Magma Bottom:

Things are looking desperate in Blandmore. Once again.

Every few months manpower levels sink to an all-time low. I think this week was a personal best as I turned up for work to find that briefing was to consist of me and me alone. Don't worry, I made sure the jobs were distributed between myself and myself and made an extra cup of tea just to give the impression things were ok.

If you think you live in Blandmore, you are probably not feeling so great about leaving your car parked around the corner tonight. BUT DO NOT FEAR: yet again Blandshire Senior Management have a cunning plan to save us all: the Police Officer Time-Share (POTS).

Instead of having individual teams made up of 8 or 10 officers, who come in and cover the early, late or night shift, there is now just an amorphous mass of officers belonging to no particular team. On any given day, the sergeant's job is to bring up a list of who should be on duty and phone each one to entice them into the response team's briefing with offers of tea, doughnuts and detections. The result is an eclectic mixture of officers from neighbourhood, dog section, tutor unit and a few from response, to make up the numbers for the day.

It can take up to two hours to reach a full complement of officers, by which time one or other of them is probably reaching the end of their tour of duty. Some have called this process STRESSFUL and A DANGER TO THE PUBLIC, but I just like to refer to it as POTS.

I think ultimately, we all benefit.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright of PC Bloggs.