All of a sudden, with no warning, we have been told that the Sanctioned Detection Rate (SDR) is no longer our sole reason for existing.
This is a shame because we have just finished spending HUGE amounts of our effort, your money, human resources, office moves, complete unit reorganisations and an uncountable number of hours arranging our entire corporate lives around the fact that…….. the Sanctioned Detection Rate is our sole reason for existing.
True, we didn’t take it to the extremes that the NHS took their targets and actually had people die to achieve them, but it was getting close.
This is a murder scene under the old police performance system.
I never really invested any personal commitment to the SDR.
That’s a polite way of saying that I always knew it was a load of old cobblers at best, fraudulent at worst.
I hardly dare tell you what we have replaced it with. When I do, unless you work in a UK Public Service, you probably won’t believe me.
So here it is. The new religion. Coming up out of the swamp, cool and slow, with a back-beat narrow and hard to master. Like some new language.
Citizen Focus also known as Customer Satisfaction.
It is now our job to influence how the public think. It’s called Public Perception, and It’s our task to “change” it before the next General Election.
If you live in an area where the chances of you being burgled in your home at night are 1 in 75,000 but you “feel” unsafe in your home at night, you are well……… wrong to feel unsafe. But not any more.
Now it is my job to make you feel safe. To change your perception. I used to do this by delivering Crime Reduction, naively assuming that if there was no chance of you being burgled, you would feel safe.
This is a murder scene under the new police performance system.
Now we are going to make you feel safe by putting up loads of posters showing you that you are safe, filling out loads of boxes on forms back at the Nick, making hundreds of cold-calls telling you you are safe, launching a media strategy praising all of our successes and reorganising our units again to carry all of this out.
We are also going to drive the mobile police station around. Well, I say “we” but I actually mean a PCSO is going to drive the mobile police station around. This will definitely make you feel safe.
We now care more about what you think is happening than what is actually happening. And we have some nice new Government targets to go with it.
It’s official; we have finally gone insane.
thanks for that,i am so looking forward to putting my uniform on tomorrow.
And don’t forget to be “Professional, Friendly and Interested”.
Or as I heard some say “Pretend to be F****ng Interested”.
It doen’t matter what we acheive, only what we appear to acheive!!
Smile while you are crying.
Seems there is little difference between politics and the Police Service.
“What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make people believe has happened”. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]
…Don’t forget that all officers MUST wear high-visibility jackets when out in public as well.
You mentioned PCSOs driving the mobile police station, our force had a 4-wheel drive video van in fluorescent yellow with ‘Mobile Video Van’ emblazoned all over it just in case the public couldn’t see the camera mounted on its telescopic roof pole. Unfortunately the camera never worked and we came a cropper when a solicitor submitted a DPA request for its footage in relation to an incident involving her client.
I worked in a major U.K. city and on the occasions i have visited since over the last year have never once seen a uniformed police officer. I’ve seen the PCSO’s in the mobile information pod eating pasties.
Do i feel safe? Yes because the streets are paved with CCTV and i know officers will respond within seconds of an incident (as long as the Comm’s staff can find an available resource in the city centre because they’re all tied up in the custody suite queue).
My farce has now run out of money to fund PCSOs fully so what the fu** is going on. Can someone tell as I do not have a clue.
… Yet for some reason I suddenly feel _less_ safe than before I knew this. Weird.
As a MOP, I feel safe when a 6′4″ dog handler comes out in 10 minutes to hunt the scrote who nicked my bike last night. Didn’t catch him, but we all know who it is. Two weeks out of prison, which obviously doesn’t work in his case. Amputation might; hard to hotwire with one hand. Couldn’t ride the bike either, as he only got 50 yards before he fell off on his head, so no vital organs damaged.
Keep it up Gadget, it’s nice to know someone’s fighting the box tickers.
Out here on the perimeter there are no stars either.
First off I refuse to wear a visi yellow suit. Customer focus is the next drop of poison in Police Reform. Its aim is not to increase the amount of good we do. That would be too simple. The aim is for us to cost less. Its always for us to cost less. Customer focus won’t really focus on the important things in life like safety of person and property, it never does. It will however legitimise megaphone priority setting where he who bleats loudest sees most day-glo yellow. That’s what’s coming. God help the Divisional Commander who sticks his head up and says “No, I know best.” Where is Ch Supt Jim Webster with a trenchant comment in his blog when you need him?
So another shuffling of the devoutly non operational, more squads, more remits. Whilst I am ranting, today, in the CID office I heard, I actually really heard a reactive DS say “burglary isn’t really in our remit.” Sweet Baby Jesus if CID have stopped caring about burglary, the end surely is nigh.
IG wrote a post ages back (well ages in blog terms anyway) called Busted Up For Dogmeat. Thats how it is. Just call me Boxer.
As Dangerous says “Smile while you are crying.” because “[they] now care more about what [MOPs] think is happening than what is actually happening.” (And they have some nice new Government targets to go with it.)
Dunno about the ‘now’ part though.
Do what I do and just don’t cooperate……….. no matter hard they push.!!!
Its not just here in the UK, and its not a new invention. Try this for size: http://www.dorkinglabs.com/fim_popup.php?id=130&title=Police+Priorities
But then I think they have had a socialist government in NZ for longer than we have in the UK
Perhaps the home office could hire Derren Brown to hypnotise the public into feeling safe. They’d more probably get him to hypnotise the cops into Stepford like obedience.
I work in one of the Metro cities. Hate to tell you Guv, but we done away with sanctioned detections about 6 months ago. Why it took so long down your way I don’t now.
I moved to the new community policing side just over a year ago. We report what we do on a standalone system from the rest of the force.
The trouble is it’s open to interpretation and no one checks the input anyway. Some people smile at a passerby and record it as a community contact.
Just something else for our politicized leaders to wave about as a great achievement. Yet more lies, damned lies and statistics.
I think it’s a given that the Police have always been used for Political aims by every Government since the first constables were sworn into our Crown appointed offices. In fact i think it’s fair to say that the creation of the Police was itself a Political act in response to a real situation.
However, this Government, firstly with their Detection scams and now this new rubbish have taken it to a whole new (unpalatable) level. Our (ambitious) senior ranks are so politicised that the none political minded officers cannot thrive in all but the most unusual circumstances and the rest of us have been forced to become engaged in policies that overtly seek mislead the public. We might as well start canvassing for the Labour Party, featuring in party political broadcasts and eliciting donations for the next electoral campaign.
Frankly, i object in the strongest possible terms! It is not my job to make you feel safe, it’s my job to make you ACTUALLY safe and leave the rest up to you!
I have heard it said that this is merely “fighting the fear of crime” or so the spin doctors would have me believe. That in itself is not a bad thing, however the means by which they intend for this to happen is!
To my mind the best way is to fight the fear of crime is to fight crime, logical, however this is clearly too hard, expensive, old fashioned and redundant for this glorious new political century. No, now i fight the fear of crime by trying to convince people that they are safe regardless of whether they are or not. I am now a brainwasher & spin doctor for the socialist dream.
(Incidentally the people’s collective farms have had record harvests this year again for the 25th year in a row.)
Am I really expected to go into high crime areas and poo poo their fears of being mugged and then the next day travel to low crime areas and do the same? The rub being that neither side will believe me as the people in the high crime areas ARE getting mugged and the people in low crime areas ARE reading about people getting beaten to death and the perpetrators only getting 4 years but serving less than 2.
Perhaps the Government should slap a D-Notice on all crime reporting as well, no news is good news in this war of perception after all.
Seriously though, how am i supposed to compete with FACTS like this? Posters, meetings, surveys and leaflets apparently, oh, and not forgetting statistics. It’s an uneven battle, we won’t win it and it diverts our attention and very limited resources from what were supposed to be doing.
I am personally not going to lie or spin to people, they will be able to tell and i will loose whatever credibility i have left with them. They will believe what they see with their own eyes or what they want to believe and nothing I do will change that.
I could wear the brightest hi viz jacket in the world but they will still be able to tell there’s just one of me and the rest are stuck inside 80% of the time coping with a massively inefficient system.
I could deploy endless numbers of PCSO’s but not even the most naive member of public is going to perceive this as increased numbers of Police Officers who are able ready and willing to protect them as a matter of sworn duty 24 hours a day.
I can also arrest, charge and prosecute, successfully, record numbers of villains as we have been doing but if they don’t get a punished with proper custodial sentences then it wont matter a dam. The people will see through it by the simple expedient of looking at the final result and ignoring our statistics, meetings and leaflets.
It is as if i am now charged with changing the symbols, signs and culture of our collective perceived reality with the intent to change that same perceived reality. Jean Baudrillard would be very interested despite the fact that with the tools at hand it’s not possible. Perhaps if i could herd everyone into a metaphorical cave, make them forget everything that came before ….. , hmmm, probably better of trying to create the matrix, it’s more fitting to our times and the Government does like massive IT projects.
Of course, it might be easier to just hand out proper sentences, double prison capacity for the next generation or so and spend the money required to fight crime (or reduce bureaucracy).
There is a role for fighting the fear of crime but we should be doing this by fighting crime not by this Governments chosen nefarious means.
The Home Office and ACPO must surely realize that no one out here on Planet Earth actually believes a word of any of this. It doesn’t matter what meetings, what ‘partnership’ groupings, what stats are issued, none of US out here in the real world believe a word.
In my local area (Kent) last year the CC (Mike Fuller) wrote to every household (at what cost?) to tell us about neighbourhood Policing, a letter plus glossy pamphlet with contact numbers and websites and e-mail addresses – where to go to find out who our neighbourhood team is.
We had a Constable shared with another village, a PCSO shared with another village too, but not the same village as the constable and a KCC community warden. The latter being the most visible and energetic in the village.
The PCSO has recently been reported as being ‘promoted’ elsewhere (????) so the PCSO in the village we share the constable with is now responsible for our village. Of course he was also responsible for another village, so that’s three villages the PCSO has to cover, plus because of a new PCSO vacancy elsewhere he is also responsible for two other villages – so that’s 5 villages, 20-25 thousand people! there’s only so many parish council meetings he can go to, so many PACT meetings (PACT = Partners and Communities Together – part of the newspeak or ploddlegook we are now so used to), so many mobile surgeries he can drive to.
What does the Constable do, well he has to go to numerous meetings too, plus the urban policing inspector can second him from the rurual policing unit where ‘demand’ requires – so of course we don’t see him much anymore, the PCSO is run ragged and the community wardens are now invisible from being dumped on, our local one has to attend all the above meetings too.
What is the point? meanwhile Mike Fuller tells us all about the fear of crime and that we shouldn’t be so afraid, yet anti-social behaviour continues unabated. We were told that in partnership with the BTP, problems at the station in the late evenings has been tackled. Well not last night, a fairly nice evening, walked past a gaggle of flat cap wearing (half pikey) chavvies drinking stella and smoking puff, the ground around them strewn with the litter of beer cans and polystyrene kebab boxes. I mean, what is the point when nothing actually gets done, because everyone is in reality busy doing nothing. Low level things cause the underlying fear of crime.
Until something begins to happen you will continue to slowly lose the support of the public, which is the case these days, generally accompanied by an acknowledgement that it isn’t front line oficers who are blamed, this today from the Daily Mail is the latest example, but don’t sneer you guardian readers out there, much the same is written in the broadsheets again almost on a daily basis.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/dailymail.html?in_article_id=561572&in_page_id=1790
Notellin 14 wrote … Seriously though, how am i supposed to compete with FACTS like this? …
Count yourself lucky. Consider when Ivor Snufftit is taken home from the hospital and a week later his wife complains to the doctor that he is off his food, ignoring her and has awful BO and a gun in his pocket. It would take a RADA trained “doctor” to put her mind at rest, though of course what would actually be required is an undertaker to put her husband to rest.
I can foresee all Police Officers having to Role Play the Dead Parrot sketch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Lq771TVm4
Just in case you think that if you can just get over the wire into the private sector it will be different, I regret to have to inform you that for many years “senior executives” have been taking acting lessons to improve their performance in meetings.
From Law Enforcement to Thought Enforcement. Does anyone have any links to these new directives?
Hey!
I,ve had to create posters and distribute them with”What have we done for you lately”- all part of Jaquie Smiths SaferNeighbourhoods-what a complete load of bollocks!!
I have seen this trend growing for some time. For me, it really started in earnest when we had a new Chief Constable appointed, and his stated policy was “to reduce the fear of crime”. That was it. I thought: what about tackling crime itself? There was no mention of that.
Funnily enough, it has been elected politicians — but local ones and not of the same political persuasion as the national Government — who have pushed for more relevant policing and the resources to be made available for that. We are much better policed now than we had been for several years, especially in terms of style. We have more “copper’s coppers” around my area than the “political coppers” that seem to be being appointed in many cases these days. I am pleased to have played my part in working with them (not always harmoniously!) to ensure we did get a better service.
Politicians are supposed to be the representatives of the community, not of their own personal agenda; so for me, it was just doing what I did for eight years — represent my community.
Just shows it can be done, even with politicians involved…
Its simple, law and order are top priorities for any Government.
Nu Labour has to please middle England to be re-elected, they will lose the mandate in Scotland soon, and that’s the end of a natural majority.
Middle England, through the Daily Hate, have been tutored to despise the Police, the cops are useless, inificient etc..etc.. are in the papers every day.
David Cameron has sign posted his intent (if elected) to make it easier to get rid of rubbish cops, fair enough, but watch out!
Chief Constables are clearly leaned on by the home office to follow political dictates, hence the topics in this post.
There is a way.. That is for Police Authorities to regain control in the way that they rebelled against force amalgamations
Judges retain their independence by interpretation law, often to the Governments disquiet.
Chief Constables, could, if they had the necessary Davina Mcalls, run the show the right way …yeah right.
Dangerous @ 2
Guess from your quote, we come from the same Force ? Like the turn of phrase though. Very apt.
Image / pretence is everything.
Speaking as a member of the public who lives in a low crime area and is perhaps a bit more aware than the average man on the street of the chicanery which goes on at the Home Office and in police forces (thanks to my dealings with Copperfield, Bloggs and you, Gadget), I don’t expect the police to stop all crime or catch all criminals.
A certain amount of crime is one of the prices we have to pay for living in a free society.
I certainly don’t want the police to spend tax money patronising me, either.
All I want – and I think all most people want – is for the police to be freed up a bit more, to be given back some discretion, to prioritise proper crime and for the courts to be a bit tougher on persistent criminals.
I think the quickest way to improve matters would be for locally-elected police chiefs to be introduced.
As long as chief constables and area commanders (is this the right jargon?) are not answerable to the people who pay their wages (including the police officers under them, who themselves pay tax, of course) but instead to people like Jack Straw, Tony McNulty and Jacqui Smith, who travel everywhere with armed escorts and have almost zero chance of being assaulted, robbed or murdered, things will remain the same (or get worse).
Dan
TUPC @10.
Like you I will do what I have to, to keep my job, but not what the theorists at HQ preach.
By the way, I am now seeing buses plastered with big adverts for SSN. Good to know the money is well spent!
I see merit in being a visible presence and lowering fear of crime. Most people won’t be a victim of a burglary, but will fear it all their lives. It ties in with the Broken Window theory. It certainly shouldn’t be priority number one taking all the funding and resources though.
“…human resources, office moves, complete unit reorganisations…”
And not only that but us lowly response plods have been told that we can’t walk down the corridor where units and units of these staff have their offices in case we make to much noise and distract them.
It took about 20 seconds for us to completely disregard their polite but slightly condescending request. They just don’t tell you in training school how much of the job involves totally ignoring what your own organisation tells you.
Round our way we’ve only had the first whispers of the new reality; someone sat in an office somewhere sent a force wide e-mail that I didn’t read.
Meanwhile my team will do what front line Police officers have always done when faced with officially sanctioned loopiness: Have a really good moan about it, have a cup of tea and then get on with the job as usual.
can’t walk down the
Fair enough. Understand about the imposition of top down targets. But it’s got to be done, after all, those of us who choose to obey choose to obey orders – not like it’s a democracy is it?
So someone has to be employed to do it, and one way or another. Pref a civvy.
Super, smashin’, great.
I read a few coppers blogs. Read a lot about what’s wrong, guv. No probs with that.
But it’s not immediately clear is what you WANT to do ?
I don’t suppose we can expect the job to close down all the sanctioned detection related offices and personnel and put them out in uniform to nick people? How about instead of printing posters and leaflets they put it into our overtime budget so teams can plan their own ops to hammer the persistant shitbags?
Too much to ask possibly?
In a government of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
You could raise your visibility/audibility just by switching lights & sirens on more often and not only when you‘re in a hurry.
According to today‘s Graun, the Home Office says crime fell in 2007 and so did the fear of crime. It works. I feel safer already.
I’m with your comments TotallyUn-Pc. Always works for me. I’ve said it before, “We on the frontline know what we are doing. Leave us alone to get on with it. Don’t worry all you people who create buzz words and silly policies all day long. You can sleep safe in your beds at night because we are out there protecting your precious integrity and careers.”
What the numpties in NuLab, the now totally politicised and discredited upper echelons of the Civil Service, ACPO, NHS, Fire Service and Local Authorities (not to mention the Common Purpose traitors in their midst) don’t seem to realise is that after eleven years of being ruled by people whose response to the mass murder of 3000 innocents is “It is a good day to bury bad news”(Copyright Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell and Jo Moore), NO-ONE WITH MORE THAN ONE BRAIN CELL WILL BELIEVE A SINGLE WORD THEY SAY EVER AGAIN!!!.
I will continue to feel unsafe as long as I know that around 9 out of 10 real crimes (burglary, theft, murder, rape, fraud, corruption) go unsolved and unpunished.
I will continue to feel under siege, because I know that if I so much as lay a single finger on anyone that breaks into my home and/or threatens me or my family, I will be the one the Criminal “Justice(!) System throws the book at.
I’m a good bobby. I know this because i arrest people and send them to court. My Sergeant and Inspector like me because i arrest people.
My personal down fall is that, like many others, I am fairly direct and don’t suffer fools. I am constantly battling victims expectations of what they think we can achieve and this inevitably leads to a certain amount of disgruntled people, not because I’m rude but because I’m not delivering what people want.
I am uncertain why peoples expectations are so often so high and unrealistic. Blame the media? I’m not sure if that would help, I don’t really know the answer.
What it does appear to me is that I will now be a bad bobby, because I will not be spend hours in the nick pandering to the current whims of the government and SMT like some of my colleagues.
I will be out and about making my own luck and hopefully arresting a few people and sending them through the system. No doubt this will affect my customer satisfaction stats and I will appear on the naughty list.
My glorious* NHS are doing exactly the same thing, with exactly the same name.
So no, it doesn’t surprise me in the least.
(*I may be a trifle sarcastic here)
PC Common Sense @29 – You said it brother.
Keep safe.
Stinky @31
“My personal down fall is that, like many others, I am fairly direct and don’t suffer fools. I am constantly battling victims expectations of what they think we can achieve and this inevitably leads to a certain amount of disgruntled people, not because I’m rude but because I’m not delivering what people want.”
A man after my own heart.
In the 18 months I was in charge of my previous shift, it was consistently the highest performing shift in the whole Division. I don’t do ‘bullshit’ and just got on with the job. This brought me into conflict with the Local Policing team supervisors and DVU, CPU, DTO etc etc.
Since I left, performance has plummeted and the shift officers are drowning in crap. The bigwigs are scratchng there heads wondering why those who ‘embrace’ their concept can’t deliver.
I shuddered when I was doing my handover to the replacement Sgt and was describing each officer. She said ‘there’s plenty of evidence for the future there’. I was furious. She saw my shift as ‘evidence’ for her future promotion prospects, not as a collection of real, thinking, breathing people, being shat upon from a great height.
Keep up the good work.
I have just watched The House of Commons live, well, there were at least 10 members of parliment present.
The subject which I wont mention, the crux was that the public perception does not tally with official facts.
It is the public that have it wrong perceiving that matters are worse than they are.
It seems that the public are dim or misguided, perhaps both.
Crime is down as well as the population not being as big as it seems, and inlation is just above 2%.
Inflation even,sorry
Sat in on a Crime and Public Safety meeting on Monday being told by our Partnerships Manager that the Safer and Stronger Communities Partnership for our Area has identified the mismatch between crime and peoples perceptions of crime and intends to address it.
Interestingly the majority of elected members in my part of the world are of the opinion that real people think that things are actually getting worse and would rather see less box ticking and documentation and more resources for active policing.
I also made the point that I would turn nasty if I discovered we were spending tax payers money on PR when it should be applied to really improve peoples lives.
The other interesting concept was about narrowing the gap between the most deprived areas and other neighbourhoods (A picture came to mind of the team who are actively engaged in this process as they work their way around the area stealing lead flashing of roofs, manhole covers and drain covers to weigh them in for scrap, they seem to be genuinely committed to narrow the gap and are equal opportunity thieves).
I quite approve the thought about tackling violent crime and non-domestic burglary and of reducing the harm of drugs and alcohol misuse.
As a MOP all I can say is keep the faith Gadget.. Please your blog helps me better understand the people in blue suits with silver buttons and crowns who keep telling me that they are looking at ways of engaging and will keep us informed.
“My personal down fall is that, like many others, I am fairly direct and don’t suffer fools. I am constantly battling victims expectations of what they think we can achieve and this inevitably leads to a certain amount of disgruntled people, not because I’m rude but because I’m not delivering what people want.”
A man after my own heart.
That makes three of us then. I often use the ‘Look folks, do you want the party line or do you want the REAL story?’. Generally people react well to the truth. It is normally the pondlife who take the huff. They put the least in but expect the most back.
To change “Public Perception”, all you need is an
Advertising Agency, not coppers.
ahem. Could someone explain to me in simple terms what this blog and all these comments actually mean please? (In laymans terms if possible, and with a succinct and maybe brief summary) I am, as you will deduce, a member of the public. It all seems like a mystery to me – but who is the villain and who is the hero? Is it the Government’s fault (whatever it is) – or is it the public’s fault (whatever it is) ? Who is fiend and who is enema? I am Confoosed of Cheltenham.
ranter (15) writes “In my local area (Kent) last year the CC wrote to every household (at what cost?) to tell us about neighbourhood Policing”
We can beat that. This very week every police officer and “member of the police family” in our BCU received a letter from our new Area Commander to our home adresses telling us how well we had done over the last year.
The letter contained a list of bullshit statistics and news that we have got a letter of congratulations from the Head of the Police Standards Unit (whothat?)
1. who cares?
2. Has the email system broken?
3. How much did this cost?
4. Why, if we have been doing so well, has the farce decided to reorganise the whole policing structure and create neighbourhood teams of career whores who will no longer be available for deployment when there is actual police work to be done?
Pass the valium……
As a MOP from Scotland, where Labours policies were slightly kinder when they are in power and the SNP are still proving themselves I feel sorry for you lot down in England.
Saying that, I live in a city – right smack in the centre of this city – and I rarely see any police. Well I tell a lie. I see loads of police, but they’re all in cars. I hardly ever, in fact other than at big events I don’t think I have ever, see Police officer walking a beat. I think it’s appauling. We don’t even have PCSO’s – only PCSO’s in scotland are from the BTP.
Just watched Question Time – Christ on a bike, I thought the political class up here in Scotland were piss poor – but these three come pretty close. Is that really the best that London can come up with?
Somebody really needs to tell Boris Johnson that playing the toff buffoon act has to stop. What’s that? It’s not an act?
So I switched over to Newsnight and watched some Labour non-entity (the schools minister) being interviewed about the teachers strike. The hypocritical, sanctimonious bastard actually had the gall to criticise the NUT for going on strike because the pay deal ‘had been agreed by independent arbitration’.
They really are scum.
pcR @ 41. All I can say is “AAAaarrrrrgggghhhhhh”!
Pointless, stupid and devoid of common sense BUT no doubt the ‘blue sky’ thinker that came up with the idea, plus a few other hangers on will evidence that in the ‘communications’ box or whichever ‘competency framework’ category it would come under.
As for watching ‘Question Time’ I had to give that up years ago, I think it was after that total **** Yasmin Alibaba-Brown was on just after the 9/11 atrocity saying that the US had got what it deserved.
With the current batch of mendacious f***wits, Balls, Copper, Blears, McNulty as well as that sad and boring bastard Darling my head is liable to explode and my reasonably sized LCD Samsung taking a trip out of the window. There’s a strong whiff of failure and incompetence about Brown – he looks like he smells too.
Bang on about Boris – he should stop being a twat, even he is going on about an amnesty for illegals – ask the Spanish what they think of that Boris!
Don’t put your Scottish tossers down too, Wee Wendy is a fantastic example of everything that is wrong with this government too.
You couldn’t make it up because you don’t have to – anything that sounds particularly stupid to a normal member of society is actually enacted by the ruling political elite and their acolytes in the public sector.
Kate
Political interference in day to day Policing has produced a wagon load of irrelevance , pushed through by promotion hungary types who LOVE paperwork and meetings .
You will see there are several posters whom have perfectly enuciated their cringing disbeleif at the numpties ,never were Police types ,who colonize your local nick.
So there you have it , sod of come day go day politicians , put the paperwork wally back in the box and promote thief takers .
over and out .
Oh yea the mobile Police station driven by a PCSO. We call ours the CCV (Community Contact Vehicle), what a great big white elephant that is, £80,000 worth of elephant that spends 90% of the time parked in the rear yard of a real police station.
And then they try to find places for it to go just to justify it’s existence.
I despair!!!
Bye the way, I’m kind of back!!
Kate, I spent 34 yrs at the sharp end, out now for 5 yrs and I cannot understand what half these blogs are about. Just taking my third aspirin. Take care out there, its a jungle.
pcsouthwest, good to have you back. I did wounder where you had got to.
Gadget
Do you have moderated comments on? Can’t seem to post.
Can’t seem to post the link I wanted to. Must be my lack of IT skills. Anyway, I’m paid to be a cop and, fortunately, haven’t had to spend years behind a desk fine-tuning my PC skills.
Anyhow, appears our prisons are so nice and cushy that the inmates don’t want to escape. Watch the Gov. put the spin on that one – at least that should make people feel safer.
PR. Spin. Bollocks. Shallow and worthless.
47. We’re Doomed? 34 years at the sharp end sounds worth a listen…….
Kate,
I did 30 yrs and I have been out for about 3. It is difficult to know exactly where the problems began, but certainly in the 1980s, Policing was for the benefit of the (good) people. We did not have targets as such, we all knew who the villains were, where to find them and we did, – regularly. They went to Court and got a decent sentences. (three months prison for threatening behaviour at a football match).
The seeds may have been sown in the early 1990s with the Sheehy review of Policing, for which 24,000 off duty Officers went to Wembley to demonstate.
Around that time the watch word was ‘core policing’ and there were attempts to get the Police to follow a certain remit, which did not include helping people locked out of their houses,stray dogs and other good will type jobs.
Several years into the ‘current’ Govt, the obsession with ‘bean counting’ began.
As our Chief used to say, the Police is not a factory that manufactures ‘widgets’ , so why should it be measured as such. Another quote, all that can be counted does not necessarily count and all that counts cannot necessaily be counted. This sums up the position perfectly. So there we are. Police Forces that are being bullied into producing meaningless statistics that the Govt hold up to the public to prove how well thay have been governing.
And in this crazy world behind the looking glass, two 12 yr olds fighting in the school playground is thoroughly investigated to obtain the two detected crimes of assault.
Why is so? Chief Constables are under the Govts thumb. They have to obey the party line or else. That ‘fear’ is passed down to the ACPO ranks to the Superintendants to the Inspectors and the front line staff. Sh*t rolls downhill and the frontline live in the valley.
To make matters worse this has all been tied up with the fallout from the Lawrence enquiry. The Police are scared of being falsely accused of racism and too often this results in high profile witch hunts such as the investigation into Anne Robinson for saying she did not like the welsh.
The whole situation is rather like the fable of the Emperor’s new clothes. The Emperor is walking out naked, but the Govt is too vain to admit it or too stupid to realise it.
Teofilio Cubilas 43 wrote …
Just watched Question Time … Is that really the best that London can come up with? You decide, watch the party broadcasts, they are around three minutes each: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7334514.stm
There are some rather more illuminating broadcasts on Radio London, for which a BBC link I cannot find, but they can be found by internet search.
ranter 44 wrote … As for watching ‘Question Time’ I had to give that up years ago, I think it was after that total **** Yasmin Alibaba-Brown … The actual spelling of her name is rumoured to be Yabba Dabba Brooooooon!
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Teofilio Cubilas @ 43
I laughed when ‘Red Ken’ was selling the Safer Neighbourhood Teams policy and saying there are more Police on patrol than ever. The public audience seemed incredulous and some laughed openly saying they never have seen police out on foot at night. Brian Paddick replied the reason for that is that SNT’s work 8hrs mainly Mon to Fri, 9 to 5 that’s why you never see coppers out at night on foot. Shame he didn’t say that when he was a leader in the Met.
blueknight
I have read carefully your post and understand the points you have made. You will understand that I was brought up to be deferential to authority – teachers, doctors, police, judges and “those that know better”. Then I got educated. I discovered that respect had to be earned ,and this caused me a huge dilemma. It seems to me that common sense (because it is not accountable) has gone out of the window and accountability has been compromised because we live in a society dominated by money. I don’t know what the answer is – certainly not religion – I have seen that in all it’s ghastly manifestations – perhaps the bare truth- the plain truth- the honest truth- might help homo sapiens begin to trust and not to judge. Fear, as a weapon, won’t work once folks are educated so we may, perhaps, look to trust to get us out of the negative cycle we have manufactured for ourselves over the past century. Blimey! I gorn all serious. x
Inspector Gadget
You sound almost convinced,
but perhaps you really sound as if you voted Labour
at the last few elections.
Still, as in Zimbabwe,
never too later to repent.
The only problem will be, as in Zimbabwe,
will the bastards go peacefully, or not?
But it could be that these nuLabour guys are like the Zimbabwe Zanu PF ones, suborning senior police officers to support their own and ends.
Time will tell.
Next time you must vote more carefully!
Michael
[...] and the ACPO is behind a massive PR campaign called Citizen Focus also known as Customer Satisfaction, falsely designed to make you feel safe even if you are not. Don’t take my word for it, listen to a copper. [...]
[...] and the ACPO is behind a massive PR campaign called Citizen Focus also known as Customer Satisfaction, falsely designed to make you feel safe even if you are not. Don’t take my word for it, listen to a copper. [...]