Reality, so different from fantasy.

You once had a view of what the job of a Police Officer entailed. You thought it was all about chasing people, arresting them and then throwing them in prison.

1. You thought every shift involved an arrest and a chance to help someone, this is not the case. You arrest someone for theft of an Item from DIY Store, the item was worth less than five pounds, you spend over three hours in the custody suite dealing with this theft. Who have you helped? No one. Have you made a difference? No, not in the slightest. To be quite frank, it was a waste of your time.

2. You thought that while you were in a foot chase of an offender music would play in the background. This is not true, far from it. Foot chases very rarely happen, because the Police very rarely arrive while the Offenders are still 'on scene'. When you go to a buglary it is very unlikely that you will ever catch the offenders, especially if the buglary is reported two days after the offence took place. The only thing you can do is have forensics come out and give the victim a crime number and a victim support hot line (not so hot).

3. You thought the public would get to see you in uniform, would engage with you, treating you like a person and that they would care about what you were doing. Do they? No, all they want is the service you provide, if you arn't willing to do what they say and do it now they will abuse you, and by the way, you stand there and take this abuse because, apparently, it's your job to do so.

4. You thought management would back you up when things went wrong. Granted alot of Officers in management do a great job, but there are some, especially in the Voluntary Area of Policing who are quite frankly, useless and spineless. They don't know procedre and they haven't been out 'on the streets' for years. They wouldn't know how to arrest someone, let alone whether the arrest was needed. Ask one of them what SOCPA is and they wouldn't have a clue, such faith they have from you, yes right, pull the other one it's got bells on it.

5. Paperwork, speaks for itself.

However, there are good points to the job, you just can't think of any at the moment. It's a thankless job, but someone has to do it, right?

A counter has been added to this blog, out of pure curiousity.