Does anyone work in the emergency services?

[Pinkyandthebrainz]

Who can give me an honest answer about what that sort of job is like? Do you enjoy it, would you recommend it etc.

Them! Not “him”!!

God I hate this iPad 🤦🏻‍♀️

OP I was where you are about 10 year’s ago. I tried to be a Special Constable for Herts and didn’t get in. On reflection I’m glad as I know someone who works for Herts and some of the shit they’ve had to deal with...

Now I work for an organisation that’s related to the Police but isn’t an actual force. I am an office noddy, I don’t have to deal with anything “real” and the recent outcry over the George Floyd killing in the US touched every one of us and has created real distrust and division between all public agencies and the Police; the Met in particular.

If you are in London I’d advise against. If you are outside London to echo a PP I’d advise control room or being a Special. Do not be under the impression either that rural policing is all stolen tractors and lost cows; there are serious issues to do with organised crime and county lines shit that’s infecting the rural areas at a rate of knots.

I completely understand your motivations, I honestly do, and when I applied to be a Special I’d had some bad shit happen to me I thought would make me resilient enough to deal with some of the nasty stuff, but I know that’s not the case.

There are a multitude of agencies related to the Police and Ambulance Trusts you could liaise with if the desire to make a difference burns bright. Ironically I’d say that you are more likely to effect change if you do not work for one of the Services directly than if you did.

That’s just my tuppence worth, and whilst I’m here, all respect to the serving officers on this thread. It’s been an absolute nightmare time of late to be a copper and I cannot imagine how hard your job must be to know you’ve got zero support from the public, the government, and the arms length bodies that are related to you.

Ps I meant to say re George Floyd, if the upset over his death and the ripple effect can affect the even the “back office” staff (me)- feelings of hopelessness, upset at seeing your colleagues upset, questioning why on Earth you contribute to any element of police work at all as it all seems so fucked that gives you an insight into how intense things are right now.

@ Newbiehere123

No problem - please consider I have over 20 years service and am jaded and I’m in London. I have no experience of other forces and I don’t claim my experience is the same for everyone. I’ve been a Detective for 15 years although I haven’t been operational for a few years.( I’ve been a trainer) I don’t particularly think the Detective role is bad I’m just doubtful about direct entry. I know someone who trains the Direct entry people though and he says he has some good people who are very keen ( they’re planning on doing a couple of years before moving on). I’ve worked in the “ Main Office” which is general crime investigation like assaults and arsons. I’ve also done Robbery and Burglary unit, Domestic Violence and Child Protection. Once you’ve moved off a borough into Specialist Crime you can often bounce around to other specialist crime units and you tend to be better resourced and potentially more interesting work. Borough investigation is tough - high workload and a pressure to “ detect” crimes or get rid of them. If your unit has a prisoner you can’t leave because you’re on the school run you’re stuck until a decision is made ( charged or bailed etc) so it’s not very compatible with a young family. You can have control over how you run your investigations but there’s a lot of repetition - taking statements, checking CCTV, searching, packaging exhibits, going to the lab, interviewing suspects. Etc. You can be required to be in at 05.00am for early arrest enquiries which can be hairy. You might get to travel abroad occasionally ( rarely). I’ve been as far as Carlisle. 😃 There are quite a few courses if you like that sort of thing. It’s a good job if you’re nosey, you like filling out forms and you don’t like your family.

I would agree with a lot of what @Divebar says. I have a few friends who moved from the met to county forces and came in for quite a shock at being single crewed trying to deal with violence while miles from any backup. At least in the met you've always got colleagues literally minutes away. I'd also say that there are decent options for part time working after you have children, especially if you work in CID. It's not all bad!

@Newbiehere123 I know you didn't ask me, but I'm also not super keen on the idea of direct entry DCs. It really really helps to have the understanding that you can only get from spending a bit of time on response team dealing directly with victims/suspects/crime scenes then and there. That's not to slag off all direct entry DCs of course, some are very good (particularly if they've joined from related professions like the probation service) but I don't think it's ideal. I'm also not convinced that they always get the support they need while learning. I personally only spent just over 2 years in uniform which is probably too little tbh but I was a bit older when I joined and wanted to get a move on...

@Nicknacky

EndFendMend Police Scotland will only send out single crewed officers where is simply odd numbers on shift. If nothing else, we don’t have the cars to send out single crewed officers routinely! And corroboration is required in Scotland which requires double crews.

Ah okay thank you for clarifying. Double crew for corroboration makes sense. I was just going by stories I’ve heard from BIL but perhaps those were unusual circumstances. Either way I don’t think there is as much back up to support quickly as the public might assume. Especially outside the bigger cities (glasgow edin up here) even the bigger towns don’t actually have that many officers and the more rural the further you are from back up.

Our squad has recently dealt with an assault on officers that occurred at the very furthest point of our area. Officers from the neighbouring force did attend to assist but were 40 minutes away, our closest was 25. All the while my colleague was on the radio listening to the officers begging for help and knowing there was nothing we could do.

That's one of the realities of rural policing

I’ve been that officer in a village at the far side of the division. It was 30 mins or so before back up got to us while we were getting set upon by (thankfully) just one guy who was smashing the van up and setting his dog on us.

Rural policing is great though. You really learn how to talk to people as you know you don’t have the luxury of back up and that if you do need to jail someone then there is no policing cover while you are driving the prisoner 20 miles to the nearest office and processing.

I have to say I agree that direct entry to CID is problematic. I'm in CID after 5 years in uniform. Honestly cutting my teeth on low level investigations was essential. The whole point of CID is to investigate serious and complex crime. This requires a certain level of knowledge and experience which you can only get by doing the job. As good as the training may or may not be, they cannot prepare your for the intricacies of third party material, the lengthy complex unused schedules and all the threads you need to pick up and manage whilst drowning in all your other equally serious and complex cases. Serving time in uniform allows you to learn with low level cases like basic thefts and shop lifting with support from your colleagues and hopefully the sergeant. As a detective whilst you still get that support you are expected to be able to hold your own.

I see it with civilian investigators too. We have some that are ex job who are brilliant but some come in from civvie street. How can you take a statement if you don't have a basic understanding of legislation and PACE? How can you honestly build a good case if you've never seen the process from the beginning. It's not to say you can't learn it but without stepping into the house where the crime started and meeting those people right at the moment of distress I think you lose a lot of the picture. If you don't understand the pressure the uniform officers are under to make quick decisions then it's easy to judge them harshly if things aren't to your standards. In other words, to have walked a mile in their shoes first will always make you a better Detective. At least to my mind.

If we have an odd number on shift we tend to send them out 3 up rather than a single crewed unit