General Policing Discussions

Anyone working the Royal Wedding with duties in connection with the wedding ? Tell us what your going to be doing and where ? C.

Haven't seen it up yet so thought I'd post it, please delete if it has already been uploaded.

Hi, I am about to become a Special for the second time. I was wondering what people told their car insurance company about being a Special and traveling to work in a Police Uniform? If I remember rightly, as soon as you are wearing the uniform then you are on duty, so traveling to the station means you are on duty. It was a pain telling the insurance company and they have upped my policy for business use! Can people tell me what they have done for this? Ta Spanky

Hi all Got an award from university for services to the community due to the time volunteering as a special whislt at uni. It's a black tie event etc, but was just wondering, hopefully without sounding like a vain showoff, whether anyone's been to anything similar and whether they were expected to wear their police tunic. Photos wills be taken so was thinking that becauase i was representing the specials thats what i'd be expected to wear? Hope that question doenst look to pompous cheers

I'm not sure what to do as I've never rang the police before and don't want to give a statement or anything.. any suggestions?

Might sound like a daft question, but what are the different sirens police cars are fitted with used for? Do they use a certain siren when approaching traffic/going through a town centre/going through a red light, etc etc? Thanks.

I have been recently asked the law on Razor wire after a complaint from a member of the public about the use of razor wire on a commercial premises near where I am based. The basic question is as follows, the premises has an outer fence of wire mesh around 2 m high, then there is a gap of 1 m on the ground between the fence and a role of razor wire placed on the ground, the razor wire is on private land and behind a fence and acts as a second barrier should intruders get through the fence. The outer fence does have security signs warning of razor wire. I have heard stories that razor wire is illegal or breaches human rights ? but I can't see how as the wire is on priva…

Hi All, Out of interest i would like to know how much notice individual BOCU's require before you can turn out for duty as an MSC Officer? There appears to be quite a variation across the MPS from what i've heard which definitely merits some discussion, so here are the Q's: 1) How much advance notice does your BOCU require? (i.e. 24 hrs /14 days etc) 2) Are you happy with this? 3) Does it appear manageable from the BOCU's point of view?

Hello Just had a question regarding special Constable duties and Holidays. As the minimum requirement is working 4 Hours per week. How do the Constabulary accomadate you if you want to take time off, e.g. if you have a holiday planned for 2-3 weeks, would it be a problem trying to get a holiday? Secondly, if you travel as part of your work, e.g. in some circumstances 1+week how would this be possible, or do the constabluary require you to work minimum 4 hours per week. APPLYing to Lancashire Constabulary BTW.

I was reading through some old legislation the other day when I came across an interesting point. Assault police and obstruct police used to be serious offences! With the recent news that less assault police cases would receive custodial sentences (I don't remember the full details but the Home Office are introducing new sentencing guidelines for assault police) as well as some CPS Prosecutors views that 'the police should expect to be assaulted in their line of work' I was shocked to see that for some reason the offence of assaulting a constable in the execution of his/her duty was made LESS serious when the Police Act 1996 came in. This shows how society has eroded the…

Audio recording of police confronting a photographer. To be honest the photographer didn't handle it in a very mature way and should've just left at 2 minutes in when they said he could go, and from the looks of it he was being intrusive with where he was standing for his photographs. However to my knowledge he wasn't legally doing anything wrong, and it makes me cringe when I hear police officers misquoting laws relating to public photography. If they wanted him to move from the sterile area why couldn't they have told him to do so in the first place rather than reel off rubbish like ''you have no power to photograph military personnel'' ''public privacy law'' ''you ne…

Hello, I know that in America, police carry metal badges, is it the same in the UK, or does our police just have ID cards? Regards, Jackisback

Hi, I used to be a Special in the late 80's to the early 90's when you had blue shirts handcuffs with a chain and a truncheon also no stab vest . Now I have been accepted as a Special starting training in Summer. The process for being attested and training has changed a lot since I joined, back then you were attested in the morning and got your uniform afterward then had one weekend of very basic training and that was it. Thank goodness it has changed and that there are 12 weekends of training before you are attested and walk the streets. I was wondering if anyone has been serving since the late 80's, could tell me how being a Special has changed since then? Cheers …

Given that the role of SC is a voluntary one that people do for many many reasons, do you think there is scope for a voluntary PCSO role? I personally think it would be a good idea. Where I work we have a good number of police volunteers who don't want to be police officers, but enjoy giving up their time to assist the police and work to help the community. Thoughts anyone?

* * *I must emphasise that this is purely a "what if" and I am not involved in an IPCC enquiry in any way* * * Whilst reading through the IPCC's press release section on its website ( http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/news/Pages/default.aspx ) I saw the phrase "we have started conducting door to door enquiries" etc several times. I was wondering, if they knocked at your door, as a police officer, and you gave them some information - and you came by that information not through your duties as a police officer - should you, would you, for the sake of accountability declare that you are also, in fact, a police officer? I'm guessing that answer is a straightforward "yes".