General Policing Discussions

Do forces do ride alongs for those of us who aren't actually planning to join the job? I'd read that they do it for those going through the recruitment process, to see what it's like but not sure if that is something which is 'open' to the public in general.

This video popped up in my Facebook feed this morning, some Thames mudlark called Nicola White has found a Colt 45 handgun along the River Thames during low tide, she doesn't appear to realise the implications of what she has found and taken it home and cleaned it up for display! So, here we go, I sent METPOL a message through their online reporting tool, I got confirmation that someone would be in touch, and I then got another email saying please can I call them on 101 and they would like to discuss my report, but please don't send us an email because the mailbox is not monitored! Just one problem I live in the East Midlands and the locals will not be interested in …

I was on holiday in Dubai and I was arrested by an officer. When I was asking for directions. It was an absolute nightmare as I couldn't speak the language. During the whole process of being booked in (I presume that's the term from watching TV shows) officers kept walking past me and shaking there heads and smiling.. I was kept in a cell for 36hrs before being released. Literally given no reason what I did wrong. Upon release the man at the desk simply said get out. One officer came to me and said take this message back to your country. I managed to find out that one of the officers nephews was treated badly by Sussex Police and had a grudge…

Hi All, I wonder if anyone here could tell me if they think some activity I have seen going on in my area is suspicious or not? It's been bugging me for months, it seems so blatantly dodgy but then I think surely if you were doing something dodgy you would be a bit more discreet and clever about it. I know of one other resident who has noticed it but I doubt he will report it either as he's in his 80's. The Potential Offender: White male. Probably between 20 and 30 years old. Moved into a house on the next street from me last year and has been doing 'his thing' since then. Context: Even though the guys lives on th…

Hi All, A few months ago I was going to report some suspicious activity to the police via the online form on my local police website, however, there are so many questions it asks just to do that and one of them kind of annoyed me so I didn't bother. The question that annoyed me... it asked my race, I mean what has my race got to do with anything, I'm a white, English guy but I got to thinking how it would feel to be a black person, they may see something suspicious in their neighbourhood, go online to report it - and get asked about the colour of their skin. It reminded me of a situation around 2010, someone broke into a shop along the street from me about …

What are some of the most common misconceptions the public have about policing? It can be anything from 'you need a warrant' when you actually don't, to lack of knowledge about resources and how many (or how little) officers there are available.

Question regarding the new hate speech laws due to come into effect 1st April, can a take away install CCTV with audio recording (inc all relevant signage) to help protect staff in case of disgruntled customer looking to lash out. Kind Regards, Winston Smith, again

I have seen a few videos where the person filming an incident is told 'if you keep filming then the phone might be seized as evidence of a crime'. What legislation or powers would be used for that, where the person filming is not a suspect or believed to have any involvement in the incident other than the fact they are filming it? Doesn't seizing the phone of a witness risk making them less cooperative rather than if you just took their details and pinged them an evidence.com/Axon Citizen link to upload the video when they got home?

Someone at work was expressing frustration as their phone was stolen, gave the police the location from Find My iPhone only to be told there is nothing the force can do. I can see it from both sides, as knowing where it is but not really being able to do anything about it must be very annoying. But GPS is not perfect. I record my runs and when I look at them on the map, the GPS sometimes claims that I have run straight through a row of houses parallel to the street rather than the street itself! So while it's good enough for directions and having a rough idea what routes you've taken, it's probably not reliable enough to identify a specific property if there are lots of o…

Irish lad In London this weekend from another part of the UK. About to become a probationer with the Met… waiting on vetting to clear. If anyone is around for a drink in a public place… be great to get the real stories and what I’m getting myself into 👍🏼 - be great to make a few pals too!!!!

Do forces in the UK buy data sets from Facebook and other social media companies? I've been reading about American forces doing this and it's rather interesting. Now I am not very familiar with their laws, and I know it's a different situation as there's lots more individual police forces with different authorities. But what I understand to be the case is that when an American force wants to compel Facebook to release certain information they often require a subpoena. Some forces, if they can't get a subpoena granted, are instead just buying the data from the many marketing companies Facebook sell it too. That seems a bit like 'cheating' to me, legal but not really in the…