The two major problems I have that stopped me is that I failed the Part 1 Ospre, twice, although by a small margin but a miss is as good as a mile.
Secondly, I don't know when to shut up. I will openly state to Senior Officers that something is not right when it blatantly is not right.
Putting it bluntly, I'm a coppers copper. I don't take crap from anyone and I enjoy working on the factory floor getting my hands dirty.
However, I have massive respect for my Senior Officers. I may not like some of them but I respect them nonetheless. I know that they have made it through the ranks and have stood where I stood and have seen what I have seen.
This gives me faith in the people in charge that they, ultimately, know what they are doing.
They can safely make the big decisions at murder scenes, fatalities, major incidents etc. because they have been to these incidents themselves over the years and have built up a wealth of experience and knowledge as they progressed through the ranks.
Which amazes me that the "Flagship" police force of the country, The Metropolitan Police, is toying with the idea of "Rank Skipping"
It amazes me that at a time of budget cuts and restraints that are going to affect every rank and file officer that they want to insult the officers even more.
How can anyone who has served from a recruit, only 12 months as a PC and given intense training then fast tracked to Inspector in another 12 months then expect to become a good copper earning the respect from others "below" ?
How can I trust an officer with only 2 years "police service" much of it class room based to come out as an Inspector then make the right decisions at incidents?
This officer would have had no experience in policing what so ever and just because they may have some fancy degree in policing or been a manager for a large company, why would that mean they would be good coppers?
If you or I were to go to a company like Hovis and apply to become "senior baker" (hypothetically) they would not even give your application a second glance if you have never baked a loaf of bread before!
I still cannot see you being taken seriously if you then went on to add that you spent 12 months reading cook books and occasionally kneaded some dough.
The bakers around them would lose respect for their immediate supervisor as they would expect, when a problem arose that the senior baker would know what to do, due to their valuable experience gained in the ranks below with years of bread making at their finger tips.
The person may know how to manage people effectively and may actually be great at managing budgets but dealing with the real stuff that comes to policing, well, it's not enough to just have read some books on it once.
I really hope that the Met decide against this little venture. It's going to be a huge waste of money to train these officers to be Inspectors and have them fall at the first hurdle.
Some may crack under the strain of being thrown in charge of a murder scene as they have not built on the experience of same or similar incidents before.
It will be a shame to see these people ridiculed by their own and the public when they find out they only have a couple of years in and they are supposed to be in charge.
What about the officers who are making their way up the traditional way, only to see some whipper snapper who was in charge of DFS last year suddenly take the promotion over them?
What if, the Commissioner was suddenly ousted by someone who was once in charge of Lloyds TSB?
Would he like it?
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1 comments:
RP, I completely agree with you. This idea is just plain wrong on so many levels. Ordinary officers, the organisation, the candidates themselves and the public - who deserve a better quality of service than this, will all suffer.
There is no way you can replace frontline experience with anything you can teach in a classroom. You learn a lot about yourself when confronted with a difficult or dangerous situation and you're the only copper around.
I cannot see how they can fit the wealth of understanding, knowledge and experience into such a short time. It's all well and good having discussions in a classroom on a blue sky day. What about factors that you can't plan for? Resource levels? Etc
I wonder, if the Met do embark on this venture just how much frontline service these officers will see? Will they be kept in cosy, safe back office roles, where they cannot fail, only to emerge when they are thinking of pushing for ACPO?
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