Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
August 15, 2007 by inspectorgadget
PC South West has started the debate about the annual most staggering piece of totally useless nonsense we all have to undertake in the UK police.
See if you can guess what he’s on about - go to the site and put in your 5 cents worth. I have.
I have to confess that I am a huge fan of PC South West for the following reasons:
1. He likes the same Youtube “taser” videos as I do (sad but true).
2. He is a tireless and fearless campaigner against police nonsense.
3. He is a true front-line trooper, as are his unit.
He may be writing about something we don’t know about, in which case, I’m off-track. (wouldn’t be the first time)
Is it the mid year PDR reviews that we all take so seriously.
You were spot on Boss.
We really do need to stand together on this one and refuse to do it, what can they do to all of us, stick us all on?
It’s a big time waster that is not in the slightest bit necessary or even close to Police work, it’s not as if we don’t have enough to do is it?
I call on all Police bloggers to post on their sites about this and drum up some support, or I can see myself losing the plot at the end of a busy shift trying to make sense of it.
I guessed, it was the ABC nonsense, why don’t we all just refuse to do it, it is the single most useless form that has the misfortune to arrive in my ‘in tray’. If the public only knew about it - oh hang on, they do now. Bob, as for PDR that is the second most useless document, if an officer is happy doing frontline policing and the supervisors are appy with their work then just let them get on with it and don’t insist they write about it every year just to justify the existence of the Human Resources department which is the single most wasteful resource in the police service. We managed for 180 years without them, we can certainly do without them now. The policing bill would drop by a huge amount with the absence of their salaries. They could then employ some 16 year olds to do some PCSO work after they finish their paper round!
Haha! Yes, our Federation sent us out the annual insult. Now, how they can dress up a, what was it 2.74% increase?, when inflation is above this level is going to be a mean feat of smoke and mirrors…
I think the buses to ACAS are being booked as we type.
Activity sampling! Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh
(runs for the hills)
Some of the more fortunate of us get it for two whole weeks. They don’t even supply us with pencils anymore.
You really can put any nonsense on the activity analysis , I put 7 hours out of the nick patroling for most of them , its linked to funding you know , more flp activity more dosh
Dont knowwhat all the fuss is about. Our management have had us completeting an activity breakdown covering every single 15 mins of our shift, every day for the last four years. It means they can produce graphs and charts every month telling us how crap we all are! Of course the statistics are all very selective. They dont show how much overtime (paid or unpaid) we have worked, how many meal breaks we havent had (again) but I suppose it keeps a bunch of snivelling jobsworths in employment at the dream factory. The annoying thing is they never seem to have to complete any of this crap themselves. Maybe if they did……………..
Last year we were told we weren’t allowed to tick any ‘non-incident’ based activity regardless of what we were or weren’t doing. I know its all down to funding, but the bosses told us even when we did nothing it was still nothingness linked to an incident and we were probably resolving the problem in our minds unwittingley!
Some of my shift did an experiment last year and ticked the most obscure box’s they could, ie- paperwork and or refs for the whole week, no one realised, forms never came back..Interesting !
I beleive some home office clerk just shreds them all…….
10 years to go, that’s the idea I had. Just get everyone to fill them in exactly the same to see if anyone notices. Say that you were filling in the form for every 15 minutes of the day!
I wonder if the fed will have the guts to call for a week of work to rule, as we can’t strike its the next best thing. It’s not going to be long if we just answer immediate calls only that some people will start to realise how bad things can get.
The only problem with a strike is unlike the fire service and nurses, there isn’t anyone to step in if all 140k of us said “sod it, this weekend we’re not going to turn up for work, fill your boots everyone”
the government needs a hefty kick in the bollocks to make them listen to the 95% of the population that have no voice to say they’ve had enough, the other problem is many police officers are in that 95% and will still find it extremely hard to strike.
Arrrrrrgggh activity analysis sucks!
Wouldn’t the specials step up if we went on strike…and wouldn’t the army be called in?
Gadget, I didn’t know you liked Moby!!
Don’t know about everyone else but as a Sergeant in my force I have to check and countersign the damn forms as correct! How’s that for police (in)efficiency? If they aren’t correct when I submit them we get them back with a snotty memo from some office bound desk jockey. Oh how the forms get passed to and fro. Makes me want to weep.
I thought it was the forced jollity and stalinist solidarity of the Annual Policing Plan which is on a par for uselessness
Police on skateboards…have a look at my post “Skating on Thin Ice…!!!”
As a taxpaying civilian I read police blogs detailing these idiocies with appalled fascination.
What would it take to cut out this stuff? Or is this a case of dim bureaucrats only promoting safely dimmer bureaucrats?
Are police forces complacent throughout their top ranks? Is there any hope of change at all? Or do I have to resign myself to being bled for ever to pay for this inefficiency?
(I am not railing at the police bloggers, by the way! I respect all of you I’ve read, and I wouldn’t have your jobs for anything. But what would you like outsiders to do?)