Tidgy

most police are fine unless you act like a ****. biggest problem is the system

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I think that people who have never had any dealings with them generally hold this sort of opinion.

Cpt Jack Sparrow

iTrader: (14)

and corruption

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I wouldn't say they are all ***** but I would definitely agree it's a job that attracts a "certain" type of person, but saying that I wanted to join the police force as a child until an Inspector said "**** off you little black b@stard" as he rag dolled one of my friends when I was about 11yrs old, that was the start of a very long abusive relationship with the Police, which centred around the colour of my skin and being able to afford decent cars because I worked for a living.

So back to the respect issue, generally I respect the law, but have little time for those who enforce it, I generally pity them because you really have to be one seriously fcuked up individual to want to be one, I put them in the same basket as racists because that has been my experience of them.

But I don't wish either of them harm, I just feel sorry for them, that they go through life filled with so much hate and no true friends that trust and confide in them.

Karma is a real mother ******.

Cpt Jack Sparrow

iTrader: (14)

^^ This ^^

tubbytommy

iTrader: (20)

Its sad you feel like that for a genuinely horrible experience.

Its all about figures nowadays and not sensible policing, if you ever report a crime you will see how useless they are,if it's hard to get a result from and will effect their figures they are not interested, they may as well be on a petty motoring crime/easy to convict bonus.

AndyBaker

Pretty much sums up my thoughts, Tubby's first reply was spot on too.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

Don't worry mate I got over it a very long time ago.

What is sad however is I could write a book the length of war and peace on racism in the police force and i'm only half black.

It does teach you an awful lot about human nature, and for that I am truly grateful.

They're simple creatures and easily dealt with once you know how.

veerinder9

iTrader: (1)

Is there anyone on here who is actually a copper?

veerinder9

iTrader: (1)

Would be good to see their viewpoint.

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Interesting replies and a very mixed poll. Personally I have no problem with the Police and when I've needed them I found them to be great. If you think about it, imagine all the sh!te they have to put up with on a daily basis.

The Pink Ninja

iTrader: (23)

I've had run ins with them in the past, All my own fault apart from when 10 of them stormed my flat years ago for firearms when in fact they were air guns, No apology and they wanted me to apologise and got very intimidating when I said I wouldn't, Told them to get out In the end,

They have a job to do which I respect but not all coppers preach from the same law book, Like all walks of life you get the good ones and bad ones, These days I have no call to have dealings with them but spoke to one on the phone yesterday regarding import size number plates and TBF he was a decent guy. I agree with others though that their time could be better spent dealing with the more important crimes rather than the easy conviction so to speak, So in conclusion I'm not so keen but they do a job that no one else will do.

RA Dunk

This has alot to do with it as well. Just WTF do stats have to do with Policing?

If the stats are a bit low one month/week or what ever they will charge someone with something silly to make the numbers up where as before it would have been a slap across the fingers.

Also they need to remove alot of the red tape surrounding coppers and let them do their bloody jobs.

Then again the Courts have alot to do with it as they are letting scumbags walk virtually free and the Police are having to waste time catching them again when they re-offend?

Then there are the whiney little ******* who want the Police to investigate and charge someone who called them a whiney little ****** on a website.

No wonder 'some' Police get pi$$ed off, I couldent do it for a start.

neil-h

Strikes me as a bit of a daft statement tbh. The unions are the same, MPs are the same, even groups of kids on the playground are the same. People will always cover for there mates/piers, it's just one of those things.

Moley

iTrader: (9)

Not where I work!

BoozyDave

iTrader: (8)

I'm not too keen on then TBH, I've had a couple of dealing's with them -
1 - got hit by uninsured driver and wrote my car off, driver got a £50 fine and I had to claim on my insurance .
2 - driving in traffic and the car behind ran into me, I pulled up, he drove into oncoming traffic and disappeared, I got his number, he denied it, I had to sort the damage myself

they generally do a good job, but they need better support from the courts. if someone is caught without a license or insurance it should be £1000 fine, if caught again 1 year in prison, then 5 years. should be the same for shop lifting, drug dealing, burglary, etc.

also 1 year inside should be 1 year, with good behaviour, longer if any trouble is caused

someone gets life for murder, but a minimum of 12 years!!! WTF!!! life should be life, bring back hanging.

^Qwerty^

I've had various dealings with the police, some good some bad. It's a job I'd like to do, but I think I'm too old now, it wouldn't pay enough and I'm probably too errr right wing to get through the interview process 
So early in my motoring career I got caught by a traf plod doing 47 in a 30. After making me feel like a very small thing and pointing out the error of my ways, I was off on my way with no points and no fine. It did me the world of good as I had a human being speak to me who didn't patronise me but still managed to make me feel really bad about what I'd just been caught doing - Top bloke.
On another occasion, one of the guys at work had his motorbike stolen and three days later I saw the bike being ridden by two people I knew. Having told the guy at work, I eventually, under pressure, gave a statement. They hauled the two guys in and interviewed them with my statement in front of them, thus giving me name away. That event changed my social life from there on in as I stopped going out. One of the two got sent down for stabbing someone. Can’t say I was impressed – Massive failure by the police, and I could probably have complained about it, but didn’t’ want to make the situation any worse.
Got a talking to in a petrol station one day by a traf plod. Whilst he was correct, the belittling and patronising manner in which he spoke to me didn’t do him or the force any good. The gist of that was that he’d seen me driving about and as he put it, “whist I’ve never seen you speeding in a built up area, you do seem to get your foot down on open roads” – complete ******.
Caught by a gatso in Sheffield doing 35 in a 30. No human involvement, just the brown letter through the door and £70 to attend a course. Regardless of what anybody thinks or says, had a human been following me, I would never had got this, and I doubt very much they would have even noticed, since it was a momentary breaking of the speed limit whilst I was actually concentrating on what was going on around me –*******
House was burgled in an attempt to steal my car. The uniformed police I dealt with and the SOCO’s were all spot on. Couldn’t have asked to meet nicer people. However the CID side completely soured my feelings about the whole episode for their complete lack of interest in me providing them with a mobile telephone number which was used twice to find out the location of the car, which was for sale, yet the person speaking gave two different names. It could have been a genuine enquiry, but the caller showed no interest in finding out anything about the car, other than trying to get a postcode so they could come and look at it – Leaves mixed feelings.
My most recent contact was related to a possible theft. It was quite trivial in many respects, but the PC assigned was spot on. Clearly had done a few years and had recently gone back to ‘normal’ work after working in a joint Yorkshire and Humberside function which has been disbanded due to funding cuts. It was the one with the BMW’s and TV crew.
Overall, the people who work in the police appear to me to do a very difficult job and have to deal with the dregs of society and no doubt some very harrowing, upsetting and disturbing situations. On the flip side I imagine it can be a very rewarding and interesting job where no two days are the same.
As posted on here before, I complained to Humberside police a couple of years ago when pissed up youths were kicking off most weekends where I live, yet they said they didn’t have the man power or resources to deal with it, yet every Sunday morning, without fail, there was a Camera Van sat on Thorpe Road (Howden) zapping motorists for breaking a speed limit and the KSI justification used to make it a camera site was somebody being killed by a pissed up lorry driver with no licence or insurance.
Overall, I think they do themselves no favours, as irrational as it maybe by sitting in vans and sending brown envelopes to people for breaking speed limits. This is why people don’t like the police. In Humberside it is now getting even worse, as people are also getting the same brown envelopes for having incorrectly spaced number plates or for allegedly not being in control of a motor vehicle, maybe drinking a coffee at the wheel. If somebody is doing something wrong, the police should stop them there and then, speak to them and work out if just being stopped and giving them a good talking to would be a far more effective than a fine and/or points. It’s the human element. Policing by automation doesn’t work IMO, and the more it happens, the more the general public will be alienated.

LSherratt

iTrader: (1)

Good post there Qwerty. I defiantly agree with you about the brown letter posting, almost as if it's just an easy automatic process just churned out as a way to get money.

JC-R

Was that a good post by Owerty ? I dont know as i fell asleep quarter of the way through it

RS_Matt

When 3-7 Police officers jumped me it was right below some CCTV cameras, it just happened that when the PCA contacted the security offices the camera's "weren't filming that night!"

The Police doctor commented during my examination that my bruises and scrapes were "all superficial" then she suddenly stopped whilst looking behind my ear and said "this can't be right you have received an hit." The PCA questioned her and she didn't submit that evidence even though my parents took high res pictures of clear knuckle marks.

TBH when I was on the floor with the 3 Police officers subduing me my friend told the PCA that another Police van pulled up and 4 got out and ran over wading in. I don't know what would have happened if I'd noticed it pull up.

Anyway I had to go to court and I got bound over for 12 months. Even though the Police had dropped the charges my Barrister told me to plead guilty which sucked.

stipete75

grey_boy

Personally, I've had to contact them twice in my lifetime and on both occasions I thought they were really helpful.

Personally I think they taste sweet with apple sauce...

CrisPDuk

Why is that a daft statement, just because it happens elsewhere doesn't make it right

A bent copper is just a criminal with a uniform, anyone covering for a bent copper is an accessory. Unfortunately the culture within the police appears to be more about keeping criminal activity quiet than it does about weeding them out and punishing them

Felix.

Recent article in the Telegraph - may be long but probably relevant to this thread


Despite the risks they run and the errors committed, the police remain popular
In the wake of the Mark Duggan case, a lot of commentators and politicians are asking – can we trust the police? The short answer is: of course you bloody can. But for those who like an argument with a few more facts, here it is.
First, the police have gone through an institutional transformation in the last ten years and are considerably more transparent as a result. Far from perfect, but much improved. This is one of the few things we have New Labour to thank for (yes, you read that in the Telegraph). The police encouraged people to come forward with grievances and forced officers to take them more seriously, with the result, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), that complaints more than doubled from 15,885 in 2003/04 to 34,310 in 2009/10. Since then, response time to complaints dramatically decreased as the institution took greater effort to clean house – with the result that complaints have actually fallen by over 4,000 in three years.
So what are people complaining about? Assault accounts for 24 per cent, and the cynic in me says that a bulk of those complaints will be by folks getting arrested and then claiming brutality. Maybe, maybe not. Either way, the more common problem is "neglect of duty" (not turning up quickly enough) and "incivility" (insufficient politeness when disarming a gunman?). In other words, most of the problems are procedural rather than about excessive use of force.
And who is complaining? Here things get really interesting. The Left's portrayal of the police as institutionally racist might encourage you to think that the vast majority of complaints would be by young black men. They are not. The average complainant is likely to be male, middle-aged and white. Yes, black minority ethnic (BME) people do register a disproportionate number of complaints – and that's deeply worrying and needs to be addressed. But they don't dominate the statistics to the extent that certain cultural orthodoxies might suggest.
What do BMEs think about the police force? Again, here the statistics tell us something many probably didn't expect. I'll be honest: I've struggled to find more recent, detailed, national studies on BME attitudes towards the police, and all I've come up with is a detailed Home Office report from 2004/05. If anyone can find anything more recent then please do share it – and if it contradicts the findings of that report then so be it.Nevertheless, that Home Office study tells us that a) there was only a small variation in feelings of victimisation between BMEs and whites when it came to dealing with the police and b) "People from all BME groups were more likely to rate the police doing a good or an excellent job than those in the White group. The only exception to this was respondents from the Mixed ethnic group, whose ratings were similar to White respondents". Now, it's true that these findings are from a period with a relatively low number of complaints and during a time of relatively good community relations following the implementation of the findings of the Macpherson report. Nevertheless, that's what the data shows. It should be noted that since 2004/05, the police force has become more racially integrated, not less – as supported by evidence from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Of course, problems remain. Individual officers can be corrupt, and high profile cases (Plebgate, Duggan) bring to people's attention a mix of error and malicious behaviour. The troubling stop and search, once disapproved of, is back with alarming regularity – and this undoubtedly poisons community relations. But the British people broadly like their police. According to a survey conducted by the Metropolitan Police (conducted last year, after Duggan's death), confidence in policing stands at 69 per cent of all Londoners, 78 per cent of victims are satisfied with the service, and satisfaction with victim treatment is at 90 per cent.
Personally, I'd go one step further. We shouldn't just be "satisfied" with the police force – we should be grateful considering the risks they take to look after us. Over 1,600 officers are thought to have lost their lives in the line of duty since the service was founded. Forty-four police officers are attacked every day, and thousands are regularly off on sick-leave due to stress. Part of the stress undoubtedly comes from a job that, if man was only perfect, no person would ever have to do. Can you imagine the effect on a person's soul of having to separate children from the parents who sexually abused them? Of telling a mother that her son has been mowed down by a drunk driver? Or seeing a comrade shot to death by a lunatic with a gun? No wonder some minds crumble and mistakes are made. Police officers who go through their whole career without a blemish on their record, without a single act of "incivility", must be made of steel.
So next time you think you might've heard someone break into the house in the middle of the night, don't hesitate to call the police out of a lack of "trust". The coppers are here to help. And they do.

Felix.

From my personal point of view, having served as a response officer for 14 years, i try and do my best for everyone i come across - the same is true of the shift i work with and i have no problem working with any of them. I do accept that there are bad apples in the service as a whole, but that is human nature and is the same in every job. And like every job, they should be gotten rid of and often are.

We don't chase any figures and none of us are traffic orientated, so don't prey on so called 'easy targets' - this is left for 'traffic' who must make up about 5% of our force in total. So the remaining 95% are crime orientated.

Jobs that we get in must be investigated and are scrutinized to the nth degree until all solubility factors are done - so its not a case of just 'writing them off'. We also have to satisfy the old 'innocent until proven guilty' phrase and often cases won't make it to court if there's little chance of proving this.

From the 14 years so far; I have brought 3 people back from the brink of death with CPR, found countless missing people, brought loads of people to justice with the thanks expressed by the victims, found loads of stolen property and took it back to thankful owners, been their for families during sudden deaths etc etc

I like the job i do, i find it rewarding and i personally try my best to help the people i deal with

nizmo80

iTrader: (2)

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

My mum isn't gay.

RA Dunk

People don't see this, either that or choose to ignore it.

At the end of the day no matter how you look at it coppers do more good than bad, maybe if the average pleb on the street had a bit more respect rather than be their usual gobsh1te selfs then the coppers 'might' lighten up a bit, like I said earlier first impressions last.

RS_Matt

Shortly after I was beaten for no reason Karma hit Wood Street and PC Empsall's cowardly attack on an handcuffed youth made the world headlines.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...re/3116517.stm

I saw him in the crowd at a sporting event moments after he escaped Jail and he was jubilantly throwing sweets into the crowd, made me sick.

RA Dunk

I can hardly say I'm surprised you got beaten going by some of the sh1te you put on here TBH, I do doubt it was for no reason though.

There's two sides to every story.