Child protection/sex offence police.

[shoehorn]

Sorry about the rubbish title,don`t know the correct title/s.
I was reading a story today of how some private tutor had abused children whilst supposedly tutoring them.

The police found many videos of abuse but no faces were shown,leaving them unsure of which children had been abused.
All of the parents of children who attended these sessions were offered the choice of watching each and every film in the hope(or not) that they may recognize a part of their childs anatomy!

The very thought of this as a human let alone being a father to young girls is horribly disturbing to say the least and I refuse to try to imagine how being given that option would feel as a parent.

It started me thinking about the people that have to deal with these scumbags daily and sift and sort through their despicable collections and then try to resume a normal life outside of work.
The effects,no matter how mentally tough you are must last a life time,I feel I would never be able to sleep again in that situation.
It would be foolish to think that no training is given but training can not prepare you for a lot of things in life.

My questions for those who do this sort of thing as a living,
When these films or photos are viewed does one person sit in a room or is it a group,does every film have to be watched,do the `watchers` have a finite lifespan,(are they only allowed to do a set amount and then transferred to a different section)are these people selected or do they volunteer and finally what do they do to mentally prepare for and then mentally extinguish this stuff afterwards?
This is a different level from dealing with fatal RTA`s and such in my mind,not taking anything away from those who deal with that mess.
I was just curious as to the sort of people who would endure such a career path.

[shoehorn]

Dibble said:

Interesting stuff.

thanks,I never thought that ordinary rank and file officers did this.
I imagined some place in London stacked with stuff and a group of poor souls spending their days sorting through it before going home and emptying a bottle down their neck.
I didn`t even consider that the workload as much as the work in its self was a problem,
It`s the same in any business,the decision makers and penny pinchers don`t allow enough influence from those that actually know what they are doing.

I did sort of guess that you would from time to time still be shocked at what you see,
I believed that man had an increasingly dark side but it seems that it`s always been the case and modern policing etc. has just exposed it further.
all the while being added to by the ever increasing number of immigrants,asylum seekers and organised former eastern bloc crime gangs etc.with shady histories who arrive and bring a whole new world of depravity.

I have a pal in the TSG who I asked about this stuff but he just grunts,drags his knuckles,clams up and says no fk that stuff,cant and wont do it!
I suppose the drive of being able to nail someone will compensate slightly but unfortunately as soon as I had enough evidence to convince myself personally(there must come a point when you just know you have your man)then it would be very hard to control my self around the suspect during interviews etc.
Even small things like how do you look another intelligent person in the eye while discussing what you are seeing,remain emotionally stable and then go home and look at your wife and children?
Wrong as it may be there must have been many times when many officers have thought "give me five minutes alone with him/her"I cant say I`d blame them.
I`d be locked up myself in five minutes,still holding the bloody,dented fire extinguisher!