Policemen and Women Online part II

Starting a new thread to avoid complete derail

Originally Posted by Red Herring

OK, first things first. Ralph, I'm sorry for having a pop at you but when you post things like this...

"Don't tell me the police don't have enough evidence. Can't be bothered more like!"

and

"Sorry policemen and women on here, but I'm seriously starting to view your profession with some disdain."

and

"I'm going to court for the school crossing patrol incident and people are getting away with accidents like this, quite likely whilst drunk driving? WTF is going on in this country?!?!"

and

"The police need to do their job and investigate something for a change!"

.....then even coppers as thick skinned as me are going to lose some patience with you. I do appreciate these are stressful times for you, and I've been one of your biggest supporters over the crossing patrol incident, but you can't go launching off like that when you know so little about the incident or what has been done. As for the incident involving your cousin there is no way someone gets 9 points and £500 fine for a 2mph incident in a car park that doesn't cause any damage. That may be what he told you, but I'd bet you a months wages that's not what happened.

Yeah, I know, I apologise. I'm being flippant and generalising today 'cos I'm on a downer about it.

I have always been a supporter of the police and I know guys like you and Bluepete and MBK and are good hard working professional people with integrity, but I am honestly starting to wonder if my past faith in the police and "things coming good" in society in general has been a bit misguided? Whether you guys are in the minority not the majority? I work in IT services and as a profession we also take a lot of stick, but I have to admit a lot of it is warranted, guys who actually give a damn about the customer on IT helpdesks are few and far between. When was the last time BT phoned you back when they said they would?

In addition to the lack of evidence gathering that has gone on in my case, I learned last week that nobody with any decision making authority within the CPS has reviewed my case. It's unlikely to be looked at in detail until the morning of the case, by the senior prosecutor running it on the day, who my solicitor reckons may decide to drop it through lack of evidence or no case to answer. By that point I've been through a year of worry and my wife and I are standing there suited and booted waiting to go into the dock. Is that what I pay my taxes for? Was that necessary? I told my solicitor what RH said about the police having a hard time explaining why they hadn't interviewed me and his response was "nah, magistrates laying into Police doesn't happen so much anymore, they are so used to ill prepared cases being put in front of them, they have given up."

Then you hear stuff like this http://www.wearechangeuk.co.uk/news/...wing-nose.html

In my cousins case the only thing I don't know for myself are fact are that I didn't see the other car and I've seen no proof of how big his fine was, but I remember him having to go to the court house every week to pay it, and there was definitely no damage to his car. He had 9 points with an AC offence code on his license?

I got a warning letter a few years ago from the procurator fiscal after drinking a bottle of beer whilst walking down the street in Bellshill, Scotland. There was a local bylaw prohibiting that of which we were completely unaware as we lived in Edinburgh, where it's not illegal and there are lots of bars where people spill out into the street. The police stopped and pulled over, as I approached the window, bent down and said hello, a police woman jumped out the passenger seat and literally barked "I'LL TAKE THAT!", to which I replied confused "What?", "the bottle of beer", "urrm, yeah OK then - why?". Four of us, two couples, all well dressed and about 30 years of age, quietly walking from a mates house to the pub, got reported and basically spoken to like ****! We were polite, compliant and gave them no hassle. They should have realised within two seconds there was no need to speak to us as they did. "Good evening folks, it's illegal to drink in the street, please can you tip your drinks away and put the bottles in that bin", would have been perfectly sufficient! As we got to the pub we watched the same two officers, park outside the pub and watch a group of teenagers, with beer bottles, having a fight outside the pub. When we got into the pub there was a massive queue for the toilets. Me and my mate waited in the queue until the guy in front says "Are you going for a ****?", "No, just a pee", "Well just go through mate, this queue is only for people who need a ****". Got into the toilets, urinals were empty and two guys were sitting in the toilet cubicles with a stream of customers going in and out. ****ed off 'cos we'd just been pulled and the coppers had ignored the fighting teenagers, he went back out to report it to the coppers. I can't remember exactly the conversation, but the jist of it was that they would do nothing about it, and when he offered to go back in, buy some, and bring it out to them as proof, they said fine, they still wouldn't do anything, but they'd arrest him for possession. We walked back disgusted and really feeling like the easy targets.

You watch Police Camera Action, chase a stolen car on a high speed persuit, all on video, which gets the guys face, through they blank it out for the TV, then at the end of the programme they run through each case and tell you what a pathetic punishment or caution they got, or that they couldn't convict due to lack of evidence!

You know I have the utmost respect for the police guys and girls on this forum, as people and for what they post about their profession and helping people, etc, and I shouldn't have posted what I posted, I was being bitter and twisted. But when a person who is generally law abiding, tries to lead a decent life, and their own personal experience with the police adds up to what you've read here, is it any surprise that person starts to loose faith in the police profession and the justice system as a whole?

Please reassure me that how I feel about it at the moment, is not how it really is...

[yorkie_chris]

You get a few ***** in any job. Seems you managing to find most of them

Younger end of coppers seem to attract more than the fair share of smarmy tossuers but put a young bloke in a uniform and that happens.

Ralph, totally agree, when i was a lad... I think it's just too much paper work nowadays.

[Red Herring]

Ralph, hope you feel better having got that off your chest. I'd love to say your wrong but you're not. The vast majority of bobbies on the beat and even those is some of the more specialized roles are just trying to do the best they can to catch and convict the bad guys, the problem is they are now spending so much time ticking boxes and filling in forms to show what they have done that they are actually struggling to find time to do anything...

I could spend hours romancing about the good old days and theorizing as to where we went wrong, but in short I think it's down to trust. There's a theory that if you trust someone to do something they feel trusted, and try not to betray that trust. Conversely if you remove that trust and responsibility there is little for an individual to measure up to. We hear that all the time these days, nobody wants to take responsibility for anything, it's always somebody else's fault, or it's down to the system. It's not right, it shouldn't be that way, and I never thought I'd say it but I'll be glad when I'm out of it. Don't get me wrong, I love my job and most of the time I like the public I do it for, but I'm really beginning to have a healthy disrespect for those that sit in their ivory towers playing politics with our lives. The problem is they've let the kids run the kindergarten for to long. Great for the kids whilst it lasted, but now they've grown up and realized they actually need to earn a living, but don't know how to. I honestly don't know where we go from here. I'm seeing these kids join the police force and they just don't understand the concept of personal responsibility. They can't make decisions and personally I'm none to happy that my future is in their hands. I'm not convinced the grass is any greener anywhere else but I'm sure going to take a look when I retire in a few years.

Ralph, I believe you're always going to find some rotten apples in the bunch. But the opposite is true too... I've worked with some excellent Estate Agents, Recruitment Agents, and Solicitors in the past - and what are the odds of that, eh?!

I was watching Road Wars a while back and I had to switch channels it was making me so angry. I couldn't believe that the Police had to jump through all the hoops and these young thugs got off with trivial sentences. I swear, if a kid spat at me I'd want to rip his head off - and these cops somehow managed to stay really calm.

I haven't read your previous posts but I do know that sometime good people just get 5crewed, either by circumstance, the system or both. It's happened to me, and it's really hard not to take it personally, but somehow you just have to step back, take a deep breath and swim with the tide.

[Shellywoozle]

Originally Posted by bluefishman

Ralph, totally agree, when i was a lad... I think it's just too much paper work nowadays.

Too much paperwork and not enough poldding. My boots are lasting longer and longer each pair I buy.

[Paul the 6th]

look around your work colleagues, there's always usually 10-20% of the people in there who are tossers... Same rules apply to the police unfortunately

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by Shellywoozle

Too much paperwork and not enough poldding. My boots are lasting longer and longer each pair I buy.

How many years before PC plod becomes known as PC biro or something?

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

I know guys like you and Bluepete and MBK and are good hard working professional people with integrity

Shell, I didn't mean to forget you in this list, or anybody else for that matter,
I just quoted the names that came to my head at the time. Sorry.

[Shellywoozle]

Originally Posted by yorkie_chris

How many years before PC plod becomes known as PC biro or something?

Well fortunatley writing statements is the only writing I do .... everything else is duplicated on the computer, fax, PDA.

I go to an incident, spend hours writing a statement, update the job on my PDA to save air time, then I duplicate all the info on a crime complaint package on the PDA, then I go in and do a report on the crime complaint I just completed, then I e-fax the statement and report to a dept elsewhere in the nick to get it put on my electronic work load, which I have to update immediately. Thats before I have investigated the bleeding thing.

Who invented technology again ??? (and who made stylus on the PDA and the keyboard so small)

And in down time when we duplicating stuff we get to drive around and look for criminals.

I love my job !!

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

Shell, I didn't mean to forget you in this list, or anybody else for that matter,
I just quoted the names that came to my head at the time. Sorry.

Tis OK xx he he