I Can Tell We’re Going To Be Friends
May 29, 2007 by inspectorgadget
I am standing in the secure vehicle bay at the rear of the custody block.
I am talking to an officer from my section. He has a broken nose and blood all over his shirt. His trousers are wrecked. There are two other officers with us, they have blood and various damage to clothing as well.
In rear cage of one of our containment vans is the screaming, violent and drug/alcohol crazed modern version of a fishwife.
She has caused all this injury and damage.
This is the first time the officers get a chance to see who the blood belongs to. Quite often you discover it’s yours from an injury you haven’t found yet!
Officers have responded to a disturbance on one of our estates and before they can even find out what has happened, they are set upon by people in the street. Assistance takes fifteen minutes. Several people are arrested. The woman in the van is one of them.
We still don’t really know has has happened. Quite often with the underclass, nothing in particular has happened. Violence, disorder and chaos are simply by-products of the perverted moral code they live by.
These are people who display “Find Madeleine” posters in the window but don’t know where their own young kids are at 9.00 pm at night! That’s true by the way.
When I look at the deductions in my pay packet each month, the realisation that I’m helping to fund this fellacious lifestyle makes my blood boil.
I’m busy recording the injuries to officers and trying to listen to an account of what happened over the row from the back of the van. This 17 year old woman is shouting that she hopes my children die of cancer. This is a common insult from this community.
I always document injuries to my officers personally because the CPS are less likely to drop the case later through “lack of evidence” if an Inspector has recorded the evidence.
They don’t like to mess with authority, it’s too difficult. It makes paperwork.
At this very point, oblivious to the mayhem, shock and injury around him, the new Estates & Facilities Manager approaches and delivers a stern monologue at me about the fact that Response officers have parked in the wrong bays again.
Clearly, he has different views on authority than the CPS. But he is very clean. And I like his choice of tie, so I decide not to rip his head off.
After all, it’s not his fault that he’s being a utter fool.
It’s our fault as a police service for allowing this monstrous state of affairs where we spend public money hiring support staff to further add to the demands made on pressed front-line uniform staff.
Do I look like I give a monkeys at this precise moment about parking at the nick? It’s 9.00 pm at night for God’s sake. What is he even doing here.
I’ve only just met this hapless trojan horse but I can see that we’re going to be friends. And as I said, he is very clean.
Which must be nice.
Oh yes, I have no END of respect for people like him. He’s like the woman who’s job in life seems to consist of trawling through all the calls for the day containing “Traffic” as a classification and emailing me with the call number (no description) warning me that I will be disciplined if I do not submit the correct (additional) form to her with the results of any preliminary breath tests I carried out.
Of course with just the number I have no idea what the call referes to so I spend the next 10-15 minutes, usually of my break which is the only time I get to read my emails, looking through the calls I did last shift, cars parked on a double yellow, broken car window, blocking access to driveway, no tax disc displayed (my favourite, watching it get lifted to be crushed).
None of them requiring a PBT but you need to check, just to be sure. Why can’t she include the call description, or only send out emails where PBTs would have been needed? Too busy. So every response officer does it for her.
Who’s supporting who?
Another great post boss.
Maybe the civilian staff should spend some time out with response teams, to put things into perspective. I can’t help but feel the CPS should at least, if only for them to appreciate what police assault actually is; the pain, the bruises, the stink of blood as its washed off, the secret embarrasment or self doubt, and the worried wife the next morning when she see’s the stained and torn clothing.
What is so sad about this country is that people like this litter the landscape. Education and Health, which I know more about has umpteen people who are exactly the same ; bureaucratic bean counters who have no interest in or regard for the “front line” (whether it is the streets, the wards or the classrooms).
(In fact, there appears to be far more of these people than there are front liners. In my area, in 30 years, I have only *once* seen a patrolling officer in my local (large) city, yet the Police precept rises way above inflation continually. The local stations are usually closed, and are often shut when they purport to be open ; there is a telephone outside. WTF am I paying for ?)
How you managed not to deck that nitwit is beyond me. I am sure your fellow officers there would happily have perjured themselves to swear blind you never touched him (he hit his head on the step, honest
)
As for BelfastPeeler, these people are not interested in supporting you ; they are simply interested in power, promotion, budgets, a**e covering and doing as little work as possible ; as in all other public sector bureaucracies.
They are not interested in Policing at all.
In my field, Education, you will hear regularly the same sort of halfwits in the press wailing about “doing it for the children” ; from personal experience I can tell you that they do not care if children die as long as the press don’t find out.
Same attitude.
The solution is simple. Remove all these non-jobs from the Police roll. Anything which is “support” and not “active policing” should be put on a lower salary scale (appropriate to paper pushers), no pension etc etc etc.
The top money should be paid to :-
1) Response Officers who deal with 24/7 stuff, patrol etc.
2) Detectives who investigate proper crime (not race, family, and anything PC/diversity)
3) Their managers ; who should be experienced proper coppers like Gadget, not some dosser with a Sociology degree and zero experience of the front line. I’d make it a prerequisite that before you can be promoted it is mandatory to spend x years being in response with the “bobbies”.
Everyone else can f— off. The paperwork they create as a job creation scheme for themselves. If you shot the lot of them and hired in some secretarial staff to do the paper side of the job (who joins the Police to fill in forms ?) it would probably make your life better and you’d provide a better service.
The world is full of irritating jobsworths like this one. Planning departments are masters of the art, when they ask for a ‘Design and Access’ statement for an extension to an existing building. The ‘Access’ part entails describing the road access and the drive, which of course is stupid when it already exists. However, your planning application is invalid without it, if it is in a conservation area.
The Health and Safety Executive are another bunch of idiots busy creating jobs for the boys, who in a more balanced economy would be factory fodder. Don’t get me started…
Excellent post.
I feel I should stand up for my Support Staff colleagues at this juncture, but I can’t most of them are idiots who have no idea of what frontline policing, I don’t either but I do appreciate it a bit more working in an operational sense, as operational as a civvie gets outside a custody block anyhow.
I have worked on the admin side of things in a management role and it full of bureaucratic crap, I can now understand why Officers don’t dot all the i’s and cross the T’s, because they have better things to do! Saying that though there are some Officers that are just downright useless.
A Superintendent once said to me in my old Job (referring to me and My team of 4 idiots) ‘In the old days this was all done by a Sgt!’ Which I could very well believe,. If your Admins/Finance/Personnel ever tell you they are busy then they’re full of crap, oh yes the believe they are, I’ve worked their and ended up running two offices because I had nothing to do! I’m glad I’m out of it.
“…These are people who display “Find Madeleine” posters in the window but don’t know where their own young kids are at 9.00 pm at night! That’s true by the way…..”
A sharp observation and as you say so true. The same people who cause the local garage to run out of flowers to set up the impromptu shrine after a fatacc/arson/stabbing/shooting - completely warped value system - completelt FELLacious as you say (nudge nudge say NO more squire!
As for your ‘divvie civvie’ - where are these people’s common sense, they seem to come from the same mould as the old senior officers and their obsessions with wearing headgear at the scene of the serious fir/fatacc/any critical incident. One short sharp punch is all it will take - but I think you may be planning some other moments of fun with him?
Good thread boss which just about sums up all thats wrong with this country, the criminal justice system and the police service. i.e
The underclass (for whats wrong with this country)
The CPS (for whats wrong with the criminal justice systen)
The Civilian “support ” staff, with nothing better to worry about (for one of the many things wrong with the police service)
It has never ceased to amaze me, even as a public order specialist, the amount of fight in your average chavette, my nads bear witness to the unerving accuracy of their best saturday night stilletto. Yet the media decry any female who gets “roughed up” by a police officer, such as the recently well covered (by the BBC) punching incident.
The more that the do gooders try to understand the underclass and make excuses for them, the more they take the ascendency in our society, as my tutor told me on my first day “don’t even try to figure these lot out by using your own values, you’ll never understand”.
Like the juvenile burglar i had the pleasure of meeting yesterday. Like most of the underclass he comes from a large familiy of benefit dependant criminals and when i refused to be nice to him because he was a criminal he became genuinely perterbed stating that he wasn’t a criminal (but had just been released from a YOI) and should be allowed a 2nd chance (all this with the stolen strimmers and tools on the floor next to him). He also seemed particularly proud of the fact that only 1 member of his extended family was in prison at that moment in time.
Chavs- there’s no point in them.
sounds like my Superintendant. A shout came in for a robbery with 4 offenders being footchased by 2 officers towards the nick. Offenders with knives. I bolted out the door and ran over 800 metres at a sprinting pace, not stopping to pick up my helmet which was in the other direction, and helped detain one of the offenders. I then walked back to the nick out of breath and sweating, only to pass the Supt who was walking out of the door with his civvy jacket on (presumably of to some important meeting). He stopped me and asked where my hat was. I began to explain and got as far as the word footchase when he cut me off and said “don’t let it happen again” in a stern voice. I resisted the urge to use what little energy i had to rip his head off. I just thought at his rank he probably doesn’t have to listen to the radio anymore and doesn’t have a clue what actually goes on in the streets. All he sees are people without hats.
Boss,
Another great post. I admire your self restraint for not ripping his head off & s****ing down his neck. Unfortunately, just like the poor, t**ts like him will always be with us.
Paul, are you sure your’e not “job”?!! My thoughts exactly!
Harriet, as like the boss, I admire your restraint. I would have DEFINITELY told that SMT piece of s**t to go f**k himself.
Perhaps that’s why I’m a nightmare for my guv’nor; I keep being a bit brutally honest with people……
What I’d like to know is, will the government and the general public ever wise up to all the s**t that seems to be going on? You can only deal with a problem if you acknowledge it and they can’t deny the problems posed by the underclass for much longer can they?
Inspector Gadget says
…”I’m busy recording the injuries to officers and trying to listen to an account of what happened over the row from the back of the van. This 17 year old woman is shouting that she hopes my children die of cancer. This is a common insult from this community.
I always document injuries to my officers personally because the CPS are less likely to drop the case later through “lack of evidence” if an Inspector has recorded the evidence…”
Your “documentation of injuries”would not be accepted by our equivalent of your CPS, or indeed by the Courts. Here we need professional medicial evidence of injuries!
Best wishes
Brian
AngryRozzer, I’m not a cop, I’m a teacher and the Mrs is a Nurse.
Many of the posts by bloggers such as Gadget and Copperfield have almost exact parallels in Education and Health. The same inadequate numpties directing people with 20 years experience to do stupid things. The same useless non-jobs which offload paperwork onto the front line people. Control given to ignorant quangos without any knowledge at all of the work. The endless changes of policy and practice which appear to have no point other than to employ people to dream them up.
Reading Copperfield’s and Frank Chalk’s books the similarities are obvious (which has made some people think they are the same …
; the stories are different, obviously, but the same “core cultural drivers” are the same.
I’ve never been a cop, I don’t know any coppers, but I read this blog and others and think, yes, that’s undoubtedly what happens in the Police.
It actually makes me think better of Police *Officers* because it’s possible to understand how difficult their job is without actually doing it.
The sad thing is that many of the difficulties are so unnecessary
How many times can I ask the same question?
WHO IS SUPPORTING WHO?
another good one boss!
All working on the same side ?
This guy has protocols to consider, his various responsibilities. He is a guy cause he got a nice tie………I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it. He probably has targets to hit for paperclip re-cycling or other important area of his ‘portfolio’ and has been granted a form of jobsworth status equivilant to a Superintendent for what is a non-police support role. But, as TUPC says, supporting who ? Sounds like someone who allows his ego & his feeling of importance put his responsibilities on the shelf at the back of a dark store room somewhere.
Just been to the chemist for my father, he likes me to go to the one he has always used because the over the counter stuff is about half the price of Boots. Its in a rough area council housing block of flats.However it is always populated with mainly young men in their late teens and 20s all being either very loud or hunched up quivering, all waiting for thier methadone.
An average citizen would think that the area was having an extra bank holiday with all the people milling around all in chav uniform. Yet on the radio I have just heard the fruit and veg will rot in the fields due to lack of people to pick it.
The truth of it is they have all badgered their GPs into writing them off on the sick. Likewise the females have a more babies equal more benefits attitude.
They try and keep a status quo in thier lives but of course this is impossible.They row with each other like 7 year olds,scream and ball at the slightest thing and generally cascade their stress levels to anyone daft enough to listen.Then when things go really wrong its all someone elses fault and the police are fair game.
They all afford tobacco, drugs,alcohol, sky TV, tattoos, horrible gaudy jewellry, fancy trainers and a brand new top of the range pram every time they churn out another scratter.
Yet as has been said they band together in ‘adversity’ the death of Diana was something else,even the Queen Mother dying at 101 demanded a fair bit of window space.
This blog is great and I hope it makes you a millionaire, but as someone said to me perhaps we need to de-police and think back to a time where the pond life didn’t wind us up they had no significance as hopefully in the near future (2010) they won’t again.
As for the civvie I am sure you have heard of the ‘fat typists’ syndrome, seems to be in that catergory.
Good luck and I hope your staff are OK.
Civvies in the back yard - brilliant if caught off guard. we recently had our custody suite redone (looked and smelled exactly the same afterwards) and one pleasant summer afternoon we had about a dozen building inspectors checking out the access to the back yard and cell block as me and 5 collegues walked in two prisoners we had nicked out the front of the station trying to stove in some unlucky tourists head. They were both bent over with one of us on each arm and one controlling the head and were being moved ‘rather briskly’ towards the custody door.
My mate sees the building people in the way and way too pleasantly says ‘excuse us’. The lead building inspector (without turning round along with all the others) said “just one minute we’re busy” We continued at our pace and all 6 of us in unison shout at the top of our voices “GET OUT THE WAY!!!”
I have never seen a bunch of middle aged men and women in suits all scream and starburst so quickly.
Naturally the one in charge followed us in and the lead inspector tried to ‘have a quiet word’ with the duty officer (who saw everything from the door) in front of everyone. At that point our Insp ever so unsubtly threw the guy out of his extremely busy custody block and told him to address any issues to the nearest wall if he felt bitter about seeing operational officers doing what they get paid to do. Needless to say the Guv earned some respect points from everyone for that.
As for the issues about being over run with admin staff, one of our nicks is one of the largest in the UK for admin staff and officers, but response PC’s are still outnumbered over 11 to one, and as for the 24 hour canteen staff, I have never met such a large bunch of Police hating incompetant f***wits in my life, everything is the biggest problem in the world and trying to get one of them to cook some overpriced pile of shite between 1900 and 2300 is like trying to explain algebra to a chav, especially as they accuse you of lying when you say you have ten minutes to throw said shite down your neck and get back out. And the Criminal Protection Service are just about to move in but only between 10-4 because these are apparently ‘core times for arrests’ So what happened to every night between 2200 - 0500 when we get no breaks and are ragged stupid thanks to the mindless drunk inbreds??
Not a relevant point apparently
I was complaining to my relief last night about the very same thing, they’re hired to support us and we end up being ruled by a constant stream of whining emails and CRIS memos!
Wish you were my Guvnor!
In 1983 I transferred from the MPD to a rural force. My first day in my new Divisional HQ was a guided tour of the various departments CID, SOCO Admin, Collator, Duties etc. At each I had the same response, perhaps phrased differantly but each meaning the same,”We are here to make your jab easier out there on the Front Line. We support what you do”
For about 5 years the job was great, the Collator kept you informed and you reciprocated, CID were there when you needed a hand and if you requested them SOCO turned out for any job. It felt like you were all in the same team.
Then civilianisation began to creep in and within no time at all information from the collator became difficult to access, SOCO only attended certain jobs and Admin became a nightmare. All the police officers that had filled all these posts were moved out and suddenly things had gone full circle. The Front line officers were there to support these civilians!
Thank God I no longer suffer. Retirement is wonderful.
Our force has changed the name from ‘Support Staff’ to ‘Police Staff’. A subtle change but reinforces the fact that officers now support the civvies.
At what point did this country lose the plot. There must have been a pivotal moment. Paul’s entry at no. 3 just sums up the whole situation perfectly.
Hi:
I know you are all agitated at the tit who happens to be a `Support Staff` civvy.
Me, I hope the peelers with the blood and bits of stuff all over them are OK.
The place of the response officer is well and truly at the bottom isn’t it!!
At my nick parking is a nightmare if you are on late shifts, with little or no spaces for us front-line minions.
The rear yard is littered by what the SMT have named ‘ESSENTIAL USER BAYS’, I can only assume these are for the staff who are clearly essential to the smooth running of the police service or whatever we are calling it today.
But NO I am mistaken, their idea of essential user is the district admin manager, clearly essential with the important task of making sure the hand towels in the toilets are replaced when empty (they cant even get a simple task like that right anyway). Or ensuring the forms we use in triplicate are restocked.
Another essential user is anyone of the rank of chief inspector and above, clearly got that wrong didn’t they!!
Front-line Police officers, the ones who keep the wheel on 24/7 are NOT essential here!!
PC South West, my nick is just like that and the SMT are the one’s who enforce the parking code - you have to laugh. Does it mean we response officers are not essential?
Maybe we are from the same force sarge?
my solution to that situation would be to throw that pencile neck civi into the van cage with the screaming banshee and after she had finished with him ask if he was still concerned where the vans were parked. Now thats out of the way drag her out of the cage and give her a good smack in the face (iI don’t condone hitting women but from the sounds of it she is no woman) and that will probably make her think twice before having a go at the police. Extreme I know but definitely needed. Just a shame that it can’t be done.
You’ve got them too then………………
Anonymous asked: “will the government and the general public ever wise up to all the s**t that seems to be going on?”
While we all wish they would, I think the answer is very obviously “no”. Because the police do their job damn well, despite the Government’s best efforts to screw them over. So the people in clean suits will never see what happens on the late shift: or any shift, of any of the emergency services.
And neither will I, I hope.
I am an ex-angry man or almost ex posting on the net. For many years it enraged me that as a front line PC I couldn’t park in the yard on days.Whereas those on casual user mileage civilian and police in office jobs could.We could park nearby on the streets but the scrotes would watch for us going home at 22.00 hrs or 16.00hrs and cars would be damaged, I had scratches other slashed tyres wing mirrors smashed off etc, I was lucky. The point was it was us on front line who were hated and this should have been taken into account. Now I am an office jockey with a guaranteed space in the yard and had to pinch myself not to say something to someone obviously cutting it tight for a late turn who I knew was outside the parking remits. Thankfully I managed a nod and a wave and still got parked myself.
Lets face it the beat is a punishment posting these days to be on the vulgarity of 24/7 shifts and all that goes with it is no longer any fun. To me as a top whack office bound PC even the thought of promotion sends a shiver down the spine, back on core shifts toadying to the bosses juggling the troops with the senior PC with 3 years in.
I did it for 16 years and to be fair we had 11 -12 year PCs on patrol and 20 + years in traffic. Somehow 5 years ago a black hole opened and it was abandon ship. many factors , fat typists amongst them, the beat dealing with everything. I dealt with a section 18 which should have been an attempt murder on my own ( nothing special where I hail from ) and at 15 years service at the time fair enough but the point was i was also the beat driver and was booking time in the diary for the enqs etc. Meanwhile CID were engrossed with a section 47 on a student with FLOs and an incident room, reason being the suspects were professional sportsmen and there could have been a racial connotation ( not so in the end) the job is upside down.
Retirement without causing a fuss is my only objective other tha dissuading my kids to join later on.
[...] I Can Tell We’re Going To Be Friends I am standing in the secure vehicle bay at the rear of the custody block. I am talking to an officer from my section. […] [...]
I remember on my first day in the job in the classroom there was a pyramid chart on the blackboard (can I even say that now!!!) which showed the beat cop at the very top. The Training Insp explained that we were at the apex of the pyramid and the most important and that underneath spreading out in ‘support’ was the various other depts, cid, drugs, as well as supports services, admin, soco, and outwith agencies all of which were employed to make our job easier and more efficient. You then went on a few weeks of mind numbing training in legislation before being unleashed on the public only to quickly realise that whilst you were away somebody was taking the piss as they had nipped in and turned the pyramid upside down! You soon realised that in fact you were now firmly on the bottom the apex bedded deep in the dirt and that you were holding everything else above up and supporting them!! The more you tried the more they added on and they deeper in the dirt you sank!
Today I have just been informed by a very highly paid civvy (40K plus at least) who works in the area of diversity (eyes glazing already!) who thinks of herself as very important that I am to pilot a new project under gender equality issues in the custody area. Apparently we are not complying sufficiently in her eyes in that the ‘hygiene packs’ (soap, pasted toothbrush, comb, shaving material if you promise not to kill yourself!!! Etc) which we already supply free of charge to prisoners is discriminatory against certain females and those of certain cultures. This is because at present we supply only sanitary towels to females who require them!!!! Apparently I am to pilot a new scheme whereby we will offer towels or tampons as an alternative choice and record the uptake to assess if this is worthwhile ! (not to mention the added cost and amendment to the packs!). I kid you not this is true…………!
To say I screamed and threw my pen at the computer screen when I read the email was an understatement. Personally I think she should divide herself up and stick a bit in each pack as in my opinion she seems a right stuck up ‘***t!’ so would fit the job perfectly!!! Meanwhile I’ve got staff without lockers or decent chairs to sit on, I’ve had to fight 3 years for the force to spend a couple of hundred pounds on air freshners to make the cells slightly more pleasant for the turnkeys who have to work there 24/7 and I recently had to have their office fumigated for fleas and a slater infestation!
I was very tempted to report this female to my local Procurator Fiscal for a crime but am put off with the paperwork this would entail. The charge ??? Simple – Theft of air!!
brilliant post Gov !!
I think we have all met the type. The civvy who would dirty his pants if he was left to face what your cops had to deal with.
I still laugh at a female civvy training instructor telling the class and I how to deal with various situations on the street, we were all working response cops. She was talking like she was a 25 yr PC. Only she had obviously never done any policing whatsoever. Since that training lesson, none of her ‘advice’ has been of use !
I’d also ban emails to response cops from civvy numpty staff and bosses in ivory towers on the basis that;
1. You never read them
2. You never read them and delete em
3. If you haven’t deleted them, you’ll forget all about the lastest instruction in ten minutes time anyway.
4. You’re too blooming busy to read em throughly.
The area that I police has a population of 90.000. On one set of nights it was policed by THREE police officers’. The situation is now so severe that we openly discuss not if, but when a police officer or member of the public will be MURDERED through lack of resources.
I am hoping that JockTheCop’s tale about hygiene packs is a very clever piece of satire, but at the back of my mind there’s a voice telling me, yes, it’s actually plausible. As with H&S if you employ people on a fat salary to do a non-job, their primary aim will be to protect that non-job at all costs by appearing to do something useful.
It’s true to say that some Police Officers (those who do some work) do an outstanding job. However, the Police as a “Service” does a terrible job.
The officer who says 3 response for 90,000 MOPs tallies with an admission from our local Police that there were 2 for the Western half of my local major city. This explains why I never see one ; there aren’t any. This level of “service” is a complete joke, however, it’s actually worse than doing nothing, and it must be truly awful for the officers who have to attempt to police it. One would hazard a guess that they are all fully occupied within half an hour or so of going on shift, and then we are down to … nothing.
It contrasts with another local town where the Hate Crimes lot have time to hang out in a gay bar checking to see if gay men have any hate crimes they want reporting. Like Jock’s tale, one hopes this is satire ; again, it probably isn’t.
James tells it like it is. Frontliners are abandoning ships for jobs which are mostly of little use. As the number of officers, especially experienced officers on the front line drops it becomes even worse, as there is zero support for the brave few still there ; increasing the pressure to “abandon ship” ; a vicious circle. It’s a classic (appropriately enough) Prisoner’s Dilemma.
I think it might end up with virtually no 24/7 response Police Officers and PSCOs out there. Doubtless Government/SMT will say there are lots of “Police Officers” out there (the probable reason PSCOs are called that, spin). One could argue, I suppose, that having PSCOs out there is better than nobody at all, but it’s pretty marginal.
It’s a shame you aren’t allowed to hit chavs with batons anymore. A few decent cuffs in strategic places with a baton would have made hte fishwife far more cooperative and a good deal less violent. As it is, you can’t do anything but she can break an officer’s nose. The world is a mixed up place. If the forces and the NHS and everyone else stopped employing fools to do pointless pencil pushing jobs like telling coppers they’ve parked in the wrong place then we’d have far more money for front line police and the NHS could afford to give people cancer drugs.
I bet the woman who did that to your officer is actually bricking herself at the though of 60 hours community based punishment and a fine she’s never going to pay!
To be fair, her brief could probably argue it’s not even her fault. This would be totally normal behaviour on her sink estate. It’s like blaming a dog for peeing up against a lamp post. It’s just doing what comes natural!
Hope the bobby’s OK boss.
Another excellent post.
Hope the officers concerned have recovered from the incident.
I have no doubt that there will be a (funded by the tax payer) brief only too happy to explain how it’s not her fault……. just a victim of circumstance, was having a bad day.
whilst on the way to ‘a brand new stadium’ on a public order aid, our serial inspector (an office bod usually but he likes to play every now and then) proudly informed us that the whole of the met could fit in the first tier of said stadium. I very stupidly said “yeah and you could fit all the officers left on response in the VIP section” Funny at the time but after 10 hours of standing in the pissing cold rain I would rather have actually been in the VIP section - not that they let uniformed police anywhere near it anyway!!!!
I have posted on this subject today - I am glad to see all the blame being poured in the right direction by the commenters above…
Sounds just like our ‘Support’ Staff.
Evidently due to Health & Safety we are no longer allowed to store items on top of our lockers. If we do they will be confiscated by Facilities and we will have to go and ask for them (Please sir, can I have my ball back……).
Admin are just as bad. Everything is locked away at 16:00hrs when they go home, so if you need any stationary on a night shift - tough (and don’t get me started on the fact that all CID/Dog Section/Response/ Local Policing incoming mail is dropped in the Response tray and Response staff are expected to sort it!!!).
Suprised no one from the MEt mentioned MetHell (sorry MetCall) our wonderful new C3i all singing and dancing control system!
to be fair there are some skippers and PC’s up there and you can tell when they’re at work.
However it is largely staffed by civvie Comms Staff with under 5 years in who earn more than PC’s. They HAVE to take a break every 20mins as apparently under health and safety regs it’s bad for you to work for 12 hours without regular breaks (someone should tell ACPO that about us). This means in the middle of a firearmsjob or critical incident you get someone (and I’ve hear this more than once) sying “I’ve just taken over this channel, what’s going on??” However when response officers complain n air they cop it.
The same is true of other support areas. Finance and Resources for instance. I made the fatal error of putting my flat cap down. Of course someone had it away. So I foolishly go into F & R and say “i’ve lost my hat, can I have a new one?” Reply “No,not until you’ve completed a crime report”. Me “It was probably taken by accident, they go missing all the time”. Reply “No, not until you do a Crime report. We don’t just gve out hats you know.” Wonderful use of resources.
And finally the CMU civilians who view our CRIS reports and then send endless memos’s “Is there any CCTV?” (it was a domestic inside a property. “You haven’t clicked the flag for….” or “Why isn’t the 6th button from the left ticked” when it would’ve taken said cvilian 3 seconds to do it himself but o he memo’s you, so you open the memo go to the right page and then have to do it yourself.
Ok Rant over.
Guv your spot on, who is supporting who??
If the fishwife even gets the 60 community punishment, I’ll be amazed.
The last person to assault me got 9 whole months probation. I didn’t even get asked if I was alright on the night of being assaulted. Just left to get on with it.
I did get two from PSD interviewing me for two hours after the person who assaulted me claimed they had been assaulted by me.
Am I expecting too much…?
This is my first time on this site and can empathise with all the views.
At my station the tail well and truly wags the dog - for example my boss likes the office tidy - fair enough, so i filled up some confy waste sacks and placed them in a large looby area by the lifts in order to find out where they were to go. The next day six of the bloody sacks were by my desk ! to the point where I could’nt reach my chair !! I found out it was the Stores Officer who was partly responsible. With trepedation I entered the groto of the stores officer in the bowels of the station - and was met with a look of abject aggression and loathing when I had the temerity to challenge her. My hair was blown back from the tirade I received ‘YOU CANT LEAVE BAGS THERE ITS A FIRE HAZARD!” I had to raise my voice to make myself heard “WHERE AM I TO PUT THEM THEN?’ & “WHAT ABOUT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY HAZARD TO GET TO MY DESK!?!”YOU SHOULD KNOW WHERE THEY GO !!” she bellowed. I assured her I didn’t know and there were no notices to say where they should go. I also mentioned perhaps she might like to put such a notice in a prominant place to alert people - The reply that came back reinforced my opinion of the majority of civilians “ITS NOT MY JOB!!” came the thunderous roar that almost knocked me over.
By this stage all hope was lost, I turned on my heels and said in sad reflection ‘Not my job’ only to be heckled from behind as I walked away - ‘DONT WALK AWAY!’ she demanded. Again repeating the mantra to myself now in a trance like state - ‘its not my job’ by this stage in the lift. The wailing woman continued to shout venomously as the lift doors slowly closed in front of her contorted face.
The next day her line manager saw me. Apparently I should display broader shoulders as I was quote ‘higher ranking than her’ and perhaps it might be an idea to apologise as she wanted to complain about me!?. Needless to say I politely turned down the suggestion and took slow deep breaths in an effort to stop my head from exploding !
On the basis of this enlightened view point I intend in the near future knocking on the Commissioners door shouting at the top of my voice about how disaterous things are on the front line. If he should but raise his voice at me I shall complain!
Paul I really wish I could say that my comments are satire but sadly I cant! Everything I have said is true………especially the hygiene packs…..!
I can quote you any number of similar ridiculous situations such as we like many forces now have ‘lay’ visitors (ie nosey do gooders!) for the custody suites. These are ‘independent’ members of the public who unpaid come into the custody suite (usually in pairs) un-announced and must be granted immediate access to the suite. They have normal day jobs, bus drivers, teachers, etc etc but for some reason feel the need to inspect what we are doing and ensure we are looking after those poor prisoners correctly. The Sergeant on duty unless there is a severe risk or other reason ongoing in the suite must drop everything he is doing and then accompany the pair as the conduct a visit. This can be 7am, 7pm or 4 in the morning at the weekend! We then have to read from a special card and invite prisoners chosen at random if they would like to speak with the nice lay visitors and air any grievances they may have. I assure you I’m not making this up!!!!
Our last visit took place at 10 am not long after the cells had been cleared for court, as such the clever dicks turned up to find them empty. Great you would think, piss off and go bother someone else. NOPE! they decided to inspect the general fabric of the suite to see we were looking after it properly for the prisoners. A day or so later we received a report via there senior rep to our bosses saying that they were most displeased to find that a few of the toilets in the cells didn’t flush (they never thought to ask and would have found we had disengaged them to stop prisoners flooding them!), that one of the cell buzzers didn’t work (it did, perfectly! just the bulb didn’t light up in the cell) and that they felt the shower walls were not clean enough and we had to have it attended too!
I am required to write a report in response explaining that we have addressed all these ‘issues’ whilst still trying to do my normal job.
Personally I feel we should invit them into a nice empty cell, then close the door behind them and throw away the key. Sure noone would miss them, they are an utter waste of space.
guys and girls - it would appear that at least one member of Police staff has got the pointy end of the stick and tasted a bit of realism…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6706711.stm
hope he’s ok
So in order for all Police staff to be respected by officers they need to be shot? How many times you been shot metcountymounty? Is that the realism of your day to day?, I don’t think so. I’m getting quite annoyed at this hyperbole at ‘civvies’ I know some are useless jobsworth but some of these post are an overeaction, especially due to the amount of complete incompetent Police Officers I have met. This ain’t fighting talk just trying to redress the balance, for every numpty civvie there are equally useless officers (of all ranks). But the I’m glad you all got it out of your systems.
to CSI:UK, I’ve had a gravel studded baton round in the hip and arse if that counts?
As you said there are jobsworths on both side of our respective roles, I think the main issue we all have is the current management practice of hiring people in none jobs (both Police officers and Police staff) to collate figures and stats about figures and stats attracts the type of people who would happily sit there and justify their own existance without giving two shits about the damage it is doing to the Police.
We all know people who are in usual 8-4 office jobs who magically appear on less than 5’s or bank holidays because they have mates in duties etc. The current climate of empowering all of the civilian departments to the point where frontline officers (and I would include soco’s as frontline by the way) are pandering to their every need is literally tearing morale amoungst those of us left to shreds.
As a large number of people have said on Daves blog, if the emphasis was put on response instead of non jobs that attract SPP and lucrative mileage accounts, or police staff roles who have no contact what-so-ever with the officers they are actually supposed to be supporting, then we would be able to actually show we can police and gain some trust back from ‘middle England’.
This afterall is the main section of the population currently being hammered by sanctioned detections and clearups because they are easy targets, the very people that the majority of us joined the job in the first place to try and help, instead of the shits that consist of 10% of the population who cause 90% of the crime.
I wasn’t trying to make light of the fact that a member of Police staff has been shot, i’ve been to a couple shootings and had my hands inside numerous firearm/RTA induced wounds and next to holding a dead kid its the most unpleasant thing one could deal with.
My point is the people who cause us so much work, forget - or in most case don’t know and have never experienced -that this is the kind of incident that we have to face every day, and the other people on the awareness day caught a glimpse of the danger that all frontline officers on the other end of calls put out by control room staff who themselves have not got a clue what they are sending officers to and have no intention or care in finding out.
Until they actually experience something like that they can never understand the effect that emails and other pointless crap have along the lines of “you forgot to tick the box on this pointless form that I’ve designed, i’ve sent it back to you so you can tick it, please send it back to me ASAP as it is already late”
You are fortunate (or in most cases pretty damn unfortunate) in so much as you actually get to see what the world around you is really like, unlike nearly everyone in a Police office who either chose to remove themselves from frontline policing for whatever reason, or the Police staff who joined to do an admin job but have no idea what the organisation they have joined is actually here for.
The shit storm created in my CJU when someone left photos from a particularly nasty suicide proved the point to me - not because someone left evidence strewn about the nick, but because the CJU closed for the day becuase most of the admin staff went off with stress because they saw the photos and it freaked them out.
When I actually get a job where there is a genuine victim that can be helped in some small way by my actions then that reminds me of why I joined in the first place, however getting emails and reminders threatening discipline action if someone elses admin isn’t addressed, sent by people who have not fcuking clue what happens outside their office, not only does it make me want to take them on a couple of nasty jobs to give them perspective, but like everyone else who has posted on here, it pisses me off to the point of considering leaving the country.
To metcountymounty, I was just a little annoyed at the vitriol some people were heaping on Civvies just for having a different outlook within the force (rightly or wrongly) and the ‘Civvie Shooting’ comment wound me up further. I actually agree with most of what you have said, the created statistical jobs annoy me as well, the whole marketplace delivery ethos that Forces seem to be heading down is obscene and a waste of taxpayers money and is creating far to many desk based jobs for the higher ranks.
I have summed up my experience of the Civvie Vs Officer debate on my blog (plug plug).
I read through your post earlier and can also relate to the heinous crime of cadbury roses being left to melt…….
Here is a very handy hint for you. When I was on shift we had exactly the same problem with parking as all the civilian managers had there own bays “within” the secure compound I may add. It got to a head when one of our lads was disciplined for parking there during a night shift and the said manager came in early to find him parked there complaint then followed.
However I, with the assistance of an accountant friend I went to university with soon let everyone know that actually you should really declare to the tax man if you have your own parking bay as it is a perk! Needless to say complaint stopped and they had to fight for parking there after as all bays were blanked out thereafter!
Ah, the high ranking and valued members of our organisation who do their utmost to make our working day easier and support us in our tasks, thereby lessening the burden placed on our straining shoulders and cheerfully replacing our dried up biros!!! (1 pen, per person, per month, perhaps!!!)
In my experience, there are two disinct breeds of police staff: those, like us, that are pretty low down in the grand scheme of things, the support staff that are on the shop floor, coal face, sharp end, call it what you will. They are genuinely helpful and will bend over backwards to assist you and I find that a kind word is never out of place and it usually helps you get just what you need. They are just like us, trying to do the best while sticking their finger in the dyke and trying to hold back the flood of bureauocracy!
The second type of police staff are those that are at midddle management level and above, and have an enormously over inflated ego, coupled with an associated amount of belief in their own power - or as they say in this neck of the woods “full of piss and self importance”. They are usually Finance Managers, Health and Safety bods, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Managers etc etc
I find that the management type are responsible for 99% of the crap e mails and memos that get sent around -”do not park here, you can’t claim that unless you submit a report in triplicate signed in the inspectors blood, meals are not provided because…no you can’t…if you don’t submit a form F324/56A (B)….” the list goes on an on, a whole industry confined solely to the police service which churns out a never ceasing pile of garbage which serves no more purpose than to make your average copper shake their head in disbelief and wonder how much money could be better spent by getting rid of these shiny arsed wastrels, with their own parking space, subsidised car, 2 hour meal break and fat expenses etc.
Thankfully I’ve less than 5 years of this madnes to endure before I get my big fat commutation, unless Gordon grabs it first!
has anyone else noticed the site visit counter?? It should hit the big half Mil tonight or tomorrow - WELL DONE GUV, KEEP IT UP!!
Metcounty really summed it up. I made the mistake of pointing out to one of the statistical elite department that Policing extends beyond the clinical world of the excell speadsheet and that the stats used to measure the performance of my hard working officers where a pathetic misrepresentation of the amount of work we actually do. They might as well be living on another f####g planet. When I joined I never thought for one minute that I would end up counting down to pension. Still at the sharp end after almost 19yrs and working shifts but become increasingly pissed off and disillusioned by the jobsworth shiny aresed pathetic individuals who are running the job into the ground. I actually enjoy working nights becase I know I can get on and do some Police work whilst the HQ battalion sleep on. Stay safe everyone-well done Insp G Almost half mill.
I am a member of the local police authority and am no more impressed by the approach taken by your estates manager than you are.
If only you and all your colleagues would let me know of this sort of thing, then we could do something (or at least try) about it. Cutting the department’s budget, redefining their terms of reference, ensuring that in their PDP the action to spend time with a reactive team is included, training, whatever. Long list of options some of which (or hopefully one of which) might, just might work.
More importantly, it would enable us to convey the message that frontline policing and service delivery externally is what the authority values, rather more than internal administrative excellence.
ri
Rex I like what you say but I see nothing of our police authority and as far as I can tell the senior management would not like you to see what it is really like - may get caught out with a few difficult questions. Get police authority members to visit the local nicks, surprise visits like the ‘lay visitor’ scheme and find out what it is really like from the people doing the job. Pop into a few briefings unnanounced and see what the local taxpayers are getting for the money - it will open your eyes.
Lets not beat all support staff with the same end of the shitty stick. The vast majority of support (sorry, police) staff that i come into everyday contact with are great at what they do and usually make my job easier and do a lot for me. These include (but are not limited to) front desk staff who bat a lot of the crap jobs off before I see them and are always willing to help update admin type things that i haven’t got access to (yes i should have access but i haven’t had the course on point and click). Our civvi control room staff are similarly impressive, some more than others and will have answers for my questions before I’ve realised I’m going to ask them. Also Soco (this is for you CSI:UK). I almost never see Soco, but i know they do what I ask them to via control because i get a tick in a box on my crime screen saying they have attended my jobs and done what is needed.
so thanks to the support staff who actually help, but the rest of you who cause more problems than you solve with relentless emails and extra queries/tasks for my workload, stick your email up your a**e!
OK CSI UK lets have the debate. Less civvies = better policing. Now go and sprinkle your magic dust in a nice safe environment.
Gilbo, you are not helping. Reactively Proactive hit the nail on the head with “lets not beat all support staff with the same end of the shitty stick”.
Your detention officers, SOCO, and (at least some of) your DIU staff are good examples of people who have no right being in the job if - as individuals and as a team - it is not their aim to directly assist you.
Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Great post Guv, I hope the PC’s involved in the incident weren’t badly injured.
I admire your restraint with the “Parking Monitor”, they’re obviously worth every penny of their salary.
I would have probably said something very silly and been made to stand on the naughty step for a while.
On a positive note I just wanted to say that i’m still proud to be a Copper, it’s a great job and i’ve worked with some superb people throughout my service. The pay could be better I agree but it’s still an interesting and varied Career and you get retire at a decent age.
Before I get too beaten up yes the weariness of targets, death by admin, political correctness etc does get me down but overall when I get to chase and catch real criminals I love it.
I’d just like to do more often that’s all, or am I being old fashioned??!!
Jack (16 years working in a very big City in England)
Police Authority member above, whilst I am reassured at what you say, our Police Authority Chair seems to be in the pocket of the Chief Officer’s. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he is paid, what I mean is, it’s yes sir, no sir three bag’s full sir, that sort of thing.
I won’t knock you for trying, but if you do try, you will be on your own I guess. We don’t need a police authority, we need an independent body with oomph, and most police authorities are far from that. Alot of members are in it for their own kudos.
Maybe I have got it wrong. There are alot of good Civilian colleagues in the job and I don’t think we should have ago at them. Who brought in this police reform? Our managers and Chief Officer’s. Who brought in HR Directors that have ruined the HR function? Our leaders. And who get the top Civilian jobs when they are civilianised? Ex police officer’s of rank with who have an in with some Senior Officer’s.
There are some good down to earth Civilian staff and there are some that are downright difficult to manage because they can strike, and they won’t do as they are told! But our leaders have set us up for this. Is it me? Or do others see things similarly? We never chose Civilianisation; Chief Officer’s, ACPO, NPIA, the Home Office, they thought of it and HR Director’s have brought it in.
Twining, your point is? get off that bloody fence and say something rational for goodness sake! Balance in a discussion has its place but there needs to be an opinion eventually otherwise nothing gets done.
To CSI UK
I did have a dig about a civvy instructor who was useless. I wasn’t having a dig at all support staff. I know that the ones at the station I currently work at, are all very committed and helpful, actually supporting us in the frontline. I am glad we have them.
There are support staff who we should bin, there are those who actually make everyones life that much harder than it should be ( incuding yours as well I’d imagine).
I know a lot of these comments are by cops having a gripe at civvy staff, but I’d like to think that those ones are very much like the ones Insp Gadget had bother with.
Yes, there are useless cops, but I think this particular part of Gadgets blog is about the pointless, useless air thieves occupying a civvy post that none of us require. You must have met them too !
Hey gadge, you let this one run and its getting really interesting, at the same time you are nearing that magic, rather large number. You crafty thing you. Congratulations.
I joined late after many years in private industry. The same problem exists in industry, the difference is, they get it wrong they go out of business.
It’s not the fault of civies, they’re victims of bean counters as much as we are. In undustry I had to charge £120 for a part that cost £20 around the corner cos each bean counter added his little bit. Naturraly we lost business and people lost their jobs.
As with comments above, where I work civvies are helpfull, understanding and generally bend over backwards to assist. A few of them have in recent times become specials and that has only increased the esteem in which they hold frontline officers.
They have their equivalent of uniform hangers, and let’s be honest, there’s plenty of coppers’ do that.
To me the problem is one of rank. Cheif Insp and above (civilian equivallent incl) you haven’t got a hope in hell of them understanding reallity. Their life is excel spreadsheet and what they can get the media to publish.
Where I am there’s been pressure for cannabis detections for some time. ( I’m sure you’ve all had the same). Surprise surprise drug offences up 26% last year. If not criminally, at least ethically, that’s a deception.
Friday, John Reid says there will be no reduction in police numbers. Monday police numbers are being reduced. (budget restraints).
It’s a crazy mixed up world. The Guardian are my biggest supporters in the media, but I’m supposed to be Right Wing for God’s sake! What’s going on?
Despite my earlier posts I would like to point out that many civilian staff do a very difficult and excellent job but you find its those that have some kind of direct contact with the beat cop on the street as they have ’some’ understanding of what officers are trying to do and what they have to contend with. Its those in little cosy departments or up in the ivory towers that you find look down from high dictating what should be done and woe betide you if you dont!
To Gilbo I would say this. When I joined nearly 20 years ago my force had approx 1100 officers and around 350 support staff. My Force covers a large geographical area with 2 major cities and other well populated areas. Since then the Police’s responsibilities have increased dramatically. During that time our Scottish super councils decided to split back to their original county councils (a great Govt idea, lets make them all super big, no wait lets make them small again, give it 10 yrs I bet its lets make them big again!!). Anyway when that happened staff in the councils were spread and the Police were forced to take on support staff despite not actually needing too and we had to provide them jobs. We have also had the usual employment creep all public services had seen over the last decade no criticism of a certain political party intended…….
Today my force has just short of 1200 officers, an increase of about 70 officers in almost 20 years……!!! Our support staff stand at just over 1250…… You do the math!
Is our Force better for it ? No! Or certainly in my opinion I very much doubt it! Like I said some do an excellent job, but all in all the ’support’ they are meant to give us in truth doesnt materialise. We support, or bow down to them. Its a standing joke in our HQ that we have support staff who we know can walk about our corridors for years carrying a clipboard and nobody will ever stop to ask them what are they ‘actually’ doing…….!!!
Yet if you asked the public what would you prefer 1600 cops and say 750 support staff or 1150 cops and 1250 support staff sitting in offices, I think we all know the answer!
Finally on the point about splitting the big super councils up, this came about because it was felt that being so big they had lost contact with the local community, there was massive inefficiency and nobody really had a handle on what was happening in all areas of the region. So they have went back to local councils with local accountability.
So whats the plan for the Police in Scotland by the Scottish Executive ? Here’s a great idea to make efficiency savings and improve our effectiveness LETS AMALGAMATE ALL THE SCOTTISH FORCES INTO 1 BIG FORCE! Wow what a fab idea!!!! emmmmm wait a minute……..
Funny how they forget so quickly aint it!
It wouldn’t surprise me if you end up with a Health Scenario. Basically the management/org of the NHS is the same as it was in 1997. The problem is that there have been four or five reorganisations to get there through entirely different structures. God alone knows how much money was wasted on them.
Your figures on admin vs. real cops are interesting. When you started, I would guess calling someone ‘Police’ meant a real officer “doin’ crime stuff”, but I wonder how many of those 1250 ‘Police’ now are either administrators in uniform, or are doing one of those ’special unit’ jobs which allows them to pass lots of stuff back to response as ‘not our job mate’.
The way things are organised these days, if the change to only 750 administrators were forced through, this wouldn’t involve 400 administrators being sacked and 400 new officers employed, they’d just redefine the terms so that the administrators were ‘Police Officers’.
I think this is the reason PCSOs are called this, because it’s a wordy title, why not just call them CSOs ? Because if you call them PCSOs, wordplay/spin allows you to refer to them as “Police Officers”, even though they aren’t. Police Officer to the public means proper trained person who can nick people.
Hmmm there is a bit of backtracking going on up there, but I’ll leave it, I don’t want to empty the can-o-worms any further.
Gilbo I’ll happily enter a debate when you have a point resembling something intelligent.
Widening it a bit further, my area/ division/bcu whatever you call it has 107 PCSOs which is fine but the money would have bought 60 police officers instead. This equates to 12 police officers on each of the 5 teams.The PCSOs do a fair job hi-viz does impact and they do gather some good intelligence but would the money which comes from the tax payer one way or another regardless how the money is branded into grants, council donations etc. Or has the service accepted that the police officers role will be front line operational for 3 years max in most cases before they squad hop and during that time they will be dealing with suicide watch and hand over prisoners.So the PCSO role has become very important reassurance wise. I.E has the government actually given up with the police in many ways and will civilianise more and more,look at CPS,SOCA, CJSU and VOSA for a start all jobs we previously did. We used to have very little interaction with outside agencies for example now it seems the civilians are taking over in all manner of ways. The problem before was that the job was very good at employing difficult middleaged women. Now everthing is going civilian including creating many civilian jobs for police officers.Or ultra tight remits for the squads who have their own agnedas anyway.
Interesting - might be wrong, but haven’t seen one blog justifying the current use of performance figures - Come on there must be one of you out there in Senior Management Land at some beleagured nick who has the balls to stand up for what is preached on a daily basis… Or is it that you’re not really comfortable with the whole concept ?
Trying to encourage lively debate..
DS - Senior Managers might read this, but would they comment? Oh no? It’s more than their career pensions are worth? I think they are comfortable with some of it, but they might not like the detection targets? Balls! You don’t need balls to get up there, but follow the boss’s lead is a game that is played I think!
I’d just like to celebrate with you Inspector Gadjet, you have hit 500,000. I have hit 5000!!!!!
Sorry CSI UK, a bit flippant in my comment I admit but the less civvies = better policing is worthy of debate and what this is all about. Freeing up desk jobs to put more officers on the street is great ,no argument but HR empires and civillianising patrol ,which is what PCSO’s are is wrong. Patrol is our one of our core functions.
The song ‘Rip it up and start again’ by Orange Juice( I think) often floats into my head after SMT or tasking meetings.
In future that is what I will drink before leaving comments and not a bottle of ASDA’s Chilean finest.
God save the King.
Twining says: “I’d just like to celebrate with you Inspector Gadjet (sic), you have hit 500,000. I have hit 5000!!!!”…………………..that many?
The mind boggles - never mind, have something interesting to say, construct a coherent sentence or two, then spell it all correctly and you could get more!
Headmaster - what’s up? The 9:13 comment not coherent enough for you? As for interesting, well it’s a matter of opinion, clearly what interests me does not you, but even you might be allow yourself to be educated by some of Serendib’s articles, unless that is, unless you have an inability to learn.
Anti racism might never interest you, but no one’s asking you to come in, the door is free for you to close behind you as you close your eyes. The death of Stephen Lawrence, didn’t affect you I guess? This is the problem, people like you might hold some power sadly. What is sic is your lack of genuinity. And actually I was celebrating with Inspector G, those that know me will know that was a genuine comment. If your a Headmaster then I’m the Pink Panther!
Whoops forgive my grammer I meant, ” you might allow yourself to be educated.” You “might be allow” is a Black thing.
Since you ask dear boy, I do get the general drift of that particular comment. It doesn’t however, make much sense and tends to reveal you as somewhat naive.
I can’t see police officers at any level chucking away their pension benefits on topics that, though annoying, are hardly points of principle.
You may be different, but I somehow doubt it, for all your huffing and puffing.
As for Steven Lawrence, a tragic affair indeed, but there have been similar sad affairs the other way around, most recently the white lad chased and savagely murdered by some Asians for no good reason other than he was white.
There have been many others. Polarising these horrible events along racial lines, suggesting that a black person killed by a white person is worse than the other way round is just, well, absurd. Scum is scum really, don’t you think?
The Lawrence affair was indeed a watershed in UK policing and probably well overdue with regard to initial investigations, crime scene preservation and the treatment of victims and families.
I do think that the consequent handwringing by our ‘liberal elite’ plus the obstructions to common sense policing thanks to MacPherson have brought no real benefits. I can see many of his recommendations being eventually ditched, especially the ludicrous form filling around ‘Stop & Search’. The government will use ‘terrorism’ to see to that.
I would have thought these days you would be more concerned by the number of ‘black’ people being killed by other ‘black’ people across the UK. I think we’ve lost count about how many to date.
As for my ability to learn, I think I am more than satisfied about that. I don’t think Serendib can teach me anything at all. I think that his output is bizarre and rather hatefilled at times.
Anyway Twining, have you heard of multiple personality syndrome? I think you and Mr Serendib may be one and the same person, I mean, we never see the two of you together! I see ‘he’ has his own blog, but you allow ‘him’ to publish on yours, but fail to show a link between the two. How strange?
Anyway, brush up on your punctuation and grammar, there’s a good chap, and please keep the street argot out of any homework set.
You won’t be taken seriously if you don’t improve your results in English believe you and me.
Headmaster, we often get trolled by racist bigots. I have never suggested that a Black person murdered by a White person is worse than the other way around, so please brush up on your facts old bean!
Your tones are rather Colonial and Serendib is a different person to me, I assure you. Also I have linked to Serendib. Another fact that you ignore or try to mislead on. No, let me guess you are effortlessly Superior and probably cannot be taught by Black people. No worries! Prejudice works in mysterious ways.
As for Black on Black crime yes we have both raised the issues, Serendib and I. Scum is scum; sadly you are the naive one, inferring further ignorance and malice in your comments.
You are sadly unbelievably out of touch and possibly living in your “Liberal” 1970’s or even 50’s. I can assure you also that Serendib is not hatefilled, but you on the other hand with misleading facts are. Feedback where it’s due though, and I will certainly brush up on my English. Tea? Shall I serve it for you too? Clearly it is amazing what the right wing will do to infiltrate Police Officer’s views dear boy!
Amazing how you scatter gun the allegations of racism about when you fail to argue the points made rationally.
You do really seem so very confused and your outburts made easy to understand by your obvious difficulty in expressing yourself clearly.
The assertions you make about me without the slightest shred of ‘evidence’ would be laughable were it not for the fact that you hold a supervisory rank in the nation’s police service.
How your decison making processes work must be fantastic to witness, no impartiality shown during those eh?
Still, can I suggest you ignore me (and anyone else who takes issue with you) if you cannot make the points you wish to without descending into mindless ravings.
I’m off to watch cricket on the village green and I might even have a pint of bitter too.
Apologies if that is too English or British for you, I just don’t fancy taking the risk of being caught in the crossfire by venturing into the inner city on this lovely sunny afternoon.
Perhaps Twinings may well be leaping to conclusions, and perhaps he does not publicise every scrap of reasoning that goes on in his head, but I would hardly call his posts “mindless ravings”.
Clearly, Headmaster, he sees in your posts warning flags which he has learned to respond to, and there is likely some reason for that which relates to you rather than to him. I have to say that - if anything - your comments seem to be the ones that are peppered with derogatory allusions. And let’s not forget that it was your apparently purposeless criticism of Twinings’ congratulations to the Inspector which started all of this.
Might I suggest that if one cannot have a rational exchange without resorting almost to the point of name-calling, then perhaps there is not enough raw material for any worthwhile discourse. Especially when one is publishing as a guest on somebody else’s site.
Yawn indeed. Why are you quoting a chunk of my blog on here? It’s really not that interesting.
Inspector, despite the above’s humorous use of my URL, I can assure you that this is not some sad link-whoring effort on my part. Check your referrer logs for the visitor with IP address starting 86.145.38, that’s the culprit. He spent a good 25 minutes looking over my site before that extract above appeared, and considering the disingenuous use of links in names on here it does not take an entire DIU to work out why.
Sayonara, thank you for your reasonable response. Take care.
I thought I might educate you tonight Headmaster if you will allow me to, “fail to argue points made rationally” - a well-known racial stereotype applied to Black and Asian peoples, “obvious difficulty in expressing yourself clearly” - another racial stereotype, “mindless ravings” - yet another racial stereotype.
Seeing as you talk about my irrationality, could it actually be that you are the one that has an inability to move beyond what you deem to be British; in other words are you stuck in the past?
You might wish to look up the proportion of minority ethnic people within the Mental health industry as patients, and ask yourself why this is so?
Let me educate you a little further and advise you that the death of Mubarak would not have occurred if the prison service had taken on some of the recommendations of the Macpherson Report. Recommendations that you so easily wish away.
The recommendations were not designed to get in the way of policing and you mislead the readers here. These are not ramblings dear fellow; what you refer to as ramblings are facts which you refuse to acknowledge, but in order to move forward the first thing we must do is acknowledge failures.
Oh another racial stereotype is a bit like we all lie as you intimate; you know the bit about me and Serendib being one and the same and having some syndrome. Trawl my writing, as I am sure you may have done, and you might find some discomfort in yourself. My friend these are your issues, but Serendib and I are two different people. We are human beings.
Sayonara for your information, someone has been adding text on this and my blog purporting to be me and this is why I feel the right wing are trolling police blogs. Just as someone has, I think, purported to be you.
These people I am afraid are playing mindless games but I still congratulate the Inspector on his achievements, irrespective of Headmaster’s academic racism. The Headmaster fails to understand that without an utter of a word there might be some racism. And I have not brought any of this abuse on. I guess now he will be saying I am Sayonara too!
Fortunately Twinings, while a troll might assume a name and “borrow” a URL (or even licensed intellectual property, as we saw above), the server logs always give the full story. Also don’t forget that the boss can see the email addresses we repeatedly submit, whereas an impersonator will have to guess or make something up.
Further to James comments re PCSOs. I work in a beleagered main office - under staffed, under resourced and overworked. I hear on the news that PCSOs have produced 340 tickets since they started. On the majority of times I see them they walk around in packs of four or more - which they may evenly distribute and pair up on either side of the road!
These uniform carriers are worth at least £20,000 each. It doesn’t take a mathmateical genius to perhaps consider that this money is not being wisely spent does it?
Counting the days..
I founded the ACPO (American coalition for Peeing outside) so websites with ACPO always get my attension. I wasn’t aware that it could stand for anything else. LOL
Inspector Gaget - an excellent site, my colleague found it and passed it on to me. Yes, when’s the book coming out!!
Some of you are lucky, an Inspector coming out? God, we are lucky to put out a Sgt & 4 PC’s sometimes in a City on a Friday & Saturday Night, if only the public knew!!
And as for Civies, what and where do we start? We too have had training personnel telling us how to do a job that they have never seen or done.
Excellent site once again.
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I’ve never run into this kind of issues before, but thank you for sharing, so it would probably be handy tips in the future (although I hope not).