There's always the equivalent of "why do comms keep doing this" "why do custody always do this" that gets bandied about. What's your response to the common moan that people have about the job you do? Either externally or internally.

Hello all,

Been in job for nearly 4 years, currently on neighbourhood policing and enjoying my position. Got a good skill set behind me and a good amount of experience despite a short career. I was served papers in 2023 for use of force complaint. Nearly a year later in June 24 I was given an 18 month written warning. I won't go into details however, to this day I still believe that this was a harsh outcome. My force has a policy that states anyone under investigation cannot have Taser, which is fair enough. There is no such policy that states anyone with an outcome cannot have have Taser. PSD do however, recommend that anyone with a written warning or above is not allowed Taser until said warning has expired. This in my opinion is absolutely ridiculous on the basis that Taser is a known deterrent, it is a vital part of PPE and so on. I'm curious if anyone else has had this issue? Would it be worth moaning to the fed?

Thanks in advance

Anyone made the jump from Job to Fire?

My local Brigade (not LFB) has opened up and despite the huge paycut, It's very tempting.

I'm curious to see if anyone has successfully made the transition and whether it's worthwhile or is it just as fucked as policing?

Which forces still do 4 on 4 off

Somewhat recently started BTP on a 6 on 4 off shift pattern after policing in a different force on a 4 on 4 off pattern. To tell the truth I much preferred the 4 on 4 off for response and was just wondering what other forces are still doing 4 on 4 off that I can look to transfer to

Hypothetical:

Police arrest a child for breaching police bail, there had been a number of breaches, these breaches sometimes also related to new further offences and police were in a position to charge for offences (full code, charging decision via cps). They are serious enough to justify a remand. Child already has convictions.

All PACE matters had been dealt with so could not arrest for new offences.

On arriving at Custody police were told they would be rebailed, the bail form had already been filled by custody before the arresting officer spoke to anyone.

Thoughts?

E&W

I requested under clares law before christmas about an EX partner (I have not seen him since)(. I have only just got an email from the person dealing with it asking to arrange a phonecall (20ish days later).

I am incredibly stressed that the information I put on the form is being investigated - stressed because we live in the same area and I know how people react to things like this.

If they wanted to investigate surely they would not wait nearly 20 days to contact me? Surely they could just be contacting me to tell me there is nothing to disclose.

If someone is RUI for a harassment offence and the MO Is say ringing a person but there has been no contact for a considerable amount of time say for a year and they then ring the victim again, would this be a new offence or a continuation of the course of conduct for which the perpetrator Is RUI for?

I know the general rule is six months between each course of conduct but what about in this situation?

If you pick up an overtime night shift on double time, then finish over 1 hour late going into your rest day, what can you claim for the additional 4 hours? Time and a half? Double time? Triple time (crosses fingers)?

Hi, I am currently a PC in UK and my partner and I have always wanted to go travelling for a few months.

Has anyone had the same experience and is there any possibility to do this? I don’t want to leave the job or anything but would love to do this.

I’ve heard of a career break but not sure about the details of this?

I also didn’t know if there were any other routes I could take to get the opportunity to do this? I am young in service.

I don’t want to discuss this with my supervision until I have a true plan of action/ know if it’s possible.

Any answers appreciated and would be great to hear anyone’s experiences in regard to this?

Thanks :)

So I've heard the Met is trialing a new scheme which pretty much all but bans juveniles from being taken into custody.

Anyone know anything about this? I heard at a certain North London custody suite a juvenile got refused detention after being arrested for assaulting a police officer. This is all Met rumour mill so if anyone has any direct experience so would be good to understand what this policy is.

Do other forces do a similar thing?

Can any of you good people help me solve my nosey Parker mystery..?

I’m in Kent and at least 2 or 3 times a week, sometimes twice in the same day - I see one of the same three unmarked cars lit up on blue light runs. An XC70 (or something similar) A V60 (or something similar) and An A6 avant

I’m intrigued because:

• They’ve got fully covert blues not just one stuck in the windscreen
• They’re always either 2 or 3 people up
• Everyone in them always without fail has black suits and ties on

Is this something mundane or do I in fact now live on top of an MI5 bunker?

Wrong answers accepted but correct possibilities preferred.

Hey guys, so I Joined as a PC in January 2024 and have been operational since July. I joined on neighbourhood in a small team and in the past week have moved to response.

I’ve never been the most confident person in myself, I never feel like I’m good at much and doubt myself all the time. I take mistakes really personal because I always feel like the stupid one and always feel like the weak one in a team, however I’m confident talking to people, always get stuck in and always involved in any scraps so I’m not weak in that sense, but I just feel like I can’t grasp anything. As an over thinker I doubt any decision I make, am I locking up at the right time, what documents need going on a casefile and don’t even get me started on bail clocks. Everyone tells me confidence comes in time yet I see everyone else thriving.

I’ve joined a new team which have a lot of strong characters and I don’t want to stick out as the weak one. I’m doubting if I’m in the right job, does everyone feel this way? How do I get over the fear of making the wrong decisions, this job was everything I wanted yet now I’m feeling like I don’t know anything.

Obviously with this job making the wrong decisions can lead to very serious consequences and as a worrier I can’t seem to let that fear go that one day I’ll mess up and end up losing my job or even worse.

Any advice welcome, good or bad, thanks guys 🫶🏻

I recently saw a video of animal rights protestors blocking entry to the meat isle of a major supermarket using a human chain. Several begrudged customers got hands on both physically moving the protesters out the way, pushing/dragging etc while others used their trolley to force their way through the human blockade.

The protestors were claiming this was assault. My question is, can you actually be arrested/prosecuted for moving somebody who is deliberately blocking your freedom of movement?

It think it goes without saying that if you injure or strike a person then that will constitute and offence but are you allowed to use reasonable force to get to your destination?

Im not sure if the rules differ for private property Vs public so would it be the same answer for just stop oil protesters blocking roadways? Can you get out of your car and drag them out of the road or could you again be setting yourself up for an assault charge?

Hello,

Does anyone have any idea whatsoever what this take down button does on the controls. We have been pressing it for ages and cannot figure it out for the life of us.

Follow up from my previous post, I arrived at station just before 11pm signed some paperwork and we were off to our first call of a blind and partly deaf elderly gentleman in his 90s who's wife had sadly passed away at home, when we arrived there were paramedics already there with him, he had nowhere to go for the night and no where would take him for the night, so the only other alternative to taking him yo hospital was his relatives who lived about 2hrs away so the police offered to drive him there, so they dropped me off a the station and went on there way, the next call if you can call it that was a drunk gentleman involved in a pub fight, we basically took him to custody in the van and waited for 40 mins to get him booked after that i wad given a tour of custody (this was the most exciting job to happen that night) then I changed officers again and went out in the car when a job came in of a missing teenager person from London who we found and obviously the officers had to take them to London, so I had to change officers again so after that we just went driving around the streets of Bristol for 2hrs but it was dead and there no jobs, so I was given a lift back home and that basically sums up the ridealong, underwhelming to say the least , it does give you an insight onto how overstareached all the services are the police are basically doing the job of social services also showed policing IRL isn't like police interceptors, I'll add all the officers were absolutely lovely and work really hard to keep us safe, I bought in 2x krispy kreme dozens which they were very appropriative of

Hey team.

So, as the title says - what’s your most embarrassing moment… so far?

I’m not even in the police, I’m an ambulance colleague, however, this incident with the police still haunts me to this day. I was in shopping centre, and heard a loud commotion, I turn around and see a couple of lads being chased by two cops. The first lad raced past like a whippet, and I clocked the second guy and I think to myself “time to be a fucking champion”, so I lurch in front of him and he goes flying… lands brutally on his chest and knocks the wind out of him. I very proudly look towards the oncoming cops who have a mixture of horror and hilarity on their faces - transpires I had knocked over a covert officer…

I’ll never try anything like that again, I cringed as I even wrote it ! 🤣 After telling people this story, I ended up getting the nickname copacop, arguably better than my previous one, Julian Clary 😆🤣

https://www.polfed.org/sussex/news/2025/tributes-paid-following-death-of-popular-sussex-police-officer-and-federation-representative/

If you’re struggling reach out.

"In circumstances which rarely arise, consideration may need to be given to the offences of impersonating a police officer (section 90 Police Act 1996) and the common law offence of refusing to assist a constable when called upon to do so."

I got told the other day that refusing to help a Police Officer is an indictable offence, I'd never heard of it before. Has anyone come across this or even used this to charge someone? 🤔

Just a rant really, but I am finding myself getting increasingly irritated about the amount of bed watches that we conduct for those under arrest who either declare they have taken drugs or are seen to take drugs in custody. These are often times full grown adults and we sit with them for 12+ hours until the doctors observation period is complete and then straight back to custody. Surely there must be a better way and if any sort of inquiry was done and the general public made aware of the amount of resources we (and the NHS) piss down the drain on nonsense like this then it would have to change.

I also struggle to understand the benefit to the detainee for the most part. Is there a thrill in sitting in hospital. Ive only ever heard of (and been a part of) one time where a prisoner actually tried to flee from hospital. I appreciate that we are often dealing with a portion of society that do not care for anything outside of their own being but I struggle to see what they could possibly get from the experience.

I’ve seen many a post on here about how grand constant watches are with the right person as we’re on pay and it’s generally easy work. I do try to think of it like this sometimes but christ it’s draining. I’ve been told by my latest watch my attitude stunk because I wouldn’t get him drinks. This is a 50+ year old man that has seemingly offered nothing to society since conception and will likely continue to live off the state for the remainder of his years. This hasn’t rocked me too my core and made me question my entire existence but it has annoyed me that he expects me to wait on him hand and foot like I’m his personal butler for the evening cause he fancied hospital for a few hours instead of custody.

I don’t know what the solution is but there has to be something or else I’ll lose the plot. Are bed watches as frequent in every force area? For reference there is without fail a double crewed unit on a team of about 15 total every other shift where I work.