The 'looking after our own ' is actually nothing like as prevalent as you think . The vast majority of misconduct is actually reported to the directorate of professional standards by police officers themselves . I've done it , and I know plenty of others who have too . These days , even doing nothing to challenge misconduct type behaviour , can get officers sacked , even if they themselves have done nothing wrong . Two of my old team members got sacked this year for failing to challenge behaviour .
The McPherson report largely got implemented. So has Winsor part 1 and 2 . The IPCC is what it says , independent .
Out of interest , do you think that other critical professions should be publicly held to account , or is it only the police ? Why do you not have confidence that things may not change ? Why do you think that you have no power to change things ? Obviously not only you , but do you not think you could have a part to play , no matter how small ? If you want things to change, then surely we all have a part to play ?
When I joined in 1994 , the police service was a very very different animal then , to what it is now . Domestic violence wasn't treated with half the attention it is now . Safeguarding measures were virtually unheard of . Multi agency risk assessment partnerships ? Forget it . Female police officers were described as 'plonks ' . (Person of little or no knowledge ) A lot of things simply didn't get recorded . These days , everything but everything is audited . We're governed by the national crime recording standards , national incident classifications , home office counting rules , standard operating procedures for every single call from missing persons , to murders. All phone calls are recorded , all radio transmissions likewise . Our police cars carry black boxes with over 200 sensors to audit every driver's manner of driving should it be so required . Our personal driving licences get endorsed if we commit road traffic offences in a job car. We invite Amnesty International into our public order operations room to view our actions in recent public order events .We are getting there . But none of that makes news , as good news never does . Bad news is so much more headline grabbing .
Do you not see that possibly neither your view point , nor mine is completely true ? We are both governed , as you say , by what you experience . I experience people who on a daily basis scream at me , threaten me , follow me home from work , and wish death on my children . That's when they're not actively trying to assault me , and inflict further injuries than the ones I've already had . I've had the contents of people's colostomy bags thrown at me . All of the above has also happened to my colleagues, and yes , when the shit hits the fan and we have to fight , then yes , of course we look after each other . But active wrongdoing should never be condoned , and these days , it largely isn't .