This guest blog was sent into us by a former member of the very thin blue line. If you have a blog or story that you would like to share, then contact our team:
‘Having left my previous employment almost 8 months ago, I thought that I would become detached from the problems the police force are facing, however, this isn’t the case.
I watch the Government slowly unpick the stitching holding together the protectors of this country – all the while making excuses as to why they are doing it. Justifying their actions!
I still have friends within the police – people I shared many a dangerous situation with and I’m watching them suffer.
Having been bullied from our positions within the Intelligence world by a Detective Inspector that had a ‘dislike’ for our Pro-Active work ethic, I quickly became disillusioned.
As a team, we were extremely successful in all aspects of policing and with our results came arrests.
Some of the folks arrested were pretty unpleasant and the public were better off with these lads and lasses behind bars.
Unfortunately for the stretched organisation, these arrests meant that people had to investigate the crime – but with an investigations department more than 40% understaffed through sickness, officers long term sick with mental heath issues and generally not having enough people to fill the roles, more and more cases were slipping and not getting the attention they deserved.
Who were we to moan?
The public are told that the ‘show must go on’ and the police will still provide a service – but for how much longer? At some point something has got to fail – and by fail, I don’t mean something will be missed, I mean something catastrophic.
What will the government do then?
They’ll blame the police. The people at street level fighting the good fight! They’ll have fingers pointed. It’ll be their fault.
Today I spoke to an ex-colleague and one I consider a close friend.
I listened to his experience since I had left. From a department of 6 motivated officers tackling crime ranging from finding and arresting burglars to disrupting large Class A Drug gangs and safeguarding juvenile girls being forced to carry drugs concealed inside of them – to a department who had to make a phone call to confirm we were ‘ok’ to make an arrest.
Could you imagine the Daily Mail headline?!
5 officers pushed out and made to feel that by making arrests they were doing wrong – how does that even begin to work?
Having made the jump, I made my case to senior management and I was paid lip service until I left and then nothing. The rest of the department were slowly forced out with an array of senior officers complicit in its undoing – all because of one persons will and the fact that as a Police Force we were, and still are, falling apart whilst firefighting problems.
My hope, my sincere hope is that one of my ex-colleagues isn’t the reason the government sit up and pay attention.
Terror attacks have happened, crime is on the rise yet numbers of police officers is on the decline! This, as I’m sure you’ll agree is a recipe for disaster.
With the Carillion car crash still smouldering, the Government are quick to wash their hands of the problem.
The comparisons between the wafer thin profit margins of a large multinational and the rising demand on the Police with waning numbers is scarily similar.
Expecting too much with too little will inevitably see something fail – in the world of the Police, this won’t just be a financial cost, it will cost lives.’
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