Dumb Coppers

I have been reading through some of the comments on Have Your Say this week. You might be amazed to hear this, but I think we might have a problem with PUBLIC IMAGE!

Do you know, some members of the public actually think police officers are a bit thick? That they couldn't get any other job and kind of wandered into the police (who, by the way, take anyone). You will be pleased to hear that plenty of officers have fought back against this stigma by stating that they have several GCSEs and a "degree" in Business Studies - so there!

I do wonder sometimes just how intelligent police officers need to, or should, be. It seems to me there are far too many clever coppers, and that we should really be recruiting a lot more dumb ones like we used to. It just doesn't do to have rank and file staff who are educated about advanced matters such as the Working Time Directive, or Employment regulations. Nor ones who come from middle class families who own televisions. In fact, if we could just employ officers who couldn't even read or write, they wouldn't moan about half the things they do. Nor would they write blogs - or at least, not such dashed good ones.

Of course, they wouldn't be half so good at transcribing the 8 page statements needed for successful convictions nowadays, nor understanding how to submit items for forensics. They might have a few problems articulating their thoughts during suspect interviews, or navigating the stop-and-account forms required these days. They'd probably lose a lot of cases by not filling out the 10 page court file properly, or by failing to present the evidence adequately to CPS. And they'd probably have gotten lost somewhere in the middle of the last paragraph.

But still, point them in the direction of some broken glass and a figure running away, I'm sure they'd do all right.

We're not all thick... honest.

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