Do sit down, there’s a good chap!
June 28, 2007 by inspectorgadget
Talk about ‘Citizen Focus’?
Just about every officer with arms, legs and a pulse is being deployed in uniform for a Special Event in Ruralshire, later in the Summer.
Regardless of rank or roll.
The last time was the Fire Fighters strike.
I have now seen the look of complete terror and confusion on the faces of those with dubious titles who hide behind desks.
These people will have to put on a uniform, go outside and meet the public.
Suddenly, there will be hundreds of officers on the streets of Ruraltown. We are to receive literally dozens of marked vehicles. Even the piss poor Airwaves radio sets will be re-programmed.
And we get a new protocol for other Divisions who will have to accept our prisoners when custody is full.
In other words; we get to police they way we should be every day of the year.
And of course some wonderful photo opportunities for the Chief.
The reason for all this activity? Well that would be giving away the name of the County but rest assured it has nothing what so ever to do with the poor citizens of Ruralshire, who are bankrolling the whole debacle.
I thought that you were going to finish with “and then I woke up and it had all been a dream”.
And I bet at the end of it the reduction in crime and increase in prisoners will be welcome to the people of ‘Ruralshire’ but then the bean counters will look at it and say “we can’t possibly do that every day of the year, we’d lose our yearly budget in a week!!!”
Bet the officer dweller won’t deal with the bail backs, bet the vast majority of working people won’t be able to see any quantifiable difference in outcomes, bet the criminal fraternity just have a day off , bet an ACC somewhere now has something to say at a Police authority interview ,bet you anything you like it will leave the rank and file bemused and confused
I bet the office dwellers will be on overtime, and the reponse bobbies won’t be.
Can’t be G8 again already?! Must be the Spice girls re-union.
Citizen Focus, what a pile of sh…
Had my training on tuesday and was told to be more positive when dealing with our ‘customers’, thats what the surveys say we are bad at. !!! Tell them crime is down, detections are up, anti-social behaviour is declining etc. etc. I only woke up when I heard the words “20 minute coffee break”!
Now i’m sorry but each decent person I deal with gets 100% from me, if there is going to be no chance of solving a crime they have reported, i’ll tell them at the earliest opportunity, not positive, but is honesty not much better than false hope or waffle about detections. I don’t mind admitting that when I deal with a CRO/SCROATE they get far less effort, and quite often all they want is a crime number anyway.
Rant over. Gadget enjoy your event, at least you’ll get a laugh watching all the office dwellers attempting to do some real (ish) police work.
I understand that we are some way short of the quota of officers needed for this tremendous public event, even with anyone who can breathe in and out on the street. I wonder if they will break out the ‘instant copper’ packet mix? Just add water and stir, makes four instant coppers! I and my merry band have been told its mandatory for us to turn up. Fancy that. Volunteers being forced to volunteer! And those bankrolling the event will not have a leg to stand on when told that ‘no, you cannot park outside your house’, ‘yes I know you live there’. It wont be the council who are seen as the bad guys!
Are you getting the mounted section out as well? I would love to see the faces of the keyboard rattlers when faced with a horse and rider charging around in full kit.
I’m not sure we have one. Do they do Instant Mounted Officer Packet mix?
GADGET, we had one of them recently, with more ‘pips’ & ’scrammbled eggs’ than you could shake a stick at! I really don’t know where they all came from, but as soon as they realised it could involve a good photo call, along with the Chief, out they came! And what about the locals? They couldn’t believe the amount of Police that was around, when normally they could count on one hand the presence of uniforms in the whole of the area.
Oh yes, there was a lot of ‘odd’ payments that day, but you can guess who got the OT payments and who got the normal duty!
Hope your’s goes better than ours!!
FL EHU
I wonder of anybody has worked out the actual cost of this. The O/T payments are only the start of it. How many ‘rattlers’ will still be able to cram their recentely rounded bodies into their old stab vests? I bet not that many high vis jackets will be zipped up. It will be used as a good excuse to order a whole load of new kit with no awkward questions being asked.
Has anybody considered that you will just about have enough Airwave battries to cover a normal day and you will need to buy or borrow many more. I can see the costs begining to spiral already. If there is any O/T going take it all because there won’t be any more this year!!
I thought the CF cr*p was just our lot (!)- did you get the email afterwards, about the training will change how you do your job, assuring the office monkeys they are “making a difference”?
- Because I’m sure those who work in the office (dealing with other officers and “partnership” staff) have a much better understanding of how you should be doing do your job, (working nights and weekends, attending stressful, dangerous or often mundane situations and preparing handover files etc hours after you should have gone home), than you could ever have Boss.
I’d be glad if they just gave me the kit I order (and need, as a front-line bobby) without questioning it……..
We had some of our Olympic Flames made to do late shifts on the lead up to Christmas last year. It was quite funny watching some of them. We worked out that one of them, hadn’t worked on the streets for 18 years! Needless to say, all the jobs they picked up, soon got handed to the response teams to deal with!
IG, all that b******* must be the flavour of the month or it is a new concept that was conceived up at some VERY important ACPO conference. My force is attempting to crow bar the carpet huggers’ from their office in order to undertake that shocking policing game that they all know so much about while drinking coffee at regular intervals.
Something nice to go into next year’s annual report, something strategic no doubt.
Probably a high profile - non tolerance sort of thing, extra uniforms on the streets, may even be when itis dark. Lots of ‘extra’ resources to deal with any arrests, there might even be some response left to respond, or to deal with the hand-over dross.
Then home in time for tea & medals.
Another Royal Visit then!! Or something similar
Pain in the ass, tons of work with little thanks, in fact whilst Queeny is quite a decent spud and speaks too and thanks the cops that twat of an excuse for a husband called Phillip actually orders the Chiefs when he visits to make sure officers on uniform are not on show when he does his little tours as ‘he doesn’t like seeing them!’
Before anyone jumps on me, I actually quite like the fact we have a monarchy and dont mind them in general but twats like this who we are putting our asses on the line for make me want to hurl!
How rude, Jock the Cop…….
reg nothing of the sort, like I said I like them in the main but manners cost nothing but when you see Prince Phillip getting out a vehicle and ordering a Ch Insp waiting to ensure everything is ok to ’stand over there where I wont see you!’ it makes me think what they hell are we doing …….
[...] Do sit down, there’s a good chap! Talk about ‘Citizen Focus’? Just about every officer with arms, legs and a pulse is being deployed in […] [...]
I know whats happening. You’re getting a visit from HMIC!
Hello there! I`m a norwegian copper, and I have a question: what makes the Airwaves “piss poor”? We are looking into the same type of tecnology…
Vegar, I personally don’t have a problem with airwaves, but I work in an urban area with a good signal in the main. However, I have heard my mates in rural areas have had problems with coverage, and I myself have been at an incident in a building once where my airwave has had no signal. Not a major problem if there is a phone nearby, but if you need to hit the red button…..
Boss, if your event at the end of summer is like our one (or the same one???), the office monkeys are happy to come out, just for the freebie. Sun, music, short skirts and icecreams. As long as they are on day shifts, it’s not too hot, they are not in the pandas dealing with non-stop G1’s, and they dont have to work overtime, arrest a non-compliant suspect, or cover the G2 (mini-motos’s, nuisance youths etc) jobs away from the main event, they will be happy. So one office monkey told me himself anyway…
Vegar,
I work within London catchment area, and the most common problem for us is the coverage. Although logically we should be covered, being in the city and all that, it is not happening. IT seems that as a rule, the scuzzier council estate, the least likely that the radio works.
Funnily enough, the radio does not work in the canteens, writing rooms or custodies either…
Maybe if they were strenghten the signal or place more masts to support it, then maybe. Oh and the telephone facility is just rubbish - if one is to put such an option into the radio, then make it a proper one or don’t bother at all. I’ve lost the will to live on those rare occasions I have had to use the phone option, as the signal is so bad that the phonecall would terminate usually within 10seconds.