Fumbling on the Front-line
Apparently half of BTP's police have less than five years' service. if BTP count their officers the same way Blandshire do, these figures will include officers who are pregnant and stuck in offices, languishing at home with broken limbs and fighting in Iraq. Rolling this out to non-railway-patrolling forces, the figures also almost certainly include detectives and PCs in non-confrontational roles, such as in the Being Nice to Criminals Department.
The actual percentage of inexperienced front-line officers is therefore probably closer to 100%.
If you think I'm kidding, pop into Blandmore nick any time, any day, and try to locate a response officer with more than three years' service who isn't on the brink of transfer to specialist department or the Met (which are NOT the same thing). If you find one, I'll buy you a Mars bar, and you should know I don't give away chocolate.
Why is this? Officially, it's because police forces have "recruited heavily following the July bombings in 2005". Unofficially, it's because of this.
These statistics are a victory for all those responsible for police budgets and training. We have finally achieved the happy state of affairs where you can learn everything you need to know about front-line policing in just a couple of years. For proof, just check out the length of service of the officers who have died by violence on the front-line since 2005.
The actual percentage of inexperienced front-line officers is therefore probably closer to 100%.
If you think I'm kidding, pop into Blandmore nick any time, any day, and try to locate a response officer with more than three years' service who isn't on the brink of transfer to specialist department or the Met (which are NOT the same thing). If you find one, I'll buy you a Mars bar, and you should know I don't give away chocolate.
Why is this? Officially, it's because police forces have "recruited heavily following the July bombings in 2005". Unofficially, it's because of this.
These statistics are a victory for all those responsible for police budgets and training. We have finally achieved the happy state of affairs where you can learn everything you need to know about front-line policing in just a couple of years. For proof, just check out the length of service of the officers who have died by violence on the front-line since 2005.
It only goes to show you don't need to be a seasoned bobby to be successfully shot and stabbed nowadays. Would they have died if there had been more experienced, more numerous colleagues around them? Maybe.
Maybe not.
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Copyright of PC Bloggs.
Copyright of PC Bloggs.
posted by PC Bloggs at 22:35
19 Comments:
"If you think I'm kidding, pop into Blandmore nick any time, any day, and try to locate a response officer with more than three years' service who isn't on the brink of transfer to specialist department or the Met (which are NOT the same thing). If you find one, I'll buy you a Mars bar, and you should know I don't give away chocolate."
Made me laugh this one but frighteningly true as well.
02 September, 2007 09:38
This is true in our force also, if you have 3 or more years in you are one of, if not the senior officer on shift. Anyone with 3 or more years in soon starts thinking about, traffic, CID, drugs squad etc. Who can blame them who wants to rush around for 12 hours a day with no support and no thanks.
02 September, 2007 12:51
I have 3 years and 10 months service and am a response officers. last night shift I was the most experienced officer except the sgts in most of the city.
02 September, 2007 17:02
Ive had enough mate, 4 and a half years in and im sick of the cr@p.
Im really considering leaving the job, we get less money, fewer rest days and fewer rights than a tube driver.
I think we're mugs, constantly under staffed on core team, always facing the prospect of being disciplined because of an ungrateful public always looking for the next police headline.
Hands tied, pay refused and days off cancelled without being able to get them back 'team strengths' the most often reason quoted.
Morale is lower than whale poo but the bosses and the govt ignore it and go for cheap soundbites rather than effective change.
02 September, 2007 18:45
In reply to Hogspawns comment "
Im really considering leaving the job, we get less money, fewer rest days and fewer rights than a tube driver."
That is what happened in the 1970s. Enough cops left to go and do easier, better paying jobs (almost anything was better paying in the mid 1970s) that the government was forced to implement the big pay rises recommended by the Edmund Davis commission.
In fact this has left a chicken that will be coming home to roost in a couple of years. The number of cops needing to be recruited and trained per year will almost double in 2009-2010 - 30 years on from the Edmund Davis recruitment bulge (on Scottish figures anyway but the rest of the UK should be similar.) http://preview.tinyurl.com/2owwh3
So if that coincided with an increase in serving officers leaving because of worsening pay and conditions then there could be real problems getting enough recruits of the right quality.
03 September, 2007 18:04
At the OCU in which I was based , minimum manning was 4 PCs and 1 Sgt for each of the four stations - a total of 20 response officers.
On one day I remember being one of just five PCs being supervised by a single Sgt , and with 18 months service I was the second most experienced.
Oh , and aside from myself , only one other PC was authorised to drive a marked car.....
Quite a scary thought considering how large an area we had to cover.
03 September, 2007 18:31
Then go and be a tube driver...
.. the trouble is, you can't.
In fact most plod are basically unskilled workers. Most pf whom - of they're not admitted under some quota system akin - have usually failed at something else in life before they drift into the job.
Doctors scientists and engineers you ain't.
Nor tube drivers.
Shelf stacking anyone?
03 September, 2007 20:45
IN my section we have probationers with 6 months service showing the probationers with 6 weeks service how to do things. Why? Because response, the police that the majority of the public will see when things go wrong. The first police to attend most incidents, major and minor, are treated as the pond scum of the service by every other officer.
Neighbourhood think we're mugs
CID think we're their personal lackeys
And everyone else think we're idiots because at 4 in the morning, when we're the only crew out on the ground the scene log wasn't filled in perfectly.
Is it any wonder everyone does their 3 years and starts trying to get out into a better job?
03 September, 2007 21:10
hear, hear. W've been consistently under "minimum strength" for weeks on end and we're still suplying officers to SNT op's and aid/other tot when non-uniform "support units" don't get asked to do it.
An A/DS in case progression told me "your a contsable you deal with it" when telling me he woudnt take on a job 1/2 hour BEFORE his units deadline.
Sure I'd get stuck on if I suggested a few of hi officers got uniforms on and came out with us, they're constables too.....
03 September, 2007 22:03
hogspawn - if you relentlessly persecute the motorist and arrest the victims of crime rather than the perpetrators just to get you "detections" up, fail to discharge your contract with the public...
... you are then express surprise that they are "ungrateful" ?
04 September, 2007 08:16
"Then go and be a tube driver...
.. the trouble is, you can't."
So wrong in so many ways. Me, and plenty I know took pay cuts to join. The force is very varied in their intakes, and you could not use your "blunt little tool" i.e your brain, to try and work this out. It is true that your previous work counts for nothing, as there is no job like this job.
04 September, 2007 15:34
As a retired Police officer I find these blogs quite interesting in that, in the main, the same old complaints keep going round and round ' "The bosses are out ofd date", "The system is all to pot", "The Government is screwing us over pay rises and cancellation of agreed allowances", et al. However, the political climate that PCs have to wade through these days is probably a factor in experienced officers quitting the job,leaving the young (in service) to fill the gap. In that I have a lot of sympathy for you. However, you don't do yourself many favours when you go around arresting 81 year old men for not getting out of his car (under what power can a motorist be made to get out of his car before arrest?) when told to and for (allegedly) assaulting two young, burly, officers. I wonder how many years they had in?
Plodnomore
04 September, 2007 18:27
Not far from Ashfordly there's a responce shift where the most experienced cop has two and a half years service, all the rest have less than 2!! What makes it even worse is, through no fault of theirs, many aren't even fit for purpose because of the limited training they actually get before they are let loose on the public! On top of that, their nearest supervision can be as much as twenty miles away, or more. Ain't modern policing great!
04 September, 2007 22:30
hogspawn - you say that many PC s took a pay cut to join?
Commendable sense of social responsibility.
Though I would never have guessed that the security department at "Toys R Us" would have paid so well.
They must be horrendously understaffed by now with so many of it's finest having left in such numbers to join your ranks and to do contribute to society ....
....by persecuting "Plodnomore's" harmless 81 year old , nicking householders for defending their families, arresting 11 year old school kids for calling each other names...
Follow your instincts you sad lot: if you're mostly unhappy with the job - then bloody well change your job. Why whine on endlessly about how miserable you are on a public forum?
It's pathetic
Or is it because were you to leave, the majority of you hapless Plod really could not do anything else? Absolutely no transferable skills what so ever.
Mind you, I hear a this time of year,Argos s are usually hiring for guys to put on the door...
05 September, 2007 07:42
i think the anon who keeps posting about security workers at toys r us etc is making a reasonable point - we can't expect the public to support us if the public no longer think we're supporting them. and let's face it, the police now are neutral at best.
however, what he/she misses is that this is not down to junior officers - your average PC, Sgt and Insp would love nothing more than to round up the 20+ nominals (repeat offenders, anon) on their patch and chuck away the key... but they're not allowed to by senior officers.
yes, we could go and get others jobs... and guess what? many are doing. i know a dozen or more who left, many to overseas, in the last year to 18 months.
it's going to get really interesting when all that's between you and the scum - literally - is a 16 year old PCSO, anon. so be careful what you wish for.
and as for 'changing the system'... well, the public voted the govt in, and the govt are the ones who changed the police. so why don't YOU just vote them out? maybe it's not as easy as that, eh?
05 September, 2007 08:45
Bloggs oi, where's my link? You pose a serious question here cleverly about officer numbers? Do you really think those at the top care? I don't think they care for anything other than themselves and what they call value for money.
05 September, 2007 09:19
I'm nearly five years in and one of the most senior at my nick! What worries me is the quality coming through. We have some with anger management problems and some who think that they should be given arrests by purely just turning up and letting their colleague doing all the work then asking for the arrest at the end of it to boost their figures!
06 September, 2007 21:36
I'm about to transfer from a well rounded, experienced team with an average service of about 6 years each, to a team where noone has more than 3 1/2. Still a response team, still the same force area, just a different sector. I've got to admit I don't quite understand the dynamic behind that. I know my work and stress load is only going to go in one direction though.
07 September, 2007 00:55
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