To think the fictional character of the police detective who works all hours until the murder is solved is really unrealistic

Portrayed in the same way that midwives are. All so dedicated until the baby comes. But the truth is when the shift ends their shift ends and off they trot!

Thank you, I thought it probably was!

This doesn’t happen. Leave isn’t observed when it coincides with a court case and they get in a lot of trouble if they refuse to go (although if the criminals don’t show up, seemingly nobody bats an eyelid). I almost had to cut short my honeymoon and come back from the US so that my husband could be a witness in court, he had to appeal to get it changed several times on the grounds it was HIS HONEYMOON.

I'm long past believing that what should happen and what actually happens are the same thing.

DH has moved into a role without OT or TOIL in the last 6 months and works only his 12hr shifts for the first time in two decades.

No. Never.

Most of the things people see in dramas are the things constables and sergeants do but on tv, they claim they're chief inspectors and similar. It's hogwash.

I’ve always wondered about that. Would a superintendent actually go out & interview witnesses etc, accompanied by a chief inspector?

It’s not. My friend is on a UK police flying squad (they go immediately to extreme cases think along the lines of terrorism, gang crime).

She worked from 8am until 6.30am the other day. Most days she works from 6am to 9pm ish. She misses a lot of events and meet up. She really is almost always working.

I don't think it is unrealistic..
But bear in mind those types of cases are actually few and far in between
But if there were a serial killer on the loose I think it's pretty realistic that it would encroach on all the police wo work on that's personal lives too..
I know working in mental health if there's a particularly interesting/difficult/remarkable in some way patient then yeah I've been thinking about it at home going through things, coming up with different approaches etc etc
You just do!
So I imagine it's the same for detectives with interesting cases
Some things really get to you..
My DH had a patient that had a massive impact on his life. Years of input both in and outside work.

I'd watch it! He'd be digging his potatoes and turn up a ring pull, or an old carrot or seed packet and suddenly he'd make an Important Connection.

The camera would pause on his face as held the ring pull/seed packet/old carrot and gaze into the middle distance, before flinging his fork to one side and hurrying to revisit a witness...

Police can’t strike unlike the doctors you mentioned upthread -

They can have annual leave cancelled with no notice unless out of the country..

They can’t knock off on time if in the middle of an important case /or attending situation

Overtime pay is not a given also be declined despite the extra hours

you do know all this surely??

I was listening to the new (British) podcast The Crime Agents and they made the point that police don't have the same employment rights as other professions because they're Servants of the Crown rather than employees.

Good podcast btw.

YABU. It’s fiction. A book in which everyone goes to the bathroom as needed, eats, signs off work, sleeps… all of it …. Would be so wildly boring

@ShowOfHands surely his TOIL is converted into paid OT if he hasn't taken it after 3 months? (Assuming he's constable or sergeant)

He needs to speak to the Fed. If they aren't dishing out the TOIL, they need to pay it in his wages. Most forces have an agreement on this.

My dad was a bog standard pc. Never wanted promotion, didn’t want to be in the sweeney etc just loved being a normal copper on the beat. He did it for over 30 years in a high crime level area and said he was never ever bored. Having said all that, there were many occasions when our family plans didn’t go to plan as dad had to stay on at work. We were due to go out for a family meal to celebrate my 16 th birthday. Dad phoned to say he’d be late., but he didn’t know how late. As we were due to go out, mum hadn’t been shopping so I ended up with cheese on toast and an early night.

Yabu I think.many murders are painstakingly undertaken .long after crimes solved as well.i don't think they would clock off at 5pm somehow! High profile cases like maddy for example.

DH went back in the day he was discharged from hospital after having meningitis and also went in the day after he'd been very seriously assaulted. Against medical advice and he was assaulted again and ended up with severe concussion necessitating surgery.

I have many, many other examples.

Tell me more about this overtime that's pretty good because dh works stupid hours and never, ever gets overtime for it. He's given TOIL and can never take it due to staffing issues. His outstanding TOIL is usually higher than his annual leave entitlement.

Fictional crime series tend to focus on one or two high ranking officers working 24/7 solving crimes with their intuition and brains. That's entertaining. An episode of Lewis where he has a day's leave and spends it on the allotment would be rather dull. I have no connection with the police, but watching any documentary about actual detective work, its clear that it is painstaking, team-based and involves a lot of not very entertaining leg work, and some long hours in many cases.

I agree. I watch a lot of crime/police dramas and I am also unconvinced about how reluctant any detectives are to take time off. Even when they've been seriously injured and are in hospital. I really do not believe that someone who has been shot,or mown down by a car, would be champing at the bit to get back to work ASAP! The number of times I've seen police personnel yanking the drips out of their arms, getting dressed and leaving the hospital, despite the fact that they're obviously not well.

I’ve watched a lot of True Crime docus and they work insane hours.

Things that happen in crime dramas that surely don't happen in real life -
Everyone has a bottle of whisky in their filing cabinet.
Two detectives in shiny city shoes stand in a muddy field questioning the whole group of suspects together.
The senior officer gathers all the suspects, the maid and the game keeper together in the sitting room and tells them all, at considerable length, who dunnit and how.

The most famous person in the room is ALWAYS the murderer.
The top copper is always a total tit, always behind a desk and plays golf.
The sidekick has dinner at the guv'nor's house and spends Christmas eve playing Scrabble there whilst wearing comedy knitwear.

But clearly not detectives

Yeah it’s a case of what they can control, vs what they can’t. I was involved in a pretty big/complex case through work (we were the ‘victims’, not the police!) and I remember the senior officer pushing back on meetings set one week that he’d be away - then all of a sudden it all kicked off again and his holiday was cancelled and he was working every hour under the sun that week! IMO good on them for actually pushing back and making sure things are scheduled within their working hours where possible - as inconvenient as that must be for people trying to do the scheduling.

I imagine they work very long shifts especially immediately after a crime is discovered, when witness memories are likely to be fresh. But there’s probably a lot of following up wrong trails and dead ends, which is tedious but essential work, and doesn’t make for good tv viewing. Dramas need people not to switch off, so they’ll need regular important but not obvious at first sight clues cropping up.