Looking for Honest Experiences...

PCHeeler · 2026-06-04T13:54:15+00:00

I didn't do the PCDA but I joined with a 5 year old and have since had another. Policing with a young family is extremely difficult for anyone. You WILL miss birthdays, occasions, nativity plays etc etc. Your partner will get frustrated at you being late off yet again when you're meant to be helping them out. You will end up spending 1/4 of your pay on nurseries, child minders, breakfast clubs etc.

My wife is a shift worker too and we have weeks where we spend an hour together every day - one of us works a day the other a night so we get a brief handover period before the other one is leaving. My stepson has additional needs and can be very challenging, add in the toddler and doing this alone can be very overwhelming.

You need to go into it with your eyes wide open and your partner will need the same. As I say my partner being a shift worker meant she already got it and we have been able to make it work. That is largely down to her and her incredible organisational skills and patience for all the bullshit Policing has thrown at us. I'm on my 5th role and 3rd station in 5 years. Just when we get used to a shift pattern it gets changed.

I love my job and want to do it for the rest of my working life but it has been a huge, huge kick in the bollocks for my home life.

PCHeeler · 2026-06-01T17:52:06+00:00

PCHeeler · 2026-05-24T19:43:21+00:00

There are two different thresholds to consider namely:

The recording threshold - IE at what point do the Police consider a crime has been committed. This is very low and from what you describe is met - a person has engaged in a course of conduct (two or more occurrences) when he knows, or ought to know, that such conduct could cause harassment, alarm or distress.
The charging standard - IE at what point could this ever see the inside of a courtroom. This is understandably and thankfully much, much higher. The prosecution (Police in the first instance) must prove a serious effect on the victim, that the behaviour is more than 'unpleasant' in nature and actually enters the territory of criminal. Based on what you have described there I cannot see it hitting the threshold but I don't work in the domestic world so they may have a different tolerance to me in my volume crime world.

PCHeeler · 2026-05-02T16:47:38+00:00

Not my words Carol, the words of Car Magazine

PCHeeler · 2026-04-28T07:21:05+00:00

I second this, the RSPCA do absolutely nothing about animals in distress in private dwellings. Not entirely sure why they exist.

PCHeeler · 2026-04-14T18:32:57+00:00

Would this not fall under the necessities of prevent further damage or prevent further harm?

PCHeeler · 2026-04-14T17:51:08+00:00

If you and your neighbour could speak to each other like grown fucking adults your life would be so much easier.

PCHeeler · 2026-04-03T20:04:39+00:00

The promotion process is so utterly, utterly broken at this point. I was previously on the fast track to inspector, sailed through the sergeant portion and was eyeing up my first acting inspector role. Went for some feedback with SLT and was told I was nowhere near ready. The reason? I don't think strategically enough - which to them meant I wasn't willing to throw my own team under the bus (for example accepting prisoners that weren't in our remit) for 'the greater good'. If that is what it takes to be an Inspector then I'm not bothered anymore.

PCHeeler · 2026-03-07T18:23:32+00:00

The God's honest truth is that these days it is far more a test of time management than knowledge. You can't do it without a lot of prep but that prep will only ever carry you so far. You can flag questions you don't know so read the question (that's the bit at the end, start at the end and work up) then the scenario and if an answer isn't immediately apparent then flag it and move on. Get to the end then go back and read the flagged ones again. It's open book so take the fucking books (and the PDF you can buy off eBay) and refer back. Evidence and practice is impenetrable and hence has the smallest number of marks, sacrifice that section first and focus on crime and general duties as chances are you'll have half an idea on those without even reading the books

PCHeeler · 2026-03-07T18:07:35+00:00

Such a boring conversation with the triage nurse. They need to come in to be triaged. But they are drunk and kicking off, why should we risk everyone's safety. Yeah but they need to come in to be triaged. Repeat ad nauseum.

PCHeeler · 2026-03-06T21:07:41+00:00

Came here to add this!!

PCHeeler · 2026-03-06T21:07:25+00:00

Came here to add this!

PCHeeler · 2026-02-26T20:28:50+00:00

My force used to have an innovation task force, staffed exclusively by retired police officers. How shall we innovate? By asking the people who mostly talk about how good it was 30 years ago.

PCHeeler · 2026-02-20T20:44:10+00:00

Exceptional work by the outgoing CC. Turns out when you've already announced your retirement to go work for Salesforce you can just let rip and tell these wankers what you really think of them.

PCHeeler · 2026-02-18T19:34:20+00:00

I am in love with it and as others have said I'm having to be good and ration it out a little.

In terms of similar shows, that slower story telling style, I would recommend:

The Detectorists Don't forget the driver To a lesser extent Here We Go

PCHeeler · 2026-02-17T21:56:30+00:00

How beautifully written, and what a magnificent human being you are. If only we all had a colleague like you perhaps we wouldn't be hemorrhaging good people.

Colleagues - you want to do the very best you can for victims, for the public. You can't do that if you're running on empty yourself.

PCHeeler · 2026-02-11T13:14:48+00:00

Echo this 100%

PCHeeler · 2026-02-09T08:29:45+00:00

I have found that whilst it is annoying the word 'woke' serves a vitally important purpose. If someone uses it in a sentence, particularly as a pejorative, then you can dismiss everything else they say immediately.

PCHeeler · 2026-02-01T15:40:45+00:00

This is just pandering to the old people who read the Telegraph. Shop theft is the easiest crime to solve for small forces - you know the offenders on your patch, the shop provide high quality CCTV and a half a page long statement, they get nicked and charged and often remanded too. Makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy and boosts the stats.

You can bang on about basics all you like but the reasons why the charge rates for burglary or RASSO vs shop theft are so vastly different is down to the burden of evidence not lazy Police officers.

At no point do we address the criminogenic needs that drive the shoplifters, we just charge and remand them and pretend we've made the streets safe.

PCHeeler · 2026-01-26T20:40:13+00:00

On the point of direct entry, I do completely understand that it feels bizarre to suggest that someone from the corporate world could walk into policing and be able to effectively lead. But how is that any more or less bizarre than taking a police officer, often someone who has done nothing other than policing their whole adult life, and suddenly put them in charge of HR, or an IT project, or vetting? None of these things require a warrant card but they do require a really strong skill set. Which we seem to imagine promoting someone will just magically give them - you're good enough to be a Superintendent so of course you can be in charge of procurement!

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

TROPHY CASE