An Ex Traffic Biker Writes:
March 22, 2008 by inspectorgadget
This blog, and many other police blogs, are littered with the same old stuff (an observation, not a criticism).
Take this example of ‘being seen on the street’ simply to impress the HMI and politicians;
The PC’s know it’s shite. The Sgt’s know it’s shite. Decent governors like Insp Gadget know it’s shite…….yet the charade continues and our entire working lives are geared to keeping the bean counters happy.
We moan and groan….and do NOTHING about it.
Where is our backbone? Why don’t we have the collective guts to tell senior management that they can shove their performance targets?
I tell you why. It’s because we have mortgages to pay. Kids to feed. Pensions to look forward to.
I’ve got 27 months to go. When I (figuratively) look in the mirror I hate what I see. A once proud copper, who REALLY loved going to work and trying to make a positive difference to peoples lives. I used to love nicking thieves, burglars, drink-drivers etc. Okay, I know it sounds a bit corny, but weren’t we all like that when we started?
These days, I’m ashamed to be a copper. Ashamed of my attitude to the job, and can’t wait to get out. If I had any guts I’d resign today but I haven’t. I’m counting the days and keeping my head down. I keep quiet when I see obvious injustices or management practices/policies which are clearly politically driven.
It drives me to despair when the 82yr old lady gets burgled and the report is taken OVER THE PHONE but when an IC3 couple have a domestic, and he calls her a ‘black bitch’, it’s recorded as a racial incident, on an ‘immediate’ grade and we must tell the duty Insp AND get there within 12 minutes. Complete madness. I know it. Everyone knows it but we do….nothing.
My family have been recent victims too. Both kids have had mobile phones stolen at school. My son had his pushbike stolen off our driveway and local youths, on the way home from the pub, kicked in two panels of my front garden fence.
On each occasion, a few weeks later, I received a call from the Crime Management Unit. Firstly they told me that there were no lines of enquiry to pursue. Fair enough - I’ve been in the job long enough to know whether we’ve got a cat in hells chance of solving a crime or not. The second part of the call has always been the most interesting (or disappointing) - am I SURE that my daughters phone REALLY was stolen, rather than just LOST? Am I SURE that the damage to my fence was deliberate, or could it just have been an accident? - the large trainer footprint on one of the panels, and the chip wrappers thrown into my garden suggest otherwise and no, SOCO weren’t interested. The bean counters were keen to skew the facts in order to make the figures look good, so that ACPO can go to the Govt and say ‘Look how good we are. Can we have some more money please?’
I’d like to point out that I’d become bitter and twisted long before these recent incidents.
If I had any sort of moral fibre or conscience I’d write out my resignation today….but I haven’t. I have to vent my frustration on blogs like this. I hate what I’ve become, both as a copper and the person underneath the uniform.
I’m too close to the pension jackpot so I guess I should just shut the f*ck up and go away.
Anyone else feel like this? or am I just suffering from typical ‘Old Copper’ syndrome?
Gadget Note: Thanks to ExTB - please follow this link in the third paragraph; it’s one of the best examples of a dodgy Sanctioned Detection I have ever seen!
The whole target and check box culture is not confined to the public services.
I recently retired after working as a mechanical engineer for 35 years. At one time, my designs were accepted on the strength of my experience and past record, but towards the end, nothing could go forward without being accompanied by reams of proof and assessments. In fact, inexperienced contract workers were eventually employed to do the design work, while I filled in the forms and attended progress meetings.
What a sad posting. Where did we go wrong to allow such a proud public service to degenerate to one where someone with such long service now feels ashamed of the uniform? I wish you well in the next 27 months and wish you well in retirement.
Ex Traffic Biker
I wish to god it wasn’t so, but you’ve just summed up my life in the job and I’ve got 8 years to go. This used to be a fantastic job with bosses you respected, now there all kids who can recite the latest politically correct w@nkspeak and squads with “remits” that do’nt include seeing the light of day or past midnight.
Don’t get me wrong theres’s still some great gaffers but even they have to toe the party line and you can see it’s eating up their soul when they come on briefings and plead for “just one more….”
All this said it’s a secure job with reasonable pay and a decent pension so we’re doing better than a lot of folkout there.
As a white Christian middle class male, I was brought up to respect and co-operate with the police. My father was a Sergeant in the Specials. Sunday PMs were his shifts so that the Regulars could change shifts the long way round, instead of turning in on Monday knackered after only 8 hours off. The Constabulary were clearly there to support the community. The politicians accepted it. Senior Officers were part of it. In short Peel’s Principles of Policing were alive and well.
I came to this blog from here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=541231&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments
But as a white Christian middle class male the current elite have declared me guilty (of whatever they are striving against this week), and I am an easy target. Napoleon not only sniped at the English for being a nation of shopkeepers who only had one sauce, but he was also dismissive of the attitude that we queue up to pay our taxes. Its easy for the currently misguided police elite to use us to get the numbers up. At which point they have alienated myself and many of my colleagues.
The report in the Mail seems to be just another example of the Senior Management of the Police Service losing sight of the plot. They have changed their priorities and their methods, now treating the organisation just like any other profit making company. From Peel’s Principles, especially Principle 7, they have turned the Constabulary into an army of occupation because it is cheaper to run in the short term. No foot patrols. Vehicles, back up, people carriers full of Support ’squaddies’ whose sole role that shift is to “sort out bother”. The hidden agenda of creating a National fully inclusive DNA Database by fair means, but mostly foul; there must be a bonus for someone in there somewhere. It might be what the politicians want, but it most certainly isn’t what the people of this land want.
Until officers such as the author of this piece start to leave faster than the management can dress up their replacement Blunkett’s Bobbies in their uniforms, until someone who matters starts to object, then the nation will carry on developing all the necessary basis for a Police State.
No, we do not have one yet. But that is only because of the honesty and integrity of officers such as the one who penned this piece, and others who have equally risked their jobs and pensions by speaking out. But watch two things building up.
The first is that “the police” these days can do almost anything they want with relative impunity. Yes the small fry officers at the bottom of the heap still get disciplined for misbehaviour. But why are we not seeing charges brought against ACPO members for engaging in politics (with their campaigns for example to extend the period of detention before charge to ridiculous levels, or to openly put everyone on the DNA database, etc)?? Why are we still promoting the likes of Cressida Dick and Ali Deszai, with all their “baggage”? Political correctness and political quotas seem to be the only available answers.
The second thing to watch is the consequence of the breakdown of law and order that we see in embryo all around us now (on rough estates more than most), and that has formed the basis of many a post on this and other police blogs. When it is allowed to get really, really bad then the “government” of the day will “have no choice” but to bring in the likes of EUROGENDFOR [ http://www.eurogendfor.eu/ ] to restore order. My fear is that it will happen in my lifetime. Lovers of shiny new toys of repression to play with might enjoy it for a while. My dread is that the thought police will not be far behind. At that point “the police” will see the whole of the population as the enemy.
John 1 wrote … The whole target and check box culture is not confined to the public services. … or checking boxes.
In all large organisations that I have worked in, the Machiavellian rise to the top, whereas those doing the work, highlighting problems or having a concern for the shareholders do not. How could it be different outside occupations such as professional boxing or a football penalty kicker?
What case is to be made for the Police Service being different? Is it because people can be imprisoned and their careers ruined by a career minded officer? Is a senior Machiavellian army officer far worse as he kills the rungs on his career ladder rather than just imprisoning them?
Recall the scene in “Ahem, A Bridge Too Far?”, where those who knew the radios were inadequate kept quiet so as not to rock the boat?
There I was lying in bed, comfy and reasonably contented, and then I read this. I am now depressed and SAD.
My head is extremely low down behind the parapet as well. Just 6 (long) years to go. Nil carborundum illegitimi.
TUPC?
The sad thing is that Ex traffic Bikers views and opinions are now to be heard from officers’ with two or three years’ service.
The police service that I was so proud to join and be a member of is now dead and buried under a pile of political correctness, lies and cheating.
The law abiding citizens of this once great country are also in despair.
We are now governed and I use that term loosely by the most corrupt political system in the free world.
The first stage of tyranny is to push the population into submission, once achieved total domination. The ironic thing is that the iron curtain was pulled down in 1989. Where is it now being rebuilt?.
Jeff @4 100% agree with your comments.
Many things in the business world are cyclical. You just need to hang around long enough.Since we are being treated more annd more like a business I hope to god this is one of them and that some time soon someone who really wants to make a difference, with the clout to do it turns up and starts to dismantle all this crap.
The example of the DV aggravated by race is a classic example of it all.
But then the whole issue of race and diversity has gotten completely out of hand, and dare I say it probably masks the vast majority of real victims with those using it for there own political and financial purposes.
I will no dout continue in the Specials for another 20 or so years. Could I be a regular today?
Even if the salary and benefits were matched I think not.
In my full time occupation world, we talk about strategies, management, implementation. We look at numbers, trends and analysis. We put together business plans and actions plans and teams to address issues. And there are two big differences-
1. We focus an enormous amount of time, energy and focus on people. Not pay etc etc. Actually engaging with our people and more importantly, them engaging with the company, being proud to work for us and being really clear on their objectives, the company objectives and how they fit. (In fact many companies are switching on to the fact they HAVE to do this. Its becoming the norm in the top corporates).
The key to that is listening to them. Formally, informally, surveys etc etc. Then publishing all the issues that come out of it and what we’re doing issue by issue.
Every single manager that has any person reporting in to them, gets a full 360 degree feedback report annually (in addition to an appraisal twice a year), if they fall below a certain level they cant be promoted, salary is frozen etc etc. If you do well, consistently, all avenues are open to you. So, the ‘what’ or ‘result’ isnt good enough on its own. The ‘how’ is vital to get everyone engaged.
2. If something doesnt work for us we move on. Try something else, don’t flog a dead horse. We have to make money. If a system is crap we change it, even if it costs, because the longer you leave it, the more expensive it becomes. The job do the opposite, lets force everyone to use it, punishment if needs be. Lets hide the problems with it and blame the people first, but whatever happens don’t admit its been bolloxed from the start.
Conversely though, at the end of the financial year when there’s a load of cash left lying around, everyones got to spend it (pretty much regardless of what on or whether it makes sense) or they’ll lose it from next years budget.
So my point is that the job try’s to mirror the business world, but with people who are not true business people, applying methodolgies that work in certain environments, and usually not in something unique like the job.
The biggest opportunity and win from the business world they haven’t picked up or implemented and that is engaging the officers that work for them.
We all know supervisors that run brilliant teams that work their nuts off, deliver amazing results and have high morale. If you disected what they do and how they do it, you’d find all the component parts of great leadership, true employee engagement and a genuine positive performance culture with real honesty at its backbone.
Those are the people the job needs to emulate. Those are the courses you should have to go on before you can be responsible for other people and those are the traits that should be continously measured by asking people what its like to work for their supervisor.
It may not address all the targetting crap, but it would deliver better results than any target can.
So if there’s someone who wants to get promoted, implement that, without reservation and I guarantee success.
Incidentally, I say all this as I leave the corporate world to go it alone as a business / performance coach. The difference you can make is staggering, I sh*t you not.
Its time the job started doing more listening and less talking.
PT.
ExTB and others - I fuel myself with enthusiasm and vigour by my drive to get results and make sure that I do what I am getting paid for.
I am in my 24th year of service, have been involved in several major high speed RTA’s that had severe consequences on my neck and back. I am still living with the pain and no I am not going to retire on medical grounds like some I have known.
I have been assaulted numerous times and have only ever been off sick with assault or rta related injuries.
I have had more complaints from the great unwashed than you can shake a stick at but have had no disciplinary matters from them.
I have worked in the most deprived and the most wealthy areas of the country and seen most things that one could see in one career in this job. All of which have afected me positively, negatively, emotionally or physically.
I listen to whingers everyday moaning about this and that. It is true that the whingers are getting younger and younger and actually dont have any whinging rights.
I do as I am told but feel able to sensibly raise and put across my own views when I feel the need to, to any person at whatever level in the job.
I have worked in many areas, departments and with a huge variety of people.
It is the people I work with and the people I work for (public) and my own sense of personal pride that keep me going, along with the fact that I want to feel that I earn my money.
As I said before, everyone has a choice….some make their choice and change.
There is life outside the job. Or is it that peope are quite comfortable in waiting for the monthly cheque to arrive in a job that nobody really gets sacked from unless you do something really wrong!!
I remember the National Crime Recording Standard roll out. Every incident to be logged. Everything possible to be crimed. If the officer doesn’t crime it then skeleton crime it for them. Apparently we just couldn’t improve as an organisation unless we counted everything consistently and properly.
I remember the goon squads from H.M.I.C. coming round threatening dire consequences to the A.C.P.O. ranks if they didn’t live up to the Audit requirements for NCRS. Phrases like “red flagging” and “light touch audit.” It all boiled down to “jump so high.” To a man and woman A.C.P.O. jumped.
I remember when we had to start having a raised level of response for racist and homophobic incidents, not crimes, incidents.
I remember when racist and homophobic incidents started being recorded on the basis of perception, by anybody.
I remember the first time I ever heard the words “sanctioned detection.” Only some detections count.
I remember PCSO’s starting and all the assurances that they are not neo-cops and would never be used in confrontational situations.
I remember 1997-98 seeing many many good Inspectors, Chief Inspectors and Supers chucking it rather than swallow the pill.
I remember before the National Intelligence Model when divisional INTL was two civilian women in an office and everybody on a scale knew the INTL for their area.
I remember but I kept my mouth shut as it all rolled over the top of me. I’m sorry, I was a Vichy Cop. I still am.
http://nightjack.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/i-was-a-vichy-cop/
InnercityPC @ 11
Like the post. A very mature and professional approach. Want a job on my team ?
We do still have discretion and the ability to do the ‘right thing’. True, we have to write our actions up to justify what we have done (or haven’t done) but we are paid a good wage to do so.
I simply wouldn’t allow a case like the one highlighted (with the bloke cautioned for spraying water) to happen on my team. I understand the difficulties of the PCs - who tend to be so very young in service - to stand up to the dictates from on high. But that is surely where those of us of the Inspecting ranks come into play. We need to make sure our teams do the ‘right thing’.
Then again, I have no intention of going for my 3rd pip and so can defend my position quite comfortably. It’s a pity that those who can influence real change have to first join the performance bandwagon. From then on, they quickly forget from whence they came.
Keep fighting the small battles. Remember, if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t, so go find yourself an Inspector worth their salt to back you up.
Pretty much what I’ve been trying to say, but now that it comes from a cop, perhaps it will be more palatable to some!
Why do we continue to promote the likes of Dizzy and Cressida Dick somebody asks. Simple my friend. Because of Ian Blair. The buck may stop there, but that is where the rot starts.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/22/ncrime222.xml
This has completely summed up my exact feelings and I’m only at the half way point. Thank you for writing it so eloquently. I really have no pride in the organisation I work for or the job that I do, the police no longer represent the people of this counrty but the political machine that drives our new breed of ACPO.
I’m digging my tunnels now and I hope not to see my thirty years, I doubt my departure would even be noticed, but if enough cogs stop working?
Insp Bloke - The reality is that at your rank there are very few with the courage to ‘do the right thing’. If you are toward the end of your service or not after your third pip then you can afford to be a bit of a rebel. If you are an ambtitious Inspector how do you advance your career? You keep your head down and tow the party line or you won’t progress. Also if you have a ‘yes man’ political Insp as your response team govnr, try going above his/her head to another Insp for a decision and see what shit comes your way!
Having read your comments over the last few months you appear to be the sort of Inspector I would work 110% for, the sort of leader I would never want to let down and who would always back me up if I was doing ‘the right thing’. I guess it illustrates the point made by PT Cop at 10 which is one of the best analysis of the private/public management conundrum I have read.
Anyway Insp Bloke and Gadget - keep swimming against the tide and remember ‘they don’t like it up ‘em’
I am still in training, and have been waiting years to be where i am now. Unfortunately, i am already looking for the door. I have had enough of the political correctness, and being told to cover my arse at all times. This, i am told, is especialy true around career minded police officers, who will do anything to get ahead.
My training is taking place at a civilian university. All the students know who we are, and hate us. The uni staff hate us, and we hate being there. This is also known as ‘training in the community’, and it’s pointless. The students go out of their way to be difficult and are desperate to drop us in the proverbial, for anything.
We have been told to ignore blatant drug taking as our intervention may upset the uni managment. Who it seems are not upset by rampant drug use within the university. Then we are told to act like police officers as we will be treated like police officers. As long as we dont like act like police officers.
I refuse to be a bureaucrat that ends up hating himself for a pension. I want to do a job that serves the good people of this country that are left, honestly and sensibly.
I cannot say what makes me angrier - the person who dictates that officers will not go to an 82 year old burglary victim - or the officers who actually obey this instruction.
I hope someone can take up the mantle before you go
This is the best blog post for sometime. Excellent, but sad.
Dear IG,
One of your respondents on a previous post (reference to the Swamps Estate) thought he/she had clocked the force in which you serve. I can’t see the post now. I, too, believe I know where you work from, but would clearly not wish to post without your knowledge.
Do you have another ‘facility’ so that I can run it by you?
Regards and keep up the good work.
Grindle
It’s a common theme in a lot of ‘coppers blogs’ post’s. Lack of respect from the public, a perception of a loss of authority.
It’s a service industry mentality. Mops who look at the police as a public service no different than Boots, or that annoying Call Centre. If I’m not happy with the goods or services, I take ‘em back, and complain if the service is poor. Or take my money elsewhere.
It’s not fair on the poor bugger on the till either. And it’s distressing to see the police heading in that direction, but I strongly suspect that’s the way you’re being steered.
It’s happened in the NHS reforms.
My son-in-law is a copper, for whom I have no respect.
He’s was castrated during training by the politically-correct brigade, and is a real multi-culti bean counter. Just what the boss wants.
It’s no wonder people have a diminished respect for the police service. Whatever happened to police “force”?
My daughter got out after 7 years. She had the guts to get out rather than sit and wait for a gold-plated pension. Her problem? Arresting, re-arresting and re-re-arresting thesame scum day after day, with little action being taken by the Court when prosecutions took place.
I don’t envy you; you sound like a proper copper. Just sit it out, and know that the majority of Brits want the Police to be the same as you want it to be.
[...] Please Click The Link and Read 22Mar08 READ THIS PLEASE [...]
“I fuel myself with enthusiasm and vigour by my drive to get results and make sure that I do what I am getting paid for.”
Inner City PC - I am sure, having read your post, you mean by the above that you are an active PC who acts with common sense and discretion. You do the right thing.
On the other hand if you were senior management perhaps it would translate thus:
“I fuel myself with enthusiasm and self serving ambition by my drive to get sanctioned detections and make sure that I do what I need to do to get promoted”
Happy Easter. I hope the Home Office choke on their chocolate.
Guv and chums - yes this is me and not troll-boy!
You might notice I don’t post much these days,
I was reading Ex Traffic Biker’s post in Inspector Gadget the other day and thought…. Christ, is that all I’ve got to look forward to… ?
I still love this job despite its misgivings, and the people in it. I still try my best and expect that of others too, but to be honest I’ve not got the spirit for blogging anymore and due to OT and other stuff, I’m rarely at home and certainly never on the computer long enough to vent my spleen. I think I’ve said the things I probably needed to say now.
I’m happier reading your blogs. Keep it up I enjoy them.
I’m leaving mine here so you can trawl through them at your leisure.
Laters!
TUPC
Ps. Ignore the dickheads, they are just another day at the office.
There is another side to the water-spray story. Whilst I agree it probably led to arrest due to the pressure for a sanction-based detection, where’s the blame for the vindictive idiot who reported this as an assault in the first place and - from his comments - clearly supported the prosecution? It is people like this “victim”, with their complaints, litigation and hotline to the Daily Mail, who caused the introduction of NCRS in the first place. Sadly the innocent fall prey to it, and commonsense is out the window.
Ellie - you’re right, of course, and I especially like the “hot line” comment. In my old force this was absolutely rife (you know who you are, and you should be ashamed. I know you’re not, though) but not so much where I am now and I’m 100% happier for it. Mind - it’s the team that makes it, isn’t it? I pity those of you on a crap team - keep going, it changes every couple of years.
TUPC - yours was the secong blog I read after Ellie’s and I’m really sorry to see you go. Have they caught up with you? Hope not, especially if you want those Bath Stars anytime soon! I think that Nightjack may be taking over where you left off, with a bit of luck.
To all those fretting over IG’s force - what does it matter? He’s given enough clues (if the “Metrocity” comments are, in fact, true) so leave it, would you? Thanks.
There was a time, within my memory, when a Constable could go to a job like the water spray time and mark it off as “Advice Given No Offences Disclosed” and that would be that. It was called use of discretion.
I believe that it is more likely that NCRS is a creature of people who read the Guardian than the Daily Mail.
NCRS was not about this sort of “crime”, it was a political blunt tool approach to
a) Us being seen as failing to act on racist and homophobic crime because we are apparently institutionally racist and homophobic
and
b) To ensure comparability of statistics between forces because obviously we are all the same with similar populations and problems. This level of standardisation of procedures is however a necessary condition for the establishment of a National Police Force controlled from the centre.
Look at any ACPO, Home Office or HMIC police reform legislation, agenda or actions over the last 10 years and they are not aimed at welcoming and fostering a diversity of policing approaches to dealing with incidents. They are aimed at producing a monolithic machine bureaucracy answerable to a central political control that deals with every incident by reference to a flow diagram.
What was not appreciated, I think, was that NCRS would lead to the water sprayed of this world getting more than a police negotiated apology. Also, I don’t think NCRS was meant to wag the dog to such an extent as it now does.
As long as there are low level offences on the books that can be boiled down to “he / she / they did something that hacks me off” and we are obliged to deal with them as offences, then we are going to be stuck with vindictive man with damp shirt and his ilk. I really don’t think the writers of NCRS saw this coming. I think they thought they were helping oppressed minorities get a fair shake of the stick from “The Man.”
More fool them and it shows what happens when you write bad policy and then decide to make it a hill for us all to die on.
Rant over, sorry, but it hacks me off
Thanks for your honesty, at least your big enough to do something. The problem I feel is the vast majority of officers I’ve encountered in my force have no backbone when it comes to standing up for themselves. They have digs at the Fire Service, for standing up for themselves, instead of realising they have a unity and spirit we sadly lack. Just witness the lack of positive action we have actually shown in standing up for our rights in the current pay dispute. My overiding worry is that people who are unable to stand up for themselves, are hardly likely to make a greatjob of standing up for those who really need our help!
PC Hadenough @ 26. Maybe I am mature enough to rise above it all.
Tescos are recruiting if you are looking for a new job.
@28 PC Bloggs: Yes, the idiot who complained was indeed using the Police as his private army in order to further his own vendetta. I should have commented on it adversely. My mistaken belief is that the officers should have recognised it for what it was, and dismissed it accordingly. That they did not is one of the foundations for my sincere belief that there is a bigger agenda here. An agenda held by ACPO and the Home Office, aided and abetted by idiot stooges in government. And not the other way round; ACPO’s political leadership may be on its own behalf, or may be on behalf of staff in the Home Office who have chosen to keep their heads down. Ministers are just doing as they are told because they like the privileges and the illusion of power.
Which leads me on to …
@Nightjack: I think you are spot on with your assessment that all this nonsense is an attempt to make the police Guardian reader friendly. It intends to demoralise officers with any thinking substance between their ears. Demoralise them by having them constantly look over their shoulder in fear of the next politically incorrect thing they are to be punished for. And that demoralisation is absolutely necessary if they are to drive through the national police force that those with the ACPO/Home Office agenda clearly want.
If my casual conversations with police officers is anything to go by, the current moves and standardisations will lead inevitably to two forces in England: The Met, and The Rest (of England). The Scots will do as they are told, and the Welsh are already trying to jump the gun with ACPO having already run the idea of a national police force for Wales (on efficiency grounds). This division in England is because The Met have stuck doggedly to many of their own ways of doing things, despite the standardisation of The Rest by the Home Office. The interesting fight, for watchers of political dramas, will be who wins when the final merger takes place. Will The Met make everybody do it their way? Or will The Met finally succumb to the Home Office? Should make a good soap opera, that! Having done more than his fair share of the damage, Ian Blair will of course retire onto a golden pension and make a fortune out of his memoirs.
Political considerations make me think that there will be a Euro-Region stage (the idea that the subterfuge of “efficient policing” was trying to achieve a few years ago) but that it will not be long before our government in Brussels forces through a re-organisation at Provincial (ie former “member state”
level. For by 2010 the EU will have declared itself “competent” in all areas of law, order, and justice.
@ 8 Bob: My sarcastic guess is that when the Stasi were having a clear out at the time of German re-unification, our illustrious Home Office sent their removals van round to the back door, and bought the job lot!
Innercity PC @ 32 - you can always use the ‘I was only obeying orders’ defence, but I doubt you will ever have to. Your smug, self satisfied attitide says more about the way ‘The Job’ is going than ACPO or the Federation ever could. You do your overtime, I think that is all that really motivates you, and why perhaps there’s no solidarity anymore. Pathetic.
I certainly wasn’t having a dig at you Inner City PC - just the opposite in fact. However, the Tesco’s option is an attractive proposition.
Anon @ 35 A very accurate assessment. A Vichy cop will always show their true colours eventually.
Anon @ 35 sorry you’ve lost me. Have you considered Tescos, “Every little helps”.
Monsieur @ 37 - you too have lost me.
The Tesco analogy by Inner City PC I find quite insulting. I work for that company and to intimate, as you did, that my colleagues are somewhat below standard is ignorant and not the sort of comment I would expect from a police officer. The comment says a lot about you as an individual. PT Cop @ 10 has an excellent post on how good leadership can motivate and empower employees. A facet of the police (judging by the comments on this blog) that sadly appears to have all but disappeared but is alive and well at Tescos. Whilst PC Hadenough would be a very welcome addition to the company, I feel that Inner City PC would ultimately benefit far more from the experience.
Inner City PC you are very welcome to join my organisation. I am sure we can find you a place in the Milice.
Perhaps a start could be made by removing the Home Office & central government from controlling the police. Return control of the police to a local authority headed by an elected Chief Constable
InnercityPC @ 38. That I ‘lost’ you doesn’t surprise me one bit.
“anon” “bag of crisps…”(original name or is that ‘plain’ (crisps that is) and that french bloke (yes I do know who it is) your timing and manner of writing is extremely similar and I would dare to suggest that you are one and the same!
Do people at Tescos have colleagues. That sounds like Police speak. C’mon get real.
Tescos is open again in the morning though.
#33
‘The Scots will do as they’re told’
Oh, feckin really? Just like our Justice minister did as he was told by big fat Jacqui over the pay award?
#33
I think you forget that policing is a devolved matter in Scotland. The chances of an SNP administration in Scotland doing anything they are told by a Labour (or, for that matter, Conservative) Home Office is precisely nil.
The chances of Labour getting into power in Scotland are really, really, unbelievably small at the minute, especially with Wendy Alexanders filthy, disgusting antics and corruption. Since the Tories and the SNP will stick up both fingers at any opportunity. Although this doesn’t mean that we are to be free from political corruption and stupidity, we shall hopefully do far better than those in England. Not that I hold any prejudice, I hold great respect for you all, especially Gadget and Ellie. B. You two are the first Police bloggers I’ve read, as well as DC’s book. I knew I wanted to be a copper, but you two definitely cemented that decision. I just feel great pity that you have to suffer through political and managerial crap.
Inner City PC - another display of sad arrogance.
Dare away but you really are not as clever as you like to think.
I don’t know who the other two commentors are.
As for ‘Anon’ not being original? Really?
I know you must shop unless you get ‘the missus’ to do the shopping for you. Have you never heard a ‘colleague’ announcement in a supermarket?
The use of the word ‘colleagues’ in the police is a fairly recent thing - all part of the importation of management speak from the outside.
Now off you go, get your posting and clean those streets up, let’s hope you nick someone close to the end of your shift and get a few hours overtime.
Keep your self esteem topped up and get a few stories for those that might be interested in the canteen.
Oh, and keep paying into my pension fund - for that I, and many others, are grateful.
The modern police hierarchy and its political masters needs drones like you to make their gradual destruction of a once proud institution permanent.
anon - You really do bite dont you…….
M Petain I suspect you are being a little disingenuous. The milice was basically a bunch of psychopaths who assassinated and tortured there way around initially occupied, and later, Vichy France. In towns around my home village there are plaques to resistance people who were shot on site by the malice, that is if they didn’t take them away for torture. I suspect your label “Vichy policeman” is code for “timeserver”. There may have been a few timeservers (they got extra rations when the local population were starving), but to compare British cops with the milice, frankly, is an insult.
Don’t think it’s a dodgy detection. Bully boy dumps stuff in neighbours garden then looks good in front of his son by soaking an old man.
Bit of a dick who needed to be taught a lesson is my take on it.
While we’re arguing amongst ourselves, do people still have Police Canteens. Ours were shut a long time ago (along with all our Police clubs). Apparently the culture turned all of us into members of the KKK.
I do work for Tescos. I do have colleagues. Stop being so suspicious Inner City PC. No idea who the French bloke is (but like you I had to google it to find out). You’re still welcome to join us and you’ll even get a discount on your ‘krispy kremes’.
The biggest mistake I made was joining the Police 10 years ago. Its an embarassing, inefficient, politically correct establishment and I pray daily for the moral courage to leave it. As an LPT officer, I was told NOT to go to any jobs where I might have to record a Crime, as ‘this would take me away from my core business of high visibility patrol’. And that came from a boss. Because I had been helping the shift out- a shift, all of whom (4) were ’student officers’.
Absolutely totally and utterly soul destroying. I hate it.
@44 & 45 Teofilio Cubilas
Sorry, didn’t make it plain.
Not as they are told by Westminster, for their only remit now is to deliver the UK diced up into “Nations and Regions” to our National government in Brussels. And the SNP are playing their part nicely, by wanting to have “independence within the EU” for Scotland.
Of course once they have their Scotland fully independent of the UK, the SNP government (of the EU Region formerly known as the nation of Scotland) will be utterly beholden to Brussels. And if the national government (in Brussels) hasn’t got an agenda on the matter can you tell me why they want Eurogendfor? [ http://www.eurogendfor.eu/ ] I am certain that they will declare themselves “competent” in law, order and justice. My guess is that they will do it by 2010.
Is it possible for a civilian police force to become a member of the EGF (eurogendfor)?
Ans. A civilian police force can contribute in an EGF operation, under certain conditions, but cannot join the EGF. As mentioned in the Presidency report annexed to the Nice Treaty, all civilian police forces may not be placed temporarily under the responsibility of the military authority entrusted with the protection of the population due to their national rules and legislation, and precisely the possibility to be deployed under military command is a key condition to be deployed in any circumstances.
As far as the EU is concerned, civilian police forces have declared their commitment to the EU police capacities, during the Ministerial Conference in Brussels on November 19th,2001. There is a framework that allows these forces to be used for the benefit of the EU, as for EGF, and these tools are to be seen as complementary.
M.Oldgit @ 49. Leesen very carefully M.Oldgit, for I will say sees only once. You Engleesh ‘ave no sense of ‘umour. You retire to my countree, steal ma wine, flirt wis Madame Nonikeres in se boulangerie and sen you ‘ave se audacity to critisize ma compatriots in se Malici. Se Malici ‘ave wives, mistresses and families to support as well you know? Sey are only doing sere job, even eef it ees for an immoral, incompetent and evil boss. So what eef they turn, ‘ow you say a ‘blind eye’ to all zis “conneries”. Be very afraid M.Oldgit, zat knock on your door at 4AM might not be Madame Nonikeres.
Jock says
“As an LPT officer, I was told NOT to go to any jobs where I might have to record a Crime, as ‘this would take me away from my core business of high visibility patrol’.”
Sounds about right. The only difference around my way is that the Officers on the LPTs wouldn’t need telling not to go to the jobs and they don’t bother doing any High-Vis patrols either.
(Unless they’re on O/T- it seems to be beyond them to change their ‘flexible’ shifts to cover their responsibilities)
48 InnercityPC
anon - You really do bite dont you…….
Yeah, that’s right…I bit! Pathetic response, but completely expected.
57- How sad. But true. I dont know what to do. Being on the LPT is embarrasing to me but because of family I need the flexibility otherwise I’d be back on the shift straight away. It unreal, i cant believe sometimes that they are telling us not to go to things- its almost neglect of duty!
Henri-Phillipe
I wouldn’t welcome an early morning knock from Mme Nonicks unless it was Carla Bruni, she would have to be very lost, and then there would be problems with Mme Oldgit,
O and it should have been their not there and I spelt milice malice Freudian slip?
‘O and it should have been their not there and I spelt milice malice Freudian slip?’
Bloody hell old git, no need to correct yourself, this isn’t the Guardian.
I have written a full response in my blog to the article in the Daily Mail stated in this entry. I have just started out with the blog and it was this article that inspired me to start my blog. I would be grateful to receive any feedback.
Twenty-seven months to go?
I hope you’ll think about making some trouble when you get out. You have real talent in the writing and photo-selection line, and you should put it to use.
Because if you don’t stand up for decent policing in Britain, who will?
But I am still worried about those Ruralshire sheep.
PC Bobby Dazzler @62. Can’t find your blog. Give us a clue.
CHEERS
eXtb
Traffic @ 64
Click on his name.
[...] 23 03 2008 I saw the below article on Inspector Gadget’s blog and it got me [...]
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