Emma Carter

God FORBID some of the public might actually see Police Officers eating. After all, we're supposed to be robots, not human beings. Of course we don't need food and drink like the rest of society! God FORBID we are seen to be having a laugh with the public. A rarity that should be embraced given that the people we usually deal with wouldn't piss on us if we were on fire... These days welfare is the latest buzzword to be preached about - but no-one is actually willing to practice what they preach. They just continue to grind and grind and grind down on front line officers and it's slowly spreading to other policing departments too. "Don't take your work home with you" they say. "Switch off from it." Probably easy to say from behind a desk... Not so easy to do when you are living and breathing this, day in, day out. Every bad call takes a little bit of the you that you once were with it. People like to think they understand the harsh realities of policing, but unless they've worked it, they really don't. WE ARE NOT OKAY." Anon.

We were originally sent this 5 years ago, and it resonated with many of you. So, today we ask: has ANYTHING improved? And, to the person who wrote this, are you still in the job? 💙 "𝗜'𝗺 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝘆 "𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲" 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗿... ... 𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 "𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲" 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝟵𝟱% 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹𝘀. Sure, there's good days, but they certainly don't outweigh the bad. The bad days are constant and the bad days stick - not the good. The good ones are few and far between and I see many, many officers holding out for just one of those good days. Holding out for the small and fleeting thought of "it's not so bad"... but, it really is. I was asked recently to provide an example of "good policing" that I had done. On reflection, it shocked me to discover that since my time as a Response Officer I struggled to think of even one. When I REALLY thought about it, it made me realise that the actual problems never get looked at. They're always wanting to be masked by "the good stuff". Reality is, I'm working in an environment where the people I am arresting have more rights than I do. Their welfare gets checked every 30 minutes. They have meals and drinks at their beck and call. Who cares if they throw those meals around their cell like an animal? We just keep them coming because what the prisoner wants - the prisoner gets. Heck, they even have their very own butler (Detention Officers) to bring it to them! The welfare of Response Officers is rarely checked. Like robots, we turn up to work, we answer the calls and we fill in ALL of the paperwork (most of which is completely unnecessary and duplicated simply to cover ourselves). Nevermind that you've just been verbally abused. Nevermind that you've just had blood spat at you. Nevermind that you've been kicked or pushed about. Nevermind that you've just been wrestling with someone in their cell after they've urinated everywhere so you're saturated in it. No, nevermind that. Nevermind that you just saw a dead baby being carried away by Paramedics or that you just came from a hanging with someone who had so much to live for. Nevermind that because they're on holiday, you just had to tell some parents over the phone that their eighteen year old son was dead or that you held the hand of their sixteen year old - taking some of his last breaths after being hit by a car. Nevermind that. Don't forget: there are still more calls to be answered, and there are still more people to be interviewed. There are still more people to sit with in hospital to wait for them to shit out drugs that THEY decided to swallow. There are still more people to sit with in hospital because they have a baddy head or a baddy toe... all of whom are an absolute drain on the NHS and their staff. Don't forget that there are more victims of stabbings who "ain't gonna tell the Police shit" - because they choose to live a murky lifestyle where they only care about knives and violence and drugs and money - and the Police are a minor inconvenience every now and then. But those people seem to matter the most. Not us mere Response Officers. Not us mere Response Officers who essentially give our lives to the Job. Not us mere Response Officers who miss family birthdays, Anniversaries, Christmas or trips away because "sorry, there's a rugby match that weekend" or "sorry, we don't have enough staff". It would at least be nice to say that we have four rest days - however they are regularly being taken from us as well - without any real warning. "Oh, you had plans that Rest Day? Tough. You should have booked it off 12 months ago..." is the standard response.