There are so few police!

[graffitiwall]

Just watched some videos of the riots on at the moment - really struck by how there is literally just a thin line of police against a mass mob of adrenaline fuelled men looking for aggro.

It must be terrifying for them!

Just want to give a big up to the police women and men at this time trying to hold that line.

Totally agree

Another round of thanks to all the police working to keep these areas safe over the past difficult days.

Your hard work is appreciated.

Looking at the Rotherham footage, I'm struck by the fact that some people have taken their children! How frightening for them to hear the shouting, see fires set and police in riot gear.

Police have been massively culled.

@Pannyfrants I just flicked through that. Its awful! Makes you think the police could do with the army as back up!

I guess because it could turn extremely violent very easily. Those men were actively seeking a confrontation. And there aren't enough police to deal with it if it did all kick off. And if the police are forced to retreat, there is nothing holding back those men from getting to the people in the hotel.

There have never been enough police if enough people decide to disregard the law at once. I think some people don't realise how quickly things can get out of hand. But yes, police numbers have also been reduced, and it shows.

I have nothing but deep respect for the Police. They have their bad eggs but every employer does. You've got to be a certain mindset to stand down a crowd like that for £28k a year. Don't forget they legally can't strike for pay and condition improvements either.

There are actually very very few protestors, just a couple of hundred circulating around the country trying to look big

They get really rubbish holidays too. I applied for a back office job in the police but pulled out as the holidays were much worse than anywhere else I'd applied to in the public sector, and when I looked at the hols for actual police officers it was even worse! it was only 22 days a year! I get 30 days as my starting annual leave in my job, and I can take 12 days flexi. And PH on top of that.

@Pannyfrants Thank you for sharing that- you’re right it’s a brilliant piece of journalism. It’s really upsetting to watch though- I might have to watch it in installments.

I’m someone who has become very mistrusting of the police in recent years thanks to the misogynists in the force, but I have huge respect for the officers in this film (and the many others like them across the country). They put themselves at great risk to protect the public.

I felt for the older officer right at the start of the film having all that abuse shouted in his face. I simply would not have the self control
not to answer back (one of the many reasons I’m unsuited to a career in the police).

The shouts of ‘Save our children!’ had me wondering how many of those violent men are decent fathers to their children. How many are engaged in seeing their children regularly? Paying fairly towards their care? Trying to be a good role model? I’d bet quite a proportion of those men are utterly shit fathers to their kids, and as such if they want their kids ‘saved’, they need to start with themselves.

Based on dirty figures you have a ratio of 1 officer to every 399.6 people in England and Wales.

Taken from 2023 police figures of 149,164 officers v 2021 Census - 59.6million people in E&W.

Now consider that many police work shifts. Usually the 6 on 4 off monstrosity when in a uniform role. For the purposes of this calculation, we'll assume everyone works that pattern including detectives, management etc and ignore all the training days / court days /annual leave / maternity / sickness and any other abstractions that keep people off the front line day to day!

That requires a rota of 5 teams on rolling shifts of 2 days, 2 lates, 2 nights, 4 off.

That means a MAX of 29,832 on duty at any time across E&W.

The ratio now drops to 1 officer to every 1998 people.

The reality is much worse.

I've worked weekend and bank holiday nights in a city of 200,000 people as the sole detective constable available for the city and the surrounding 50mile radius.

Meanwhile, colleagues on response have had just 12 of them for the same area. No neighbourhood teams, traffic off being just as busy elsewhere in the county, one dog for the whole county, and no magical boxes of uniformed officers to bring out in the event of major trouble. There's a magical box of detectives for Major Crime like murder (worked that too).

Right now, every specialist department will be back filling for all the riot trained teams now being sent all over the country. And at some point they all need sleep, food, drink and the ability to pee!

That means fewer and fewer people to attend domestic abuse calls, rapes, burglaries, pub fights, thefts, RTCs - the daily calls.

Civilian support staff are also working overtime, especially control rooms, investigation and intelligence teams.

Not yet. Martial law is one hell of a thing to look for....

Military police, MOD police could be useful for back up in areas like van driving, prisoner processing or replacing firearms units in areas of regular patrol so the officers can be deployed elsewhere but not on the frontline. Hopefully it'll never be needed.

We managed it in 2011....

You have no idea how few there really are .

To wear riot gear , means officers must be what we call at least Level 2 public order trained . It’s actually a voluntary skill . I did it when I was younger in service but it’s an absolutely thankless task . There’s nowhere near enough of you , practically every weekend off gets cancelled to go to a football match or a protest , and everything you do ends up on social media being slated by everyone as being simultaneously oppressive and heavy handed, yet also ineffective and weak. You hear ‘two tier , two tier ‘ squawked at you endlessly and get called the governments thugs, when bluntly , no one gives a fuck about what the government want , and would rather be at home asleep. And 90per cent of those officers out there are the same ones that answer your 999 calls and deal with your crimes . So while they’re out there having to deal with these fuckwits who care nothing about the state of the country despite them chanting “Engerland , this is my Engerland’ , all the decent population’s calls are being dealt with by a handful of officers , and any investigation of already reported calls for things like beat crimes , will have to wait .

My son is an officer who does this now - despite all his parents warnings , he decided he wanted to follow in our footsteps and is now an officer in a northern force . Yesterday he got hit with a load of bricks and has the bruises to show for it . He’s back there now , back in kit , doing it again , and has just every day off cancelled for the next two weeks , just because some hypocritical bunch of thugs have decided to protest about communities being taken over by incomers , by travelling miles to someone else’s community to destroy it and cost ‘decent British taxpayers’ a fortune to mend it . Utter utter clowns .

@plominoagain Respect to your son.

The police have done a hugely impressive job over the last week, their professionalism, and bravery is amazing.

It’s almost as if they’ve been massively underfunded for the last 14 years.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

@Waitingfordoggo well we know brick to groin man is allegedly a dad of two and is allegedly violent at home.

Op I agree, who would want to be in the police after this? It's crazy?!! They look so vulnerable.

More like no one wants to join the police anymore, and many more are quitting in their droves!

Absolutely right

A few years back I was a special.

I remember one shift when the 6 other officers were on scene guard or light duties, and the two of us (in one care as I didn't have independent status) were the response police force, for 350 square miles, for the whole shift.

I feel so bad for all the officers now being shipped off around the country to cover the riots, and having rest days (days off) cancelled, while others backfill them also on cancelled rest days.

I also felt sorry for all the officers having to police endless weekend protest marches for the last few months, no doubt under the same conditions of having rest days cancelled.

Well spotted.

Some of us have been trying to point out the problems with this, and the appalling break down in respect for the profession, for quite some time.