Speaking up for our Police

Trisher thats not how it happens here,we have recruits from all walks of life some who are school leavers some coming into Police Scotland as mature adults from different job background and careers.Last year I met one boy who left school on Friday and started his course for PS on the Monday,several men and women from the armed forces,one ex prison warden a couple of hairdressers and a huge variety of others of many nationalities ,Chinese,African,eastern european etc etc etc .
.There are recruits who come the uni route of course but more dont. We dont have Police commissioners or crime commissioners either and our numbers have risen by around 1000 in the past few years .Maybe because recruitment drives are aimed at ordinary folk who didn't think they'd have a chance and are delighted when they are accepted .

My description of subhumans Furret. ( rolls eyes )

I thought you may not agree that on balance our police do a great job Furret so am not surprised on that score.
What I am surprised at though is that you believe nothing has changed since the Stephen Lawrence case, because it certainly has.Those of us with police officers in the family know how much training and procedure in racial equality there has been for some time now.

Yes, I agree about colleges.

Take what or leave what EV

You see I don’t agree our police force per se is doing a ‘great job’. Some forces obviously do better than others (before someone jumps in and says otherwise) and things are improving but far to slowly. It is 25+ years since the Stephen Laurence murder. Yes, a quarter of a century and still we have case after case after case of example of racist policing.

Not just the odd incidence.

Too many on here are looking at this through middle class, elderly, Caucasian glasses and even with the best will in the world you just don’t get it.

As it says Furret----take it or leave it !

I actually agree with you lemon over the colleges etc.

A few of my friends joined the police force and went to the college - I can’t remember what it was called.

There was always recruitment from university for fast trackers I think. Similar to the civil service.

Where police are let down a lot is when someone appears in court over an offence. In many cases it must be soul-destroying for an officer when he's delivered a miscreant to court only for the judge to release a would-be criminal back into society after an officer had possibly filled in reams of paperwork/proof -evidence etc etc only to be " laughed at " by an impending criminal.

I think I'd give up bothering catching criminals too.
So there are courts to consider when arresting criminals, knowing that many will only get a slap on the wrist. Police know that it's not as straightforward as it seems which is why many crimes fall by the wayside.

Police Colleges should never have been closed.University courses cannot give the same ‘ethos’ and quite frankly policemen do not need a university degree.
I am hopeful that the Colleges will be brought back at some point in the future.However with Covid this year hitting the economy, it won’t be happening soon.

I agree, this country needs thousands more police officers to take the strain from the ones who have been doing long overtime hours, being injured on the job+requiring time off to recover, and because as our population increases we need the police force numbers to increase too.
I should think that motivation in the police force is at rock bottom with all the flack they get from the media.

Subhumans?

Would you care to address the substance of my post rather than pick out one word.

I wonder how many of us would have liked to have got our hands around the throat of that hooligan who threw a chair at a horse the other week ? Me for one !
This is the utter powerlessness that police have with such sub-humans and it's not right.

Who said they were all ‘saints’ Furret ( nobody) just as not all NHS workers or teachers are ‘saints’ most of these public servants do their jobs well.
Who said they are justifying bad behaviour by the policeGalaxy ?
You have to take all large institutions on balance, and on balance our police force here mostly do a great job.

tickingbird fast tracking is yesterday's policing. All police officers now complete a university degree as part oftheir training. If they can't do it they have to leave or become community officers who don't have the same powers.
Callistemon Our Police and Crime commisioner Vera Baird has been responsible for considerable changes in the way rape victims and domestic abuse victims are treated by the law. She is now the Victims Commissioner. Her work is incredible and valuable en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Baird

I think we've established that though, Furret

I hadn't heard of that case but presumably there will be an investigation.

Case near us very recently where a father and 13 years old son, doing a charity cycle along a towpath were dragged from their bikes, threatened with tasers and the father handcuffed.

No explanation. The young lad suffered cuts to his face when he tried to run into the bushes to escape what he initially thought was a mugger.

Not all saints.

The police are not being adequately funded and are working under stress simply because there are not enough of them out on the streets of Britain.

Yes, there are some rogue police officers but generally speaking they are trying to do their best for us all under increasingly difficult circumstances.

I think Police and Crime Commissioners are a complete waste of money and the millions spent on them and their staff and offices should be put into recruiting more officers.

Totally agree. I was horrified to see a video posted during the riots if men goading a poor policeman in the hope of being able to film him retaliating. That would certainly be posted as an example of police brutality.
What a thankless job. Well I'm thanking them!

Now be careful, don't hurt or upset him he's only robbing houses that people have worked and saved hard for.

Justifying the bad behaviour of some police is the exact opposite of supporting the police.

I agree too. Fed up with constant battering of the very people who try to help us, no matter what colour we are!

Is it any wonder that some of them go " the wrong way " when they've totally given up on the type of policing that's expected of them towards the really bad villains of society ?

This is one of the few countries in the world where people generally have no need to be afraid of a Policeman or for that matter a Soldier. Unfortunately these days the Police are acutely aware that one word or gesture out of place, will lead to suspension, inquiry, with possible/probable loss of job and pension! This undermines the way the police operate, and the respect they are held in. The mob know that the officers are virtually powerless to keep control without risking disciplinary action, so mob rules!