A recently retired police officer has shared their thoughts about their time on the thin blue line.
Well, having been in uniform since 1987, today is my first day as a civilian since my teens.
I served the first 14 in the Royal Marines with some of the loyalist, toughest, bravest and, more importantly, funniest men on the planet. The remainder (minus a couple in maritime security) is in the police.
I’m very proud of my time as a commando, less so my time as a cop. The police have ceased to be what they were created to be. Overly politicised, poorly led and sadly corrupted beyond recognition.
I was constantly amazed by the quality of the people I worked with in “The job” some of the kindest, most dedicated, selfless people you could meet but, unfortunately, led, on the whole, by some of the most selfish, cowardly sociopaths. Petty-minded bureaucrats are too arrogant and dull-witted to see how harmful they are.
From the government down in the U.K., it would appear to me that our worst people have risen to the top, and nowhere is this more apparent than the police. I’m not sure we can ever do anything about it, but it certainly explains the mess we are in.
I can 100% say I never bowed to pressure from above, I never made a decision for any other reason than I believed it to be the right thing to do and although I was often on the receiving end of the petty spite of “The bosses” they never changed the way I did my job.
There are some horrible violent people out there, and sometimes they need to be met with the requisite level of force. I’m glad I got to do that, and it has been a privilege to work with people willing to put themselves in harm’s way for others despite very little thanks and even less support.
I’ll never wear a uniform again, but I will continue to ignore the petty, bureaucratic tyrannies of the selfish, moronic dullards who call themselves our superiors. I will also be far less guarded in my speech when I have to deal with them
Thanks to anyone I served with, I hope I didn’t let you down, and I apologise for my many failings.
Anonymous
UK
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A very well composed letter which unfortunately has a great ring of truth to it.
It’s the iopc, they like sunak, are backstabbing low life .
All the iopc want to do, is destroy the police, and remove any powers they still have
They destroy morale, like a petulant child destroying his younger siblings new toy.
The iopc should be made up of retired officers, and a couple of civil servants.
Only an ex cop knows and understands why an action was taken, and can truly judge if it followed PACE
Watch out for a book soon to be released “watch your back” anyone in the services will understand the meaning of that. It will raise a few eyebrows
Shocking that the blog needed to be written, said, or thought. Heartbreaking – I have100% agreement with every sentence and the comments above.
Britain was a wonderful Country, but, as rightly said, this present “Government”? are showing themselves to be the worst Cabinet of backstabbers ever, who do not respect the Public Services together with an IOPC who probably have never been in a Police Officer’s shoes when having to confront violence or threatening behavour. Get retired Officers to run the IOPC, then proper justice can be served.
I am not a member of the police force but I have to agree about the media and government. Rarely do they understand the job serving officers do. Please, for those of you trying to do your job within the community, understand that some of us realise how understaffed you are and are trying to work on a shoestring budget, in confined rules of conduct that are like working in a straight jacket. I was brought up in the 60s, where you knew your local bobbies and they knew the community . Keep up the good work .