just wondered really…i guess its stressful at times but must be pretty rewarding as well..

If your thinking of applying you will be lucky to get in…

no, i don’t think so. this was covered yesterday.

was it? which thread?

My sister’s an Inspector and seems to enjoy it.

She’s spent a fair amount of time working on child protection team which is pretty grim, tbh. I guess there’s an abstract sense of a job done well but the damage is often done before she’s involved 🙁

No, it’s not.

You’re overworked and underpaid.

Your time is not your own.

The hours suck.

You get no back up from your bosses.

The constant need for improved statistics negates the use of common sense.

Hats of to the guys that still do it though. It’s a worthwhile thing to do when you’re actually doing the job but it seems increasingly hard to avoid all the bullsh*t that goes along with it.

oh dear! are you one?

Overworked & underpaid,yeah right…..

can’t remember but it had ‘rozza’ in the title. thread was closed but still there this morning.

The constant need for improved statistics negates the use of common sense.

Well said.

Bluntly, Its not a job for everybody. You see a lot of bad in the world and you need to be able deal with it.

However, you do end in up some situations where you look round and think ” what am I doing here? , how did it come to this? “

If you want a routine, day to day role, with daytime hours, plenty of time off that suits family life … it aint the job for you.

If you want something thats different day to day, makes you think on your feet and can ( on occassion ) be rewarding, then yeah, its a good job.

to answer the original question, i’d say the stress outweighs the rewards most of the time.

i’d say the stress outweighs the rewards most of the time.

Pretty standard job then.

My dad was a copper all his life. Working late nights, being called out to endless fatal road accidents at night, going from there to inform people that their father/son/daughter/whatever is dead, having people swing punches at him in the street, seeing one of his mates gunned down, being threatened by a nutter with a shotgun…..

Put it this way. He never wanted me to follow in his footsteps.

some of the specialist roles must be good though…i know youve got to do a couple of years probabtion beforehand

The thing with being a policemen (or a nurse etc) is that as well as the shit days, there must be days where you think “great I really made a difference today” something most of us will never have.

Working late nights, being called out to endless fatal road accidents at night, going from there to inform people that their father/son/daughter/whatever is dead, having people swing punches at him in the street, seeing one of his mates gunned down, being threatened by a nutter with a shotgun…..

Those are the better bits 😆

You can also do a normal job but volunteer for something outside of work if you want to “make a difference”.

Frustrating I would say.

A Police Officer in the UK

Question:
How do you tell the difference between a British Police Officer, an Australian Police Officer and an American Police Officer?

Answer:
First – Lets pose the following question:

You’re on duty by yourself walking on a deserted street late at night.
Suddenly, an armed man with a huge knife comes around the corner, locks eyes with you, screams obscenities, raises the knife,
and lunges at you.You are carrying a Glock .40, and you are an expert shot, however you have only
a split second to react before he reaches you. What do you do?

BRITISH POLICE OFFICER:
Firstly the officer must consider the man’s Human Rights.
1) Does the man look poor or oppressed?
2) Is he newly arrived in this country and does not yet understand the law?
3) Have I ever done anything to him that would inspire him to attack?
4) Am I dressed provocatively?
5) Could I run away?
6) Could I possibly swing my gun like a club and knock the knife out of his hand?
7) Should I try and negotiate with him to discuss his wrong doings?
8) Does the Glock have appropriate safety built into it?
9) Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind of message does this send to society?
10) Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be content just to wound me?
11) If I were to grab his knees and hold on, would he still want to stab and kill me?
12) If I raise my gun and he turns and runs away, do I get blamed if he falls over, knocks his head and kills himself? .
13) If I shoot and wound him, and lose the subsequent court case, does he have the opportunity to sue me, cost me my job,
my credibility and the loss of my family home?

AUSTRALIAN POLICE OFFICER:
BANG!

AMERICAN POLICE OFFICER:
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! ‘click’…. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
(Sergeant arrives at scene later and remarks: ‘Nice grouping!)

You’re on duty by yourself walking on a deserted street late at night.

err you wouldn’t have a Glock then, would you? They only deploy armed police in pairs orteams.

It’s alright, a couple of my mates are coppers and they have a whale of a time.

I saw one in a cafe when I was walking though town one day and popped in to see what they were doing. They’d been there all afternoon, doing a stake out on the shop over the road, drining tea and eating cake all day.

There are far worse jobs, far, far worse.

Sitting in a cafe all day, day after day, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, watching, logging movements, day after day, tea, coffee, tea, tea, more tea, coffee, waiting, watching, another day waiting, more tea, waiting, nothing happens
Different cafe another day watching
Great job eh, sitting in a cafe drinking tea all day

What’s with the sudden rise of troll police threads?

Easygirl – don’t forget, they are getting paid for it.

I do that for free on some weekends.

And it’s not all day everyday. Sometimes they get to smash skulls, and take advantage of inebriated ladies at 2 a.m. in the back of the van.

Like I said, their are far, far, worse jobs.

Oh, and you can go to the footy for free at weekends, sorry, get paid, to go to the footy at weekends. Punters have to pay £20 quid plus.

go to the footy and end up in the middle of a riot on saturday afternoon. then on the night take advantage of inebriated ladies and later, go to jail. brilliant.

I could pi** take a lot about this, but it seriously depends on you as a character and what you expect from it. Yup we all like to think that we “help and make a difference” reality is, most people just don’t give a dam or appreciate the things that police try to do. It depends hugely on the department you are on too. I now work on Major Crime so I am part of a team of Detectives who investigate murders and it’s amazing how many people think we should’ve wrapped it up in 24 hours, we are currently 5 weeks into one .. and mmmm it’s getting stressful. The pressure from families, bosses and the pressure you put on yourself CAN be quite huge.

I love my job. I love not working Mon-Fri 9-5pm, I love having days off mid week and I love it when offenders get locked up for a long time (rare I know!). But it definately isn’t for everyone, you have to be prepared to go a week or longer without saying any friends, having a social life, doing sport or seeing your partner but wouldnt’ change it for the world.

I did thirty years at the front/response team/relief/sector/whatever the current idiot in charge calls it next. It was pretty much all bollocks for the last 15.

I thought that when I left it was way harder than when I joined and you achieved far less.

Then again if you are the sort who is able to ignore the needs of victims and not chase bad guys down, and can bullshit a whole lot, them maybe it is for you.

Seriously………..wouldn’t recommend it unless you are willing to join the masons or grease your way to some specialist plum posting.

Pensions useful though, but it sounds like that nice Mr Camerooooon is going to make sure everybody is begging on a street corner in their dotage sooner rather than later.

im not trolling just met a couple of young coppers and thought they seemed happy doing theyre job… 🙂

If you’re an absolute James blunt then it’s the job for you. Te only exception to the rule I’ve met was such sap I told him to do one and I’d sort the situation myself.

One positive is the short time you have to ‘serve’ before getting a full pension.

Short term to serve to retire…I doubt it! That is going to be long gone. And see when you get constant attitudes/opinions of Slowrider it can be testing. Like any job there are bad eggs. i love it and in my department I can avoid most of the political bs and get on with my job.
Response officer when young and single is great. Learning to drive properly with blues and twos, real bonding amongst colleagues. It is ace, negatives like all jobs but I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.

About time too.

You should try getting the same sort of stress and abuse on minimum wage and no sick pay.

Access to great finance deals ain’t too shabby either – although is being declared bankrupt still a sackable ‘offence’?

Thought long and hard about it a few years ago. Have a few friends who
I spoke to about it a lot, ended up joining the ambulance service. Still a lot of crap to deal with, not as stressful though although the pay isn’t quite as good, and I’ll have to work to 67 to get my pension. Can’t wait to be lugging folk down 4 flights at 67!! (cos we’re not classed as an emergency service). A bit less chance of getting stabbed though which with a young family is a good thing!
Hours are just as bad, still get to use lights and horns and get on well with most of the cops I meet.
Happy days.

Mk1 fan
When was the last time you pulled a half dead teenage driver from a car wreck and watched him die blowing blood bubbles out of his neck, while in your arms?
Easy job my arsse

I imagine the job could bring a certain sense of satisfaction and pride to those of a rozztafarian persuasion..

munque chick, my attitude is due to my experience whilst working with vulnerable young people either with disabilities or mental health issues resulting in challenging behaviour. without exception they have been treated with a complete lack of respect or understanding and regularly get injured too.

Well said Easygirl, or turned up on someone’s door step at 10pm and the end of a 12 hour shift to give someone a death message that their 20 year old son was driving like a d*** killed himself and 2 other innocent people, only to be assaulted and have to support them and guide them through the next few hours. Yup this doesn’t happen all the time to me anymore but for uniform bobbies (who normally get paid the least as they are young in service) it happens daily.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining about my job at all but “normal” people with no inside knowledge/experience of the police have a squewif view, me included until I signed up.

MC & easygirl – why are you spending time on a perfectly serviceable Friday evening responding to such erudite comments like

If you’re an absolute James blunt then it’s the job for you

?

Stop this now!

It’s a hard and sometimes thankless job usually. Was talking to a coupla boys in a patrol car the other night, I knew things were bad for them, but had no idea how bad things were till I talked to them. Hard times.
Not sure how the Snp will handle the reorganisation into a single force either.. Methinks there will be much budget fudging!

Yes.

Based purely on nearly crashing after seeing a policey lady drive past earlier this evening, who was BEAUTIFUL.
I swear they employ models as police here.

my attitude is due to my experience whilst working with vulnerable young people either with disabilities or mental health issues resulting in challenging behaviour. without exception they have been treated with a complete lack of respect or understanding and regularly get injured too.

I don’t want to ruin my street cred.. but I was one of those young people and I crossed paths with our local constabulary far too often.. I was always very surprised at how patient and respectful they were towards me even under some extremely challenging circumstances..

[/quote]Munqe-chick

I now work on Major Crime so I am part of a team of Detectives who investigate murders [/quote]

Do you get to use much own initiative on such work or are you just given a series of actions from SIO’s to work through? Not trolling – just curious never done reactive only proactive targeting / surveillance jobs.

You should try getting the same sort of stress and abuse on minimum wage and no sick pay.

Name that job!

You have no idea…

…There’s a lot of nonsense Spoken about the pay and working conditions of your Police, much of which originates from your government, particularly the introduction to the Winsor report that used extremely combatitive language. The truth is, having done it for more years than I care to mention – always ‘front-line’, working shifts etc. It’s a dirty thankless job that you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

For the past 8 years I’ve been on a so called ‘specialist’ dept, that if I get it wrong, make a bad decision, the likely result is that I go to prison. I don’t get paid any more than any other PC, I don’t get bonuses, and my behaviour and actions are constantly monitored. If I turn up, the mobile phones come out. My every word and action will appear on some social networking site within minutes, often selectively edited to put me in a bad light, yet these actions will be examined for years, and undermine any criminal proceedings, or disciplinary hearings that could result.

The thing is, despite developing a particularly cynical attitude, despite it putting my marriage on the rocks, despite not getting paid a particularly great wage (less than I earned as a personal trainer), I wouldn’t want to do any other job – when I go to work, I make a difference, and that’s what counts.