Help me . Focus group for police

[stillvicarinatutu]

Ok - I've asked to be part of a focus group as I'm a police officer and they are asking for participation.

I would like as a female pc to raise some of the issues I've seen here .

However- complete technophobe . The session is by some online fuckery next weds and I'm clueless ! Can anyone help ? They've said I can defer it and I will because I don't know how this online thing works . The group admin is in London and I'm ooop north .

You access online calls by a link to the call, be it google meet , teams etc. presumably you haven’t confirmed attendance to get this link? Id go back to them and check that. Ask what platform the call will be on as well.
The invitation email should also have telephone numbers to dial into the call by phone if that suits instead. Sometimes the dial in options are provided in the joining process eg click link, get open zoom, get an option box to join online or to dial in and if you click dial In you get the number (not a zoom specific example just roughly how it can work) I hope that helps!

I did it ! Just taken part for an hour for the college of policing and raised the issues . Funnily enough the biggest advocate against being politicised was an old sweat on the tasking team who was so so sick of "woke" policing he got very ranty
Let's see if anyone listens .

🍾Thank you, will you get feedback? Were there any alternative views?

@stillvicarinatutu - Thank you so much for reaching out and speaking up!

What sort of views were expressed in the meeting? Was there a consensus or a wide variation in attitudes? One of my concerns was Surrey(?) police saying they would no longer record crimes by sex but by the preferred gender. Apart from the stupidity of referring to accused in court as 'she' and the possibility of female prison, it completely ruins the crime statistics as being in any way truthful.

No feedback but no alternative views . Wide variety of topics discussed but when asked about challenges of the job I brought up the cases mentioned here , that we are being politicised, are being made to look like a laughing stock due to "woke" thinking and are being seen as thought police and now this is causing a massive PR issue for all forces even ours who have not undertaken stonewall training. The Macarena was brought up . Trans rights were brought up by the old sweat detective who had a proper rant including lots of swearing and I mentioned about being viewed at thought police due to pcso doorstepping women for having a feminist sticker when people are sat waiting for 4 days for someone to come out to their burglary. All in all it was a very cathartic hour . We discussed the. Quality of new recruits, age , sex, discrimination, everything. It's been recorded and will be fed back to college of policing . We all said the same thing actually and there were 2 women and 4 men .

This was a focus group of cops with over 10 years in the job - all of us said the same . The men and the women .
I have long thought that for every one "woke" cop there are a host of others just like me ....if that gives any comfort at all .

Well done

Well done for being brave!

Thank you for stepping up and speaking up.

Thank you for doing this. It's heartening to know you weren't alone in this.

Did you mention the lack of response to bad media and accusations as in post above?

We all did . I mentioned specifically these instances and we all said that the bad press is really hurtful- everyone on this group was absolutely passionate about doing their best - we had one guy from the high risk domestic abuse team , another from a tasking team who had last month wrestled a guy with a hand gun to the ground , I actually said that the way policing is being perceived to be woke is a massive PR disaster and we all mentioned pride and that bloody Macarena. ! I think we all felt letdown and that we never ever hear any positivity. We were ll very critical of the upper echelons and how completely out of touch they are .
I think it was really beneficial. I got a lot of my chest and I think the others did too.

Sadly before the session I hadn't seen that about Surrey police - else I would have mentioned it as a further example of madness . But we all had enough examples actually and the interviewer had to move us on because we all had a lot to say !

My thanks to you and your colleagues @stillvicarinatutu let's hope they are listening and that they hear the same from other Forces.

vestofabsurdity this focus group request seemed to just come at the right time - being on the FWR board was an education. It's made me realise that my reality isn't everyone else's - it's so easy to get complacent. I'm glad I stayed even if it was a bit of a 🔥🔥🔥 to begin with !

This. I know a teenage rape victim who was told on the phone by police not to wash off the rapist’s semen until the next day because the police didn’t have time to see her before then. Yet they have time to arrest Caroline Farrow over a tweet that probably wasn’t even illegal, and hound the many other women who have tried to exercise legal freedoms of speech, including that disabled lady who they arrested for having legal stickers, interrogated for hours then kicked out onto the street in the middle of the night to travel home defenceless on a mobility scooter.

The police have allowed themselves to be politicised.

I used to trust the police, but now I see them as obsessed with representing men, particularly gay men, and covering up crimes by men against women (particularly domestic violence by police officers). They do not seem very interested in crime against women. JK Rowling has received so many death threats she could wallpaper her house with them. She’s complained to the police several times. How many men have been arrested over those threats, or for the intimidation re her home address? Zero.

Parsley

Did you read the thread ? I have brought those issues up today in the focus group.

I actually said we have pcsos doorstopping women for a feminist sticker while burglary victimS are waiting 4 days for someone to come out . It's recorded . I have put my neck in the line to raise these exact issues . All recorded and to be played back to college of policing.

The police have allowed themselves to be politicised

Exactly what I said .

Yet it's not "the police" it's the higher echelons. All 6 of us in that focus group today said the same things . We all have 10+ years in this job - it's not us - !

There's no need to be horrible to her. She's a working police officer who is gender critical and she wants to know if we can make suggestions as to what she can say.

It's ok onthebrink I did the focus group today and I raised as much as I possibly could .

I didn't mean "you women " as an insult - I really really went into bat today and I was absolutely so pleasantly surprised when every single one of the colleagues on the group agreed with me - 4 men and 2 women . All agreed . We all raised the "woke" idiocy, the thought police , the political agenda and that we should not be politicised yet we are being .

I am not your enemy - I really aren't . I'm a 50 year old woman being educated on what's happening in other forces and I raised all these issues today . Everyone on the group was in total agreement. I find that heartening.

She's also been a MNer for bloody years! Well done vicar!

Hey don't thank me - I had no bloody idea this was actually happening to women across the country because I hadn't personally seen it . But I am a bit of a mouth and I do say no - not doing that - not an offence .

I told them today I've been banned from call handling- and it's true - I have - because I won't say yes sir ,no sir, course sir - or Madame - I've been told I'm not suitable because I won't tell people what they want to hear - I thought that was actually part of my remit as I now work in the control room but the ideology is absolutely screwy- even if there isn't a bona fide criminal offence to investigate the call handlers are obliged to create an incident - this does us 2 disservices - one - the caller had an expectation that because they've got that far they must be right
2 the newer in service officers who don't know how to say "no" go through ridiculous motions such as arrest women for stickers in a window .

I promise you I absolutely did not pull any punches in my criticism of how the police are being used politically and that we are being made a laughing stock of .
It absolutely discredits every hard working dedicated officer I know . And my god today - all 6 of us - all have years in the job and we didn't hold back .

I'm expecting the p45 in the post !

And yeah I'm institutionalised! Been here since well before the job - think I'm married to MN !