The Bitter End

A recent thread on PoliceSpecials.com got me thinking. Why do we do what we do? Obviously not the pay.
Give up hundreds of hours to do this "wild exciting" role. But what does it entail?

Losing your humanity as you simply become a resource. You are no longer allowed to express emotions, eat in public, drink in public, not allowed to laugh and have a joke.
You get treated like shit by the public who seem to blame you for the lack of delay/police policies/that the offender cant be identified with zero evidence
That as we do it for free we are more than willing to spend 8 hours watching some drunk in a cell which another officer has brought in and gone home
There are numerous other things which im sure you all know of!

It gets to the stage where I think to myself "why do I bother doing this?"

I have been to numerous incidents where all I have had is grief for "how long it took me" to get there and how crap I am. Yes sir, it did take me ages, even though I had the call 5 minutes ago. Quite tempted to say "yes I do apologise, but had I not decided to come in this evening then you will still be waiting so shut up and be glad that im here dealing with you"

On another note I revamped how my blog looks as it looked a bit depressing!

People Lie About Crime

I found this news story online at BBC News. It is basically about people admitting they ring up the police and make up incidents/over exagerate in order to get a police response. Obviously I will leave it to Life of a Comms Operator and A Year In the Life of a Police Operator who have discussed the "non merits" of doing such a thing. However, it begs the question why do people do this.

Often (depending on the controller and their mood etc) will get sent to a "juvinile nuisence" and before I get sent the controller will occasionally add a comment. The most frequent one being "im sure its nothing except them just being young". What do they mean by this?

MoP View: "As they are young and hanging around, they will be waiting to pounce on someone and rob them and kick them in and kill them and vandalise my house and every other bad thing under the sun

Youth View: "There is bugger all to do in this dump so I am going to hang around the park kicking a ball about with a couple of mates until its time to grab some food"

Quite a difference. When I go to these jobs not only does it annoy me that I have been sent to it, it annoys the "youths" also. It annoys them because it makes them feel "criminal" when they have done nothing wrong whatsoever. We often tell them that their only crime is "being young" and sadly people just have a stereotype of a young person being up to no good all the time and nothing they do can be good.

Back to the original news story, what benefit do they have making something up? It gets a police response. Thats it. What happens when they genuinly need a police response but cant as police officers are currently otherwise engaged dealing with a made up report of youths kicking a car in and setting it on fire (as I was the other day). It turned out that these youths had just arrived on the park, this car had been set on fire the day before (it was stone cold, and no wet around it from where fire would have no doubt put it out and it wasnt there the day before the day before!)
The caller wanted me to give him the names and addresses of all these "hoodlems and little shits". When I told him I couldnt and wouldnt, he got a bit pissy at "my attitude" and the fact that it took me "half an hour to get there" (yes mate, im sure it did - I got sent here 5 minutes ago from the other side of town, so actually it didnt take me half an hour, it took the police service half an hour)

He was writing a "report" on my town (ohhhh nearly wrote my force name there without realising!!) which he was going to send to some newspapers/magazines. It was examining how much we are paid and where this money goes (as in deployment) and the hours we work. I was very tempted to "uriniate on his pile of combustion" and tell him that 1) I do this for free 2) will go home when I get fed up 3) have done 4 nights this week for free 5) he would have had to wait longer for a police response had I not got my lazy arse out of bed that day. Ofcourse being such a nice kind officer I am I simply made him feel happy about what he was doing . . . but alas, where does this tie in with the original story (I digress yet again!)

I reckon, that if it were only "actual police related calls" (I use that term in the best meaning way possible) that response times would increase as we actually have officers available to deal with proper jobs rather than silly little arguments which are of a civil matter and have shockingly actually been dispatched to!

So before you pick up that phone to make a call to the police, think about is it actually necesary! (Obviously if its an emergency do call! I am talking about the innocent group of youths playing footbal who are somehow when it gets to us, beating someone up and injecting each other with heroin!)

Unmarked Car

Recently I have had the chance to take out an unmarked police car equipped with lights and siren. This is a rarity as the only departments to have these cars are traffic and the proactive area teams. However, after befriending a sergeant, he is more than happy for me to take this car out if its available.
Now, the local "professional scumbags" know all the unmarked cars as they have nothing better to do than to commit crime and therefore obviously want to know what cars the plod are using. To the ordinary members of society, they have no clue.
So I am driving along to a non urgent job when what comes screeching round the corner at umpteen miles per hour? Johnny Happy and his mates. So I decide to follow them to see what naughty things they get up to with them totally oblivious to what is behind them . . . that is until some magical buttons are pressed and the car turns into a christmas tree on wheels!

"Oh I am sorry I was driving like that im really sorry"

*Checks PNC/Local system*"Ahh, so you have driven like a muppet before laddy?" (there is intel that the car has been driven like a race car!)

"nooo not at all!"

"Are you familier with S59 Police Reform Act"

"oh shit, dont take my car off me"

Anyway, he got a warning for it as he had not had one before so was fortunate enough to keep his car!

The local scroates also get a nice shock when you get right up to them and jump out on them, whereas in a marked car they will see you a mile off, and well, leg it!

Its mostly however, the ability to shock motorists. I was following a car which had gone through a red light (not just changing, but blatently red) and stopped them. They did not expect it at all. What was their defence?
I was in a hurry?
I didnt see it?
I am too pissed to notice stupid things like that?

Nope, none of the above! All they said was "had I see you I wouldnt have done it!!"
Madness!!

Marked cars may show a great presence on the roads and deter people from doing stupid things at that time, but if your not there then maybe they will do those stupid things!
Simple fact of the matter is that you shouldnt do things that are illegal, and plain stupid at anytime of the day whether or not there is a police car! More unmarked cars I say to bring up driving standards!!
On another note, got quite a few people on their mobile phones! Hoorah I am sure I hear you say!!

And finally - you never know - that car behind you may be an unmarked plodmobile!