Eulogy?
If you've tried to get on Coppersblog recently, you've probably been disappointed. Dan at Monday Books explains it's not sinister, although I personally think it would have been more artistic for him to deny knowing the author of Coppersblog at all and to ask people to stop directing enquiries to him.
Coppersblog may not be the first police blog, but it was the first one to get wide acclaim and readership, and to open the floodgates of police books. I'm not just talking about the books you all know and love: I am firmly of the opinion there are dozens of books out there written by serving police officers. I can bet that most of my police readers can name a colleague who's published one - most likely a novel or treatise on butterfly-collecting rather than a vitriolic attack on modern times, although I'd guess there are some of those out there too.
I was on LBC this week (Jeni Barnett) talking about being a blogging police author, or 'media cop' as I rather foolishly blurted out. It was the first interview I've done where the subject matter was more about the writing than the policing, and it made me think about how the two fit together. I've found, more and more, that my blogging is simply something I do, like ordering Chinese on 'quick changeover' shift and cleaning my house on the second of my three rest days (er, usually). It would be hard or almost impossible for me to give up the blog now without feeling that I was somehow less without it. Not just less of a person, but less of a police officer. The two do not conflict, not unless you make them.
I hope PC Copperfield decides to keep blogging, or at least leave the blog up for people to peruse the archives. The Policeman's Blog was not just the diary of a serving copper, a reflection on futility in public service, a rant against bureaucracy. It represents something that police chiefs and authorities have been trying unsuccessfully to instigate for the last ten years: the inaugural spark of a connection once more between the police and the public. The blog that made police officers acceptable again.
Without it, we'd all still be talking about it, but no one would be listening.
Coppersblog may not be the first police blog, but it was the first one to get wide acclaim and readership, and to open the floodgates of police books. I'm not just talking about the books you all know and love: I am firmly of the opinion there are dozens of books out there written by serving police officers. I can bet that most of my police readers can name a colleague who's published one - most likely a novel or treatise on butterfly-collecting rather than a vitriolic attack on modern times, although I'd guess there are some of those out there too.
I was on LBC this week (Jeni Barnett) talking about being a blogging police author, or 'media cop' as I rather foolishly blurted out. It was the first interview I've done where the subject matter was more about the writing than the policing, and it made me think about how the two fit together. I've found, more and more, that my blogging is simply something I do, like ordering Chinese on 'quick changeover' shift and cleaning my house on the second of my three rest days (er, usually). It would be hard or almost impossible for me to give up the blog now without feeling that I was somehow less without it. Not just less of a person, but less of a police officer. The two do not conflict, not unless you make them.
I hope PC Copperfield decides to keep blogging, or at least leave the blog up for people to peruse the archives. The Policeman's Blog was not just the diary of a serving copper, a reflection on futility in public service, a rant against bureaucracy. It represents something that police chiefs and authorities have been trying unsuccessfully to instigate for the last ten years: the inaugural spark of a connection once more between the police and the public. The blog that made police officers acceptable again.
Without it, we'd all still be talking about it, but no one would be listening.
PS DC, where was my heads-up? As I've told all my readers that you're on my Christmas card list, you've just made me look bad. It's self, self, self with some people.
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'Diary of an On-Call Girl' is available in some bookstores and online.
posted by PC Bloggs at 20:28
6 Comments:
Keep blogging, Bloggsy. I rarely comment, but I always read and usually smile.
11 September, 2009 09:01
Still plenty of scope for moonlighting in the police 'service'. Whether as a model, rent boy, PNC hacker or just penning a new book over a full week sickie.
A police constable who also worked as a prostitute was jailed for 15 months yesterday after pleading guilty to misconduct in a public office. Victoria Thorne, 29, lived a double life as a uniformed Northumbria police officer while moonlighting as a £100-an-hour sex worker, Newcastle crown court heard. Judge John Evans told her: "It is plain that those who thought they knew you are at a loss as to how you came to be involved in such a seedy world." The former officer was in the dock with five other defendants. She joined Northumbria police in 2002 and four years later became a sex worker.
11 September, 2009 09:42
Just be careful - the recent case of a blogger giving away too much just goes to show the fine line between speaking the truth and "speaking the truth".
Funny then, that the senior command team are able to cross that same line with wild abandon when it comes to media releases.
I used the words 'Pravda' and 'Orwellian' recently in a survey about the Force (sorry, Service) newspaper. I guess the Proles will have to decide for themselves...
13 September, 2009 03:15
quote:Bevan: "I read the newspaper avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction."
my mantra Dungbeetle
13 September, 2009 19:19
"..... It represents something that police chiefs and authorities have been trying unsuccessfully to instigate for the last ten years: the inaugural spark of a connection once more between the police and the public....."
Rarely can the above see, what to the rest of us,is the bleedin' obvious.
16 September, 2009 15:52
very very informative. keep up the good work. i'm a fan. =)
21 September, 2009 13:17
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