General Policing Discussions

So yesterday I was en-route to a petrol station late at night and accidentally drove past the turning for it, I decided to turn up the next road and turn around, as I drove up the road I saw a marked police vehicle at the end of the road which appeared to be a cul-de-sac/dead end, so decided to turn around in the entrance to another side road that branched off the road I was on. Obviously the PC's in the vehicle saw me coming towards them sat in their marked police vehicle and then suddenly turn and go the other way, as I expected they decided to follow me and stopped me for a quick chat. Before they said anything I jumped out and said "I know how it looks" as I was…

Hello all, I am looking to transfer to Surrey Police and have a number of questions. If anyone can answer some or all of them it would be a great help! If anyone has recently transferred any general comments or advice surrounding the process would be appreciated. Thanks... Is overtime easy to come by? Is this usually staying on to help the next shift or can extra days be requested etc... How soon after starting would a response driving course be given? Are these easy to get or is there a long waiting list? Do police station have parking for personal cars? What is the shift pattern like, is it the usual 6 on 4 off?

Probably this topic was discussed before and I apologise if I repeat it. As my career as a PC will start in January and I have full support of my family as they are relocating with me to Essex and basically starting a new life there. So I am wondering if you get any threats to your families or to you personally or if someone in their desire to retaliate is stalking you. How do you deal with situations like this? Do you tell your family about it? And another point I’d like to discuss is how understanding your family needs to be. I understand that as a PC you don’t get to spend all Christmases home with the kids or you do a lot of overtime due to situations, so you’re n…

There is a situation within my family that will have seemed to first group of attending police as just a domestic. Cross allegations of fear and abuse etc. Anyway the issues seemed to go away ... She got her divorce, she was safe, moved away from London and the abuser access to his daughter. Him: 50. Long record of violence and drugs... accusations of violence, conviction for drugs and as recently as 2011 an 18 month sentence for stabbing someone. Plus 6/7 suicide attempts. Her: 50. Nowt.. but during a two month period after asking for a divorce he accused her of abuse and she was put in a cell overnight, twice. The last time she had a recording sh…

Your an ambulance! But seriously, the instance of ambulance calling police with a medical emergency they simply can't cover seems to be increasing. We are frequently asked to go and end up driving the person to hospital because we can't leave the person and can't wait the 4h for the next ambulance. I'm not blaming them, they are cut to the bone and worse. Does anyone have a force policy or guidance in place about this matter? We carry a huge risk doing transport, especially without proper medical assessment and should something go wrong the IPCC will be ready with their claws out.. I can't find anything on our systems that is very helpful.

Afternoon all, A question about the possibility of switching forces. I'm in sixth form college and doing A levels atm but I'd like to join the specials force at the end of March after turning 18 but my question is, I'm planning on going to uni, so how easy is it to switch forces after about 5/6 months (bear in mind much of it will be training and processing the application, that's if I even get in) to whichever force is in the area that my uni is (probably either Manchester or possibly Oxford/somewhere in Scotland). Or is there a way to train in the area I'm at at the moment and then start working as a Special wherever I ended up at uni (how long does training take??…

This question is mainly curiosity. If you want to specialse any time after your 2 year probation period is up, how do you go about doing so? I know it'll probably be obvious once I'm 'in', but curiosity has got the better of me and once I'm a probationer i wonder if asking this question might mark my card in a negative way or lead to all the "walk before you run" clichés, understandably. Say you have aspirations to become CID/AFO/RPU/Dogs/Donkey walloping etc, how do you go about it and can you show your hand publicly? Are vacancies advertised when available or to you have to solely keep your ear to the ground? What things have the most/least vacancies or oppor…

I've recently been issued my PNB (pocket notebook) by my force and I wanted to know the rules around hard backing it (protective case) or a cover for it as I can imagine a few rainy days and being in my kit bag it will get damaged as it's pretty flimsy. Does anybody have any additional info around this? R

Hi. I am proofreading a novel and have a few questions. The author has stated that 2 Detective Inspectors liase with the family in the hospital after serious GBH and briefly question the victim's girlfriend in one scene. Would two Detective Inspectors investigate this? Or would it be one detective alone? Or some other rank of officer or a mixture? Would they be wearing plain clothes? Sorry for all the questions. Just want to make sure I get this right :) Any help is appreciated!

Mainstream media. Is it a help or a hindrance in your view with regards to reporting on police issues? It seems like so long ago now that the debacle which was the police "pay rise" is all but forgotten. It was a hot topic for a day or two then the Tube bombing attempt occurred and it was completely wiped from public attention. Every time brave officers and emergency services respond to a terrorist incident they are praised by media, but the day after they're being slated again by the very same paper or news channel for one reason or another. "Crime levels increased", "Police violence", "Response times are getting longer" etc etc. It is very frustrating to…

This thread may be a controversial one but I feel it is one that needs raising. One thing I've become more and more aware over the last eight years or so is the lack of front facing policing within our communities, I understand this may be a regional issue and the cuts have affected some forces more than others in varying different ways but I have noticed that there is very little if any proactive policing being done within our towns and cities, policing seems to have become 'fire brigade' in nature where it is largely response based with priorities to police certain areas of criminality rather than preventing others. In the city where I work we have a massive issue…

In under 13 months I will become 18, however I will still be in full time education (sixth form). I’ve been interested in joining the police service for as long as I can possibly remember. I work at McDonald’s (yeah I know) and will likely continue to do so until I’m 18. Further to this I regularly attend the gym. I have participated in acpolice ride along and had station tours, which should help to support my application by a degree. Realistically what do up think my chances are of being accepted as a special either by BTP or my local force while I am in sixth form? Of course I would contribute weekends and look to give up my job at that time to gain police experi…

So, after the tragic events of this weekend, one of my colleagues asked me if I thought that routine arming of officers (even just sidearms) was on the way? Any thoughts? In a somewhat-related topic, but one that has been covered extensively elsewhere; one Special who was training us this weekend commented that he didn't think that Specials being issued Taser was too far away (his reasoning, the pain stops instantly, unlike PAVA, and it's non(/less)-injurious than a baton).