I'm not sure if this breaches the AB rules but if it does, I'm sure the Ed can pull it if necessary.
As a former police officer, I'm greatly interested in the police and all that goes on within the service and also how the police are portrayed in the media.
I've just bought an e-book off a well-known on-line retailer called, “Wasting More Police Time” and I have to say that if you're even vaguely interested in what the police do and how they do it, please read it. From delivering death messages to policing the recent riots in London and other UK cities, this book relays through first-hand accounts, the human side of the police. It's a compelling read that has often had me in stitches and then in tears.
I would urge everyone to read it whether you're pro-police, anti-police or ambivalent.
Insp Gadget: "Welcome to Modern Britain - a country where you can be arrested for pinching a few crisps from a schoolfriend, throwing cream cakes or denying the existence of Santa Claus - while burglars, muggers and drug dealers go about their business unmolested by the forces of law and order."
Yes they had some lovely jobs to do birdie. The brother-in-law is a retired police officer, he joined the police when he was 21, and one of his first jobs was to break into a house as the occupant hadn't been seen for some time. He found the old lady's body, she'd hanged herself about 3 weeks previously.
↑ err, because I used to do it for a living and now I don't. The word 'former' speaks for itself doesn't it? As to why I quit, I went back to my previous profession of Civil Engineering after a chance meeting with my old boss who made me an offer I couldn't refuse at precisely the time I was thinking of quitting the police. I'd become utterly disillusioned with the endless paperwork, the pathetic CPS and the pedantic box ticking that pervades every aspect of a PC's duties.
Why do you ask? And why have you wordlessly tried to insinuate that there is some sinister aspect to why I describe myself as a 'former' police officer?
I know. The worst thing for me was delivering death messages. It's the most appalling thing to have to do and no amount of training or advice can prepare you for it. The overwhelming emotion you feel when you see someone break down in front of you when you've had to tell them that their loved one is dead is almost unbearable. I don't mind admitting that I cried more when I was a PC than I have done at any other time in my life.
Once you've done that it's back to dealing with drunks and/or drug addicts who literally spit in your face and tell you they've got AIDS while they laugh at you. Nice.
It's a complete mental and emotional roller coaster and the most draining job I have ever done bar none.