This is why people are losing respect for the police...

[Longbow]

She is clearly breaking the law

Then why have they repeatedly failed to convict her? Perhaps because she's not breaking the law?

 

[imtoooldforthis]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1717225390102499380

 

[redeye]

I have no idea why anyone would want to be a Police officer in this day and age. Those good ones (the majority) have my utmost respect and admiration. I don't know how you can do a job with people pushing camera's in your face all the time, a complete lack of respect from a huge chunk of the population, having every millitsecond of your actions inspected by thousands, almost instantly, potentially having your life and repuation ruined in the blink of an eye online (with little to no context or understanding from multiple different groups of people). All the time having to work in what still seems to be (what happened to the 20k extra officers that were recruited which apparently takes us back to re cuts levels.. where are they?) under resourced and having to Police some very dodgy and highly debateable laws that have been passed the last few years.

The country is desperate for proper law and order at a local level again.. just hope things start to change soon for the better.

 

[the shadow]

She continued, “I had to buy him back from the state! I had to pay $250 just to get his body rights back.”

 

[Alice In Wonderland]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1717225390102499380

Oh that's awful

 

[Silly Goose On The Loose]

I have no idea why anyone would want to be a Police officer in this day and age. Those good ones (the majority) have my utmost respect and admiration. I don't know how you can do a job with people pushing camera's in your face all the time, a complete lack of respect from a huge chunk of the population, having every millitsecond of your actions inspected by thousands, almost instantly, potentially having your life and repuation ruined in the blink of an eye online (with little to no context or understanding from multiple different groups of people). All the time having to work in what still seems to be (what happened to the 20k extra officers that were recruited which apparently takes us back to re cuts levels.. where are they?) under resourced and having to Police some very dodgy and highly debateable laws that have been passed the last few years.

The country is desperate for proper law and order at a local level again.. just hope things start to change soon for the better.

Sacking the local officers in the community has to be one of the biggest errors in the last fifty years. Couldn't have been worse for community cohesion, safety, terrrorism, local knowledge, gang activity. Everything. All to save a few bob that is spent in seconds on their parties.

 

[StriderX]

Sacking the local officers in the community has to be one of the biggest errors in the last fifty years. Couldn't have been worse for community cohesion, safety, terrrorism, local knowledge, gang activity. Everything. All to save a few bob that is spent in seconds on their parties.

By design, they're for protecting the elite, not you.

Examples are any royal occasion, any international leadership meeting or any photo op the Home secretary needs to pretend they're doing a job.

 

[Quartz]

There are a number of examples (from the US, unsurprisingly) of live firearms being made up to look like they're toys, Nerf guns, supersoakers, made of Lego etc. Expecting the police to be able to immediately identify something grey and Glock-shaped as a water pistol is entirely unrealistic. I don't doubt that this would have probably received a different level of response in some other areas of the country but youths carrying weapons in London is rife.

I’ve done Airsoft - it must be over 20 years ago - with former military and was explicitly warned that the police would treat the airsoft guns as real ones if they saw them.

 

[Von Smallhausen]

I have no idea why anyone would want to be a Police officer in this day and age. Those good ones (the majority) have my utmost respect and admiration. I don't know how you can do a job with people pushing camera's in your face all the time, a complete lack of respect from a huge chunk of the population, having every millitsecond of your actions inspected by thousands, almost instantly, potentially having your life and repuation ruined in the blink of an eye online (with little to no context or understanding from multiple different groups of people). All the time having to work in what still seems to be (what happened to the 20k extra officers that were recruited which apparently takes us back to re cuts levels.. where are they?) under resourced and having to Police some very dodgy and highly debateable laws that have been passed the last few years.

The country is desperate for proper law and order at a local level again.. just hope things start to change soon for the better.

I believe that it was a vocation for some, perhaps the majority, for a long time and something that one would want to do. That was the case for me when I signed on the dotted line nearly 24 years ago.

Policing has seen a paradigm shift in my time in the job, in which I still work the front line, and it has never been the same since the coalition took an axe to funding in 2010. The then HS was Theresa May, and she was warned that cuts would have consequences to which she said that this crying wolf would have to stop .... something she later denied saying until Nick Ferrari put her right with her exact words at a Federation AGM. Something like 25000 cops were not replaced as many retired, natural wastage, leaving for other jobs, and those that decide corruption is the way forward. As there were around 130000 officers in England and Wales at the time, such cuts were bound to have dramatic effects on the frontline, especially to those forces with higher demand such at The Met, GMP and West Mids. The 20000 new cops that were trumpeted under the Conservatives were not new at all - they were simply getting back to where we nearly were and still 5000 short.

Policing has also seen a massive shift towards mental health related incidents in which their services are often taken for granted by other services such as ambulance in terms of response times and a lot of the time by the crisis team and social services astray have clicked a long time ago that we can rarely say no ( and never would where there is an immediate threat to life. )

There was also the Winsor Report which took an axe to pay and conditions as well as a separate enquiry into police pensions which were also drastically cut, and thus would make the job less attractive. Officers could join at 18.5 and leave at 48.5, but now they have to work for a full pension until they are 60, and I dare not suggest that this was a deliberate ploy to have people leave earlier. The axe top the old 1987 pension scheme was deemed unlawful and is in the process of being remedied. It was judges who first said that it was unfair and picked up the pitchforks and we went on to win.

They also brought in a degree scheme where you had to have one or were willing to take one that was funded. Issues with that is that some would use it as a free springboard and points for a masters or get another job at the end of it. It also brought in a much younger era of officers with very little life experience in communication and conflict resolution and your ex military types tended to fade to almost nothing. One force brought in a judicial review of the degree scheme and may forces are binning it.

Back to me in that I never joined for respect, and this you won't believe - I was never bullied at school - despite being accused of it so many time that I lost count after around 600 times. I joined as I wanted to make the often cited difference, and I would like to think that I have done that on countless occasions. There are times that I have failed, and one of my first arrests in late 2000 was a 15 year old lad who was shoplifting and kicked off, and was also chasing heroin like it was free. He wasn't a bad lad tbh, and I tried to help him get off the poison that it is and warned him that nothing good would come of it, but I attended the incident some years later where he died of an overdose and for lad I never know socially, it hits you like a freight train. I can count around a dozen addicts who were always ok with me that are no longer with us - all of them saddened me.

The press have a lot to answer for. They portray cops as mindless automatons with no empathy, no compassion and of a crime number and p*** off mentality. I am saddened to say that there are cops like that, but in my experience of many years in the trenches, I have found that to be very much of a minority. Examples of stuff that I have done, and no doubt, many others have done .....

* Been to many a domestic where the sole argument has been that there is no money for heating, power or food. I have put credit on gas and electric cards for them, and put referrals in for social help.

* Young lass hadn't been to school in three days and school referred it to us as a concern. I spoke too the mother who had lost her job and couldn't afford bus fare for the child and was too embarrassed to say so. The house was freezing as she had no money for utilities. I helped her out with that, and made discreet enquiries with the school so that the bairn could be watched and looked after a bit more.

* Went to many a concern where entry was forced and parents were both heroin addicts and had a toddler with drugs paraphernalia everywhere and somehow they had fallen through the net. Any kids was taken into police protection were often hungry and came with me to McDonalds so I knew that they had something.

* Went to a bad motorcycle incident where the rider went under in the back of the ambulance holding my hand. I worked on him along with the paramedic in the back of the ambulance and despite efforts there, he died. I broke down and sobbed when I was told. I have been to many a fatal.

* Forced entry to an address and stopped a woman hanging herself who had a noose around her neck. She was taken to an ambulance outside and went off it, grabbed a paramedics arm and went to take a chunk out of it by biting. I instinctively back handed her to the face and the bite was stopped. Reasonable force, legal, proportionate, yet I felt s*** for two days as I had effectively hit a female and I was always brought up for the no no it is.

* Applied for funding for a boxing club in a deprived area, in which I was expecting a thanks but jog on ..... £1300 came through.

I could bore you all all night with stories, but I won't. I will say this though .... not all cops are ******** and the majority will always run towards what you would run away from. This who speak from experience in negativity around the police then fair enough and I would be interested to hear the stories, but the press portrayal of police in the last few years has been a direct attack and nothing else, with a sole view of stirring the left and right wings.

To finish ..... No I am not corrupt, nor have I ever been. Not once in those years have I been given a ticket quota or to hassle motorists and the same goes for arrest numbers. I have never had a complaint of incivility and never had a complaint of excessive force, other than one particular person who said I booted her door down, hit her and stamped on her cat. Bodyworn told another story and her clear mental health issues were addressed.

Apologies if there are any spelling or grammatical errors as the keyboard I am on is about the size of a mars bar.

 

[itsallaboutyou]

My experiences echo yours.

Almost 15 years in. All of that on response.

All I try and do is my best. In no other job would you deal with a SUDI and then go straight to another emergency.

Decompression time is non existent as demand is just ridiculous.

We really are taking on far too much partner agency work - yes they’re strapped too - but something has to give.

I’ve never known it this bad.

That said - I did do other things for a couple of years and came back… I love my job - it’s just full of disillusion at the moment.

 

[Semple]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1717465988646457465

People really really need to reign in their expectations of Police. This is the poshest nicest section of Bristol, the equivalent of Belgravia etc. How 3 Bali’s up’d kids on a stolen motor bike with no plate can waltz in in the afternoon through city centre traffic, encountering zero officers, spend 90 seconds threatening the public and committing a crime, and still not have any officers show up, is indicative of how horrendous policing in the UK is.

**** me that is shocking that, especially as the scumbag then turned on that woman with the hammer. It's one thing to brazenly target a vehicle but to then swap and potentially kill someone is just over the line by a mile.

I suppose this is the end result of the conservative party making too many cuts to the police force, and not pushing for harsher punishment.

 

[VincentHanna]

I believe that it was a vocation for some, perhaps the majority, for a long time and something that one would want to do. That was the case for me when I signed on the dotted line nearly 24 years ago.

Policing has seen a paradigm shift in my time in the job, in which I still work the front line, and it has never been the same since the coalition took an axe to funding in 2010. The then HS was Theresa May, and she was warned that cuts would have consequences to which she said that this crying wolf would have to stop .... something she later denied saying until Nick Ferrari put her right with her exact words at a Federation AGM. Something like 25000 cops were not replaced as many retired, natural wastage, leaving for other jobs, and those that decide corruption is the way forward. As there were around 130000 officers in England and Wales at the time, such cuts were bound to have dramatic effects on the frontline, especially to those forces with higher demand such at The Met, GMP and West Mids. The 20000 new cops that were trumpeted under the Conservatives were not new at all - they were simply getting back to where we nearly were and still 5000 short.

Policing has also seen a massive shift towards mental health related incidents in which their services are often taken for granted by other services such as ambulance in terms of response times and a lot of the time by the crisis team and social services astray have clicked a long time ago that we can rarely say no ( and never would where there is an immediate threat to life. )

There was also the Winsor Report which took an axe to pay and conditions as well as a separate enquiry into police pensions which were also drastically cut, and thus would make the job less attractive. Officers could join at 18.5 and leave at 48.5, but now they have to work for a full pension until they are 60, and I dare not suggest that this was a deliberate ploy to have people leave earlier. The axe top the old 1987 pension scheme was deemed unlawful and is in the process of being remedied. It was judges who first said that it was unfair and picked up the pitchforks and we went on to win.

They also brought in a degree scheme where you had to have one or were willing to take one that was funded. Issues with that is that some would use it as a free springboard and points for a masters or get another job at the end of it. It also brought in a much younger era of officers with very little life experience in communication and conflict resolution and your ex military types tended to fade to almost nothing. One force brought in a judicial review of the degree scheme and may forces are binning it.

Back to me in that I never joined for respect, and this you won't believe - I was never bullied at school - despite being accused of it so many time that I lost count after around 600 times. I joined as I wanted to make the often cited difference, and I would like to think that I have done that on countless occasions. There are times that I have failed, and one of my first arrests in late 2000 was a 15 year old lad who was shoplifting and kicked off, and was also chasing heroin like it was free. He wasn't a bad lad tbh, and I tried to help him get off the poison that it is and warned him that nothing good would come of it, but I attended the incident some years later where he died of an overdose and for lad I never know socially, it hits you like a freight train. I can count around a dozen addicts who were always ok with me that are no longer with us - all of them saddened me.

The press have a lot to answer for. They portray cops as mindless automatons with no empathy, no compassion and of a crime number and p*** off mentality. I am saddened to say that there are cops like that, but in my experience of many years in the trenches, I have found that to be very much of a minority. Examples of stuff that I have done, and no doubt, many others have done .....

* Been to many a domestic where the sole argument has been that there is no money for heating, power or food. I have put credit on gas and electric cards for them, and put referrals in for social help.

* Young lass hadn't been to school in three days and school referred it to us as a concern. I spoke too the mother who had lost her job and couldn't afford bus fare for the child and was too embarrassed to say so. The house was freezing as she had no money for utilities. I helped her out with that, and made discreet enquiries with the school so that the bairn could be watched and looked after a bit more.

* Went to many a concern where entry was forced and parents were both heroin addicts and had a toddler with drugs paraphernalia everywhere and somehow they had fallen through the net. Any kids was taken into police protection were often hungry and came with me to McDonalds so I knew that they had something.

* Went to a bad motorcycle incident where the rider went under in the back of the ambulance holding my hand. I worked on him along with the paramedic in the back of the ambulance and despite efforts there, he died. I broke down and sobbed when I was told. I have been to many a fatal.

* Forced entry to an address and stopped a woman hanging herself who had a noose around her neck. She was taken to an ambulance outside and went off it, grabbed a paramedics arm and went to take a chunk out of it by biting. I instinctively back handed her to the face and the bite was stopped. Reasonable force, legal, proportionate, yet I felt s*** for two days as I had effectively hit a female and I was always brought up for the no no it is.

* Applied for funding for a boxing club in a deprived area, in which I was expecting a thanks but jog on ..... £1300 came through.

I could bore you all all night with stories, but I won't. I will say this though .... not all cops are ******** and the majority will always run towards what you would run away from. This who speak from experience in negativity around the police then fair enough and I would be interested to hear the stories, but the press portrayal of police in the last few years has been a direct attack and nothing else, with a sole view of stirring the left and right wings.

To finish ..... No I am not corrupt, nor have I ever been. Not once in those years have I been given a ticket quota or to hassle motorists and the same goes for arrest numbers. I have never had a complaint of incivility and never had a complaint of excessive force, other than one particular person who said I booted her door down, hit her and stamped on her cat. Bodyworn told another story and her clear mental health issues were addressed.

Apologies if there are any spelling or grammatical errors as the keyboard I am on is about the size of a mars bar.

Keep doing you. You sound like a great policeman to me.

Not to score political points but the tory cuts in 2010 were devastating across the board, but unfortunately a lot of those cuts were going to take 5-10 years to really show the long term impact.

If anyone consistently voted tory and then have the gall to complain about policing and response times, I don't know what to say

 

[potatolord]

@Von Smallhausen

I worked in stats on healthcare, and can confirm MH incidents (not your geographical area) seem to be growing all the time, S135 conveyances in particular.

Saw quite a few where police were first on the scene and took a lot of time de-escalating before health services on scene. Lives were saved.

Keep doing your job the way it should be done. Most of us appreciate the job you do and how difficult it is.

 

[Von Smallhausen]

My experiences echo yours.

Almost 15 years in. All of that on response.

All I try and do is my best. In no other job would you deal with a SUDI and then go straight to another emergency.

Decompression time is non existent as demand is just ridiculous.

We really are taking on far too much partner agency work - yes they’re strapped too - but something has to give.

I’ve never known it this bad.

That said - I did do other things for a couple of years and came back… I love my job - it’s just full of disillusion at the moment.

I read an article a while back that said the average person on the street had 4-6 tra7matic events in their entire life. It also said that cops have between 400-600, a 100 fold increase, and you are right in that there is little to no time to decompress and it's job to job to job. Many an old sweat I worked with years ago, there were many pre PACE cops in when I joined, sadly died early as their decompression was heavy drinking and 40 tabs a day. Keeping the mind occupied is essential, and now I am in my late 40s, like the small hen off Blackadder III, running 5ks etc are less appealing and I now like to walk or cycle and also took up pyrography several years back, which I find very therapeutic, and I think is one of the reasons that I can still do the front line, PSU, MOE and carry and proportionately use taser.

You are right though in that it hadn't been as bad, however what irks me, is that they aren't rocket science fixes. I still say the press portrays more gloom than there actually is.

 

[imtoooldforthis]

You referring to this? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67236220

Appalling really.

Up to £120,000 now

Pretty grim stuff

 

[the shadow]

£132,000 now

grim stuff

 

[Alice In Wonderland]

I believe that it was a vocation for some, perhaps the majority, for a long time and something that one would want to do. That was the case for me when I signed on the dotted line nearly 24 years ago.

Policing has seen a paradigm shift in my time in the job, in which I still work the front line, and it has never been the same since the coalition took an axe to funding in 2010. The then HS was Theresa May, and she was warned that cuts would have consequences to which she said that this crying wolf would have to stop .... something she later denied saying until Nick Ferrari put her right with her exact words at a Federation AGM. Something like 25000 cops were not replaced as many retired, natural wastage, leaving for other jobs, and those that decide corruption is the way forward. As there were around 130000 officers in England and Wales at the time, such cuts were bound to have dramatic effects on the frontline, especially to those forces with higher demand such at The Met, GMP and West Mids. The 20000 new cops that were trumpeted under the Conservatives were not new at all - they were simply getting back to where we nearly were and still 5000 short.

Policing has also seen a massive shift towards mental health related incidents in which their services are often taken for granted by other services such as ambulance in terms of response times and a lot of the time by the crisis team and social services astray have clicked a long time ago that we can rarely say no ( and never would where there is an immediate threat to life. )

There was also the Winsor Report which took an axe to pay and conditions as well as a separate enquiry into police pensions which were also drastically cut, and thus would make the job less attractive. Officers could join at 18.5 and leave at 48.5, but now they have to work for a full pension until they are 60, and I dare not suggest that this was a deliberate ploy to have people leave earlier. The axe top the old 1987 pension scheme was deemed unlawful and is in the process of being remedied. It was judges who first said that it was unfair and picked up the pitchforks and we went on to win.

They also brought in a degree scheme where you had to have one or were willing to take one that was funded. Issues with that is that some would use it as a free springboard and points for a masters or get another job at the end of it. It also brought in a much younger era of officers with very little life experience in communication and conflict resolution and your ex military types tended to fade to almost nothing. One force brought in a judicial review of the degree scheme and may forces are binning it.

Back to me in that I never joined for respect, and this you won't believe - I was never bullied at school - despite being accused of it so many time that I lost count after around 600 times. I joined as I wanted to make the often cited difference, and I would like to think that I have done that on countless occasions. There are times that I have failed, and one of my first arrests in late 2000 was a 15 year old lad who was shoplifting and kicked off, and was also chasing heroin like it was free. He wasn't a bad lad tbh, and I tried to help him get off the poison that it is and warned him that nothing good would come of it, but I attended the incident some years later where he died of an overdose and for lad I never know socially, it hits you like a freight train. I can count around a dozen addicts who were always ok with me that are no longer with us - all of them saddened me.

The press have a lot to answer for. They portray cops as mindless automatons with no empathy, no compassion and of a crime number and p*** off mentality. I am saddened to say that there are cops like that, but in my experience of many years in the trenches, I have found that to be very much of a minority. Examples of stuff that I have done, and no doubt, many others have done .....

* Been to many a domestic where the sole argument has been that there is no money for heating, power or food. I have put credit on gas and electric cards for them, and put referrals in for social help.

* Young lass hadn't been to school in three days and school referred it to us as a concern. I spoke too the mother who had lost her job and couldn't afford bus fare for the child and was too embarrassed to say so. The house was freezing as she had no money for utilities. I helped her out with that, and made discreet enquiries with the school so that the bairn could be watched and looked after a bit more.

* Went to many a concern where entry was forced and parents were both heroin addicts and had a toddler with drugs paraphernalia everywhere and somehow they had fallen through the net. Any kids was taken into police protection were often hungry and came with me to McDonalds so I knew that they had something.

* Went to a bad motorcycle incident where the rider went under in the back of the ambulance holding my hand. I worked on him along with the paramedic in the back of the ambulance and despite efforts there, he died. I broke down and sobbed when I was told. I have been to many a fatal.

* Forced entry to an address and stopped a woman hanging herself who had a noose around her neck. She was taken to an ambulance outside and went off it, grabbed a paramedics arm and went to take a chunk out of it by biting. I instinctively back handed her to the face and the bite was stopped. Reasonable force, legal, proportionate, yet I felt s*** for two days as I had effectively hit a female and I was always brought up for the no no it is.

* Applied for funding for a boxing club in a deprived area, in which I was expecting a thanks but jog on ..... £1300 came through.

I could bore you all all night with stories, but I won't. I will say this though .... not all cops are ******** and the majority will always run towards what you would run away from. This who speak from experience in negativity around the police then fair enough and I would be interested to hear the stories, but the press portrayal of police in the last few years has been a direct attack and nothing else, with a sole view of stirring the left and right wings.

To finish ..... No I am not corrupt, nor have I ever been. Not once in those years have I been given a ticket quota or to hassle motorists and the same goes for arrest numbers. I have never had a complaint of incivility and never had a complaint of excessive force, other than one particular person who said I booted her door down, hit her and stamped on her cat. Bodyworn told another story and her clear mental health issues were addressed.

Apologies if there are any spelling or grammatical errors as the keyboard I am on is about the size of a mars bar.

Thank you and the others mentioned on here for doing an incredible job.

I've had quite a bit of experience with the police and not all positive.

My fault really for what I was doing.

However, the last time when I really needed them, they were absolutely excellent and I can't fault them.

 

[EddScott]

You referring to this? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67236220

Appalling really.

I watched a Sky news article on YT about this and I get the police officers were sacked for lying but having watched the onboard, you can see why the police decided to take a look. The guy driving the Merc should have just stopped, not attempted to run. That alone would make you want to give the pull would it not? I guess the sacking is considered by some as appeasement.

I had cause to go to court once. The police report lied in that instance but I don't suppose it would have made much difference.

 

[Alice In Wonderland]

So the policeman who murdered that guy is going to be named after all.

Chris Kaba shooting: Police firearms officer charged with murder to be named publicly

Mr Kaba died from a single gunshot to the head on 6 September 2022 after the Audi he was driving was blocked in by a police vehicle and an officer shot him through the car windscreen.

news.sky.com

 

[Stu999]

@Von Smallhausen - even 130k cops doesn't sound like that many, especially for the level of demand there is now. I'd also say cuts to council budgets, social services, etc. will have had a big impact on the demand for the police, as you said.