General Policing Discussions

I'm a massive twitter geek, and I always come across profiles saying in their bios "Views are of my own" etc. What is the policy on social networking? - I've seen lots of PCSO, Specials and PCs that have twitter accounts that are strictly professional.

Ive just finished my OST, in which our vests were slated by the trainers "when did stores start buying the kit from toysRus". since then the following have been in my mind: 1. where am i supposed to put my PNB as their are no pockets on the vest and i don't intend to wear my fleece/ hi viz in summer? 2. why have i been issued a torch but nowhere to put it other than my pocket? 3. why was half my kit missing when i got given it? ( i know its common practice for some things to be missing) it just feels a bit like the force have done half a job and expect us to sort the rest out, such as buying more pouches for the the U/belt. what do people think about the kit they've …

Hi guys, So the company who I work for (I wont give names) who specifies in retail has started to become funny about me requiring the time off for Hampshire's Special Constabulary. Now like most of you in the specials, I obviously want this to become my future career to become a PC full time, but I have come stuck with whom I work with at the moment. I've going through my foundation training recently and this requires attendance in Southampton for Hampshire, considering I live in the north of Hampshire, this is a good 1 hour drive. I have been asking my company for whom I work for now to give me the time off so I can complete these workshops in Southampton. They have n…

Carnage, for those of you who do not have the pleasure of living in an student related area, is a organised pub crawl that offers students cheap drink deals in several venues around town. Generally they are held once a term. http://www.carnageuk.com/safety/ They claim to be incident free. Now i know this isn't the entire truth having been on one before. Has anyone had any issues with them in the past that they are happy to discuss here? I am working one next week in a medical capacity so i am expecting to be fairly busy!

Are there any PSU Medics on here? I want to look at the kit other forces are issuing to medics so if you wouldn't mind telling me what kit you get issued it'd help. Thanks

I've applied to be a SC and I'd like to do some revision beforehand on the law, terminology and other very useful things like that. Can anyone recommend some books that cover a pretty wide range of law and how to arrest someone etc i.e "I am arresting you......" I've already read a book called 'Special Constables Guide 2013: A Handbook for Special Constables of England, Scotland and Wales' which I found helpful but I was wanting more. If anyone could recommend any, please do! Regards

I appreciate this might be more of a force specific / each has their own policy on it but for example. You pull a driver over for using mobile phone / any other offence which carries three points. Upon PNC check of said driver it shows that they have 9 penalty points, obviously with the new offence this would take them to twelve. Are they allowed to drive off and they then surrender their licence when they pay the fine? Or are they now a dizzy driver as they have 12 points (technically 9 as the new offence isn't actually endorsed until they produce their licence to the court clerk). .

Quick question folks. During training we are exposed to CS for a variety of reasons but... Are officers who carry tasers exposed to the effects of tasers during their training for the same reasons? Even a 'half strength' zap as it were. Literally just sprang to mind. Cheers. Apologies if this is the wrong section to post this in.

Afternoon all, I'm looking at creating a reference guide for myself in preparation for the Policing FND 'll be starting in September. I've gone over the work and reference articles I have from college all that time ago to refresh things, now I want to gain an insight into the pieces of legislation a police officer uses on a day to day basis (I realise that's a large amount and varies day to day), do a bit of reading around them, look at some case studies etc and hopefully at the end of it have a general knowledge of the law being applied. Can someone possibly provide a list of legislation they think it may be a benefit to understand for the future? I'm not intending to …

Incident from Glasgow cops parking on yellow lines to get a coffee. "Deputy Chief Constable Campbell Corrigan made a humble apology as a senior officer investigated the incident. Mr Corrigan, who will oversee the inquiry, said: “I am absolutely ashamed of the conduct of those involved.†Mr Corrigan said the force were taking the incident very seriously – and that he was upset two of the officers were not wearing hats. He added: “Again, that is not what I would expect. I want to see police officers looking like police officers – and I believe that is what the public expects too." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------…

Apologies if this has been done to death but after reading the post about useful legislation to get to grips with, I was looking on Amazon for the Beat Officer's Companion and saw 2 books by Stewart Calligan- Points to Prove and Taking Statements. Has anyone else got these/read them and got opinions? They're £15 each so not exactly breaking the bank anyway! The Beat Officer's Companion has a new version but it's not available on there yet so I'll be keeping an eye for that.

I applied for the Met specials last November. I have passed Day 1 and Day 2 but have not heard about security checks. The vetting office telephoned me about a week ago to ask if anything had changed in my circumstances. I take that as they have just started my security checks which i think will take about 35 working days. In June the met e-mailed me to enquire when i would be interested in starting training. I suggested September or November but again heard nothing back. If succesful how do the met inform you of acceptance into the specials, e-mail or by post? I just hope the time its taking for my application to be gone through is because of the Olympics.

The sheer volume of aid provided to London during the riots last year and also the Olympics highlights that crime and preventing disorder is a national concern; especially as offending because more sophisticated and more globalised. Are out current arrangements out of date? I don't support just having one police force for England and Wales. But is that a a solution? Should we follow the NHS example, which is a national service made up of lots of stand alone organisations? Could more integration save money and lead to a better service, whilst still retaining geographical organisations? Does the variation of systems, approaches and equipment lead to inefficiency? What…

Trawling 4OD, i had the misfortune of coming across this program- http://www.channel4.com/programmes/teenage-vampires/4od Its about American teenagers (and some Adults) that cut each other and drink each others blood. They hang out and say things like 'we are vampires or werewolves'...but then 'that blood is gross, its so dark'...after that have just grazed a fellow 'vampire' to lick their blood. This is 'feeding'. It makes for some fairly unusual viewing as it's quite significantly outside of the 'norm' as shows some significantly uneducated ideas and practices in regard to how they are doing things, within their already questionable beliefs. It does smack of aimless…

Hi, can anyone explain how the special constabulary ranks work? Do special sergeants ever manage (or issue instructions) to regular PC's or do specials work independently of regulars? Thanks.