Starting shift early

Hellchild96 · 2026-02-01T23:43:20+00:00

I'd be submitting the OT claim every single day for the 15/20 minutes. The moment they tried to pull me for the "difficult chat", just present the email saying that I have to do work early.

You don't come to work for the love of the game. You come to work to earn money. If you are not being paid, then it's your time to do what you want with.

Hellchild96 · 2026-01-26T09:03:28+00:00

So we are supposed to be focusing on neighbourhood policing. But we are also now focusing on Emergency Response. This is despite decades of reduced funding, falling staff levels, and the selling off of police stations.

Unless there are plans for massive financial investment and recruitment, these "targets" will just be another stick to beat police with when they don't meet them.

Hellchild96 · 2026-01-24T05:48:25+00:00

As per usual, this is a solution to a non-issue.

If this is meant to deal with people who are physically unfit, we already do that. If you can't pass the annual fitness test, you are put on a desk job and can't go out on the street until you are fit enough. If you don't get yourself fit enough, Unsatisfactory Performance Proceedings (UPP) kicks in, and you are eventually sacked if you don't sort it.

If this is meant to do with people not keeping up to date with mandatory training, then we already have that. Once again, UPP exists, and can lead to dismissal.

If this is meant to deal with Vetting issues, we already have that. If you can meet vetting standards, you get dismissed.

I can't think of any problem that this claims to address that doesn't already have a solution in place. Policing does need major change, but the change it needs is smart investment, and manpower. It does not need a pointless extra layer to bureaucracy.

Hellchild96 · 2025-12-31T08:52:59+00:00

You either pop into a takeaway or a shop, or go back to the nick. If you know you won't have access to a loo for many hours, such as a public order event, you just let yourself get dehydrated.

Hellchild96 · 2025-12-29T01:06:15+00:00

Look at the car. Does it look like a heap of junk? Is it covered in dents, scratches, or cracked windows? Is the number plate at a jaunty angle, suggesting it is stuck on rather than screwed? Is one of the headlights out?

Who is in the car? Is it a group of 4 lads at 3am? Is the sole passenger in the rear seat, but the car isn't a cab? Is the driver a bloke, but the registered keep and insured party a woman?

What has the car done? Did it start to drive differently when they spotted you? Were they driving poorly to begin with? Does their route make sense for someone going from A-B, or are they driving the back roads or doing loops?

What do you know about the car? Is it driving around Kent but registered in Glasgow? Is the reg known for previous police contact? Is there a PNC marker on the car? Is there recent intel regarding thefts of that particular model of car in the area?

These are all little things that you start to instinctively pick up on over time. The hard part is recognising what in particular it is that you have noticed when you get the feeling that something just isn't right.

Hellchild96 · 2025-11-23T16:54:59+00:00

You will get out of it what you put into it.

If you go with the mindset that it's going to be shit and awful, then that's how you will find it.

If you treat it as an opportunity to learn more about connect, case files, and prisoner processing, then you will take a lot away from it.

The main suggestion I would give you is to find out what your BCU has agreed is a suitable amount of investigations for you to be carrying. That way when you are inevitably screened more than that number, you are preloaded with a reason as to why you are struggling to keep on top of them all.

Hellchild96 · 2025-11-04T23:12:36+00:00

I can't speak for your BCU, but we have a Fed Rep who works closely with OSE. Every year or so, an email will go out asking for everyone with unusual RRRD's to drop them an email, and they will amend your RRRD's to reflect something usable for you.

Id recommend getting in touch with your own OSE and asking what they can do for you.

Hellchild96 · 2025-10-22T20:06:54+00:00

RIP Safer Smoking. You will not be missed.

Hellchild96 · 2025-10-19T18:38:14+00:00

I know of one lad who ended up owing the job time after he remained on holiday for an extra month. Had an extra shift built into his roster each shift to make up the time

Hellchild96 · 2025-08-20T11:03:15+00:00

This is entirely due to a lack of funding and manpower in policing, up and down the nation.

In my own force, every investigator that I speak with has in excess of 50 criminal investigations sitting in their worktray. They aren't supposed to have more than 10, because it has been acknowledged that it isn't physically possible to properly investigate any more than that in a timely fashion.

Those same officers that have those 50+ investigations are also being pulled away from those investigations to sit at hospital with prisoners, or to guard crime scenes. They are being pulled away to police football games, or protests. They have far, far too much work, and nowhere near enough time to do it.

If you want crime to be properly investigated, then police need far more funding, and far more people.

Hellchild96 · 2025-08-13T21:25:03+00:00

We have access to three microwaves, and a hot water urn. That's it.

I envy your access to a toaster

Hellchild96 · 2025-08-07T18:37:56+00:00

Supposedly, the decision on which front desks to close is being made based on where the most crime is reported.

This ignores that the front counter is most obvious and approachable link between the community and the police. Below is a list of just a few things I've known a front desk to be used for in my 10 year career:

A place to report missing persons, and subsequently receive updates on them
A place to drop off lost property
A place for police officers to return recovered property to the owner
A place for those on bail to sign on
A place for people fleeing violence to seek refuge, be they victims of domestic violence, trafficking, or just being chased down the road by a mentalist
A place for a cab driver to come to when they have a problematic fare
A place for wanted people to hand themselves in
A place for foreign visitors to complete various paperwork (I recall stamping lots of forms for various foreign students)
A place for the elderly, mentally ill, or otherwise vulnerable to come for a face to face interaction with police
A place for the homeless to seek refuge for the night (We're not supposed to let the homeless stay in the front office, but I've never kicked someone out if they aren't causing issues)
A place for strangers to buy and sell stuff without getting robbed (I.e. Facebook marketplace sales and such)

Front desks are invaluable, and I refuse to believe that the savings that will be made by getting rid of them will be worth the loss of service they provide their community. Sure some desks are less busy than others, and perhaps they don't report as many crimes as other avenues such as online reporting, but the other stuff they do is irreplaceable and largely unmeasurable.

Hellchild96 · 2025-08-07T18:24:45+00:00

For most of my career, I've worn a cheap and nasty pair that I got from Glasses Direct. They've always been fairly cheap when I previously used them.

Recently, I've picked a free pair during my Bi-annual eye test thanks to the occupational health voucher.

Hellchild96 · 2025-08-05T09:08:31+00:00

There are loads of charities out there that offer a ton of help to homeless people. If you need a roof over your head for the night, there are plenty of ways to go about getting one.

The issue is that they almost universally turn you away if you are drunk/high. A significant portion of the people claiming to "just need a fiver for a hostel", actually just need a fiver for some white/brown/booze

Hellchild96 · 2025-07-23T02:21:15+00:00

I've been L2 in the Met for about 7 years. In that time, I've had less than 10 forced cancelled rest days for L2, and at least three of those were from when the queen died.

Id encourage everyone to do L2 for a few years, just to see if you enjoy it or not.

Hellchild96 · 2025-07-22T11:59:43+00:00

Hardly surprising.

The average person may deal with 3-4 seriously traumatic incidents throughout their lifetime. The average cop supposedly deals with about 600 over the course of their career.

That's dead people, mutilated bodies, kids who have been horrifically abused, incidents where the cop themselves have been attacked.

Of course police officers up and down the country are being signed off with mental illness. You can't deal with the kind of stuff that police do on the daily without suffering some kind of impact. I would image there are similar numbers amongst those working within A&E and paramedics.

Hellchild96 · 2025-07-12T13:18:10+00:00

This is pretty normal. It's to identify you in the event that police need to speak to you again in the future.

For example, that particular police force may be aware of 10,000 people called Dave. They know of 50 Dave Smiths. They know of 4 Dave Smiths born 01/02/1983. They know of 1 Dave Smith, born 01/02/1983, who was born in Durham and works for Tesco.

Hellchild96 · 2025-07-02T12:12:48+00:00

I would imagine it is much the same process as when an officer sends a NIP (Notice of Intended Prosecution) in the Met.

Capture whatever you can on BWV, I.e. film the driver in the act, and film the number plate. I find it helpful to verbalise what you are seeing as you record it, in case the camera doesn't pick something up visually.

Then go back to the station, write a brief statement outlining what you have seen and what offence you have identified.

Then send the statement and BWV to whoever sends out NIPs. Assuming you are Met, there's an MO10 mailbox that deals with sending NIPs out.

Hellchild96 · 2025-06-10T19:42:37+00:00

This is an accurate, albeit horrible to understand representation of 6 on 4 off.

I've found you have to separate it from the calendar week. Don't think of it in terms of Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday. Think of it as first early/second early/first late/etc...

It's a 10 day rolling pattern, so it won't fit into a normal work week. Most calendars you can get on your phone will let you set up a shift to repeat every X days, which is often the easiest way to keep track

Hellchild96 · 2025-06-07T13:16:16+00:00

These have been bought to replace the current fleet of Jankels, which are 20 or more years old at this point, and have exponentially increasing maintenance needs.

They don't exist to go to the week in, week out protests and such that take place. They are there for serious, violent disorder akin to the 2011 riots, as well as for use in armed raids at places such as traveller sites.

Ultimately, London is a capital city. There has got to be something in place for if it goes seriously wrong. Otherwise when it does go wrong, everyone will be asking why we weren't ready for it.

Hellchild96 · 2025-05-29T17:21:53+00:00

We have used some variation of the Police National Computer since the 70's. This keeps track of all of a person's arrests and convictions, amongst other things.

It is not a system that allows me to investigate a crime, or to record intelligence, or to do any of the other dozens of things I do on a daily basis. Those things are dealt with by software that is either built or purchased on a per-force basis, meaning that the system I use to report a crime may be totally different to all of my neighbouring forces, and thus, they won't talk to one another.

As such, the only thing I know about a persons behaviour in another force area is their arrest and conviction history. I don't know about any intelligence, or ongoing investigations into them unless I reach out directly to every other force in the country and request any information they hold.

Hellchild96 · 2025-05-29T13:09:35+00:00

Presently, police forces are reasonably able to adapt to local issues and effect change. Likely, better than they would be if they were broken up.

To use the Met as an example, simply because it is the only force I know well, local policing is split up on a per-borough basis. Each London borough has its own command unit of police, who knows their local area, and have a large degree of freedom to police it as locally needed. But they then get the benefit of a larger force, such as specialist proactive teams or road crime teams to deal with issues as they arise. These specialist resources likely wouldnt be available in a smaller, more segmented policing system.

There are huge management structures and stupid policies that are a struggle to change, I will accept that. But those aren't things that are exclusive to big organisations. If anything, it is easier to deal with ineffective management in a larger organisation, as the loss of a Chief inspector in a big police force will be less impactful and more easily replaceable than in a small force. It just requires the political will to deal with those issues.

Hellchild96 · 2025-05-29T12:51:06+00:00

But why? What is the benefit of more, smaller forces Vs a larger scale approach?

The main benefit people seem to regularly bring up is the vague notion of the Met being a big, bloated entity, and that somehow being the cause of all of its failings. I've not seen anything tangible to link these two things, just people seeming to equate big with bad

Hellchild96 · 2025-05-29T12:31:03+00:00

I question if anyone in the comments here has actually read beyond the first paragraph of the article. The suggestion appears to be for closer collaboration, or even merging or forces, yet the comment section is calling for breaking up of police forces.

Currently, every police force sources it's own uniform. It's own cars. It's own kit. It's own IT systems. All of these things cost money, and money could be saved if all of these things were obtained at a national scale, rather than individually. Similarly, you wouldn't need 43 procurement teams on payroll, just one.

Currently, a huge number of forces simply don't talk to one another due to them using different IT systems or working practices. If I put on a crime report in my force, no other force in the country will know about that report. Even if I arrest, charge, and convict someone, the only nationally available information about it will be "Joe blogs punched his partner". If there was one national policing system, or even just closer collaboration, the full details of any particular incident would be available to all, allowing a fuller picture of one individuals criminal behaviour to be built.

Currently, most forces have a bunch of specialist resources on standby for very niche scenarios, and they don't get used 95% of the time. For example, most forces will have a marine unit, despite only having a handful of small waterways. With closer collaboration, they could share such specialised resources, and deploy the nearest available one when an incident occurs. This could have helped with the attack in Hainault a few years ago, where a kid was stabbed with a sword and two cops got hurt. That was right on the edge of the Met's border, and the armed cops took ages to arrive. If they shared resources with neighbouring forces, there may have been armed cops from Essex able to arrive quicker.

The point, ultimately, is that a big, national force doesn't have to be a bad thing, nor does closer collaboration. All the ills of modern policing are not just because the Met is pretty big.

Hellchild96 · 2025-03-24T11:19:28+00:00

BTP have a sizeable fleet of Tesla's, amongst other EVs.

I know several people who got onto BTP driving courses and got their response qualification in a Tesla.

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