PC Bloggs Investigates... PDRs:

There might be some people out there wondering how we police are trained, developed and monitored. There might be some police officers wondering the same thing. The answer lies, as with most things in the police, in the PDR. You may be trying to guess what this stands for. Do not bother: nobody will be able to tell you whether or not you are right because nobody knows.

The PDR is a folder, computer programme or scrap of paper where police officers record how much the force objectives and strategic policy means to them. It follows them around for their whole career and is equivalent to a personnel record. It is worth mentioning that police officers also have a personnel record, which is equivalent to a dusty shelf in an archive.

The purpose of the PDR is threefold:

• It gives police officers something to do when there's no crime happening.
• It involves police officers in the excitement of the tax year.
• It enables police officers to demonstrate that they should not be fired no matter what they do.

If a sergeant wants to fire someone, they have to spend about a year putting negative reports into their PDR. Every time the person does something right, their sergeant has to start the process again. Police officers can appeal against negative remarks and unless the sergeant wants to attend a meeting - which I can assure you, they do not - they will change the remarks to positive ones.

The public think that shoddy police officers are kept in their job because police forces are institutionally racist, hate civilians and think they can prance around doing as they please. The real reason is PDRs.

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