Warrior Cops
This may not sound politically correct, but we have to create and spread the mindset that our street cops are modern day warriors. As such, they will sometimes need to be tough, demanding, over-bearing and over-powering. They need to immediately dominate a situation and gain control. They have to be allowed to err on the side of a little too much force, rather than too little. The bad guys are used to a more laid back cop mindset now. They know that the cop fears the press and community more than they fear him. The creeps know that society will let them commit the same crimes over and over again, without having to pay much of a price (or none at all) for their behavior. In the process, if they hurt or kill a cop, it changes nothing. Cop killers (in the USA) are rarely put to death. Indeed, some become celebrities – writing books, and having movies made about them that glamorize their wicked ways. And what of the cop that was maimed or killed? After two or three days of obligatory coverage, the cops and their families fade into the background to fend for themselves, never to be heard from again.
I got this from Johnny Law Chronicles and the full article is worth reading.
It may well come from the USA and their Law Enforcement system but a lot of the comparisons have relevance to Policing in the UK. There is one basic, fundamental difference. We tend to look at Law Enforcement in the UK as a Service and not as Enforcement.
We have managers that try to run this Service like a business, with all the relevant terminology, business plans, budget plans, strategic plans and forcasts, customer focus, a multitude of targets and income generation. The money to fund this public service along business lines is touted as investment. They even have their own parking spaces that reflect their status and a status that they feel belies their roles, often confusing responsibility of their role with importance and status. Their vehicles and work environment rivals those of business executives yet itis claimed they are actually Police Officers with their fingers on the common pulse of Policing.
This is not Law Enforcement. This is a Policing Service trying to role play to business benchmarking standards in a bureaucratic side show without a product to sell, yet still with a service re-branded as a package to promote and convince it as being worthy within the business framework.
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Brilliant, You have hit the nail on the head. You cant run the Police like a buisness. Because unfortunatley our “Customers” dont follow rules. You cannot predict sales and demand of the Police. Hurrumph WEB
Excellent article!! Great post! Most of us get sick of hearing about the perpetrator’s rights. I say, when they made the decision to cross the line, they forfeited those rights. You want to be free, you want to not be told when to wake up, what you’re going to have to eat, how much time you’re alloted outside? Then be a productive member of society, and contribute to the greater good. Everyone works for what they have, and those of us that do, are the ones with the rights that need to be upheld.
We are starting to get the same thing in the Ambulance Service….Managers calling us “Clinical Business Units” instead of “Divisions”
Our rank structure has all but disappeared…where once we had a “Station Officer” now we have “Supervisors”. And the old “Chief Ambulance Officer” is now the “Chief Executive”.
We, like you, are a Public Service…not a business.
It needs someone with bollocks to lead the way and get rid of all the papermaking clerks and managers and get back to the real job.
But I fear that things have gone too far already…this government is addicted to changing things for the worse!
Agree with your sentiments. Nice to hear from Kingmagic and thanks for the time to comment.
We have a problem with those who aspire to develop their careers up the chain and through the ranks. They have to be seen to be treading on all the right coloured stones else they do not tick the right boxes and fail to get promotable grades.
Some of them make great skippers on the ground and when the opportunities come along to progress onwards and upwards they have to play by the rules already set by who ever is in the chair to join the club.
The same application of the system is created by our political masters, those who appoint chief officers and those who have no alternative but to follow the particular rules of the club to get in.
Others of us remain at the lowly rank but do the type of job we joined up to do and face a great deal of our careers handicapped by those who make the decisions over policy.