The UK Policing Thread

Silhouette Man · January 2016

I know that we have a good number of ex-police officers and perhaps even current police officers here from the UK so I thought it might be an interesting idea to start a separate thread where issues concerning policing in the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) could be discussed at length as it comes up quite a lot on other threads. This thread could therefore act instead as a "one-stop shop" for all matters concerning policing in the UK.

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So who wants to get the ball rolling?...

Number24 · January 2016

I'm not a police officer (who is this best fo me or the public?

) Earlier today I posted pictures from Reykjavik police's Instagram page in another thread. Some might just find this funny or weird, but perhaps real British police officers can discuss how far this is from their work reality and why this is?

Here are some instagram pictures from Reykjavik police, Iceland. Some years they get a murder on Iceland, but 2015 seems to have been one of the less hardcore years:

police-instagram-logreglan-reykjavik-iceland-20-605x605.jpg?w=605

police-instagram-logreglan-reykjavik-iceland-20-605x605.jpg?w=605

police-instagram-logreglan-reykjavik-iceland-22-605x605.jpg?quality=80&strip=all&w=620&h=0&crop=1

Silhouette Man · January 2016

Thank you for those fun police pictures, Number24. All contributions to this thread are welcome!

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chrisisall · January 2016

US cops have no respect for caped crusaders...
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/holy-cop-conundrum-police-pull-772751

Thunderpussy · January 2016

On an old QI episode they showed " a Policeman's Lady Reviver "

Which led me to wonder if anyone here has had to revive a lady ?

)
( Basically it was a tube with smelling salts )

Barbel · January 2016

I was a nurse for more years than I care to remember (32 of them) and yes, I had to revive a few ladies... and gents too.

Lady Rose · January 2016

Thunderpussy wrote:

On an old QI episode they showed " a Policeman's Lady Reviver "
Which led me to wonder if anyone here has had to revive a lady ? )
( Basically it was a tube with smelling salts )

Theres a joke in there somewhere but I can't think of it ....

chrisisall · January 2016

Barbel wrote:

I was a nurse for more years than I care to remember (32 of them) and yes, I had to revive a few ladies... and gents too.

Any of them good-lookin'?
:v

Barbel · January 2016

Sorry, old boy: Section four, paragraph twenty-five. Need to know. I'm sure you understand.

chrisisall · January 2016

Barbel wrote:

Sorry, old boy: Section four, paragraph twenty-five. Need to know. I'm sure you understand.

Lady Rose · February 2016

Being a Met girl, I only ever remember white shirts (joined 1985) and at least you had a proper truncheon not the cocktail stick I had to carry round !!

As for the radio, we used a Storno which was only useful for throwing at people

)

always shaken · February 2016

I only ever used my old wooden truncheon once ,during parade on early turn (6-2) the skipper dispatched my to a call (not 999) as a poor fox had been hit by a car ,and crawled off to die under some hedge , So theres me talking to this poor old mangled fox ,telling him hes a good boy and it will be ok , then I had to bash him over the bonce to put him away , a very sad mornings work.

Silhouette Man · February 2016

always shaken wrote:

I only ever used my old wooden truncheon once ,during parade on early turn (6-2) the skipper dispatched my to a call (not 999) as a poor fox had been hit by a car ,and crawled off to die under some hedge , So theres me talking to this poor old mangled fox ,telling him hes a good boy and it will be ok , then I had to bash him over the bonce to put him away , a very sad mornings work.

Interesting but I suppose that "duty has no sweethearts" and it put the poor animal out of its misery.

Lady Rose · February 2016

stag wrote:

LR, WRT the truncheon for men - as you know it was kept in a purpose made pocket on the right hand side of the trousers with the strap dangling out. This arrangement was most awkward if you are a left hander like me.

The ladies truncheon was half the size of the mens and we too had a pocket in the side of our skirts so it bashed against your leg all day.Useless bit of kit and I done think I ever bothered with it.All different these days mind ... they let women have guns and everything

)

Lady Rose · February 2016

always shaken wrote:

I only ever used my old wooden truncheon once ,during parade on early turn (6-2) the skipper dispatched my to a call (not 999) as a poor fox had been hit by a car ,and crawled off to die under some hedge , So theres me talking to this poor old mangled fox ,telling him hes a good boy and it will be ok , then I had to bash him over the bonce to put him away , a very sad mornings work.

I've been giving a lot of thought to the incident in North Wales were the police purposely ran over and killed the dog that was on the carriageway.

I would love to know what the reasoning for this was. I worked in traffic as part of the motorway control for a few years and we often had problems with animals roaming onto the motorway because we were obviously surrounded by countryside and farms. Everything from horses, sheep, geese, dogs etc but not once did we decide to kill the animal. The motorway was always closed until the animal was secured.

My only guess with North Wales is perhaps they didn't have the units available (they were probably the only unit on!) to do a proper closure and the animal was causing problems (which I believe it was and vehicles had had to swerve to avoid it)

Thunderpussy · February 2016

I always remember one of those old public information films from the early 60s,
( recently shown on bbc2 ) in which they stated, about police women ............

" They can do everthing a policeman can do !"

) just leaving out.....
" They take up less space, smell nicer "

Silhouette Man · February 2016

Lady Rose wrote:

always shaken wrote:

I only ever used my old wooden truncheon once ,during parade on early turn (6-2) the skipper dispatched my to a call (not 999) as a poor fox had been hit by a car ,and crawled off to die under some hedge , So theres me talking to this poor old mangled fox ,telling him hes a good boy and it will be ok , then I had to bash him over the bonce to put him away , a very sad mornings work.

I've been giving a lot of thought to the incident in North Wales were the police purposely ran over and killed the dog that was on the carriageway.

I would love to know what the reasoning for this was. I worked in traffic as part of the motorway control for a few years and we often had problems with animals roaming onto the motorway because we were obviously surrounded by countryside and farms. Everything from horses, sheep, geese, dogs etc but not once did we decide to kill the animal. The motorway was always closed until the animal was secured.

My only guess with North Wales is perhaps they didn't have the units available (they were probably the only unit on!) to do a proper closure and the animal was causing problems (which I believe it was and vehicles had had to swerve to avoid it)

I heard on the news on the radio (I think it was BBC Radio 4) that an officer had already tried to catch the dog a number of times but that it had bitten him. I think they did the right thing as they felt the only safe thing was to destroy the dog.

always shaken · March 2016

) oh how times have changed ,

IanT · March 2016

A mate of mine ran over a dog in his Police van to put it out of its misery.

Sadly the owner saw him.

He never got rid of the nickname: Flat Dog

Thunderpussy · March 2016

I hope the van wasn't a Rover.

always shaken · March 2016

Thunderpussy wrote:

I hope the van wasn't a Rover.

)

IanT · March 2016

Arf, arf!

)

always shaken · March 2016

Talking of dogs ,I crewed up one night with one of the area dog vans ,(I think we had a lot of troops on that night) Any how ,the dog handler parked up ,and we got out , He passed me this padded sleeve ,which I put on ,"now run"" he says " so off I legged it with this huge bloody slobbering hound after me , Now we are both on the same side ,(I hope the dog knows that)?

) So theres me running off shouting awww sheeettt ,and he pounces ,he has got me ,its no use trying to shake the thing off ,he will wait for his handlers command , but a fun time none the less .but that was the last time I volunteered to crew up with the K9 unit

Thunderpussy · March 2016

Another rambling old joke ( Not you AS)

Arriving at a house break in, the policeman tells the the home owner what he's going to do.
" I'll chase the burglar on to the roof, when he falls off, the dog here is trained to rip his b*lls off !......
... Now take this gun "
" what's the gun for ?" asked the home owner .
" In case I fall off the roof first, you're gonna shoot that fooking dog !"

always shaken · March 2016

I think ive told this story before ,so for the benefit of new members ,here goes ,
We had a combined operation on our patch ,involving MI5,C.I.D.FIREARMS ,dog units ect ect (you get the picture)
any how reports had said that spies from the Moldovian intelligence network(M.I.N.) had been operating in our area ,and word from upstairs was ,that these spies ,needed to be arrested and deported . So on the designated evening ,the front door was smashed in ,lots of Police shouting POLICE STAND STILL and lots of swearing ,the 3 men from M.I.N were arrested and taken back to the factory . They were then according to PACE presented before a ruddy faced old skipper in custody . who looked up from his cross word puzzle and his mug of tea ,and said "Constable ,take these men upstairs to the canteen ,and pour custard over their heads !!
to wich the P.C replied bemused ,"whys that sarge " Coz I like custard on my MIN spies came the reply .

IanT · March 2016

Oh Jesus that's bad...

But I'm going to pinch it for myself!!!

always shaken · March 2016

) Your welcome to it IANT

Thunderpussy · March 2016

This may be another stupid question but ......

I think up until the 1970s ( not sure about the year) if a criminal killed a police dog or horse in
America, he could be facing a murder charge, as the animal was an officer. It has of course
Changed. So in the UK was there a similar sentence, or was it just like resisting arrest ?

Thunderpussy · March 2016

Thanks, Stag -{

always shaken · March 2016

HI Stag ,my home force Kent ,like most county forces ,never ever had enough troops on the ground ,and there was talk (it never happened ) of asking the excellent special constabulary officers ,to volunteer ,to be the 2nd man in the ARV crew .As in those days
the ARV crew was the traffic crew and unlike the METs Trojan teams of three ,Kent normally operated with one man .I don't know what they do know . But I know some of the big lads in the specials ,worked with the CID as muscle . With regards to my dog imcident ,our dog handlers ,much like our SOCO officers were very much known to every body ,as we was such a small force .you would always be bumping into somebody ,mostly when custody was full and you had to drive to a different area for their custody .
Looking back now on what we did ,makes me shudder ,my son ( a MET officer ) listens to me in dis belief at my war stories
but im sure many county mounties here have similar stories ,again mostly due to lack of staff ,same old story.

Lady Rose · March 2016

stag wrote:

always shaken wrote:

Talking of dogs ,I crewed up one night with one of the area dog vans ,(I think we had a lot of troops on that night) Any how ,the dog handler parked up ,and we got out , He passed me this padded sleeve ,which I put on ,"now run"" he says " so off I legged it with this huge bloody slobbering hound after me , Now we are both on the same side ,(I hope the dog knows that)? ) So theres me running off shouting awww sheeettt ,and he pounces ,he has got me ,its no use trying to shake the thing off ,he will wait for his handlers command , but a fun time none the less .but that was the last time I volunteered to crew up with the K9 unit

Your force sure had some strange ways of doing things! I never ever saw or heard of anyone crewing up with the Dog Section. In my force they always worked alone, indeed most bobbies would actively steer clear of them for fear of being bitten (by the dogs!). To the best of my knowledge only handlers/trainers would wear sleeves & again I never heard of any bobbies being made to engage in such training officially or otherwise. At the end of the day I guess we were a little more 'risk averse' than your mob!

You should have both been in The Met were we did things properly .... :v

The UK Policing Thread

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