Why did you ask, then?

Ah, sorry, I didn't realise that you were there at the incident. As we know, every officer behaves exactly the same as every other officer. They're all cardboard cut-outs aren't they? These officers must be the ones to benchmark the entire service against, surely? No, wait a minute, that's called "stereotyping" isn't it?

Stick a fork in me - I'm done.

RG

I wasn't seeking to justify such behaviour, nor could I - I was replying to the original thread title. Those that have become de-motivated are the older hands and leaving a career with the amount of superannuation they have invested is simply not an option. If you're angry and alienated, imagine how I feel, seeing the continual decline!

RG

This is the third attempt I've made to respond to this thread - the first two kicked me off and lost my post. However, I'm tenacious enough to have another go.

This is true of all public service occupations, because they are a cross-section of society as a whole. As standards within society decline, there will be a knock-on effect, accelerated by the comparatively recent cost-cutting impositions on police training.

For many years, instruction was carried out at 6 Regional Training Centres throughout the country (although the Metropolitan Police trained at Hendon, as they still do today). The students were residents for 10 - 14 weeks and the Centres were staffed by officers from the Forces that sent their recruits to that Regional Centre, on a pro-rata basis. My Force usually had between six or eight officers working on two-year secondments and paid for by the Home Office.

In the late 1980s, the first major change in training saw the introduction of "student-centred learning," leading to a change in terminology from "instruction and weekly examination" to "make aware and holistically assess." Examinations still ran weekly, but the results so swiftly declined under the new regime that something needed doing about it. The result was simple - the examinations were scrapped. Students had no concept of failure to achieve, or the satisfaction of doing well.

Eventually, it became clear that we were impinging on the recruits' private lives by requiring them to reside, so that was phased out and students could travel home when they wished, thus removing very useful group learning opportunities and removing a lot of camaraderie too.

The biggest cost-cutting took place only a few years ago, when the Home Office closed down all the regional Centres, requiring that each recruit was to be trained on their local Division. Of course, the burden on staffing this change meant that instead of, in the case of my previous Force, having 6 to 8 officers in total, there became a need to have 6 or 8 officers on each Division - a five-fold increase in the number of officers off the street and a budgetary demand that could not have been included in the required five-year forecast.

No Police Station, especially Divisional HQs, had classrooms waiting for this demand either, so hasty deals were done with other educational establishments to use their premises, especially Universities. This was an uneasy mix from the start, but the Audit Commission and the Home Office were able to state that "the police are now being trained at University."

Promotion went the same route, the decline beginning in 1992, when written examinations, followed by an interview board in-Force, were replaced by an objective (tick-the-box) screening test, followed by role-playing assessment centres for those who passed. These were assessed from a generic script by officers from other Forces.

In the last five years, this has been diluted further and current candidates are assessed on their Division by their own supervisors (on top of their normal full-time duties). It's actually more work to deal with a candidate who struggles, so a surprising number don't have many problems on busy Divisions.

Given that today's supervisors are the result of an already watered-down training method, the Service is on a really slippery slope. The number of subjects in the syllabus has reduced, Government targets lead all decisions on resources and there are many in the Service who are de-motivated and horrified at the current situation.

However, the public neither know or care about this situation but are quite happy to carp on about it when it affects them personally - that's human nature. Perhaps the above might give you a different perspective and I hope that I've answered the OP's question somewhat.

I'm hoping that the OP didn't look up the meaning of "poltroon" before he chose to include it in his thread title, because to brand all officers as "abject cowards; craven, recreant cowards - persons who show fear or timidity; characterised by complete cowardliness, cowardly, fearful - lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted," is not only unacceptable, but shows a complete lack of understanding about the Service as a whole and the job it's trying to do.

RG

What a great picture! I like the "ABBA-esque" pose, too.

Ray.

I was going to ask if the heat was getting to you, then I saw where you live, so it must be something else!

Ray

Thanks, Paul - accepted unreservedly.

That's wrong on both examples, but I'm sure this thread has gone far enough off topic already.

Ray.

Amazing! This thread started out as an anti-police rant. Following several other reasonable replies (while I was typing one of my own), it turns out that there's much more to the story than originally revealed. Finally, the OP says he's "not annoyed at the cops at all." So what was the point of all that hot air and indignation?

Ray

Well, as you joined on June 10th and have made such a high number of posts, I can only bow to your greater knowledge, longevity, rationality and experience of this Forum. Jeez.

Ray.

To you, Pauly, it may well be just "another shot of the lil' dude at bathtime," but, to me, the expression could also signify fear or apprehension and it reminds me of the NSPCC TV campaign, enhanced by the use of B & W rather than colour. IMO, colour would have given it a completely different feeling.

Sorry, probably just me and my former career, but when I first saw it, it sent a bit of a shiver down. Could have been a lot to do with the "peeping round the door" aspect, I suppose.

Ray.

I prefer the original. For me, the reflections are more obvious in the mono version.

Ray