Metpol Ban Blogging

I have just read from here http://worldwearydetective.blogspot.com/ (i know im a few months behind the times, its only just been drawn to my attention) that he is hanging up his blogging due to pressures from the powers that be. Its a shame that the views of the underlings are suppressed to keep the public from knowing what we do and how we feel about the job. We don't give any secrets away, we don't name and shame nor do we give any intelligence away. We just comment on our lives as police officers and the effects on us.

I get the impression from reading various websites that the general public like to know what its like on the inside of the secret society known as the police and shows we are not just robots handing out tickets and not arresting anyone.

We show how we are restrained at times, but encouraged at others and we all try to do the best we can with the tools we have been given and that its not actually always our fault, but the fault of the courts, and the senior management team and the government.

I quote from His blog:-

On Friday 3rd March 2006, the Management Board of the Metropolitan Police Service issued the following statement to all members of staff:

'Recently the organisation has become aware of a series of web-logs or blogs - where authors - claiming to be police officers - have offered their views on a number of issues in a highly personalised, often controversial manner.'

This statement is followed by 'guidance' on writing blogs. In summary, this states that although 'blogging' cannot be stopped, the 'impact of expressing views and opinions that are damaging to the organisation or bring the organisation into disrepute' must be considered. Disciplinary proceedings may be considered against posters of material that may be (among other things) defamatory, offensive or otherwise inappropriate.

I have committed no crime. I have compromised no police operations. I have received no payment for anything published on this blog. All opinions expressed are my own.

It is therefore with deep regret and great sadness that I must announce that I will no longer be submitting posts to this blog. I cannot challenge New Scotland Yard. I am weary indeed and cowardice is my bedmate. The protection of my family must take precedence.

To each and every one of you - take note of what has happened here and be afraid.

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever. - George Orwell.

Best of luck out there, stay safe.

John

Priorities

When you first go to join the Police you are told that there are many opportunities to join other departments and move around the Police. In reality the options are very limited as i am finding out.

Some of you may recall i applied for Roads Policing a few months ago and i was paper sifted out the reason being "length of service". To be honest i didn't expect to get in but at the least i would have liked to be able to board for the position (boarding is a form of job interview) and given the reasons i couldn't quite understand how i didn't get a board.

A few things came to light recently.

The current big thing in the police is neighbourhood policing, this is where we work with partner agencies closely and provide a more personal approach to the members of the public. This requires more neighbourhood policing officers (they used to be called area beat officers of ABO's)

The second big thing is Priority Crime Team, this is a unit setup to tackle the forces priority crimes such as vehicle crime, drugs etc and is a sub department of CID.

What i have noticed is that people on shift are going to these departments on attachments of 3 - 6 months with no application and no boarding, and after the attachment is up you can stay if you like. Fair play to the people who wish to work in those areas and best of luck to them but what annoys me is that these people are now specialising in areas where they have less service than me.

So the logical step would be to ask for a traffic attachment.

Well "I'm sorry but we do not have sufficient number on shift to release you" so please explain to me how a week ago we could afford to loose one to ABO's and now in 2 weeks we loose a second person to PCT.

So roads policing isn't an area priority, no great surprises there. But another factor is that RPD is a force roamer role and not dedicated to one police area so they aren't really that bothered.

Its a pain in the backside for me especially where i keep getting asked to join other local departments as it would "Benefit my career" but cant even board to join the department i want to join. I would go to another department if it actually interested me and would help my application but sadly the roles such as PCT or ABO would not benefit me one bit so sorry...

One thing i did decide though is ill keep plugging in the applications every 6 months or so until i get in.

As frustrating as it seems i am quite enjoying myself at the moment on shift and everything seems to be going well so far, but I'm not sure if this is the lull before the storm to be honest as shift numbers get depleted further to fund these "departments" will only lead to more dangers to the front line staff, but that's another topic.

Roll on Roads Policing, at least this gives me the time to get to know some of the traffic guys and i'm already getting talked about by them (in a good way i might add for a change)and I'm getting a reputation for doing good traffic work.