Blast From the Past

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Deal, or No Deal?


Should I remain on a response team or should I go to a "community" team.

Being on response seems to be job to job to job and most of them seem to be domestics or shoplifters depending on the time of day!

The "community" team where I would be going is in a rough part of town (Crime Hub of Scroatsville), its easier to drive to from home, and doesnt cover anywhere near where I live. The stuff we would do is drugs raids, sneaky beaky operations etc. The team are great and we all have a great time when we crew and all are very pro-special.
Oddly there are more response drivers on this team than the response team.

What do you reckon? What woud you do?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Same issue for all us specials at the moment. I am hoping NPT will allow me to develop more and get more experience: response work so far has been more about upping the numbers and making sure regulars are not single-crewed, without actually getting to do much yourself.

ExtraSpecialCopper said...

With a npt or whatever its called in your area, because the team is small there are also more training opportunities such as MoE etc where as there is no time on response to do these!

Anonymous said...

I've been on an SNT here in the Met for a few months and I've enjoyed it, but boy are the quiet times quiet! Sure, you do get to be more of a part of "intelligence" policing and get to know your area very well, but I've had at least three shifts where the most serious incident reported to me was a kid kicking a football against a wall! At least in response you are more likely to get to "do" something on every shift. Not to mention that SNT's don't work through the night - and we all know that daytime crime isn't all that much! Think about it, find out what you can - I like my SNT, but it isn't everyone's cup of tea - and you could very quickly end up bored, as you won't be spending as much time in the area you're trying to get to know as your regular colleagues.

Anonymous said...

It depends on yourself. You can have a much quieter time on SNT / NPT / Safer Blah Team, probably can get more courses etc. But it won't be response team, and if you're one of those strange types who despite the job being toilet for 98% of the time still love it for the 2%, you will miss response work. Having said that, a break from response team is something I try and do every 12 months or so, just to refresh and regain enthusiasm- you can get burnt out doing it. However, I know long term I would be bored out of my tree on Neighbourhood policing.

PC South West said...

If I were a special it would be response all of the time.
I love 24/7 policing and would do that when I wanted to, having the choice as to when I work and when I dont.
Trouble is as everyone knows the response team are the Police oxen and are crapped on a lot of the time.

ExtraSpecialCopper said...

Thanks for all your replies. I have been assured that as long as X amount of hours are done on a NPT then the rest can be done wherever (ie. Operations and Response)

Bonus is I will get a locker