following today's news...to say police should not be allowed to arrest women when operating solo

[RBKB]

Just that.... what tragic and terrifying news regarding Sarah Everard's murder. I am so angry as I gather the force minimised earlier reports of sexually deviant behaviour by this appalling man.

I asked my husband about the working in pairs. He's a retired police officer and worked at the Home Office for the CHMI for a couple of years. Might be different now but he said in his day the Met had a policy of officers working in pairs, he didn't know any other forces who did. He worked from the 60s to the 90s.

Might explain why some people think it is normal for police officers to work in pairs and other don't, might just be geography.

@Cuddlyrottweiler

Police should operate in male-female teams. No officer should be able to act alone. It's not safe for them either actually. The problem is that the police behaviour is so unsavoury that the job has become unsavoury. Teenagers are growing up being taught to hate the police, why would they want to join? So we don't have enough decent officers. Our local police force has been in the news for allowing teenagers to be trafficked and raped. The same force has ran several operations taking valuable time targeting teenagers with electric scooters and them sideways scooters without handle bars (hoverboards?) Could we get our priorities straight? It just hits as bullying those without power rather than actually taking down criminals that ruin people's lives.

People have died from collisions with electric scooters, it isn't long ago that a 3 year old sustained life changing injuries from being hit by an electric scooter.

I think it is hard sometimes to work out priorities but I guess if the officers who attended the accident with the little girl sees kids messing about on scooters they might feel it needs dealing with.

Of course that doesn't mean they shouldn't deal with other things eg. sexual/violent attacks.

@EmeraldShamrock

officers are usually single crewed once signed off for independent patrol. Isn't this dangerous for the police officer? I'm really surprised I binge watch 999 what's your emergency and didn't see any single patrol officers. That's scary for the officer.

My husband joined the police in the 60s, no radios, very few police cars. As a very enthusiastic 19 year old probationer allowed out on his own he wasn't afraid of anything, are any 19 year olds. So he's on nights and comes across 3 drunks fighting, he stops, breaks them up and arrests them. It suddenly occurs to him that making three drunks accompany him to the station might be tricky. I don't think he ever made that mistake again.

@Namechangeapologies

Why is it that police officers are allowed to arrest even when they are not on duty. But qualified nurses are not permitted to adminster (potentially life altering) medical assistance in (what they perceive is) an emergency situation.

Because - and please do correct me if I am wrong here (and i may well be) - there is no threshold in terms of seniority of rank in the police force where an off duty policeman can make an arrest. And there is no right under criminal law for the person being arrested to ask to see (at the point of arrest) evidence of the status of the policeman to make that arrest.

I might be making serious errors in the above assumptions (please correct me).

I hear that the Met police really struggle to recruit full stop. So anyone willing to do the job (suitable or not, criminal record or not, mental health issues or not etc etc) is likely to be considered sooner or later. And if they have required skills and do not evidence performance problems, are likely to be promoted/advanced quickly and without scrutiny.

I didn't know that about nurses. One of my kids was hit by a car on the way to school, two of the mothers on the same school run who were nurses stopped and gave first aid. Shouldn't they have done that? I was grateful to them but even more so if they were risking their registration to do it.

Actually thinking about it a year or two ago a nurse from our local hospital got an award for stopping when she saw an accident and saved someones life.

Why is it that police officers are allowed to arrest even when they are not on duty

You are never off duty as a police officer, it's a very unique position. Police officers are not employees, they hold the office of constable on behalf of the crown. They swear an oath to uphold the law. Indeed the first half hour of overtime is free "for the Queen". Officers are not subject to the same employment rights as others which is why they are not allowed to strike. Therefore while a police officer may be on their paid shift obo XYZ constabulary at whatever time, they are a police constable 24/7.
We have lots of officers calling in things off duty, particularly when driving home; most of them have a strong sense of public duty and cannot just leave things they know are wrong.
DH would never dream of not dealing with someone that committed an offence in front of him just because he is not on paid duty.

Well they’re banning plain clothes police from working alone at least, according to the commissioner/ news.
They must be reading this site.

@SopaDeThistle well I guess that's the most convoluted transphobic nonsense I've heard for quite some time. Well done you. You've really got to the heart of the issue there. Thanks for trying to protect us from the hoards of marauding, violent transgender criminals :/

Delighted to see the court was completely horrified by his chilling behaviour. Let's hope the police thoroughly examine the 'blind eye' they turned to his warning behaviours now....

Daphne

"You are never off duty as a police officer, it's a very unique position. Police officers are not employees, they hold the office of constable on behalf of the crown. They swear an oath to uphold the law"

Well this might be controversial but I think the above actually contributes to the problem and is outdated.
Putting it on this footing gives the job an aura of being a vocation or a calling, and for some, (not all granted) will feed into their inbuilt megalomaniac tendancies.

It is a really serious job which involves extremely wide ranging powers to limit individuals liberties.

I am not saying do not be passionate about your job. I am not objecting to policemen "calling in thing off duty".

I am calling into question the value of "They swear an oath to uphold the law"

It is not the 1960s any more.

The swearing the oath would be fine if it was combined with really rigorous and career long requirement to undertake an equivalent of CPD (this might already be the case I dont know) but more importantly a really rigorous and ongoing branch of the equivalent of human resources dpt for policemen to continuously monitor the mental health based on their performance and attitude to the job.

I think in some ways the public are grateful for what the police do and in no way can it be an easy job. But I do think the public want a level of professionalism from the police more than they want the "hero policeman" image. Saying you live for the job and it is your calling is not always impressive especially when that attitude gets warped into some kind of individual power trip.

@Siameasy

That’s not going to work. What if the woman is attacking someone, what if a woman needs detaining under the mental health act say she’s trying to jump under a train etc

That is what led to me being in a car alone with a lone male cop. I was on the side of a motorway. Should he have waited for backup?

Why is it that police officers are allowed to arrest even when they are not on duty.
But qualified nurses are not permitted to adminster (potentially life altering) medical assistance in (what they perceive is) an emergency situation

I am pretty sure that is wrong. qualified nurses have to assist if able (as in they are trained enough).

@Namechangeapologies

Daphne

"You are never off duty as a police officer, it's a very unique position. Police officers are not employees, they hold the office of constable on behalf of the crown. They swear an oath to uphold the law"

Well this might be controversial but I think the above actually contributes to the problem and is outdated.
Putting it on this footing gives the job an aura of being a vocation or a calling, and for some, (not all granted) will feed into their inbuilt megalomaniac tendancies.

It is a really serious job which involves extremely wide ranging powers to limit individuals liberties.

I am not saying do not be passionate about your job. I am not objecting to policemen "calling in thing off duty".

I am calling into question the value of "They swear an oath to uphold the law"

It is not the 1960s any more.

The swearing the oath would be fine if it was combined with really rigorous and career long requirement to undertake an equivalent of CPD (this might already be the case I dont know) but more importantly a really rigorous and ongoing branch of the equivalent of human resources dpt for policemen to continuously monitor the mental health based on their performance and attitude to the job.

I think in some ways the public are grateful for what the police do and in no way can it be an easy job. But I do think the public want a level of professionalism from the police more than they want the "hero policeman" image. Saying you live for the job and it is your calling is not always impressive especially when that attitude gets warped into some kind of individual power trip.

I think it is ingrained in many officers, or is it old school? I guess our police acquaintances are all retired now.

My husband is disabled and getting on a bit but at heart he's still a policeman. One night we had been out, meeting some of our grown up kids for a meal, kids rushed off. As we walked back to our car, slow even then not really possible now, we saw a young police officer, I know they all look young to us but there was something about him that looked fresh out of the box. He was on the radio, asking for back up I think, a group of young men were taunting him and there was nothing he could do on his own and to be honest he looked scared. My husband drew himself up straight walked over leaning on his walking stick and stood beside him and said, "You're not on your own." We waited till a police car came.

God knows what my husband would have been able to do, maybe club someone with his walking stick. But there he was disabled, had trouble walking, had been retired for years but he couldn't walk on by.

The poor young bobby probably thought DH was a nutter and he'd now got someone to look after. I hope he realised someone wanted to support him.

That is what led to me being in a car alone with a lone male cop. I was on the side of a motorway. Should he have waited for backup?

What led to this situation, what’s the context?

They shouldn’t be put on solo patrol - it appears most officers don’t want to be, it’s their chiefs who think it’s a great idea.

@Siameasy

That is what led to me being in a car alone with a lone male cop. I was on the side of a motorway. Should he have waited for backup?

What led to this situation, what’s the context?

They shouldn’t be put on solo patrol - it appears most officers don’t want to be, it’s their chiefs who think it’s a great idea.

He was a traffic cop. I was in a mental health crisis.

Even now, if I am out walking and see a cop car go past, I do notice that most have been alone.

Xeno - The OP appears to think your solo traffic cop shouldn’t have been allowed to detain you. Some posters here appear to have scant idea of the types of things officers come across suddenly let alone get called to. I don’t think they have a clue that much of what the police deal with now is MH - not crime.

If women can't be arrested by solo police officers, then the same should be applied to men, or whatever a person identifies as.

Equal rights swings both ways, and rightly so

@XenoBitch So was the police officer keeping you safe? I think if you were having a MH crisis then he did the right thing to keep you safe. Sorry if I've misunderstood and I hope you are OK.