Policing in the UK

[Lee]

Many of you will know that I have, in recent years, posted quite a few made-up stories about police officers getting themselves into desperate situations whilst on duty - sometimes with disastrous outcomes! I was reading a report a few days ago in which the UK police service was being profiled and there were various studies relating to age, length of service, rankings and reasons for departure. One of the things that particularly struck me was that although the age of new recruits has increased in recent years - obvious I suppose as many new officers are now graduates rather than school-leavers, the London based Metropolitan Police Force has more officers aged under 26 years than anywhere else.

The report also suggested that long hours and overtime are more prevalent in The Met than other forces and their officers are likely to suffer more difficult working conditions than elsewhere in the country. The ratio of senior officers to junior ranks has also decreased considerably. None of this is in the least surprising of course, but it did make me wonder about a few issues.

We all know that young men of 25’ish and younger don’t always plan very well for possible eventualities and with less likelihood of senior officers being around to issue advice and instruction, maybe the numbers of those running the risk of being caught short on duty could also have increased? Add in difficult working conditions, which probably means longer hours, less breaks, a reduced chance of being relieved from duty and less time to take care of personal needs, and the caught short scenario might go up a few more notches.

If you then add in the amount of security incidents and scares in London especially and the prospect of officers being left in one place for considerable periods of time, the near non-existence of public toilet facilities in the capital and the old-fashioned nicety off letting a policeman into your house for tea and biscuits (and the use of your toilet!) having long since vanished, it does lead to the question of how some of them survive without great discomfort.

One statistic we are unlikely to see published is whether instances of policemen being caught uncomfortably short, or even having an embarrassing accident on duty, have increased as opposed to a decade or so ago? I guess we’ll never know ... unless the dry-cleaning industry produce their own in-depth survey of their own business!!

[Brian]

The sheer unpredictability of policing work strikes me as a likely source of "caught short" situations. That much needed short respite planned in advance could be scuppered by an emergency situation requiring immediate response, I guess.

[Fred]

If the Metropolitan Police have a large number of officers under 26, well that's the magic age before which males might not have yet developed good planning skills. Given those other factors like working overtime and needing to go on potentially long calls at a moment's notice, being caught short becomes a real possibility.

Nowadays, uniform trousers are probably a synthetic blend and not especially absorbent, so an accidental wee would probably be more visible and leave a puddle.

[Lee]

Nowadays, uniform trousers are probably a synthetic blend and not especially absorbent, so an accidental wee would probably be more visible and leave a puddle.

And an awful lot of unpleasant and uncomfortable chaffing if they have remain on duty for some time afterwards, too!