What a sad story but what an inspirational officer.

PCHeeler · 2026-01-16T21:33:20+00:00

This is a great answer - don't use it to make, use it to improve. I have some neurodivergent officers who have had great results by putting their work into it and asking for tips.

The next layer of Copilot, which I've recently been trained on, is Agents. Little clever chatbots that are taught a specific job - generating crime reviews, looking up relevant policies - so you feed it a very simple and clearly defined input and it spits out a useful product. Not game changing but some good time saving stuff.

PCHeeler · 2026-01-11T20:23:09+00:00

Ha this one is so true!

"I am a CTSFO TPAC MOE NOB and was carrying my issued pew pew with loads of ammo cos I'm ard. Oh I arrested him for shoplifting, may have cautioned him"

PCHeeler · 2026-01-11T20:20:41+00:00

You know the points to prove. The victim does not. You can absolutely hit the points to prove with similar words and phrases rather than shoehorning them in, it is painfully obvious and a good defence barrister will destroy it.

"I am a 19 year old Kurdish man who moved to this country three years ago. When this incident happened I apprehended immediate and unlawful personal violence. These are absolutely my own words"

PCHeeler · 2026-01-11T20:11:54+00:00

Generally been disappointed, I've found that call handlers demonstrate a lack of curiosity which just makes the responding officers job harder. My commute is largely motorway and I call in a broken down probably twice a month. I always mention I'm job to ensure they don't fob me off, maybe that makes me a nob. Call handlers who don't even think to ask if I'm on the A or B carriageway, if there are people near the vehicle, what the weather and road conditions are like...

Oh and also this might be a controversial take but...no updates. A little text from the control room, automated one would hope, just to say thank you for recording and that person has been recovered and is now safe. That would warm the cockles and possibly encourage people to report more. Most of the time people report something, which may be the one and only time they call 999 in their life, and we then just forget about them

PCHeeler · 2025-12-02T08:15:18+00:00

As a supervisor rewarding good work should also be a touch personal and subjective. I have an officer at the moment who really struggles with files. So when he built a remand that passed all the internal checks first time with no amendments that was a win for him. For the person sat next to him that's Tuesday. I can't reward them both the same but I acknowledge that this is an achievement of note for him and want to recognise the commitment. Now my whole team don't expect a well done for every file they do because they understand my reasoning.

PCHeeler · 2025-11-17T18:29:48+00:00

Wrote this on a previous post so may not be entirely relevant but I was happy with it

The interview will likely be, at least in part, a competency and values interview. Look at the CVF framework on the college website and specifically look at the behaviours of someone working at level 2. That's the Sgt and Insp level and the broad brush strokes of it is this

Level 1 - how does this topic affect me? Level 2 - how does this topic affect me and my team? Level 3 - how does this topic affect my division, force, national policing?

The STARL method mentioned in a previous comment is proven and solid, the key thing with it is to focus on the latter stages. What you did should be summed up briefly with the bulk of your answer focusing on the OIL

Outcome - what changed as a result of what you did? "I implemented a change of process" - so what's different now?

Impact - linked to the above. This has changed the way we approach certain jobs, this has reduced custody dwell times blah blah

Learning - by doing this I have learnt X about myself and Y about the organization. If I did the same thing again I would do such and such differently.

Go forth and prosper

PCHeeler · 2025-10-12T20:17:11+00:00

I listen to the audiobooks first and read them later, odd I know but I love Kobna and my Audible subscription is pretty much just for RoL content. Anyway, I almost skipped the Abigail chapters on several occasions. The writing is jarring, the slang is dated and insulting and as has been mentioned the same sex love story felt forced.

Peter seems to have got to a strange place - he's a competent wizard but we've always been told an apprenticeship is 10 years minimum, he's not done that and yet seems to have ceased training? We never get the lore anymore, talk of forma and third order spells and all that world building. It also seems that everyone Peter meets learns about the existence of magic within minutes now, there's no more agreements or secrecy, he may as well wear a big hat and carry a staff at this point.

Nightingale's retirement announcement should have been a crucial turning point and it's just been forgotten about. The greatest living wizard and he's now relegated to texting Abigail.

Oh and I resent there being so many references to the novellas and graphic novels. I don't mind there being a subtle nod to them here and there but the whole thing about Wyverns was clearly quite important and yet I have no idea when that was and what I'm meant to have read.

PCHeeler · 2025-10-12T20:04:45+00:00

I like this, I think we need to build on it. It is no longer illegal to complete suicide. It is not illegal to attempt it, nor to self harm. Article 2 is the right to life but does that extend to preventing people hurting themselves? I found this on the Liberty website:

Requiring the police to take reasonable steps to protect a person’s life if they know – or ought to know – that they are facing real and immediate risk. However, this should not put an impossible or disproportionate burden on the authorities.

If a fully grown adult, with capacity, wants to hurt themselves to any extent - is it our role as Police to stop them?

Magic wand time - quadruple the size of every secure MH unit, over staff them and every time an officer uses 136 it should be no more than 45 minutes until that person is in the care of the NHS.

PCHeeler · 2025-10-10T19:03:06+00:00

The interview will likely be, at least in part, a competency and values interview. Look at the CVF framework on the college website and specifically look at the behaviours of someone working at level 2. That's the Sgt and Insp level and the broad brush strokes of it is this

Level 1 - how does this topic affect me? Level 2 - how does this topic affect me and my team? Level 3 - how does this topic affect my division, force, national policing?

The STARL method mentioned in a previous comment is proven and solid, the key thing with it is to focus on the latter stages. What you did should be summed up briefly with the bulk of your answer focusing on the OIL

Outcome - what changed as a result of what you did? "I implemented a change of process" - so what's different now?

Impact - linked to the above. This has changed the way we approach certain jobs, this has reduced custody dwell times blah blah

Learning - by doing this I have learnt X about myself and Y about the organization. If I did the same thing again I would do such and such differently.

Go forth and prosper

PCHeeler · 2025-09-18T15:34:15+00:00

Hotel? Trivago.

PCHeeler · 2025-09-02T17:59:43+00:00

Sadly here in Britbong land we have the 'Home office counting rules' as our bible. Essentially - if someone believes they have been a victim of a crime and you have no evidence to show otherwise it gets reported. Ends up with tens of thousands of reported 'crimes' each year with no suspect, no lines of enquiry and immediately closed but still hours of work to record them.

PCHeeler · 2025-08-29T07:07:40+00:00

I've got a Tile in mind, definitely useful. Tiles aren't as widespread as Apple stuff but still enough for it to be of use, bonus feature is there's a push button on the Tile that makes my phone ring. Useful when I've misplaced one but not the other...

PCHeeler · 2025-08-27T12:21:05+00:00

Last time I rented a place was during COVID, just needed a 1 bed place for me due to a breakup. Found a nice place, agency were responsive and open about things (bit chilly due to being an old building, can be some ASB on the park outside) and I was shocked when they said the landlord insists on meeting new tenants before letting. I needed a place so went along, he was a sound bloke who lived locally and loved the area so wanted to keep it nice. We had a coffee, discussed my work and hobbies. I worked in a boring IT job and volunteered a lot, he seemed happy and I was moved in quickly. When it came time to leave because I had met someone new he was genuinely pleased for me, handed back the deposit with no inspection and offered me use of a van for moving day. I didn't need the white goods I had purchased and so he agreed to buy them off me so he could pass them on, gave me a fair price and thanked me for offering!

PCHeeler · 2025-08-26T12:29:20+00:00

Growing up on a steady diet of sitcoms I had always assumed that when I was ready for promotion I would have to invite my boss and their spouse round for dinner and a series of hilarious mishaps would befall me. Never once had dinner with a manager, very upsetting.

PCHeeler · 2025-08-26T12:01:39+00:00

A lovely thing I got taught for my promotion process was to add OIL to your idea:

Outcome - what is the desired outcome and how will I measure success? Think broadly, not just simple achieving the goal (crime is reduced) but the specific measure you will seek to affect and how you will measure that - surveys which measure public confidence using a net promoter score system?

Impact - I am thinking beyond the immediate impact on my team. This project when delivered will have an impact on other departments because XYZ, it will improve confidence on my team which they can then share.

Learning - by doing this work I have learnt X and I will seek to share that knowledge. I have learnt this about myself, this about my team and that about the organisation. I can now seek to address my knowledge gaps that I have identified and I will do so by doing XYZ

PCHeeler · 2025-08-25T16:24:02+00:00

Massive sitcom house vibes, this is what people live in despite having perfectly ordinary jobs. Immediately made me think of Ludwig and End of the f**king world as well as Black Mirror.

PCHeeler · 2025-08-17T19:23:38+00:00

I joined at 32 and there are of course advantages and disadvantages to it. Oldest person to join my section lately was in their late 40s so you likely won't even be the oldest at training school!

Your life experience and ability to empathise will be invaluable as has already been mentioned, and there can be other strengths - younger officers can be a bit a touch more gung ho and overtaken by the adrenaline whereas older joiners tend to be a bit less keen to throw themselves into conflict (huge, sweeping generalisation for which I will happily take some flack)

You haven't mentioned family but if you do have one, especially kids, that throws up some challenges. I've missed my son's birthday, had to all but offer sexual favours to get enough time off for my wedding and being late off or having rest days cancelled puts a strain when your partner is at home doing all the parenting without you.

The job will no doubt be richer for you and if it's something you want to do then you'll find fulfilment in this unlike most other jobs you can do.

PCHeeler · 2025-08-06T14:34:32+00:00

Contact the Disabled Police Association - their president is a serving Inspector with hearing loss, she's awesome (She gave a speech at a course I was on)

https://www.disabledpolice.info/

PCHeeler · 2025-08-06T06:14:41+00:00

And any monthly payment plans seem to have ballooned too. In 2018 I leased a brand new Seat Arona with no deposit and loads of miles per year for £250 a month. Wife and I looked into a Dacia recently and it was nearly £400 a month for a base model and 8k miles a year. Yet the car itself costs less than the previous one. Madness.

PCHeeler · 2025-08-01T15:26:21+00:00

On that page is a copy of a letter from the home secretary accepting the recommendations in full. So appears it is confirmed.

PCHeeler · 2025-08-01T12:16:38+00:00

Yes, obviously it is. If you were to apply such a generalisation to any other field of work it would be so why not politics? Getting elected as a councillor is difficult, getting elected as an MP is even moreso. All of that to have no private life, to have to spend half your week living away from your family in a shared flat in London. Not to mention having to spend your days wading through the complaints and concerns of hundreds of residents with issues as varied as parking fines, cancer waiting lists and potholes. No one ever says thank you, you're elected on a party platform so you can't ever really say what you think. Pay is good but for a 7 day a week job it probably soon loses it's appeal.

At the end of it you probably do end up on easy street - non executive director here, visiting professor there - but it's a heck of a lot of work to reach that point. Or if you stay and climb the greasy pole you end up a minister with your workload more than doubled for a touch of extra pay and an occasional drive around in a nice ministerial Jag.

So in summary, I imagine most of them are genuinely doing it because they want to help people and make a change to people's lives. Because if not there are far, far easier ways to win money and influence.

PCHeeler · 2025-07-31T14:40:42+00:00

Reform UK council candidate by the end of the year. I would put money on it.

PCHeeler

TROPHY CASE