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Talented former cop's witty ditty on broken police service
Fedster + posted a topic in Police Oracle Features
Ex-Met officer tells Police Oracle why he 'couldn't make it to the end', including grievances with former commissioner. �There once was a job, it was the greatest one on earth..." A Metropolitan Police officer “absolutely fed up” with the job has taken to his piano and social media to perform a humorous, yet blunt, song about the state of policing - a month after leaving. Ashley Webber, a former response officer in Hillingdon, joined the force ten years ago and has begun a five-year career break - but admitts he doubts he will be returning. The 32-year-old’s catchy ditty focuses on budget cuts, 12-hour shifts, crime awareness groups – which he labels as “self-entitled middle-class buffoons”- and issues with former Met Commissioner Lord Bernard Hogan-Howe. -Contains strong language “Life’s too short my friends, couldn’t see it to the end,” belts out the cop-turned-musician. Speaking to Police Oracle, Mr Webber says he was driven to leave the force mainly due to “ludicrously high” expectations from officers – exacerbated by Lord Hogan-Howe’s unattainable initiatives. “We are stripped of limited resources, yet we were being dispatched to everything. “His promise was ‘you will see a cop regardless of the problem’ – yet a peelian principal states ‘you will not pander to the public’- the irony. That is one thing I can’t stand.” Serving the force also began to take its toll on his wife and his four-year-old son with Ashley finding himself returning home every day feeling angry and stressed. “I just don’t enjoy helping the public anymore. In the end I thought 'I have got to get out'.” He is now pursuing his life-long dream of becoming a musician after becoming side-tracked in the past, dropping out of university and falling into a policing role when he realised it may be difficult to make it in the competitive industry. A PCSO for 18 months before becoming a Met PC, Mr Webber reflects back and realises he was “too young” at the time. “My heart wasn’t 100 per cent in it, but it felt like the right thing to do.” His love of music stems from listening to Capital Gold at his parent’s house as a child and his impressive piano skills were learnt from the age of 12. When asked where he sees the force in five years’ time he said: “Some things will go full circle and safer neighbourhood teams will go back to how it was. I also think they will realise the new borough mergers will not work. “The last nail in the coffin for me is when they introduced iPads - how many stabbings will an iPad prevent?” View On Police Oracle