. how many witnesses would there be?
Congrats to that bobby (and all the others) who received the award. YOU are the police, not the ones with the shiney arsed trousers.
Management and leadership are very different concepts. In general, management can be quantified. Management can crush figures, and make numerically attainable goals.
Leadership is a very different story.
In the 1980s, then secdef Robert Strange McNamara introduced modern management principles to the US armed forces, leading directly to the debacle of Vietnam.
In Vietnam, success was defined by defined by goals like numbers of pacified villages, the “bodycount”, tons of boms dropped etc.
Nevertheless, the war was lost, not least because such leadership as there was, could not define what was meant by victory.
From your description, McNamara has disciples even today in the UK.
Leadership qualities – cockall.
That CI sounds like a total pumper. Anyone pin a bullseye onto his back yet ?
Well done to the cop.
Do you think the CI ignored it cos he is a tad jealous ? Perhaps the CI was a crap cop when he was a PC and the best he has managed is a powerpoint presentation about community policing.
Do what I did in a previous job with bosses like that, first find his mug, then take it to the loo for a good rimming, then find him and offer him a cup of tea. Makes my day !
For what it’s worth, I got a smack in the mouth on saturday night while restraining one of our local “revellers” (locked up for assault Police instead of being sent on his way). This morning I got a phone call at home from the duty Sgt, telling me that he’d just got an email from the ACC wanting to know if I was injured!
When the bosses come in to the room, it becomes a sort of “Ted and Ralph” (Fast Show) atmosphere. Any joviality stops and us minnions take a slumped posture and stare into space. When asked what is happening on their patch or the latest targets etc its normally a “I would’nt know about that, Sir” closely followed by “I’d better go and check the panda in the lower car park, Sir.”. In fairness to my Chief Inspector, he is in touch with what a uniformed cop has to put up with.
Joe P So what do you prefer – Senior PC’s or Superior PC’s?
Sir
Firstly congrats to the Officver for the award.
Secondly, congrats to you for not punching the C/Insp.
Muppets like this make me so cross. Unfortunatley we seem to be stuck with mismanagers like this all over the Country. They have their degrees in Geography or whatever it is and think it makes them God’s gift to the Police.
When I was promoted to Sgt I was given a marvellous piece of advice, and that was that not only was I to supervise my Troops, but I had to Manage my Managers.
Sometimes, what the Managers need is a slap. Not a physical slap, but a slap to bring them back to reality. We have sadly lost one of the best ranks there ever was, The Station Sgt!
Nobody, but nobody messed with the Station Sgt, and what he (always was I’m afraid) said, went. They always had a knack for putting the Managers(?) in their place.
We need to have Sgts with a spine. We (and I include myself here) need to stand up to these donkeys and tell them exactly how it is.
Let’s bring back the role of the Station Sgt – if not in actual role, then at least the ethos that they had. Stand up to the Idiots, protect the troops, because one day they might have to protect you!
Rant over, love the site, power to the people.!!!!
I recall when I got the news that I had passed Part 2 of the Sergeant’s exam, along with four others from my OCU. I naively expected that someone from the SMT would acknowledge the hard work that we had put in to get promoted. Obviously, not a dickie bird.
I mentioned this to the DCI at a training day and he quite literally hung his head in shame and admitted that they had got it wrong. Promises were made, but since then, the SMT has changed and things have gone back to the way they were.
A few words cost nothing, but can make all the difference.
Gary,
Perhaps I misinterpreted Andy’s original comment. I thought he had deliberately used the word “superior” with all its implied arrogance and condescension.
Regarding the new role of ‘Senior PC’. It is just another bit of management fiddling, you can call them Apricot PCs for all I care, the respect due to their position will be derived from their actions not from any kind of suitably PC title.
If I had to choose I would call ‘Senior PCs’ ‘Sergeants’, I’m a bit old fashioned.
I tried to comment earlier but was at work and as I hit Enter I realised that the “window” had switched and I had just updated an incident log with my comment – pseudonym and all! Fortunately the system crashed and it failed to register. Phew, not going on your blog at work again boss. Thank goodness for police IT systems.
We’ve got ‘em too, sometimes the Fire Brigade Whitetops help them out too when it comes to helmets etc.
SD
The Office.
We all live it one way or another.
Sir, I needed some time away. I know some will have missed me. I am back. Is the Chief Inspector who is so righteous a candidate for developmental moves upwards and onwards where they can make a shambles of basic good behaviours and really affect policeing decisions? I guess you CC likes them. Oh deary me, (c) was the wrong answer for some of us, but the right answer for this C/I. May I duly award him this week’s TWINING award for putting oneself and one’s career before goodwill to all men, women and colleagues? Please let me know. I think this C/I is most deserving.
This thread has had me smiling all the way through. Its just so typical of the police.
Awhile back we had a spontaneous incident (Ie someone mentioned “knife” on the original log so the managers went into overdrive) at which were the entire shift,supervisors,2 PSU`s and a tactical advisor.
Whilst this was going on i was despatched to an intruder with a knife trying to break into a house. Got there and locked him up, knives and all. I was just leaving custody to do my statement/handover when i was taken to one side by the Insp (now CI). There was i smiling away thinking i as going to get a pat on the back for my good arrest….only to get bollocked for being seen in the custody suite not wearing a tie.
Congrats to the officer for the gallantry award. Richly deserved I,m sure.
What is not deserved is the action of the “senior/superior” officer.
I thought that nowadays everyone was accountable? Could a complaint not have been put in against this “leader” or are some people more accountable than others?
I remember having the “old pep talk” after doing a particulary nasty job that involved fatalities and then being bollocked for wearing a very small pin badge “…..which could be a danger to a patient!”
This particular officer was nose to nose with me and tried to be menacing but all I could think of was “…I,m not losing my job by smacking this ugly piece of stupid s**t in front of me!”
I wish they would teach officers common sense and real world leadership skills.
Kingmagic, I have found it is pointless to make a complaint about these leaders. They simply rule themselves, and others by fear.
Someone mentioned that when they passed part two of the Sgts exam the S.M.T didn’t acknowledge the fact . I have a mate who two years’ ago failed part two of the sgts exam. One day he was walking down the corridor at work when the C.I approached him and congratulated him on passing part two ( this was not piss taking it was a genuine comment made to my mate). My mate asked him if he was taking the piss as he had failed. The C.I said sorry must have the wrong person turned round and walked off.
Senior manager or senior f***wit?.
The closest our section has got to praise from our CI is that we’re the section he’s “least concerned about”.
Our CI has 10yrs service, less than some of the PCs. I doubt his praise would be worth an awful lot to them but I’ve no way of knowing.
Just because someone is “senior”in rank doesn’t mean that they can be ignorant.
So stand up and be counted.
As CustodySgt says:
“Sometimes what the managers need is a slap”
As Jeffrey says:
“Refuse to accept bad manners and boorishness, from whatever source”
If you don’t do this, you only have yourselves to blame.
Get on with it!
Look after those whom you manage.
It does seem that you prefer complaining about things in preference to putting things right. What would you do if the world was perfect? Probably the same as you are doing now, nothing; but you would still complain.
Those that can do!
As MeAgain says:
“Get on with it!”
A true story….
A friend of mine was approached by the Chief Inspector at work and upon looking at him suddenly said “Oh well done, I’ve got something for you”. The CI then popped up to their office and rushed back down again.
“I wanted to give this to you in person, congratulations and well done on your achievement” and CI duly hands over a photo presentation pouch. The PC duly thanks the CI and walks away slightly confused and open the pouch to find a photo of a completely different PC recieving a certificate of achievement…… good to get recognition isn’t it??
Its all about investing in people, so we hear. Trouble is that it appears only to apply to those at the bottom of the pile down amongst the leaf litter.
I covered this a while back. its pathetec how leadership skills are removed from the tossers who manage us!
It’s really not complicated. Positives you should publicly praise where possible – so the BiB who got an award should get applause from his colleagues. Negatives should be done privately, unless it is something really obvious or immediate. Even then it makes sense to pick your moment. This behaviour is the act of an insecure idiot who can only feel good about himself by knocking people down. Especially something as trivial as incorrect dress (assuming it’s not something like forgetting to put your trousers on !) ; this is classic Army RSM behaviour for getting new rookies under the thumb ; nitpick.
I fail to take seriously any Chief Inspector who I have to show how to put his battery in his tetra set.
We all know the most important thing, whilst rolling round on the floor with a criminal is to have your jacket zipped up so you can’t reach your radio, or your cuffs easily… What on earth would the public outside that nightclub think if they saw you dealing with someone without your hat or tie on…Oh the shame!
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Nice job!