Top Down Management

Following on from yesterday's Ali Dizaei news, I have been pondering the poor officers who became embroiled in the original incident where their Commander arrested a man with whom he had an ongoing dispute.  In the face of a further internal tribunal and re-trial, they must be wishing they had not been on duty that day.  

It's bad enough when the Area Commander decides to venture out of his office in Blandmore to attend the report writing room, let alone if he were to wander out of the station and start making arrests. In fact, our Area Commander did threaten some time ago to materialise on the streets of Blandmore, but luckily last month's Performance Group Analysis Meeting has kept him indoors ever since.

That said, I would be entertained to see my superintendent attending a bog standard Blandmore domestic.  I wonder how he would cope with the following daily experiences of response officers on my team:

• A ten page risk assessment to fill in.
• An hour on hold to the civilian call centre to generate the crime report.
• Having no transit available to transport the violent prisoner.
• No space in the nearest custody due to the "cell alert" system going down.
• The next closest custody suite hurling abuse on his arrival (they don't like Blandmore prisoners).
• Having to mount a seven hour cell watch on the prisoner following attempts to strangle himself with his trousers, T-shirt and boxers.
• Returning to take victim statements to find the victim has moved up north permanently.
  
• Domestic Abuse Unit having no resources to have any involvement whatsoever in the job.
• Three hours on the phone to the Crown Prosecution Service to be told the case is to be dropped and the prisoner released.
• Having to take the prisoner home because it might abuse his human rights to release him without a jacket.
• Coming back to work the next day to find an email from his boss, asking why the case has not resulted in an immediate conviction at Crown Court.
• Finding a further email from the Domestic Abuse Unit, detailing how they would have done things differently, if only they'd had resources to help.

 ... Back in the real world, I'm lucky if I can even locate the superintendent to sign off on an urgent authorisation.  The chances of him experiencing any actual policing some time soon are remote.

Which is all anyone really needs to know about the reasons for the state of policing today.


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'Diary of an On-Call Girl' is available in some bookstores and online.