Bad Vibrations And The Smell Of Benzine.
February 23, 2008 by inspectorgadget
The last set of Night Duty shifts was, well, interesting.
Yet again, we fell below the (politically incorrectly named) “minimum manning levels” on three occasions in four nights. As usual, the absolute minimum number of front-line police responders has been worked out in a warm office somewhere, based upon the geographical size of F Division (big enough before the Government insisted upon reducing the number of Divisions, now massive) the population numbers and an analysis of numbers of incidents and crimes.
Five people were in this taxi. We arrived before the Fire Brigade.
As soon as the “minimum manning level” has been agreed, it becomes the “normal manning level” and we join the constant battle of definitions. To a simple soul like me, a “minimum manning level” for the Response Team should mean, well, the minimum number of officers on the Response Team.
Oh, how unschooled I am in the art of public service management smoke and mirrors.
The “manning level” includes officers abstracted to custody duties (NOT on the street) covering the Front Office (NOT on the street) and at Ruraltown General Hospital supervising some drunken idiot (NOT on the street).
When you next hear or read a local Police Commander or Politician saying:
“we never drop below minimum staff levels”
you will hopefully treat this with the suspicion it deserves.
Yet another near fatal pile-up drains our resources and energy.
All of this is OK though, because the Neighbourhood Teams (went home at 4.00 pm) had more than seventy officers and PCSO’s on duty during the same week! We are told that this is what the public want. There you are then. More Bobbies on the beat.
Bad Vibes if you are lying trapped in a smashed up vehicle that starts to smell of petrol.
Sigur Ros - Hoppipolla (Jumping In Puddles) mp3
This is wonderful stuff.
One of our commenters sent us over here after I wrote about the jails being full.
As you probably know, in some states in the US, prisons have been privatized, saving the government lots of money, but rather harder on the inmates, I suspect. Such hardships pretty much divide along racial lines. ‘Twas ever thus.
It is most unfortunate that your citizenry are not armed. It would cut your workload considerably. One county in the US, in Georgia, made it mandatory that all homes contain a firearm and adults trained to use it.
The result?
Cut the sheriff’s work in half and saved him having to hire more deputies. So everyone was pleased: taxes weren’t levied to hire new officers, people took responsibility for themselves, and best of all, the crime rate dropped considerably.
I will definitely link to the Inspector. Any officer who likes cats has my vote.
Sorry Hoddy - I thought hard about it but I can’t allow your comment.
I agree with you totally, however, this Blog is read by people who are just WAITING for a reason to take official action against me, and that comment may have allowed them to do so.
If it had not been the first it may have escaped notice! Sorry!
Oddly enough we were in the same position on Thursday evening. I started at 3pm. By 3.30 I had two prisoners and as did another crew.
4 prisoners in the bin, 2 being PYO’s. 6 officers a bag full of grade 1’s and a fatal rtc to attend all by 6.30pm.
This means at least 3 officers in the custody suite dealing with said prisoners. 2 more officers were double crewed in an IRV attending a violent domestic leaving one officer to attend a fatal RTC (turned out it was serious life threatening).
We cover an area of over 200sq miles. Our magic number is 6 also. It’s no wonder we’re being spanked for burglaries & vehicle crime.
Funny how the car park is rammed between 9am and 4pm.
Minimum staffing means absolutely nothing. Since August, I have barely paraded my minimum strength. I have, unfortunately, got so used to it that I have given up arguing with my resource unit. Amost, given up. I will fight tooth and nail for my team. I don’t expect many victories but when it all goes tits up, I will take some comfort in that “I told them so”.
Problem is, we are a ‘can do’ organisation. We make it work.
And then make a rod for our own back…………if you can cope with less staff, then we’ll allocate you less staff and amend the minimum levels to fit.
The public need to know just how few cops are available when they call.
Stinky
You may be a Ruralshire officer? Spooky!
We might as well have amalgamated into one big Force. All our experiences are sooooooo similar. And that is what scares me…………..is there a police force out there that has it good ?
Who carries the can when the minimum number of humans in Police uniform are processing their maximum number of victims/criminals when another incident which cannot be ignored occurs? Is a car accident abandoned to deal with a Thought Crime incident or vice-versa? How do the individuals who set the “the minimum number of humans in Police uniform” escape reprimand?
Presumably criminals do not set up a few major incidents concurrently on a regular basis, otherwise the “the minimum number of humans in Police uniform” would have been set higher. Does this mean that organised criminals effectively have a relatively free hand outside office hours and that “the minimum number of humans in Police uniform” are simply window dressing?
Administrator - why not have a “Preview Comment” in addition to the “Submit Comment”?
Guv,
Stinky’s in the MPS methinks!!
Oops! No he’s not! My mistake. Sorry.
Its good that you do all you can to calm the divisions between neighbourhood and response teams.
Anyway off to watch the rugby before a good nights sleep in order to prepare me for patting young children on the head and helping old ladies cross the road.
After 16 years as a constable, I know this about using the teams in penny packets, it fails to control night time crime and public order.
When I first joined I was posted to the station in “SmallMarket” (pop 40,000) which on any given night posted a walker, three cars, a van and a sergeant. At weekends we even supplemented the walker with a couple of specials. Good specials, the sort that you were happy to see coming over the hill when things started going wrong.
I am told that these days you are averaging a car and a van with the supervision done from nearby Bigtown,
There is a solution but its not very popular. It put strain on my marriage and some colleagues thought I was mad but this is it :-
If there is a problem on your beat, its up to you to fix it. If you are Town Centre community beat / neighbourhood team / whatever and your problem is Friday, Saturday, Sunday 1am onwards then guess where you should be every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you are neighbourhood in an estate with chronic youth ASB after dark, guess where you need to be every night.
Anything else and you are just playing at it and living an easy life on the backs of others and you are paying mere lip service to the neighbourhoods and communities you serve.
No one else is responsible for sorting it. Others will help but its part of the responsibility.
Me? I did a lot of nights and evenings in my 2 years and then took the CID penny and still worked loads of nights on targetted crime. A problem on my patch would stop me sleeping, make me feel guilty for letting people down. I would pester the Sarge to deviate me onto nights and evenings just so I could deal with the real problems and not just march a uniform around the trouble free day time streets.
Shudder; something just chilled my spine, it may be the thought of a car on its roof and the smell of petrol
or it may be dymphna’s comment
‘One county in the US, in Georgia, made it mandatory that all homes contain a firearm and adults trained to use it.’
I can think of plenty of folk in our village you wouldn’t want in charge of so much as staple gun, let alone anything else, that aside think of the office jobs that mandatory ownership of firearms would bring, well in the UK it would.
I.G the only place that minimum staffing levels is not a problem is headquarters which has the reverse problem of where do they house all the staff.
So where have all the policemen gone, like long long ago.
GB tells us there are thousands more on the force, where are they?
This post resonated with me. I have seen colleagues injured due to insufficent staffing, I have seen MOP’s injured due to insufficent staffing, I have seen crime rise beyond belief due to insufficent staffing and i have seen Management teams admit the problem but do nothing about it because there is no gravy in preventing crime just cleaning up afterwards.
Bleedin taxi drivers. They drive like loons around here too. But I’m never out of from the inside of the nick to do anything about it. And that isn’t by choice I may add!
oh and we’re doomed, there are thousands more PCSO’s, not PC’s. Mr Brown would like you to believe PCSO’s are PC’s.
Another rousing yes vote for the neighbourhood teams from nightjack.
I welcome his two years uniform experience and his dedication to his wife.
Anyway off to the allotment to have a cuppa and read the paper before logging on duty from home.
In reply to ‘we’re doomed’. That is the million dollar question. Even up to the early 1990s in our Division each Station had 4 beats with 2-3 Beat Officers on each. We had shifts of 8-10 Officers working round the clock doing what is now called response, the enquiry office staff were 1-2 Police Officers, the Custody Centre gaolers were 2-3 Police Officers, the Court Gaolers were 3-4 Police Officers
The area used to be covered by a City Police Force and that meant that there were three Police Stations in close proximity, only one station had the Court and the custody centre, but otherwise the staffing situation was the same in all three Stations.
Before anyone says that there are too many squads now, we used to have a full team of CID Officers with a DI at each station, a Sgt +4 on Vice Squad, a Sgt +4 on Street Offences Squad, a Sgt +4 in the Div. Intelligence Office, 2 on Dealers Squad. Plus a drugs squad, a burglary squad, Special Branch, several Crime Prevention Officers and a Coroner’s Officer.
- and all this without a PCSO in sight. Where have they gone? I am not sure that anyone really knows.
A question IG: Do people outside of your previously mentioned circle within the force now know who you are? I hope not!
It’s just that your comment to the (presumably) deleted post of Hoddy implies as such.
LOL Pandy, but it was 5 years in uniform of which 3 were response and 2 were what was then called “Community Beat Team.”
Mrs. Nightjack and I are still together.
I do believe that if you sign up to be a Neighbourhood Police Officer then it behoves you to actually police your neighbourhood by being there when you are needed rather than when daylight permits.
Blue Knight,
The only differences I can see are by way of new roles where I work
- A Divisional Commander’s “Development Team”
- A much bigger divisional Intelligence Unit
- A dedicated source handling team
- Uniform split into Response / Neighbourhood making 2 x small teams rather than 1 big one
- A bigger divisional “Community Cohesion Team”
- A divisional training PC
- Expanded CJS File Preparation Unit
- A Custody Intervention Team (cell sweepers)
- A team devoted to getting prolific offenders into rehab
I suspect the answer is somewhere in there.
Binary Surfer
No; the Hoddy comment was about Race issues, which even the Gadget Blog is not brave enough to discuss. I have a mortgage and a family to feed! Thanks for your interest though.
Every now and again, a PC from my team figures out that IG is me (if you get my drift). So far, loyalty has won the day and no one has ‘outed’ me.
The force that I served in like most forces suffered from staffing levels on response. A friday and saturday late turn duty 10-12 officers, single crewed, commencing at 1600 hours generally meant generally that by 1800 all units were committed and non deployable.
This was compounded on bank holiday’s wherby to save cost’s the maximum working numbers could not exceed 9. It’s very “Q” on public bank holidays as we all know, so it was deemed there was no requirement to be up to I use the word advisly “full” strength.
We were fortunate enough to be invited to attend a Chiefs Roadshow once a year- The only time I ever saw him in person.
Some brave soul raised the question of staffing level’s on response.
The answer was that the issue was urgently being looked into- but more importantly the CC stated the shift pattern, as opposed to extra uniformed officers being made available”
That was 2 years ago, and the shift pattern remains the same, as do the problems of not having enough officers.
Members of the public suffer as do hard working frontline officers.
The people that make these decisions by this time are safely tucked up at home, oblivious to wahts is happening all across the country.
PS. Great website- Congratulations!
I love the crazy logic…we too revert to minimum staffing on bank holidays. However we are a tourist area, and the cities empty onto us! The roads are chaos, we can have a number of fatal RTAs (sorry, RTCs) before lunch, and lets not forget the underclass don’t change their drink and drug habits, or the crimes they commit to feed them. So our bank holidays tend to be a frenzy of activity where we run headlong from often big job to big job, with our hands tied and our eyes shut.
And get this. To save money, the force insists that officers work only eight hour shifts on BHs. If you would ordinarily have been rostered for a nine or ten hour shift had it not been a bank holiday, you have to take the time off your card.
You couldn’t make it up.
After returning from a multi-agency meeting involving empowered key members of the community, (it never took place but I’ve got to put something in my workbook), Pandy must take a moment to give respect to ‘NIGHTJACK’.
Anyway Pandy will now to take a job off the queue to leave by his/her call sign for the rest of the shift before putting it back on the queue before signing off. Quite incredibly, the I.P. was not in each time Pandy attended the home address.
I think it’s wrong that there were none of the Neighbourhood Team to support you past 4pm, that’s outrageous. I’m sure neighbourhood issues continue well in to the darkness, perhaps that’s when the majority of them come to life.
Surely their shifts should be staggered. I was under the impression most PCSOs worked up to midnight nationally?
We have some that work until 4am. I could launch into a major tirade about minimum manning, but I think Gadget did quite well already. Suffice to say, for all the stick PCSOs get, they saved divisions bacon numerous times yesterday.
Perhaps their ’saving the bacon’ will be seen by the Ivory Tower that we don’t need more police and can safely replace them with PCSOs. That is NOT what I mean, it’s just fortunate the jobs they DID cover due to a lack of police officers didn’t go horribly bent and it all worked out in the end.
NOT ENOUGH POLICE OFFICERS!!
I find the PCSO’s on F Division very helpful and usually a cheerful and good source of local intel.
Unfortunately, they have to spend their evenings at various PACT meetings so they can update their ‘ward profiles’.
As we all know, in the UK police, updating the paperwork ready for inspection by HMIC is more important than actually getting out and working the streets.
The NPT’s are on duty, but they are “busy” training Specials, showing citizens around the Nick on guided tours, addressing residents meetings, strictly tied to wandering around a very prescribed area in yellow jackets or drinking tea, not necessarily in that order!
This is a genuine enquiry, not a sarky comment: in the general run of things, why would anything other than a huge RTA need more than, at most, 2 coppers, when presumably a bad smash is more in need of firemen and ambulances?
Where I’ve been in tailbacks caused by RTAs (in the London/Essex area), the police have made absolutely no attempt to divert traffic where it has been possible, or to stop cars coming on to, say, an affected motorway, thus causing clog-ups for bloody miles.
I can obviously see that taking even 2 officers out of a 6man team is a nightmare, but I recall one quite minor smashup on the M11 last year, and we counted 6 police vehicles speeding up the emergency lane. Presumably a quiet night then.
To Spitting Feathers @ 26
“If you would ordinarily have been rostered for a nine or ten hour shift had it not been a bank holiday, you have to take the time off your card”
While the Insp can’t claim any overtime payment, the PCs and Sgts in your area should perhaps check Police Regulations. Bank Holidays are not included in their annual salary. Hence the reason officers can claim double time when they work them - or simply have the day off. No time should come off your card i.e. if you choose not to work the BH, you don’t lose a day from your card.
The irony where I work is that Bank Holidays are the only time you are guaranteed to parade your minimum levels. The lure of payment attracts them out of the woodwork. Yes, you even get the Neighbourhood team PCs out in a response car.
And before Pandy gets pissy, I was a Neighbourhood cop. PC and Sgt for 6 yrs. It’s not all cups of tea and school fairs. Far from it. But life is much easier in the NHP world. That’s why I left.
inspector bloke:
”And before Pandy gets pissy”
Cracking line, very nearly wet myself!
Ah i see now, thanks for the clarification IG - heres to hoping that it stays that way!
I’d be surprised if any of them did out you - the majority of the coppers i know are a fairly loyal and insular lot even amongst their own!
That probably doesn’t cover the new career-hungry ones tho..
IG cracking post. Manning levels are they same wherever you go, recently our happy town was ‘downgraded’ to a Sgt and 5 for nights. Not bad when you have one of the largest concentration of pubs in the country. Some one bothered to check the rosta concerning the ‘invisible’ masses carrying a warrant card and a certain dept. naming no names had 40 on duty. Not bad for sitting at an airport.
One thing though, whilst I appreciate that there appears to be some hostility towards SNTs, I have to say ours are very good and do work nights, do take on ‘response’ jobs and actually have some of the highest arrest rates in the County and not just for petty offences. So how about you cut SNTs a little slack, after all we can all think of response officers that cringe when the radio calls!!
When I read this I thought ‘this IG bloke really is from Scotland, and I bet he’s from my Force’, but then he goes on to speak about things all our transferees speak about from the good old Counties, so I figure he isn’t from bonny Scotland. Just the same old fights and wars being fought by Response Inspectors across the whole country. The fight to retain staff taken away to do meaningless standing about in court, hospital, you name it - but of course they’re still ALL included in my ‘minimum strength’ - what a load of utter nonsense. If only the public knew that, in reality, I have half of what the Force says I have on paper, available to deploy across my division on any one day. I’m not going to get into a rant about it. My doctor has told me I need to keep my blood pressure down. But as has been said before here - the fight every day goes on if not only for my team to show that I’m behind them every step of the way, then when it all goes tits up, I can stand there knowing that I did what I could when others hid behind the bureaucratic Working Time Regs/Force Policies and preached to me that ‘you are above minimum’.
dougal
Issues, issues, issues.
Drunk driver needs breathalising at the scene? identification of a dead body for next of kin - is one of the vehicles stolen? is everyone accounted for? (only police will search the immediate area for people thrown clear) draw a sketch of how the vehicles were found so your solicitors can argue over who was to blame, what about the passengers who are not injured? they need to get home, new members of the unit need to be there to get trained etc etc etc
Obviously, this is only for the big ones.
And don’t forget; we can be at a night club fight in town minutes after it’s all over.
I recently went to another force to interview someone. It was a Friday evening. 4000 revellers out on the town. The local Sgt was pulling his hair out as the SMT had set a minimum staffing level for a Friday evening/night of 14 officers’ of which two should be Sgts. He had on duty 6 officers’ including himself. And they had to cover normal response as well.
Where have all the officers gone?
I’ve just returned from Dordogne in France, attended one barbeque where there was a reunion - 96 ex-cops, male and female, every one of them now resident in rural France. Early pension, extended sick leave, they had a variety of stories.
Made me feel right nervous about returning to Camberwell.
Dougal,
You’re absolutely right. I’ve seen an entire city centre come to a grinding halt for nearly two hours because officers didn’t have the wit to override a single traffic light.
They preferred to stand around chatting with their mates waiting for the jumper to change his mind.
My duties dept took five of my six staff (used to be twelve, but Local Policing and Pro-active became so much more important) off nights for court. When I complained, it was met with ‘it’s done withing guidelines’. How do you Police 500sq miles with a couple of officers on a friday night. Do the command team give a shit!!
I’ve also had CSO’s walk into my office in the evening, complaining that they weren’t sure what to do. Their illustrious LPO ‘mentors’ simply don’t bother working during the evening or weekends. The biggest department in the nick, simply are never there. I don’t think it’s rocket science that on nights such as Halloween or bonfire night there’s going to be lots of low level disorder. Guess who has to go..the response teams. Because the Local Policing supervision is as lazy as the PC’s and can’t summon the bottle to actually get them to work lates. I think it must take them time to count their priority payments. No problem that for response, because they get bugger all.
I complained to the Station boss and my God, I dared to criticise Local Policing. I had suddenly overtaken those that deny the holocaust. It fills me with rage just thinking about it.
And Dougal…we don’t put Police Officers on ‘diversion duty’ because we like to frustrate the 99% of drivers who like to stop in the middle of the road and ask “has there been an accident” before trying to drive through the cones and signs. (If they’re really good, they run over the Bobby as well)
Notaspecialist, your comments on the general unwillingness of NPT (or whatever TLA you choose) to work on past 4pm ring so true to me.
There are of course some exceptions but as a service we seem to have built a new career specialism that allows a lot of officers throughout the ranks to work office hours and duck the hard stuff whilst carefully tending to their promotion credentials.
Congratulations for your bravery in raising the problem at DMT level. I am not surprised that you got short shrift for pointing the finger. Every Chief seems to be falling over themselves to talk the talk of Neighbourhood Policing. Very few seem to want to do more than tick the box. Its a good idea being done very very badly.
Pandy is admiring the rip snorting, almost Wilde like sense of humour that Cheerful Bastard has and recommends Kanga Pants as a good solution to those little incontinent problems that real men and women never like to talk about. Heaven knows its been a boon to those dedicated neighbourhood officers who have many, many tea stops to indulge in AND be seen to walk around certain streets again and again and again and again.
Pandy would certainly never get pissy in a disciplined rank driven structure such as the police and only hopes that he/she is able to take 6 years of easy Neighbourhood Policing like Inspector Bloke
Pandy Pandy:
‘Pandy is admiring the rip snorting, almost Wilde like sense of humour that Cheerful Bastard has and recommends Kanga Pants as a good solution to those little incontinent problems that real men and women never like to talk about. ‘
Sorry pandy, now its too late for Kanga pants ‘cos I really have just wet myself, v funny! But thanks for the suggestion, I still prefer tenna lady though.
Nick
It won’t do you any harm to wait about for a couple of hours once in your lifetime. I mean, life is just so busy now days. And chatting with mates; remember that? before you were in such a rush?
Come on; take a deep breath, look around a bit, enjoy the evening and the time will soon pass.
I used to be in the Army. We used to wait around all the time. Even in the middle of a battle. Never did me any harm.
Where have all the cops gone ?
Well, on my division there seem to be about 10 office jockies scrutinising everything I do, so that accounts for some of them.
My division has abandoned the term ‘minimum staff levels’ for another term which means a totally different thing. This term I won’t use here because it will identify my division and thus me.
I think the public would be horrified to know how few Police are actually out and about.
Tis a disgrace.
In the meantime, I have my finger blocking the hole in the dyke (no diversity puns please), to prevent the flood.
Oh dear, another hole has appeared….
I must concede, to Pandy and others within the NHP world, that I do feel more than a tad guilty about criticising your role. It isn’t an easy job if you want to do it properly. It comes with its own pressures, much as the reponse role does. It’s just that those pressures are different.
True, not all response officers have a hard time. Life responding to calls in tiny English villages is much more comfortable than policing a town or city. Working as a NHP cop in any number of our inner-city estates is bloody hard work.
We could debate forever whose job is more demanding. The problem is we are fighting each other. Is it not surprising that members of the public like Nick and Dougal really believe we go out of our way to make their life difficult when we are seen to make life difficult for each other ?
The Government have already succeeded in their best tactic to date: Divide and conquer. Works every time.
These figure’s whilst not 100% accurate, but quite close- I’m not sure a Freedom of Information request would go down well to get the exact numbers. These are based on the official website which I won’t mention and my latest council tax bill detailing staff levels and why I’m paying so much to the local force !.
Circa 2000
1980 Officers
1400 Civilians
Circa 2007
1900 Officers
2100 Police staff
Just explains why car parks at police stations are full Monday to Friday and empty at weekends.
A now retired Sgt monitored HQ staff prior to his retirement and over an eight month period it increased from 600 to 850. This is fact not fiction.
Its a shame to see such a negative view of neighbourhood teams or LPT’s or in my force, what we call LPO’s.
I am the town officer for a medium sized market town… and when my duties fall on a thursday/friday/saturday, I am out with the response shift till the close of play. I dont have to, in fact, i am obly supposed to work untin 2200! I choose not too, as nightjack rightly points out, if there is a problem on my beat, its down to me to put it right. Unfortunately, many of my colleagues dont feel the same and very many of them never even work lates full stop. I blame the supervision, we never see an Inspector at my outstation, and if we did, i would expect him to put his arse kicking boots on and get some of my idle colleagues out on the street after 10pm… Same for you IG… why dont you get some of your LPT’s out and about, after all you are the man, Sir. I dont mean that at all disrespectfully, but I genuinely wonder why senior offivers have stopped using the authority that comes with their position.
Inspector Bloke:
”The problem is we are fighting each other. Is it not surprising that members of the public like Nick and Dougal really believe we go out of our way to make their life difficult when we are seen to make life difficult for each other”
bobsdad:
”I blame the supervision, we never see an Inspector at my outstation, and if we did, i would expect him to put his arse kicking boots on and get some of my idle colleagues out on the street after 10pm”
So police making life difficult for each other, lazy coppers not being bothered to go out after 10, a report of a senior officer moving house because he is scared of the youths sitting on his garden wall. Are you sure your worth that pay rise?
I’m not sure I follow- cops will be lazy given the chance the same as anyone else will be lazy given the chance, my point is this- why have a disciplined rank structured organisation if the senior officers wont use their authority and ensure that officers are working when they should. personally, I’m fed up of it, because I go out of my way to pitch in with response, and that includes taking on jobs which my LPO Sgt moans at me for doing, so effectively I’m damned if I do and damned if I dont. What angers me is the lack of senior officers kicking arses like they used to and like they should. I’m looking for another job, and I’ve got a lot to lose if I go, but they way it is now, lazy cop wins, every time. And this is in no way personal to you or any other senior rankers, its just an observation from me.
Chav ‘n’ Dave - I am a staunch defender of hardworking cops. It pains me to concede that broadly you have a point, particularly with regard to the comments you quote, and plenty others.
The issue is with leadership. There are some excellent leaders at Sergeant level, quite a few at Insp (my own) level, though the windiness and arse covering is creeping in. At Chief Inspector level, with a few exceptions, we see management of an organisation rather than leadership of people. Above that, don’t go looking. Its Home Office aquiesence and cv building from there on.
(With the exception of our last great leader, Ch Supt ***** ********, for whom I would do a warrant on hell, who retired last week)
The result is that many people drift, castrated of their impetus, discretion, and professional raison d’etre, and drowned in bureaucrasy.
Strong directional leadership is missing, replaced by politically correct mumbo jumbo and pant pissing in the face of having to make a decision. The quality of our leadership is illustrated by Chav/Dave’s paraprase of the senior officer moving house story.
Somewhat simplistic, but a split into Response (ie uniform policing incl traffic) and CID, with no other departments hiding behind “remits”, would clarify what we do and how we do it.
And we could get on with winning public support and our payrise!
bobsdad - Good effort. Keep fighting the fight, keep on mucking in for the public we (should) serve.
Spitting feathers- absolutely right. This remit thing is absolutely everywhere, as far as I am concerned as long as I wear the blue suit I go to jobs. This means, as a LPO, thata my Sgt gives me grief and tells me that’ its not my remit’ and ‘why is your website out of date’ and ‘why havent you been to see councillor X’ etc etc etc. Recently they had us inputting grid references for ’significant buildings’ on our LPT into a website. God help us, a school leaver with a pot plant and a yellow pages could do that, why does it need a warranted and attested officer? yes, you got it , the HMI’s a comin’….The bottom line, is that they dont want us to be cops they want us to fill out stupid websites and arse lick to stupid councillors and supervise stupid CSO’s……
Resourcing is a serious issue either through lack of funding/staff (light duties or not)/time…
yesterday… 2 x Fatal RTC’s & 3 in custody, all to be interviewed, that was handed over for early turn all for the measly sum of 4 officers.
this morning? one double crewed unit to “man” a very large area….
i understand your frustrations, guv…
Twisting numbers - what an art. Really. You should admire those who’re able to do that… once you’ve thrown a nice, broad-printed, edition of an extensive dictionnary at them.
I understand how frustrated it must make you feel. That must be rather awful to have to deal with such people.
Pandy’s whooping, hollering, cheering and punching the air in an almost enthusiastic American type way has done the unthinkable. This entirely un-British display of emotion has managed to spark some interest in his/her sergeant’s eye before sarge turns like some great behemoth back to the spreadsheet that counts days to retirement.
Pandy’s capering about the hammocks set up in the Npt office is the result of reading Inspector Bloke’s inspired comments (number 47).
Pandy is no old sweat, no super cop, nothing special. Pandy does his/her bit, covers it over with self deprecating remarks and bimbles home. However Pandy thought that he/she was alone in the feelings of despair over the slow, cynical, throttling way the various cadres within a noble profession battle with each other.
Pandy is unable to fathom what joy is gained from this. In all departments, we are all but human. Within the uneven parameters of this great country’s not so great justice system some people do good things, some people do bad things. There are many causes for this and some are inexcusable but Pandy appeals to the masses to celebrate the many roles that all knit together to form the role of constable.
Pandy would prefer to cover a colleagues back, not stab it.
And no, Pandy has Not had his/her 50th cup of tea spiked!
That said Pandy would draw all officers from Headquarters, (by knife point if necessary), replace their soft soled shoes for honest hard working boots and place them on the front line.
Nightjack
Our enlarged Divisional Intelligence Unit consisted of less Officers and more civilians
The dedicated source handling team swallowed up a few Detectives but the one source unit covered the whole OCU
The CJS File Preparation Unit was staffed by civilians and Officers on light duties
The city areas had cell intervention officers and they had the effect of letting the Officers get back out on the street. We also had a divisional training officer, I think one or two that covered the whole OCU.
That being said there were a good many jobs for the ‘chairborne forces’ at headquarters and that is probably where a lot of the Officers went.
Every area needs a well staffed response team, but dedicated beat officers can solve all manner of local problems as well. And our beat team used to solve the problems by making arrests and executing search warrants, rather than getting involved in some politically correct agenda which might expect a beat PC to do nothing more than smile at school children and help old ladies across the road.
bobsdad:
”cops will be lazy given the chance the same as anyone else will be lazy given the chance”
Well if cops want to be lazy go and get a security guards job at Asda then! Policing is a unique job is it not? Therefore it needs unique people. Right then, no time for lazy coppers trying to avoid getting there hands dirty, get out there and kick some scrotes arses, whether they be home grown or imported scrotes!
The police were shat on by the government, you more than deserve your pay rise as well.
Pandy,
there is no joy in criticizing the LPTs. However, the level of support they provide (none) in my Division , is inexcusable. They (along with the ‘Intell’ dept) are the two largest Departments in existence. They provide no support whatsoever to the response teams. It’s all ‘not my remit’ ‘We’re too busy!!!!!!!’ etc etc.
One Neighbourhood officer told me she was too busy to take on some repeat damage to a chaps garden fence. Low level stuff that a would be cured if she actually ventured out of the nick and walked around the block a few times. I checked her basket……she had ONE crime that was two months old. Apparently, Neighbourhood officers ‘aren’t meant to carry crimes’.
I told my Inspector it would go to a response Officer over my dead body. It didn’t…….right up till the day I left. Whereupon the LPT Sgt sent it to an Officer on my old shift to deal with. It had been sat for three weeks with nothing done.
Makes you proud!
Off topic at The Guardian, Policing the police http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/tony_murphy/2008/02/policing_the_police.html
… The IPCC has instituted and overseen a chaotic system which has comprehensively failed complainants: that is why we lawyers have resigned . … the IPCC is failing to deliver anything like the rigorous, independent and inspiring police complaints system that this country has so long deserved. Instead it has instituted and overseen a chaotic system that has allowed complainants’ confidence to be eroded to a new low. … Comment Is Free.
Pandy can see how the lassitude that permeates through some neighbourhood officers affects notaspecialist however positive change must derive from positive attitude and action.
Throughout Pandy’s busy day of keeping his/her head from peeking over the top of the battlements there are constant observations of the reponse tower aiming their seige engines of sniping at Neighbourhoods. In turn Neighbourhoods catapult leisurely and lofty remarks on the busy response officers who are running hither and thither. Both forces occasionally unite to run sorties at the slick unit of C.I.D.
Pandy is well aware that every officer has a quiver full of insults, stories and anecdotes that can be grasped and relived at a moments notice. In his/her humble opinion these should be handed in to front desk and instead of facing inward officers should look to link together and get on with the job of making miscreants lives hell.
Pandy Pandy:
”In his/her humble opinion…”
Are you a hermaphrodite?
“officers should look to link together and get on with the job of making miscreants lives hell.”
I’d love to ‘link’ with them. It’s just that it’s hard to ‘link’ with someone whose sat on their fat arse, dipping yet another chocolate digestive into their tea, while they talk about the next meeting they have to attend.
(Radio off of course….can’t have that assistance shout interrupting their call)
The job’s Fucked.
bobsdad:
The job’s Fucked!
I am not a copper but may I just add -
1) The country is Fucked
2) The world is Fucked
3) We are all Fucked
4) If there is a God I think I can safetly he/she/it has
Fucked off!
I work in an immense, densly populated division and on friday night there were less than 10 response officers working. All single crewed. If officers in custody are included that number rockets to 12. Those is the respective front offices, 15. CID had some staff but their activities remain largely unknown. The targets for emergency calls is 15 mins and we had 6 which had racked up more than 20mins on the clock. The neighborhood teams went off at 12 and no one thought to ask them to stay on a bit longer (in fact I heard later on the grapevine that they had been told by their worthless sergeant that they weren’t to get ‘tied up’ with response jobs tonight. I thought we did the same job?) I know many of those officers would have stayed if they had had the chance. The best bit is that our force is reducing the number of response officers and replacing them with foot bound single crewed Neighbourhood Officers (who obviously can’t respond to emergency calls or transport prisoners etc, and who wont work past midnight). At present we’re on a knife edge. With the new changes I think we will plummet into the abyss in a spinning fireball!
YEs, and who decide to set up all these squads etc which demand so many abstractions from response policing… THE BOSSES…… blame the 9 to 5 self obsessed career focussed bell ends who are in charge of the ordinary PC……
Where I volunteer, minimum staffing used to be 10 it is now 8 but 6 or 7 is the norm. Logically you would expect additional resources to be made available to resolve this short fall, however, the likelyhood is that minimum staffing levels will just be reassessed.
We paraded recently with 4 regulars and 3 specials. After 2 of the regulars and one of the specials were assigned to the public order van in the adjoining borough we were left with 2 double crewed cars covering nearly 100 square miles.
Not too long ago, at a specials training evening, we were encouraged to turn out for duty on the forthcoming bank holiday. The reason given was that there would be a shortage of regular officers and all assistance would be gratefully accepted. I was subsequently advised that, in order to save on overtime payments, a number of regular officers (rostered for duty that day) were being given the shift off!