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Original poster

The Modern Police Force <groan>

53 replies

GhoulsToo · 09/10/2006 10:18

I pity those boys in blue I really do, you have to be completely humourless these days.

A couple of dh's ex-colleagues came to visit for the weekend. One had been on a Disabled Discrimination Act course (they always have them when something new comes up).

They were asked what they would with this scenario ......

An officer arrives late for his early shift. Another officer says to the late comer 'was it backitis this morning?'

dh's mate said he wouldn't do/say anything. Apparently the correct procedure is to reprimand the wise cracker because the late person may have a genuine back problem!!!!

FGS!

OP posts:
southeastastralplain · 09/10/2006 13:34

i apologise i'm just thinking about the officer i know!

emmatom · 09/10/2006 13:50

My husband had to peel away the mangled, bent remains of a pregnant mum from the underside of a boy racers car last week.

Oh and that was after trying to comfort her dying 9 year old son who'd also been knocked by the same car.

All in a days work for a Police officer though.

Straying off the OPs point I suppose but hoping in a vague way to remind some people what daily life is like sometimes in the force.

Original poster
GhoulsToo · 09/10/2006 13:53

yes emmatom, then he had to get quickly changed and go and see his lover.

OP posts:
southeastastralplain · 09/10/2006 13:58

i said sorry and i know what officers have to deal with without it being spelt out

emmatom · 09/10/2006 14:00

Ghoulstoo - I don't know how you cope with a son in the job I really dont. I was serving for many years and had a few close calls, but being childless then I loved the "thrill of the chase" and thought nothing of it.

My husband got stabbed a few years back which shook us up a bit and I retired when I had my children.

It's bad enough waving my husband off, I don't think I could my son. How do you cope? Not think about it?

DominiConnor · 09/10/2006 14:01

I sort of, kind of, nearly sympathise a bit with the management here, a little.
Police "canteen culture" is horribly broken. Racism is rife, as is bullying, and any process by which Sir Ian Blair got to any position of responsibility is not defect free.

You have these sort of petty rules when you don't trust people to know what the right thing is and do it.
Recall how the police whinged at PACE would stop them getting any convictions ever again, rather than it's more prosaic aim of stopping them beating confessions out of suspects, or fabricating evidence quite so flagrantly.

But what's been done doesn't seem that great either.

Gobbledispook · 09/10/2006 14:01

God emmatom

Gobbledispook · 09/10/2006 14:02

Some of the stories my brother tells me - yikes - I don't know how they do it either. Not a job I'd like to do.

emmatom · 09/10/2006 14:10

Gobbeldispook - 'They' (and I) do (did) it because they have a genuine desire to help people. Corny as that may sound.

And the majority of officers are the decent, honest kind that do just that.

Unfortunatley, as in any walk of life, a small and it is very small these days, minority, abuse the privilege and tar the rest with a very nasty brush.

Blu · 09/10/2006 14:14

Which is exactly why I didn't say anything rude about the police - at the basis of my being PC is the belief that as individuals people deserve respect not ridicule...and emphasised that I think they have a bloody awful job to do.

But that doesn't make them exempt from anything, does it?

ginmummy · 09/10/2006 14:16

I'm not trying to demean the job that they do - police officers have to put up with a lot in their job that the rest of us takes for granted would never happen to us, e.g. threats and acts of physical violence including threats against their families and loved ones, verbal assaults, physical assaults and contempt from a minority of unappreciative public etc, as well as recovering mangled bodies from car wrecks and breaking the devastating news that someone's husband has thrown himself onto the underground line, but it just seemed to me that in the office I worked in there was a lot of extra curricular activity that wasn't pleasant to work amongst. Before you say it's none of my business I will be the first to say as much, but when x is trying to sleep with y's husband on a drunken night out, and a had an affair with b's wife and now b wants to block a's promotion, and g has just ended an affair with h from upstairs and now she's gone off sick and has been admitted to the mental health ward of the local hospital it makes for a very unpleasant working atmosphere that wouldn't be tolerated a lot of other offices. I think the phrase is 'don't dip your nib in the office ink'.

For what it's worth I truly apologise if I have offended you. These are just my experiences of working in the police service.

Gobbledispook · 09/10/2006 14:18

But that could be going on in any offices up and down the country - nothing to do with what job they are in.

emmatom · 09/10/2006 14:19

No of course not Blu.

It's my fault, as I said,
for going off the OPs point.

I'm withdrawing from any argument that may ensue about PC.

I just wanted to remind some people of what a day at the office can be to some people.

ginmummy · 09/10/2006 14:24

It could, but there are some offices where it's a dismissable offence to have inter-office relationships. That's not to say it doesn't still happen, it's more that the destructive nature of when these relationships go wrong is recognised and frowned upon by industry.

Blu · 09/10/2006 14:27

Emmatom - Sorry - my post was to Ghouls very valid point about it apparantly being ok to insult the police as human beings.

I think you are exactly right about the 'few bad apples' thing - and it's important that thier 'vibe' doesn't define the environment - or any working environment.

FAB policeman in my NCT group. We were practising the way birth partners could hold you up, and DP and my other birth partner kept dropping me - so in comes Sgt Fred to demonstrate, and the teacher was waxing lyrical 'you see, it can be done, perfect...' without seeming to realise that Sgt Fred was highly unlikely to be with me at the event in question.

mummydear · 09/10/2006 16:57

DominiConnor- Really have to diagree that racism and bullying is rife. There may be some racism but it is not rife and is being delat with.

Spent nearly 18 yrs in the force the last 10 as a Sergeant have never seen a case of bullying.

Regarding PACE that was 20 years ago...lets move on a bit shall we , many officers serviing today were just in nappies then ...

Totally that at times it is a shite job , have had some happy memores and ones that still bring a lump to my throat ... the latter is why we have a 'weird' sense of humour and a sense of hunmour failure on other matters.

DominiConnor · 09/10/2006 17:28

If you don't think racism is rife in the police, I suggest you get a black friend with a nice car to drive you through London for a while.
I have never not once been stopped by the Police, except when driven by a black person.

Yes, it is being dealt with, by rules like we see elsehwere in this thread. These are not ones you impose upon well behaved staff.

Blu · 09/10/2006 17:31

Hmmm. I would have to agree with the driving-in-a-car-with-a black-male experience. Pulled over all the time, just to check...

mummydear · 09/10/2006 17:37

As I said there is racism in the police but it is not rife.

Works both ways , I've been on duty with a black police officer, member of public refused to speak to him. So does that mean that all members of the public are racist ?

majhority of police officers are well behaved , unfortunately due to the 'bad' ones and because the police are so accountable we have these'rules' which is not a bad thing.

Comments like 'racism is rife' does not help the issue

DominiConnor · 09/10/2006 21:07

I agree that Police are drawn from a society which includes racists. But that does not excuse institutional racism, a term used by the police about themselves.
My "favourite" bit of police racism was from an acquaintance who is thr far side of racist. He was on jury service for a black woman accused of mid level crimes. From his own words "you could tell she was guilty of something, just by looking at her".
Yet so blatantly was this a fit up of a black woman, that he felt compelled to help get her acquitted.
He acknowledged that she probably was guilty, but was outraged that the police had lied so flagrantly. Given that this bloke reckons we should protect our borders by a shoot-to-kill policy, it takes a a lot to outrage him.

mummydear · 10/10/2006 19:18

' Institutional Racism ' was used in 1999 in the McPherson report and labelled the police as such. It was difficult for police leaders accept this label but they did.

Let?s not forget that McPherson said that IR was not unique to the police . Something people tend conviently to forget. The Church of England admitted that it was Institutional Racist for example.

However I think you find that even though the label for the police was a bitter pill to swallow, the Police are the one organisation that has done the most to tackle it.

Since publication of the 1999 report , the Met police set up Diversity Strategy, created Racial = Violent crime Task Force and every borough has a Community Safety unit which deals with Race/Hate crime and domestic Violence, training for every officer in diversity etc . Other police forces throughout the country have followed this

These Community safety Units investigate every crime that is reported to them, a racial/hate crime is an incident that is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person. So this has opened up the flood gates for some not so genuine hate/race crimes to be investigated. For example, Asian / Black shop keeper plagued by youths only has to say that the youths have racial slant to it and police will investigate etc. White shop keeper plagued by youth doesn?t say anything about race and nothing is done. Therefore the division between the races/ communities could be argued is becoming divided. Often I have heard members of public saying if I was Black/Asian then you would do something about it, so is race relations going to really improve in this country ?

Institutional racism is about people stereotyping and basically it shouldn?t be done. By saying racism is rife in police service you are sterotyping every police officer which I find offensive ? but hey what can I do about it ?

People need to move on and the more people go on about police service being Institutional Racist then the label will never be removed no matter what the police do to tackle it.

emmatom · 10/10/2006 19:44

Glad you've got the patience to explain it so eloquently mummydear.

It's like banging your head against a brick wall sometimes isn't it.

mummydear · 10/10/2006 19:52

Sure is Emmaton !

DominiConnor · 11/10/2006 11:18

It would be nice if the statistics showed something that resembled success, wouldn't it ?
A black man is still vastly more ikely to be stopped than a white, indeed an Afro-Caribbean is more likely to have prevention of terrorism used against him than someone of Asian origin.

I rather think that the people who talk of heads against walls need to get in a car with a black person today and stop talking such bollocks.

Original poster
GhoulsToo · 11/10/2006 11:30

and I think people who keep banging the same old drum need to get inside a police uniform and go on the beat for the day and have your eyes opened and where you won't be able to use such colourful language when dealing with people.

OP posts: