Why, oh why...?

Why have I created this blog?

Am I that dissatisfied with my job?

If I am so dissatisfied why don't I quit? (this one is just for Pete (read the comments of the last post dear readers!))

I get a great deal of satisfaction from my job. It's still is the best job in the world. It is also the worst job in the world. After all, where do you get to drive fast cars with blue lights and sirens.. but then you have to leave the accident scene and visit a family and tell them their loved one is not coming home?

Where do you get to go out and arrest really bad people and take them off the streets out of circulation of the general public so that they can sleep safely in their beds at night? But on the other hand you have to spend 16 hours (on a 9 hour shift?) putting together the file so that it can go to court at 0930 in the morning!!

For me, I'm a straight forward kind of person. I am plain spoken and tell it like it is. When I think the system is wrong I tell my colleagues and supervisors, but even they do not have the power to change things that the Home Office put in place. The only people who do are the voting public who can take what they learn to their member of parliament and have the system changed for if they don't learn of the wrongs then they cannot be righted.

The modern British Police are not so very much removed from the ideals put in place by Sir Robert Peel so very long ago:-

1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
   
2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.
   
3. Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
   
4. The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
   
5. Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
   
6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.
   
7. Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence
   
8. Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
   
9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.

The above 9 principles of Policing were the cornerstone of the British Police. So where did we go so wrong? We allowed MANAGERS and shiny arses to take control of the police. To Bureaucratize it. To govern it. To control it and put it under the control of politicians who only want to win votes!

1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 are all still pretty much as they should be.

5 is completely wrong as the governing bodies set targets for police to achieve so instead of remaining impartial we chase targets which is completely wrong...

8 is still as it should be however the judiciary are also being interfered with by government, as such they are becoming ineffectual and a joke.

9 is the one that gets to me the very most.. Why are we chasing targets? Just let us go out and arrest the bad guys and put them before a just, effectual and efficient judiciary who can give appropriate sentences for appropriate crimes...

To answer the first three questions at the very top of this post..

Yes, I love my job...

But grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference;

and for the other things I can but blog!