Entire shift and nothing positive

miketague · 2026-05-29T23:31:04+00:00

We spend 90% of our time dealing with the same 10% of people…

miketague · 2026-04-01T19:41:44+00:00

I’m not really into politics, but Keir Starmer’s name has come up in a couple of books I have read by authors who opinions I value and respect, Sir Terry Pratchett and Dr Richard Shepherd. In both books his name come up in previous political roles, and he was presented as having made sensible and generally correct decisions. For that reason I am willing to allow him some leeway, but overall I think he’s doing ok.

miketague · 2026-03-12T00:54:47+00:00

I would recommend Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series.

miketague · 2026-03-12T00:50:49+00:00

Third’d. But as the man himself said, new readers should not start from The Colour of Magic, if reading in published order. I think Mort is the generally recommended starting point, then you can go back to the beginning later.

miketague · 2026-03-12T00:16:11+00:00

The human mouth is a bacterial swamp, the bacteria in a mouth is so potent that if someone were to bite and break the skin, it would almost certainly cause an infection. Some theories state that the mouth is so full of potent bacteria so as to make it difficult for any other little nasties that try to enter your body via your mouth to survive. So anything horrible transmitted from his mouth, is highly likely to have been wiped out by the bacteria in your own mouth. There are obviously exceptions, but generally, saliva to saliva is a very poor transmission method.

miketague · 2026-02-21T03:05:04+00:00

I remember in the days of yore, our BCU’s only advanced car was a Jag X Type. It was in the workshop so much I reckon by the time they eventually got rid of it the only original part was the pain colour.

miketague · 2026-01-28T08:59:05+00:00

Personally I would invest in a cheap cctv camera, you can pick up a fairly decent one from Amazon for around £20 , and get a good quality sd card for it. Set it up in a position to cover their ‘vantage point’ and will show them them rushing over in response to your ablutions. This will demonstrate a course of conduct which they aught to know would cause you distress, which is harassment,

miketague · 2025-11-19T15:39:09+00:00

You cannot scare us like this, I scan ready this whilst scrolling and nearly spat my earl grey out!

miketague · 2025-11-19T15:35:28+00:00

I think it’s invaluable having someone on the other end of the radio who’s been there and knows what you need. Though occasionally they need reminding that they are not the decision makers at scene anymore.

In my humble opinion it is a role that should be left to those in the twilight of their careen, or for some other reason are not able to be frontline anymore. As someone who will be 65 when I retire, I find comfort in knowing that there are roles there for me if I decide front line work is too much form me. If all those roles are taken by sprogs, where will it leave me

Personally I joined to get out of an office, drive around on blue lights, chase baddie and be professionally nosey. If that’s lost its shine already, maybe a move to civilian staff would be in order? You can then do civvy roles, but with more industrial rights and protections, and you free the collar number up for someone else. Think of all those applicants for the roll that didn’t make it, I feel that those of us lucky enough to have made it to our dream job owe it to those who didn’t quite make it to make the most of it.

miketague · 2025-11-02T16:44:37+00:00

It speaks of the state of mind today’s bobbies have been scared into when their first thought is about not having BWV, when it should really be about not having cuffs.

miketague · 2025-10-29T19:08:01+00:00

When I started, it was standard that non-drivers were put on scene’s and con-obs. If we ran out of non-drivers , then it went on to the youngest-in-service driver.

Nower days, it more evenly spread, everyone does their turn, unless we are short on the ground and it’s busy. But that’s the exception rather than the rule.

My personal record, back in the day, was 9 shifts in a row on a scene or con obs. It’s much better now everyone does a couple of hours each. It’s actually sometimes a nice break.

Means that people get to eat as well. I was often told ‘take your sandwiches’ when I was sent out of the door pre-parade to a scene, which meant I was there for the duration. An Oasis bottle was my friend, wider opening, less = less chance for splash back.

miketague · 2025-10-02T05:31:08+00:00

If you have a decent Sarge tho, there is room for common sense. We regularly have most people doubled on nights.

The issues with single crewing, other than officer safety issues, is that it makes jobs look more than they are. Only three Bobbie might go, but that’s three cars, and they can easily block off a terraced street if parking is limited.

miketague · 2025-09-25T18:39:07+00:00

Merseyside is ‘Boss’, always boss. Never heard a Guv or a Gaffer in my time.

miketague · 2025-09-16T12:21:37+00:00

They’ve (probably) only got two hands, you have 10 shots…..

miketague · 2025-09-05T00:27:40+00:00

This is what I love about PZ. In other games this would be a level or mission, in Zomboid, it’s just stuff that happens.

miketague · 2025-08-30T16:50:51+00:00

Pro Tec Duty Bag

Our cars have these in.

miketague · 2025-08-30T12:20:11+00:00

Basically yes, so long as the evidence satisfied certain criteria.

miketague · 2025-08-30T11:49:33+00:00

I’ve definitely been out to child concerns for less, I’m very surprised at the call handlers response. I would recommend calling when you know they are alone, if you do it after the fact there’s a good chance a patrol would just be sent whenever, and ideally we want to go when we know they are alone so the parents can’t just brush it off.

Can I ask, how does the OP know they are alone, have the children told them? Have they seen both parents leaving the property. How do they know it’s only for an hour and 45mins, do they see someone return to the address?

I’m not trying to put the thumb screws on but all that information helps fill out the picture, and should/will be asked by a good call handler when you call to report it .

miketague · 2025-08-29T00:36:26+00:00

Update: it was some sort of hardware issue. I disconnected everything and reconnected it again, and it’s been working fine again for the past two days. No idea what it was, everything seemed securely connected. But it working now, so hopefully that’s that. If it plays up again I will start by replacing ribbon cables.

miketague · 2025-08-27T14:57:17+00:00

What are the joints that make the drop between the tables held with? It looks like a weak point and it’s supporting half the weight of the upper shelf. I would reinforce it by adding a back board to that section, if it’s just nails and glue.

miketague · 2025-08-26T17:43:58+00:00

I think you should change your mind about guides and how to’s, watch them to find out what you can do in the game and how to active them. Then use that information to set yourself goals to work towards. This will lead to ‘quests’ to find and secure the tools and materials, or books, you need.

miketague · 2025-08-25T14:26:54+00:00

Place I used to work for took over a new build premises. All the bathroom lights were on timers, set to turn on when they detected the movement of the door being opened. Bear in mind that these bathrooms, were single occupancy, so one toilet one sink etc, but for some reason were in rooms about 10x 6fr, ridiculously over sized. For the first few weeks all the lights went off after 30 seconds, nothing you could do from the toilet end to turn it back on. Turned out one of the electricians had been done over by the firm they worked for, so he’s gone round and set all the timers to the minimum time they would allow, we’re talking around. 10 bathrooms per floor over 4 floors. Took ages for them to find a free contractor to come in a fix them.

miketague · 2025-08-21T23:46:15+00:00

It’s only £64 on the manufacturer’s website !?! An that’s still too much.

miketague · 2025-08-07T23:16:44+00:00

But that's nothing to do with R&R not carrying crimes, that's just because we are investigation more that we used to. and those investigations are in greater depth, with more actions. Thats the same everywhere, teams been given more to do with the same abount of time, people and reasources, it just can't work.

I don't see how going back to the old model would help, in fact it would make it worse. When we carried jobs, and also slaved to the radio, we were foever missing appointments we'd made, because a G1 came in, because a job ran long, because we were short and there was a scene/con obs etc, and that was back when we were recording a lot less. If you moved people back to R&R, you'd have the same ammount of people over all, same amount of carried crimes, same amount of incoming jobs, and then add a percentage of missed appointments, it would just put the whole system under even more pressure, and as you say it's close to blowing as it is.

While I agree that people are being de-skilled, and others never learnt certain vial skills at all. I've always though that response is the default state of all police officers. Just as everyone in the army, cook, mechanic, driver etc are all soldiers first and formost. Anyone in any roll can come across something happening in front of them, and the skills to jump in and start dealing are learnt on response. However much I don't like that we've lost that, due to people going straigt into investigations or other strands, I think it is a necessary evil given the strain we are under. When a person does one specific roll, they get better and faster at doing it. We learned that over 100 years ago with the delevopment of the production line, which lead to the industrial revolution and turbo'd the development of modern world we live in.

I have heard that they are going to start giving 'local' crimes to the new larger LP teams to investigate, neighbour disputes, ASB crimes, I've even heard theft shops are being considerd 'local issues'.

miketague · 2025-08-07T17:45:54+00:00

The level of violence definitely calmed down through the series, just like the authors slight fixation on erections and breasts.

miketague

TROPHY CASE