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OK folks So in the new year we are looking to have a bit of a spring clean. We'll be reviewing all forum areas and content so don't be surprised of some things move around a bit. With that in mind is there anything you would like to see more of? Less of? Something new? The forum is only as good as it's members and it you folks that make it worthwhile. All suggestions will be considered so don't hold back. I shall try to answer any questions you may have on here. but if you want to message me directly then I can assure you I will remain anonymous (if that's what you want). One we start to make any changes I shall endeavour to document them all into a new thread so you can see what was new. Anything we change or adopt from one of your suggestions you will of course where appropriate be acknowledged publicly.

What would you like to see on this forum? What can we do to make this place better for everyone or just for you? We are looking for your ideas. It could be something you've always longed for in a forum, or maybe it's something you've seen on another forum that you think would be good on here. Let us know your ideas. All ideas will be considered although if it is very outlandish it probably won't be considered for long. It can be anything at all no matter whether you think it can or can't be done, leave that bit up to us. Please put your suggestions below or if you would rather not say them out loud, then please feel free to DM me and I promise, you will remain anonymous to all members. Thank you.

I know this will probably vary depending on what kind of team you're on/role etc. When I was on response I used to carry a kit bag that could fit my hat/coat etc., along with various bits of paperwork. Being cheap, I just used a £15 holdhall from JJB, which kind of worked. Unfortunately, as it was just a holdall, paperwork and things did get tatty and now the whole bag has pretty much fallen apart after 2 years of being thrown around, so I'm looking for a replacement. What do people use as a kit bag? I know people use things of niton999 and patrol store, but from looking at some colleague's they seem to be quite huge, and looking at those websites, a bit pricey. In my current role I only spend about half my time in a vehicle, so I'm looking for something cheap and that I can just quickly grab. I was looking at something along the lines of http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004LSBYV6 Anyone with any ideas?

All your questions regarding torches can be found and answered here.

It's a bit chilly out there tonight (-1 at the moment...), so what do you have to keep away the cold? What recommendations do you have? Base layers? Currently have Primark's finest thermal base layer long johns and various base layer tops (merino and others) Gloves? Issued leather gloves with a wool lining (Met gloves). Scarf/Gaiter? Buff thingy-ma-gig and have just bought a cheapy fleece equivalent off of eBay for the grand total of £1. Any bargains out there?

If you carry one (or more) what is it? Also would you recomend it? what are it's pros and cons? Hopefully this will give people who want one some advice and in also curious as to what people have. For the more visual of us post a link or picture I carry the Leatherman skeletool, I would recomend it as it's light and compact enough and has the main tools I require; knife, pliers, screwdrivers, bottle opener, and clips Pros, for it it's the lack of clutter and its ease of access for the blade (no need to open the tool up). I also think it looks cool! Cons, has a nylon holder, could be cheaper for me, possibly- locking blade (see other topics!). See here: http://www.leatherman-store.co.uk/multi-tools-c27/leatherman-skeletool-multi-tool-p129/s219?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=leatherman-skeletool-multi-tool-lt85&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&gclid=CNfM86jclsMCFYjKtAodX1wAbg

For the past couple of months (ever since I've started wearing my fleece/coat over winter) I've been having problems with eczema on my torso and back. The combination of sweating and the stab vest being tight to my body have caused red patches to flare up and it's really irritating. Unfortunately it's a choice of being too hot or too cold, I can't go on foot patrol in just a wicking shirt and vest. Our force usually wear fleeces under stab vests, I was thinking of starting to wear my fleece over my stab vest and seeing if that helps my skin breath a little better, although I will look the odd one out as no one wears it like this! I was wondering if anyone has had similar problems with eczema or knows of any solutions?

So I have just converted to using my force-issued Tac Vest after 5 years of wearing a kit belt - and I'm a convert! I find it much, much easier to wear, much more comfortable, and everything is easily accessible and not in the way when I am trying to get in the car at high speed! What do you all think?

What do you carry that may not be issued but you feel should be? What gear/equipment can you recommend others get their hands on and carry and why do you recommend it?

Really not getting on with my belt kit. Very comfortable for me personally as I'm quite skinny so everything digs in... Looking at purchasing a vest! Any recommendations? Many thanks y'all! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am often amused by the handle people choose for themselves on the site. A few people use their real names, whereas most, myself included, use a made up one. Mine, Cathedral Bobbie is based on my job as a Cathedral Constable. What's behind your handle, do tell.

On the old forum there was a topic on how you laid out your belt kit, and what you had where. Stepping it up a notch I thought I'd start one where you'd upload a picture of it instead. All kit belts welcome from UK police officers and PCSO to you guys abroad and in other jobs How do you feel about this? If not I'd be interested to know what you put where and of its personal issue kit/holders or from stores. Il post mine when I can figure out how (Tav vests welcome) Edit: I did it!:

We're running a twitter competition to give fellow tweeters the chance to win a £30 voucher for @Police-Supplies and VIP membership on the forum for 1 year. It's free an easy to enter all you need to do is retweet the tweet and follow our twitter account. Good luck!

I wrote this diary some time ago when the older forums were still active, hope you all enjoy. My life as a special started when I was at university, at the time I was studying Public Services. A friend who is now a serving officer was applying for the specials at the time and kept telling me to apply as he thought I'd be good for the job. So without giving it any thought I applied, once I'd hit send that was it, I felt a stone sink to my stomach. Around two months later I received some correspondence from a police email address, at first I wondered what I'd done but it turned out to be a recruitment officer telling me that I'd passed the paper sift. The email warned me that the real application would come through. A couple of days later I received a fully packed A4 envelope re-confirming everything that the email had said and also my paper application forms. I was being asked everything: Health, Financial, References etc. Honestly, 101 questions has nothing on these applications. I was quite concerned with the Health as I'd previously had a very serious health condition. However I completed the forms and hoped for the best. Again around a couple of months later I got a phone call from the same recruitment officer stating that the service were happy with my application and that they'd like to offer me to come to an assessment day. I'd heard that these days were notoriously difficult to pass, so was starting to worry. All this from someone who originally wasn't too bothered about joining. I was now starting to really get into it. I think Road Wars and Traffic cops were a lot to do with it though. The day came round, so I put on my best and only suit and went with high hopes. I arrived at the testing centre, gave my name at reception and was told to sit in the corner. As I looked around the room I saw 7 other faces all looking as worried as I was. All of a sudden the reception door opened and a tall figure in a police uniform called us all in. We were taken into a room and sat down on individual tables. Before us were some papers, a clock beeped and we began. After the test was done we were told to go wait in the reception again, to await our interview. Interview!? I wasn't told I'd be doing an interview, my heart raced and my brain froze trying to think of what to say. I was led into a dark, boxy room with two officers already sat there. I felt like I was on a murder charge or something, one officer greeted me and asked me the basic questions of name and such. As the interview got underway I was asked questions about all my life and also how I felt I could meet the force competencies. I made sure I followed the other officer's body language and thought about my answers before saying them. About 30-45 minutes passed and I was told thank you for coming and we'll be in touch. As you do, I left the building thinking my police career had come to an end. I wasn't prepared, there was no way I could have passed the tests. I later found out a couple of weeks after that I passed my assessment and interview. It seemed I was the only one out of the 7 other people. Quite some time passed before I got my date for the medical, however when it came I was very nervous due to having a previous medical complaint. Again I put on my lovely suit and arrived at the medical testing centre. At first I was asked about my health and such, then I had the lovely drugs test whereby they took some of my DNA and my lovely yellow urine. I was then asked to sit in a small box and place some headphones on, very low frequencies were played to me and I had to push a button when I could hear them. It was a very strange feeling; however one I managed to pass. During the end of the test, I was asked to go speak to the force doctor just to confirm whether he thought it would be ok for me to work, he wasn't sure so wrote to my consultant. That was it, I had passed everything they'd thrown at me and was now awaiting a training course date. I couldn't wait, nor could I believe that I'd got this far. A lot of time passed and at one point I had thought of applying to another force as they were taking applications for regulars however on the day I was going to phone them, I received a call from my recruitment officer telling me he had a date for me. I couldn't tell you how pleased I was when I heard that. Me, a special constable... it was really going to happen. Training was a lot of fun, it was based over six months worth of weekends, we learnt about the core basics of law and mainly things we'd be dealing with once we got out on those mean streets. The trainers were fantastic, always there to lend a hand whether you were at training or at home, they were nice enough to give you their personal mobile numbers for help. The group that I was in was quite a diverse group of some old and some young, but we all got along and are still friends to date. During the training we had a couple of tests to contend with, which you should make sure you revise for! I think the day to look most forward to is going for your uniform fitting, It really makes it feel like it's becoming a reality! A couple of the days to watch out for are your defensive tactics (yes it's true you do get sprayed with CS and yes it hurts) your pre-patrol day (such good fun, and informative too) and your attestation day (start polishing your boots as soon as you get them and learn how to march). So that's it. I'm now a fully fledged Special Constable, of course I'm still a probationer and I know the work starts here. Be prepared for about 35-40% of things you've learned to mean something. Since I've been patrolling I've realised that they don't teach you quite a lot of things, but I guess that's for you to learn. Now that I'm based at my station I'm mainly tasked with NPT duties. This can range from patrolling events, scene guarding, to going out with Response. The new teams I'm working with are lovely and all are very helpful. I don't think you seem to get the officers that don't respond well to Specials anymore, I haven't yet found anyone like that anyway. (Part 2) Hi Guys, So thought I'd add some more to my diary as I can see a lot of people seem to what to know what you do once you've completed training. Hope this helps. So once I'd completed training I was extremely excited but nervous too, no more playing anymore, what I do now actually means something. The day after my attestation I was straight on the phone to my senior section officer asking for shifts, he was quoting me 3 weeks before I could come in. Pfft I thought, I wanted to get out with my new uniform and use everything I'd learnt. About 2 minutes after I put the phone down I had a sergeant phoning me asking if I could come in on Friday night and he'll show me round and put me out on shift. Well I thought, of course I'll accept, you couldn't stop me. Friday came around, and I went to my station I nervously got my things out of my car and walked over to the help-desk asking for my sergeant. I was greeted by him and got told to put on my uniform including stabvest. I was then shown to our main hub and invited into a team briefing. The sergeant announced I was the new special, everyone said Hi and that was that. I was tasked with another special and we went out on active duty. This was it, I was a real police officer and I was doing real Police things. The officer 'Tom' told me we'd have to make a quick trip up to another station and I'd be given all my admin stuff like Fixed Penalty Notices, Stop & Search forms etc. I was also given my CS and Pocketbook. That was it for that night, I only did a couple of hours but already I could see that I was going to like this. Just driving past people in a police van gave me such a feeling of power and responsibility. In that these people were relying on us to go and help them in there hour of need. When I was a young boy I used to try and listen to the police radio's through our all tape machine, every so often you'd hear a crackle of police officers talking to the Comms, but now, I was listening to it through my earpiece. My second shift was fantastic was very different, My sergeant told me it would be very beneficial for me to come in as we did drugs raids on various pubs around our force area. (I was very lucky to be allowed this, but it was a great experience and real 'eye' opener.) I had to use my airwaves terminal and my pocket book which was great. My sergeant was pushing me into situations I wasn't used to, like searching people and doing 117 checks. After we did the raids, we then went out on proactive patrol. It was fantastic! I got my first blue light run, it really is as great as it sounds. We did lots more stop and searches and went to some real jobs. I saw my first domestic (it's quite tough to deal with), car chases, pub fights and nuisance youths. So I'm now around 2 months in and I can honestly the best thing I've ever done. If you're considering don't give it a second thought. I got my first arrest which was awesome, it was for a warrant. As hard as you try I'm sure you'll forget your caution. A lot of the teams are very helpful and they'll help you obtain your first arrest, after that your on your own and it can get quite competitive. It really is true what your trainers say, the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it. If you get a chance to take part in things, don't hesitate, it'll probably be fantastic for your training and your competencies, which you've to meet within 2 years. (Part 3) Now, where do I begin! I decided to do 2 8 hour shifts to make up my hours, to think I wasn't bothered about the shifts I was wrong. My first night I was paired up with a new constable from another force, it was nice as it was somebody new to talk to (make sure you get to know everyone, they're going to be your new family) Our first call, we blue lighted it to the call, it was a dropped 999 call so we blued and two'd it to the destination, it still puts a huge grin on my face even though I'm only 3 months in service. As we got there in turned out to be a domestic where a woman had beaten her husband nearly to death. I don't care what anyone says short of going to a scene where somebody has died, domestics are probably the worst jobs you can go to. This is where your resilience will definitely come in handy. We arrested the female and took her to the station, she was laughing and joking about what she'd done. It later turned out that she'd split his skull open and broke 4 of his ribs. My colleague was finishing so I stayed on, until the finish. As there was no-one in the station I could go out with, it was organised for me to go on Response again but with a sister station to us. I love response, I've only done it twice but if you get the chance take it, you'll really learn stuff. We went to a few calls of fights and underage drinking, however it was an hour before we were both finishing and we got an emergency call to go to a burglary in progress, I'd been to places which had been broken into but not one in progress, my heart started pounding as I could feel the adrenaline starting to kick in. I replied over our radio and that was it, fast driving, blues and two's were on and we were gone. When we arrived we could hear glass breaking inside the house, I drew my baton and reached for my CS just in case we slowly entered the building. As both me and my colleague searched downstairs a floorboard twisted indicating that there was movement upstairs we both shouted POLICE at the tops of our voices, at that point I saw someone land on the grass in the garden, I was gone off the chase was on. My colleague called for the dogs and then was after the other person. I felt like my heart was going to explode, I was running faster than I'd ever run before through gardens and driveways. As a keen rugby player, I caught him and made one of the best tackles of my life. Before he could utter a word he was handcuffed and cautioned. His friend got away meaning we had both the dogs and a helicopter out. He was later found around 30 minutes after. I finished 2 hours after I should have, but I wasn't bothered I'd got another arrest and a damn good one at that. My second shift was spent with a traffic officer, this was just as fun as I have a keen interest in cars. If you get offered to do this, take it, you will learn more in a shift with traffic than in 5-10 shifts dealing with traffic. Our night was mainly spent checking cars and taking response calls when not busy. Hope this entertains you all, and if you have any questions regarding being a special or recruitment, I'll try and answer them as best I can. Adz

Met police accused of abusing black fireman have case to answer, says IPCC The IPCC has concluded there was evidence the officers racially stereotyped firefighter Edric Kennedy-Macfoy. Photograph: Casey Moore for the Guardian Six Metropolitan police officers accused of responding to an offer of assistance from an off-duty black firefighter by abusing him, dragging him from his car and shooting him with a Taser should face disciplinary charges for possible racial discrimination, the official watchdog has concluded. Edric Kennedy-Macfoy has accused police of behaving like wild animals when he approached them in a north London suburb to provide them with a description of a man he spotted throwing a rock at a police van. After a 20-month investigation into the case, which involved tracking down members of the public who witnessed the incident, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) concluded there was evidence the officers racially stereotyped the fireman, according to a summary of its key findings in the case, which has been seen by the Guardian. The IPCC is referring a dossier of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service after concluding a police constable could also face criminal charges over the use of the Taser. The watchdog also found police failed to act with integrity, courtesy, patience, discretion, professional judgment or common sense. The most senior-ranking officer among those accused, former inspector David Burgum, denied the charges, questioned the firefighter’s motives and took the unusual step of condemning the statutory watchdog that investigates serious police complaints. “In my opinion Mr Kennedy-Macfoy has cynically played the race card for his own ends,” Burgum said in a statement to the Guardian. “I do not consider that the IPCC have conducted an independent investigation. They are political organisation with a strong anti-police bias.” Kennedy-Macfoy was driving through Harrow around 3.30am in September 2011 when he saw a young man hurl the rock at the police van. After noting a description of the young man, Kennedy-Macfoy flagged down the van driver and approached a line of officers to pass the information on. A disagreement ensued in which, the IPCC said, several officers used abusive language against Kennedy-Macfoy. The off-duty fireman complained officers repeatedly swore at him, before charging at his car and pulling him from the vehicle. In an account he gave the Guardian in 2012, Kennedy-Macfoy, then 29, said he responded by calmly and showed his palms to the officers, telling them: “Listen guys, I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m a firefighter – I work with you lot and I just want to explain something.” He said the Taser was discharged, without warning, when he was walking backwards with his hands in the air. The final report from the IPCC investigation has not been made public or provided to any of the parties involved. However, a summary of the IPCC’s key findings, seen by the Guardian, concludes the police’s initial reaction to Kennedy-Macfoy was based purely on his ethnic appearance. The watchdog’s report names six officers, including Burgum, who it says have a case to answer for gross misconduct in respect of their alleged racial discrimination of Kennedy-Macfoy. In addition to the ex-inspector, they include a sergeant, three police constables and a special constable. One of the constables - the officer who twice discharged the Taser - could also face criminal charges, the IPCC states. “The IPCC has completed its investigation into a complaint made by Edric Kennedy- Macfoy relating to his arrest by [Met] officers in September 2011,” a spokesperson for the watchdog said. “The IPCC will be referring a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration related to an officer’s use of Taser.” The IPCC did not find sufficient evidence to uphold a complaint against two officers: a seventh officer, of constable rank, who was also present on the night, and a detective inspector who initially handled the fireman’s complaint. After Kennedy-Macfoy was shot with the Taser, he was arrested and charged with obstructing police. He was found not guilty after a trial at Brent magistrates court. During those proceedings Burgum gave evidence about the fireman’s racial appearance, which later formed part his complaint. Burgum told the court his officers were in a “stressful” situation and had been dealing with a group of partygoers who had been throwing missiles at them. According to a court clerk’s notes of proceedings, Burgum added: “I couldn’t say he was anything to do with the party. The party was all black. He was black. He had driven through the cordon. I had to do a quick risk assessment.” Burgum retired from the Met in January and now works for a private company that has an outsourced contract to train prospective Met police recruits. In his statement to the Guardian, Burgum called the account given by the fireman and apparently supported by the IPCC investigation “implausible in the extreme”. The ex-inspector is among the four officers the IPCC concluded have additional cases to answer for misconduct on the night – in his case, for swearing at Kennedy-Macfoy. Burgum said it was ridiculous for the IPCC to raise concern about his abusive language toward fireman because “Mr Kennedy-Macfoy swore at me first”. “The suggestion that the police reaction to Mr Kennedy-Macfoy was based purely on his ethnic appearance and that the police officers racially stereotyped him is likewise ridiculous,” he said, adding that some of his police colleagues present on the night were “of ethnic minority backgrounds” and they, too, reject the suggestion that this was “a racial incident”. Given he has retired, Burgum cannot face disciplinary proceedings. However, the other five officers, who all remain at the Met, could be subject to a misconduct hearing. The Met declined to say whether it would hold such a hearing. “As is normal procedure, we will consider the report’s finding and associated evidence and respond to the IPCC within the statutory 15 working days,” a Met spokesman said. If the Met decides against holding the hearing, the IPCC has powers to compel the force to do so. Asked if the watchdog planned to use that authority, an IPCC spokesperson said: “We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.” Kennedy-Macfoy’s solicitor, Shamik Dutta of the firm Bhatt Murphy, said: “In light of the IPCC’s findings we now look to the CPS and the Met police commissioner to properly consider all the evidence that has been gathered and to make a decision which does justice to that evidence.” The IPCC and Met have clashed over the Kennedy-Macfoy case before. His complaint was initially investigated by the Met’s professional standards department, with arm’s-length supervision from the IPCC. That internal inquiry provisionally concluded no police officer should face disciplinary or criminal proceedings. The IPCC then took the unusual step of rejecting the Met’s inquiry in its entirety, initiating the fully independent investigation. It is that inquiry that, after almost two years collecting and analysing the evidence, concluded six officers have a case to answer for racially-motivated misconduct. View the full article

Just wanted to get an update as to what individual forces allow with regard to driving in the special constabulary. The old table is a a few years out of date - I know a few forces have new policies now. Here's a survey for you to complete if you like. I'll collate the responses into a snazzy table. Mods: Wasn't sure whether to put this in the specials recruitment forum or not. Please move if you think necessary.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-30210199 Any familiar faces for those that are fans of traffic cops!

Wish the current heightened threat situation combined with high stress on our ambulance service is have been considering our first aid kits. Most of our cars have them, and they are useless and empty and my personal kit is an off the shelf one which would be next to pointless when dealing with life threatening stuff. I have decided to get a kit, suitable for immediate trauma, like stabbing or gun shots. Nothing fancy. Just to hold the fort until the pros arrive. I was thinking a couple of good field dressings, like Israele bandage, a pair of scissors tape and foil blanket. Was wondering if anyone else has one. Recommended one or knows who would know a good one. Etc

http://news.sky.com/story/1388316/west-midlands-police-ordered-back-to-base Stay safe out there!

What are your thoughts on this? I tweeted the CoP from my force twitter account and they have confirmed that this review will include the Special Constabulary.

Good Evening This time last year I opened the doors of Police Community for the very first time and welcomed each and every one of today's membership to join in our new forum. Since embarking on the journey to create the forum I have been overwhelmed by the level of support and engagement our members have had. In that 12 month period we have been supported by our sponsors @Gladstoneboots LTD and @Police-Supplies who had the foresight to see the true potential of Police Community and were quick to offer up their sponsorship which has allowed us to deliver on some projects and developments that we wanted to bring to our members so I thank both of them and hope to continue working in partnership for the foreseeable future. Of course, to make a forum like Police Community a true success there are some key individuals that help both on the frontend but also in the background. The moderation team led by @Cheetah have been truly fantastic in the time, commitment and support they have shown myself and @Chief Rat. Without that support we would not be able to keep the forum focused, the content fresh and relevant and ultimately give the forum the edge over our competitors from our forum descending into chaos. They ensure we have a sense of purpose and for moderating over 10,000 posts per month, a huge thank you from me to each and every one of the team. Lastly, where do I start, Over 1800 Members, Over 120,000 posts and Over 45,000 topics in the last 12 months our members have truly grown Police Community to be a very successful 1st year forum. You have welcomed new members, been supportive of others looking to join the police service and have created some very interesting debates along the way. Those of you that were given your VIP status for year one have already started to show your support by renewing your subscription and starting to support Police Community financially. Clearly I hope many more of you will continue to show your support in whatever way you can. As we move into our second year and start to grow even larger I am sure we will all enjoy the use of the forum, continue to engage frequently and let's maintain that robust debate. My commitment to you is that in return I will continue to develop, build and enhance your user experience as collaboratively we work to make Police Community the leading police forum in the UK. Happy Halloween and Thank You Chief Bakes Founder of Police Community

As you should all have noticed the forum software has now been updated to the latest version. There have been one or two changes and these have caused a couple of issues for some of our members. With this in mind this blog post should hopefully help you out with a couple of things. Notifications As some of you will have noticed you may have started receiving more notifications (emails). This is in part to how the site was originally set up by the authors of the software and it was automatically set to receive notifications when you contributed to a thread, whilst you may have been subscribed it didn't send a message. This was amended some time ago so that you don't by default automatically follow threads you contribute to. Because you may have historically been following some and it has all been sorted with this latest release you may have found that you are now receiving a number of emails/notifications. If you want to stop this with just a couple of clicks then that is easy. Go into your profile and click on your notifications settings, once the screen opens you need to uncheck the two buttons as shown below Make sure you then check or uncheck as necessary the buttons for what you receive notifications on That's it, you should no longer receive the notifications. We apologise if this has caused you some problems. New Content New content has changed extensively and is now referred to as an Activity Stream. Just as before you can change what appears in your activity stream but unlike before once you leave the site and come back it will have gone back to the default. This is where you can now create your own activity stream and set that as your default. At the top of the screen click on Activity, then select the Activity Stream drop down and at the bottom of here select 'Create New Stream' From here you can give you stream a name and choose the settings you want Once you have made your choices and saved it you can go into your stream from the drop as shown above, whilst in there you will see a circle with a tick in it beside your streams name, click this and it becomes your default, it even gets added to the top of each page for ease So that is a stream for me to use, however, you can share a stream with anybody simply by letting them know the number in the url or by sharing the url (if you have some enhanced permissions then only you will see those, you can only see what you are entitled to see). So with that in mind if you want to know what my Activity Stream is like then here it is for you to save as your own http://police.community/discover/7/ If you have any comment or questions regarding this then please feel free to make comments below. Cheetah Team Police Community

Pleased to announce that for the duration of the Bank Holiday weekend our chat room will be open for all members of the site. Come along and say hello to other members in real time conversation. http://police.community/chat/

Don your white cap, wind your window down an inch, stroke your beard (they're pretty much compulsory on traffic, aren't they?), and tut disapprovingly as you post your RPU related question and comments...

My force moved away from the excellent Ford Focus patrol cars in favour of the awful Vauxhall Astra's. I personally know of two incidents where an officer has parked a Vauxhall Astra (the model depicted below) on a hill and have returned to their vehicle, only to find it has rolled down the hill. On each occasion, the handbrake was applied.  Apparently, this is a known issue on this particular model but this is only hearsay. Surely if that was the case, something would be done to address it. I would therefore be interested to know if anyone has heard of this happening in their force?   Â