Full circle

Well, things in the police have now come a full circle for me. There is a routine in our numbers and policies and it seems to have come about again.

Right now we are quite flush on shift, we have had 3 or so new officers join our shift recently. This is a big difference compared to the numbers we usually ran with namely max 5 officers including a skipper.

I think we may actually be at full strength.

Having these new 3 officers reminded me of when i joined up, wet behind the ears and not sure what I'm really doing for the first few months at least. Now i have these "new kids" actually looking to me for advice which in itself is quite scary. One of them i hate to say is damned near useless and to be honest its not all his fault, hes had 2 bad tutors and just cant seem to get on with the job, quite how he will fair when he finished tutorship i don't know, hopefully actually being with some proactive officers and not being made to look a fool by his tutor may help.

One was an ex special who is doing very well who i have tutored for a few shifts while his main tutor is away this lads got potential just needs the practice.

The third is actually quite good, a bit like me when i started really, loves going out looking for proactive stuff but is having a bit of a mare with the paperwork side of things, I'm trying not to treat him like a tutee but its quite hard seeing people make mistakes which can be easily sorted and not say anything (we all learn by our mistakes).

I reckon in 6 - 10 months our numbers will be depleted again i may even not be on this shift and may have moved to new places. Im sure the people above me will be moving on or thinking about moving on shortly.

I am now going to be a tutor so i will get my own tutee to teach how to police, this in itself is interesting as i am not the most "by the book" officer out there i use common sense in my policing which the majority of times works but sometimes it fails me and i fall flat on my arse. But all part of the learning curve in reality.

So i have been at this nick for almost 2 years, i dont feel that experiance but being with the new kids has shown me how much i do know and i feel more confident in speaking up especially with other members of shift.

Will be interesting times to come.

JS