Your Personal Experience And Opinion Of Our Police?

[mickd1961]

I don’t trust a lot of them, my own experience of police contact has not been good.

I’ve never been in trouble with them and never once been in a cell.

In the main I have found them to be arrogant, superior and rude.

On at least two occasions I have been in a dangerous situation and asked for help ( face to face ) and been told to sort my situation out myself and do it quickly otherwise they’d issue me with a caution.

I went out with a girl who’s mum was secretary to the head copper at Halesowen cop shop in the 70’s and 80’s.

After the New Years Eve party most of the coppers drove home p I s s e d and laughed at how they simply produced their warrant card if pulled over.

I know a firearms cop personally, he’s a very good friend of a relative.

I used to play Sunday football against him and he was an absolute head case and constantly getting send off for being so violent and confrontational on the pitch.

The bloke is an absolute thug.

I know people will say that they do a difficult job but I’m sad to say I have no time for them in general.

I think a lot of them have a massive attitude problem.

[Omegstrat6]

Have known, and dealt with, quite a few coppers over the years and although I have found the majority to be absolutely fine there have been the odd ones for whom a little power has gone to their heads. One of the best ones I knew well was an older officer in charge of community policing whilst another I knew back in the early 90s was an ex-Met officer and fire arms copper who seems to have the same personality traits as your relative's friend Mick! Still, he was useful if things got out of hand-for some reason our more abusive shop lifters always seemed to end up accidentally "falling down some stairs" I must be getting older now because a lot of coppers look about 12 to me now! Last run in I had was with a couple of young officers who refused to deal with an abusive member of the public who had parked their car on a yellow line and blocked the goods entrance to our yard. I informed them that I was sure their desk sergeant would be very pleased with them if he found out that they could have prevented a very irate wagon driver from just driving through an illegally parked car that was causing an obstruction but that they refused to take any action. I think the fact that I took note of their shoulder numbers prompted them to then decide otherwise....If you have not read them the old "PC David Copperfield" books like "Wasting Police time" provide a good insight into the daily frustrations of the normal coppers on the beat and their frustrations with the system/management/CPS. They were written about 10 years ago but sadly doubt much has changed.

[baggieal]

I don’t trust a lot of them, my own experience of police contact has not been good.

I’ve never been in trouble with them and never once been in a cell.

In the main I have found them to be arrogant, superior and rude.

On at least two occasions I have been in a dangerous situation and asked for help ( face to face ) and been told to sort my situation out myself and do it quickly otherwise they’d issue me with a caution.

I went out with a girl who’s mum was secretary to the head copper at Halesowen cop shop in the 70’s and 80’s.

After the New Years Eve party most of the coppers drove home p I s s e d and laughed at how they simply produced their warrant card if pulled over.

I know a firearms cop personally, he’s a very good friend of a relative.

I used to play Sunday football against him and he was an absolute head case and constantly getting send off for being so violent and confrontational on the pitch.

The bloke is an absolute thug.

I know people will say that they do a difficult job but I’m sad to say I have no time for them in general.

I think a lot of them have a massive attitude problem.

Whatever they do - they can’t win and I blame the CPS personally! In my eyes kids should grow up to respect the police far more than they do!

I also feel where relevant the police should be allowed to use more force - at demonstrations for example when bottles are thrown at them they should wade in with sticks! Those who don’t want to be caught up in violence can easily get away from it.

Never had any problems with the police and I show them the respect they deserve. They do a very hard job for a pathetic starting salary of under 25K which in my eyes should start at around 40K. How can a factory worker or warehouse worker be on a higher salary than someone in the police. It’s does not make sense when many decisions could be life or death.

[phild]

I dont trust absolutely none of em Mick I'll tell ya all about my experience with the uckers whenever I see you. The trouble is when you get caught up with what happened to me then they all get painted in the same brush.

I will add that what happened to me was related to finance. It was nothing major but god it didnt half escalate

[mickd1961]

I dont trust absolutely none of em Mick I'll tell ya all about my experience with the uckers whenever I see you. The trouble is when you get caught up with what happened to me then they all get painted in the same brush.

I’m talking about personal instances like yourself Phil.

In the late 80’s I was heading north on the M5 on my way to work and about 1/4 of a mile before junction 1 at West Brom a block and tackle fell off a lorry 50 yards ahead of me and came careering down my lane.

I was doing a good 70 mph and was hemmed in by the barriers and cars on my inside, I had nowhere to go.

It was bouncing towards me at head height and all I could do was grip the wheel, duck my head and pray.......I thought I had a less than 50% chance of survival regardless of whether it came through my windscreen.

I caught it at its lowest point and it blew out my front drivers side tyre on impact and I had a hell of a fight keeping the car in a straight line.

I managed to limp up the slip road at junction 1 and in those days it was possible to get the car up onto the grass island that used to be there so I did that.

On inspection their was no rubber left and a quarter of the metal wheel was missing, the collision had shattered it and a huge lump was missing.

I was struggling to get the jack under the car and I was also very shaken up.

A police traffic car ( jam sandwich) came around the island and pulled up behind me and they both got out.

I explained my predicament and showed them the wheel damage and asked them for some help to aid my escape from an awful spot.

The reply I got,

“No. Make sure you’re gone in 15 minutes when we come by again or we’ll book you for causing an obstruction!”

Absolute w a n k e r s who walked off laughing with each other.

[Lindenbaggie]

I'm all for equal opportunities, but have observed that this can so often be unproductive. Some of our female officers are now so small and slight that they couldn't possibly be sent out alone, so are invariably accompanied by a burly male officer.

[Leicesterbaggie]

Would you want to do their job? I certainly wouldn't.

[BaggieSingh]

When I was younger I got stopped quite a few times driving my wife’s convertible, sometimes with me and her in it
A few times had an undercover car push me to thrash it and then pull me over when I didn’t for a licence, car check or whatever else they did

Because of the way I’m bought up I was mostly polite and got on with it, but have to say after a few times I do occasionally use a profanity but not directed at anyone (eg saying FFS) and was threatened with being arrested if I swore again

I know a couple of coppers are they are gits, they are prone to doing stupid things to pass their time in their job like most people

They become distanced from the effect it has on the people they are messing about, and just becomes a way of passing their day in their job, they don’t see themselves as protectors of the innocent or people to uphold laws

And as for Micks comment on coppers driving when they’ve had a few I’ve seen that so so many times, know a few publicans who all say it happens

A mate of mine is a detective in Canada his view is that a copper knows where to get everything, have been out with him and he’s driven after quite a few and also knows where to get lots of other things for a good night out (in my youth)

[baggieal]

Would you want to do their job? I certainly wouldn't.

That’s my point and on a salary equivalent to many unskilled jobs. Too many snowflakes regarding the police. For example if there’s a terrorist who has a knife/gun then the police should just aim for their head but there’s inquest after inquest. Like any company with a weak leader they usually hit the rocks which is why the Dick woman should resign as the police need reforms.

[boingy]

I don’t see any organisations being free of always having someone somewhere who will let you down. It’s going to happen. I have a friend who used to be in the police (retired now) and he did a lot of good for helping youths with bad family backgrounds which often translated to getting in trouble with the law. He volunteered to help me with the help line I set up and was a thoroughly decent human being. You will get police officers who mess up. You will get doctors who make a serious mistake. You will get politicians who fall short. It’s imperfect human nature. What gets me angry is when people call for heads of organisations to resign when in most cases they had either nothing to do with something or were totally unaware of something going on. You would always be sacking them. It’s best to just accept that the law of averages means it will always happen at some point. If there is something systematically wrong then fix it and if someone is directly culpable then yes make changes but don’t keep sacking people just because it feels good or makes you feel better that someone (even if totally not to blame) has paid a price.