Joining the Police

[XCP]

I once called for assistance in the station office when arresting a rather unpleasant gentleman, and the controller ran down 2 flights of stairs and joined in, still wearing his headset.
Those were the days...about 35 years ago in fact.

[Earthdweller]

Random_Person said:

All well and good in smaller forces but not when you get a "really big force". I an area I know, control room staff and officers wouldn't personally know each other due to the numbers involved (hundreds and hundreds) and the constant changing of roles, non overlapping of shift patterns etc. There are departments all doing the same job / same thing without even knowing about it, as the organisation is so big.

My example was in the biggest force, admittedly before metcall which I did say

In the 2nd biggest force the force control room had staff working the same shift pattern as response and they usually worked the same channels .. but the divisional response Sgt’s were involved in allocating jobs

[Bigends]

Earthdweller said:

Random_Person said:

All well and good in smaller forces but not when you get a "really big force". I an area I know, control room staff and officers wouldn't personally know each other due to the numbers involved (hundreds and hundreds) and the constant changing of roles, non overlapping of shift patterns etc. There are departments all doing the same job / same thing without even knowing about it, as the organisation is so big.

My example was in the biggest force, admittedly before metcall which I did say

In the 2nd biggest force the force control room had staff working the same shift pattern as response and they usually worked the same channels .. but the divisional response Sgt’s were involved in allocating jobs

Same with my county lot. Response would often pop up for a chat and to pick up any slow time jobs still outstanding. We would allocate initially but shift Sgts would also have their say in who went to what job

[The Gauge]

Greendubber said:

I don't, they're selfish lazy pricks that need to step up and pull their weight. You can't just smash about on blue lights all day doing nothing.

We had a couple on one of my old teams and it caused a load of grief. You'd hear them on the radio spending more time and effort avoiding going to a job than the job would have taken.

It created a horrible atmosphere on what was a really good team that was being let down by them and it turned shouting up for jobs into a bit of a game of chess, which is ultimately crap for the person that's had to dial 999 and ask for help.

We got our controllers on side who monumentally fisted them with terrible jobs at the least appropriate times eventually..... and that was after Sgts and gaffers had mentioned it in briefings and it was being looked at, so fk em. It's not being part of a team, it's giving your oppos the middle finger and generally being a selfish sthouse.

But don't you think the time has come for everyone to work this way? I'm not talking about policing in the 90's, I'm talking current day policing which is worlds apart from how it was. With such ill feeling from PC's towards the job because of the way they are treated and overworked, the cops really ought to get their heads together and work smarter. But they all need to be singing rom the same hymn sheet.

Besides, cops in the bigger forces are so so busy these days with being sent straight out to jobs the moment they step into the nik (having arrived early for their duty), they really all ought to just deal with one job at a time and not volunteer for the next job before their current job is finished. Whilstever cops are running around like blue arsed flies nothing will change and they aren't doing themselves any favours. But there are always going to be a few arse lickers that want to look good to impress the boss.