Yet Another Happy Customer

When it comes to victims, there are several types.

There is the "moaning victim" who always moans about the police response, and that we never do anything.
There is the "happy victim" who is more than happy with the service we provide them, and finally, there is the "couldnt give a toss" victim who call us, we arrive and take details, but then they dont want to take it any further.

Each of these has their own reasons for being how they are. Now the other night I had just left the nick after booking a prisoner in and spending 2 hours in custody when a call came in for the town centre on a grade one. As I was heading that way I took the call and made my way to town (not a grade one driver). Arrived at the location and awaited someone to present themselves to me as I had no clue who the caller was, and with large amounts of people around, this didnt help (it was very busy as pubs/clubs were kicking out)

So a lad comes to myself and my collegue and takes us to a shop doorway where a very upset girl is. She is about 20 years old I would say. She is with a couple of mates and is in tears. Her mates tell us that her ex boyfriend came and assaulted them all. My collegue takes details as I talk to the lass. She was in a state (emotionally - she didnt have any obvious injuries). She was going on and on how we dont give a shit and never do anything and that its happened before etc etc. I ask her where she lives and her two mates and how they are getting home. With people started to crowd around and her scared he will return we go and sit in the car, and I decide that its best to take them all home, the taxi ranks are very very busy and she was very very worried he would return and was in a right state. So we sat in the car and I drove off from the town centre out of sight of nosey members of the public wanting to know what is going on.

They are drunk so cant take a statement from them but told them what they should do in the morning as in give us a call.

You may be thinking what has this got to do with the original types? Well, when we first arrived she was adament that we wouldnt do anything to help, couldnt give a toss and are useless and would let him get to her again. In the space of 15 minutes I had managed to get rid of this view and show that we do care.

This is great as its things like this which will make members of the public's confidence in the police force improved, which ofcourse can only be a good thing!!

On a personal note, I also felt happier that I helped this lass in particular due to the state she was in and the two lads!

On a side note to the above incident, I also paid a visit to various people who have reported crimes on my sector in the past week as it shows we dont just take a statement and report and thats it! Also shows, to the shock of one of my readers, that I dont just "swan round in a marked car so lots of people will look at me and be impressed"

Ah well, another happy customer, and this time not sarcasm! I do care about what I do after all :)

Never any bobbies, Never any cars!

"Ah yes, another rant" you may be thinking! Well, this kind of is and isnt, but mainly is im afraid!
Went to the nick the other day with the intention of getting a car and going out on my own for a bit doing some jobs and talking to a few people, all is well until I get to the station, and there are no cars. So I go looking in other departments who have cars and none are available or there is nobody about! "Right ok then" I say to myself and go over to the people who "run the joint" and talk to the sgt there who tells me its handover soon, she will try and get me a car for later. Now this sgt is good and has got me some good cars before so yeah thats great, I will crew with a regular for a bit then come back. End up doing some shitty job taking enough statements to last me a lifetime! Have a few blue light runs which end up with no jobs at the end of them so great!

Go back to the nick and get hold of a car! Hoooraaaah!! Or not. Another sgt point to points me and TELLS me to give the keys to someone as they have no car. So me being a bit pissed off at this point do this, and look for a car myself (as these others apparently cant be arsed to as they are that keen!) Dont find any so go back out again with the regular.

Lets fast forward a few hours . . .

The officer that took my keys hasnt left to sodding station yet, there is a yard full, I shit you not, FULL of cars which have NOT moved in the past 8 hours! This really pissed me off, I was very keen to go out and do some jobs, and when I do I get shed loads of jobs done, why is today any different? What pisses me off about this?

Well, this sgt (the second one) I dont think likes specials at all, he doesnt know what I am capable of, what I do, that many other sgts let me get on and do things as they know I am more than capable of doing them, that I dont just turn up for the sodding village fetes, that I do whatever I am sent to, that some regular officers even ask me on some aspects of the law, that I do shed loads of hours, that I dedicate my self to doing the job when I am on duty (look at my head grow) so why can I not be trusted to take a car out for a few hours whilst this sgt is on??

So there is a yard full of cars but where are the bobbies? Well, the one that I had to give the car to was still sat in the office doing, well, bugger all to be honest, just seemed to be on the intranet, a few others were tied up with paperwork which would take them a few hours to finish off, another was in custody and was going to interview the suspect and a few other cars where the keys were nowhere to be found! Why did I have to give the keys up? Why cant people not be so selfish and give the car up if they are not going to use it? I can understand giving a car up to someone but if they are not going to bloody use it!!

So next time Joe Public moans that they never see any bobbies on the street, its probably because there are never any cars available in the same yard where a dozen are sat!!

The World Wide IdiotNet

I am a member of quite a few forums, police related and non police related, in particular a few car ones. Something that I have noticed on various forums is that on some, there are members who are anti police and like to boast about killing people and causing actual death (although last time I checked, no actual death was caused and its just some twat, more than likely with a shell suit thinking he is 'ard when in fact he is probably some nerd, but thats not the point)

There is one forum which I am not a member of, although enjoy a good read on occasionally (one of my friends posts on there) which does make me laugh sometimes, but I shall not name it sadly. There was a thread a while back which was brought to my attention by a friend which was very amusing, it was basically some idiot on there slagging the police off over something which happened to them! Fair enough, we all have our opinions!

Occasionally, threads come up (other forums than the one above) titled "how many of you dont declare mods/engines" and go on to talk about having cars with bigger engines in but not telling the insurance companies! Are these people thick or what!!! There are be several police officers on the forum, and if one idiot posted that they did this, they would definitly hunted down and done for that!! Obviously as they have not declared it there car wont be insured!

Occasionally threads will come up about how they have just been given a producer and how bad it is and that they have had their human rights violated and other pointless shit and generally acting a drama queen!

"Why were you given one then, why were you stopped" is what people will ask, I would, I wanna know what stupid thing this prick has done! They usually reply with something along the lines of going too fast, or drifting halfway to Skegness causing more smoke to come off the tyres than Hemel Hemstead, or some other act of complete stupidity! Could you imagine what they want the conversation to be??

Scroat: *does 50 through a 30 finished off by a handbrake turn*
Officer *pulls over Citroen Saxo* "do you know why I have stopped you?"
Scroat: "cos my moove was bad ass innit ya piggy"
Officer: "damn straight my man, 'twas mint, 'innit"

Seriously, is this what they expect to happen?? I do wonder why they run off onto the security of their internet forum where they can act the big man and cry about how they have been given a HORT1 instead of being sent to bloody court for driving like a prick!!!

Here is an example of the "innocent motorist" scenario:

On my way home from visiting my grandmother this afternoon, less than half a
mile from my house, drviving completely legally and an unmarked Vectra gives me
the ol' blues and two's so I pull over.Get asked to sit in the back of their
car, and they just started asking me if my car was legal, whether I was insured
etc - whether i'd had a drink today blah blah blah...I got arsey, asked them if
they'd done any real work today, so they got arsey and wrote me a ****ing
producer for absolutely no reason!

Yeah, because getting arsey and coming out with cocky comments like that is going to do you favours!! Also, I wonder if these people are familier with S163 Road Traffic Act? So yes we can give producers for "absolutely no reason" I bet had he not been arsey he would have not got a 7 day wonder!

On a lighter note, a similar situation occured with someone else (on another forum) and they were not bothered at all! Infact they were talking about the car with the police officer!

Why are these different attitudes? Why is it that they happen? Well, there are many explanations so if you know of any, do let me know!!

You may be thinking to yourself, "where is this leading to?" Well, this does lead to somewhere!
Someone on one of these forums is wondering what to do, they know of someone who has an untaxed and uninsured car and drives it regularly, but they are not a grass so dont want to go to the police. Therefore, without this information, the police cant act upon this. Many people are saying how uninsured drivers are the scum of the earth (which they are - I pay high insurance rate, so should they, oh and its only high because of these cheap people who think they dont need it) and they should be locked up for it!

Ah ha! This is where there is a problem!! Forgetting about ANPR for this moment, how are the police going to know which cars are uninsured? Well, they are going to pull them over, so here is the problem. These people dont like it when we pull them over, but they dont like people who drive uninsured! So what do we do? Ah I suppose we could act upon the information given to us by the publi......no we cant as they dont want to "grass". So which bloody one is it then, what do you want us to do??? So we are damned if we do and damned if we dont!! If we pull them over, we are evil gits and have nothing better to do, yet if we dont pull them over and find they have no insurance, we are lazy gits who should be catching people who drive without insurance!!!

Apologies about the length of this, I am not actually sure what I have talked about, it just seems one long rant!! But the moral of this story is . . . . . erm . . . *sigh* I give up!

Please note that I will not give up, I am fed up of these muppets coming on to forums boasting about how they dont have insurance, drive like twats etc etc and are stupid enough to have a photo of their car and the town they live in on their profile, I assure you if I see them they will get pulled, and checked! Just like every other muppet who does wrong on the roads, oh and have I got nothing better to do that pick on innocent motorists, shouldnt I be out catching real criminals . . . well how do criminals travel? I dont think they teleport!

Intelligence, Wit & Humour

I am sure that during everyone's career in the police, be it regular or special, you have come across some incredibly stupid muppets. These are the people who think they are so so clever, yet dont realize that they are the thickest thing since that Chantelle lass from Big Brother!!

Firstly, we have Chavs and Chavettes. The usual bunch who hang around outside shops drinking booze and leg it when you come to talk to them! I dont particularly want to talk to them but residents and shop keepers call us to move then on. Their crime? Being young! Anyway, so we go and move them (oh and once we are there we get called back there again and again and again by various residents thinking that we are eventually going to shoot them, but no we cant do that!) When we manage to corner them, they all claim that they dont have any alcohol. At this point, one person clearly has a can of beer in their hand, one girl seems to now have a strange lump in her pocket that resembles a can, one kid has quite obviously hidden a load of cans behind a wall which has holes in it, so basically you can see them!

Now what do these youths think! Honestly??

First the can holding person . . . are we that stupid that we cant see that shiny silver thing in their hand? Apparently so!
The girl who has cans "hidden" in her pockets, yeah cos I thought it was her phone, or something else, and as for the idiot hiding them behind a wall which you can see through, now thats just daft!!

So we take the cans off them as none can prove they are over 18 and we open the cans and pour them away infront of them! Are they bothered? Well, a bit, but after all, they did try ever so hard to hide them!!

Next, we have Billy the Idiot burglar! Now, contrary to popular belief, he no longer goes for striped tops with a sack which says "swag" on it, but now opts for a more "sporting" look of Nike and Burberry. Burglars tend to break into propertys and turn a house over looking for jewelry, and many other high value items which they can flog down the local pub, and then tend to get out of the house as quick as they can.

So when I go to talk to someone, she tells us about a burglary which happened to her. Now her house is in a really bad area of town, which seems to be the crime hub of everything criminal in the town!!! She came home and found a few items taken which were of no real value, they left the tv, dvd player, computer, jewelry etc etc behind. Ok, so this seems a little tiny bit odd . . . now it gets really odd! The "burglar" entered through a back window, did their business leaving the house tidy, found some front door keys, went out the front door, locked the front door and posted the keys back through the letterbox and casually walked off!!

Quite a common one is when you find an offender at their property and they pretend not to be in when you knock! Yeah, fair enough, you might not be in, but its when only 10 minutes beforehand we were speaking to you, and have been outside your house since so there is no way you can leave, you turn your lights off, and when we knock for you again after confirming that you are 100% the offender, that you pretend you are not in!! For goodness sake, we were just talking to you and can see the lights going on and off!!! Were not idiots!! And dont act surprised when your door ends up at the wrong end of the hallway as its been knocked clean off the hinges because you wouldnt answer your door!!!

Dont you just love the intelligence of some of our customers!!

Taxi Drivers

People will soon start to think I am a bit of a moaner!!! But I am not . . . honestly!

Todays topic (rant) is that of taxi drivers!

As you will probably know, taxi drivers are pretty much self employed, they have their own car or use a pool car, and they pay the firm for jobs at a set rate (for example £100 a week) but keep all they earn from customers!By the way, in this post I am talking about the private hire cabs!

Over the past few weeks I have been stopping quite a few taxi's at night, in particular Friday and Saturday nights!

So, here it is, Top 5 Taxi Pet Hates!

1) Exemption from the RTA (apparently)

2) No Seatbelt and No Fare

3) Speeding

4) The attitude of them when you pull them over

5) Condition of their cars, often having lights which have blown

I am sure many of you can relate to the above! Now, taxi drivers DO provide a good service, and I use them occasionally too! I by no means have a personal vendetta against them!

So firstly, the RTA exemption they believe that they have! They can stop where they want be it on a corner of a road (literally on the junction), in bays marked "Police Vehicles Only", on zebra crossings, doing U-Turns when not allowed to . . . need I go on? They dont seem to realise that they can not do this!! And when told this the usual reply is "I am waiting for a fare" or "Fuck off or ticket me" the latter being my personal favourite! Why? Because I will ticket them!!

Second point, no seatbelt with no fare in the car. Stop the car and ask them why they are not wearing it and do they have an exemption certificate. Sometimes they will reply saying "sorry sorry sorry sorry" in an effort to make you not ticket them, or simply try and be smarter than me and say "I dont have to wear it, im exempt" . . . oh no your not, only with a fare!! Oops! Im sure you all know my views on not wearing seatbelts from aprevious post!!

Thirdly, speeding. They dont seem to notice a car with shiny reflective bits on it that resemble a battenburg cake behind them with blue cruise lights on!! Now it really winds me up, we all know that speed can kill etc etc but to put at risk those of people you are carrying is appauling!! And when stopped they dont seem to care, they dont realise that getting points will effect their job! If they lose their license, they are buggered!!! If only they can see this!!!

Fourth on my list was the attitude some of them have when pulled over. Some are nice and take on board what they are told, others couldnt give a toss to be quite honest!!

Some replies:

"ticket me, see if I care"

"yeah and?"

"oh fuck off"

Now how rude and obnoxious are some of these!! Its no wonder in one night I have pulled over the same drivers several times (not deliberatly but because they have committed another offence, often the same one and only when I am talking to them does it click I have!)

This shouldnt happen!!

Finally the condition of their cars, some of them have lights that dont work etc etc, is this really the condition that a taxi should be in? Minor thing it may be but none the less!!

Enough ranting now about taxi drivers! Perhaps an operation is needed to try and bring up the standards of taxi drivers and their vehicles in my town! I anyone has any experiences of this please do let me know!

Blog Shares

Reading A Year In the Life of a Police Dispatcher the latest post is that about Blog Shares! Its a fun game based on the obvious . . . that of trading in shares! Not real ones ofcourse! So you dont need to worry about anything like that! Its free to register and free to play!

So go to www.blogshares.com or click below!

Enjoy!

New Side Links

Today I have added two new side links to my blog for you all to visit!

Firstly there is The Experieces of a Police Probationer which is, well . . . the name gives it away!

Secondly there is A Year In the Life of a Police Dispatcher which is an absolutely fantastic insight to what goes on "behind the scenes" of frontline policing! It shows the hard work and commitment which the "Radio Controllers" put in!

All my sidelinks are well worth reading and I hope to be adding more soon :)

Police Look Like Nazi's

Well, apparently according to Edinburgh councilors! The news story is from Scotsman.com (or here http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=826&id=169122006 for those who just simply want to click!)

Seriously, do these people not have other things to moan about, such as crime rates in their area, or what new paintings can be put in in their offices using taxpayers money? No, they choose the pointless exercise of moaning about police uniforms!!

Here is a particular quote which I find quite amusing:

"The new uniform gives out the wrong message. It's very aggressive-looking and
makes you think of stormtroopers. There are violent, negative, fascist
connotations associated with it. "

How exactly does it give out the wrong message, what message exactly is the uniform supposed to give out? I dont understand that! So if anyone knows what message it is supposed to give out, please let me know!

As for aggressive looking, I personally cant see this uniform as aggressive looking at all!! Infact, its much less aggressive looking than what I currently wear!!


The picture to the left (ignoring the guns) is pretty much what we are wearing at the moment, now, I for one think that this looks far more aggressive looking than the uniform being moaned about!!

Now whenever I have been out on foot patrol (which is rare I must add, only when the weather is nice and I need to get a probationer a nice easy arrest) I have had loads of people come up to me and talk to me, so Mr or Mrs Scottish councilor, what exactly did you mean when you said:

"The officers look like a souped-up SAS. When they visit schools or homes for the
elderly they will not seem like approachable people"

Like I said, I have many people coming and talking to me when I am dressed up like im in the SAS or something (apparently!)

I for one do like the new uniform mentioned in the article, although I would have thought that there would be some sort of police markings on there with some checkered bands or something, but perhaps the police might then look like souped up traffic wardens!

Perhaps instead of moaning about stupid little things like this they should support their officers who do a great job to the people of Edinburgh!

Seatbelts and Mobile Phones

This topic is one which really bugs me. I am one who will happily give out tickets to anyone not wearing a seatbelt or who drives on a mobile phone. Some people think this is quite "power hungry" but I myself couldnt give a toss if people think this. Its illegal, as is theft, robbery and murder. I am not comparing these crimes, but there is a point to this. Reading on a forum I go on which is a car related one, several members are police officers and one of them attended an RTC last night to which a girl in the back was not wearing a seatbelt.

This young girl suffered severe injuries and is likey to require constant care for the rest of her life, if she survives. This is tragic and was so easily avoidable.

Now, back to the ticket issuing part...some members on there are saying how they always see people without seatbelts on and on their phones, with police cars being about yet nothing ever gets done, and they want to see people getting pulled over and ticketed! Whats the problem I hear you ask?? Well, I dont mind giving them out, but people are also saying "your just picking on innocent motorists, go catch real criminals" etc etc. What are we supposed to do???

1) We do as the public want and ticket these people, yet are seen as being power hungry and picking on innocent motorists
2) We let people carry on and go and catch "real criminals" and the public will think we are a lazy bunch of gits who couldnt give a toss!!

So which one is it?


Mobile ones is another one that pisses me off. Why do it? Are you really that busy that you have to talk and drive at the same time? I doubt it, unless of course you drive a BMW and are in your suit, because quite clearly you are exempt from the mobile phone laws and the Road Traffic Act!!

Is it that hard to stick an earpiece in that comes with your phone, or to pull over, or even, shock horror, wait until later to ring them back!!!

I was in a plain car the other week (no lights and sirens unfortunatly) when at some traffic lights we came alongside a car with the woman on her phone, it was a nice say so had the window wound down. My collegue beeped the horn, she looked and I shouted at her to get off the phone. Guess what she did?? Apologised and put the phone down... If you thought that you are wrong!! She smiled, waved, carried on talking, and drove off!!! Anyway, we stopped her a bit further up and gave her a ticket, and it was the age old excuse of "sorry, it was only a quick call" Oh but that child was only quickly crossing the road infront of you but you hit them as you were to busy farting about on your phone (hypothetical situation). She saw my point.

It just really really winds me up, such a simple thing as well! But at the end of the day, whats a £30 fine to them?? Hopefully it will be put up to £60 and three points, perhaps people will get the message then!!

Side Bar

If you would like your blog added to my sidebar, please email me and let me know. I will be removing inactive blogs, however, if you start your blog up again/new post I shall re add it - apologies for this - it saves a huge list appearing!

Click here to email me!

About Me

I wont be revealing many personal details about myself, or the force I am part of etc, you can look here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4799994.stm for some idea why that may be!!

I have been operational now for just over a year and am in a police force in England which is mainly rural but I cover a large town, and am enjoying my role as a special very much, although like many aspects of life, there are its bad bits which I will no doubt be going in to!

Please leave comments you have and if there is anything you want me to talk about please do ask!

Why?

Why have I chosen to do one of these blogs?
Well, after reading the absolutely fantastic blog by Semper-Fi, which can be found here: http://the-semper-fi.blogspot.com, it got me thinking why not start one! So here it is!