one appreciates we do need a police force in this country and their salary should be a fair one given the work they do,the source of financing this could be found in two ways.
1.the revenue from speed cameras (approx 125 million last year alone)
2. the revenue from parking fines.
its self generating.
By: mike currill - 19th February 2008 at 02:23
Some very valid points raised on here most of which I agree with. Personally I would like to see the Ambulance service first responders (the folk usually in cars but occasionally in ambulances who you’ll see parked on flyovers at motorway interchanges, and other convenient spots) get a better deal. If not nationally then certainly in our area. I can’t speak for other areas of the country but in Oxfordshire they go out at the start of their shift and don’t go anywhere unless they are called into use. They are out all hours of the night and nowhere to even get a hot drink, I suppose they take a flask with them as that is about the only way they’d get a drink but I still think it wrong to expect them to work under those conditions in thee 21st century.
By: Turbinia - 17th February 2008 at 16:43
Personally, I do think paramedics and fire fighters deserve equal pay with the Police, and I’m not anti-police but the other services make just as big and important a contribution to society and are also highly trained professionals who risk their lives for the rest of us.
On the problems with law and order, it is the mixed up law making process and government policies changing all of the time combined with a general sense of a lack of personal responsibility in society as a whole that is wrong, not the Police.
By: mlc - 14th February 2008 at 17:30
So, using your own argument, you’re suggesting that ambulance/fire are at incidents their whole shift. Errr no! They are called out to a few incidents a day (fire), ambulance a few more. If there is any hint of danger, they hold off and wait for Police attendance.
Try working on a shift of four, covering five hundred square miles with no back up and see how you feel then. (Ever been stabbed with a screwdriver, hit with a baseball bat or been spat at by some HIV infested scroat….thought not)
Unless you’re doing front line uniform response, you have no idea just what goes on. There are some lazy, useless officers, normally feathering their own nests, working 9×5 in an office or in a ‘community’ role. But response are undermanned, overworked and have been shat upon from a great height by this morally corrupt Government we currently have.
By: Distiller - 13th February 2008 at 07:23
Since it is becoming obvious that the nation state and its lackeys are no longer up to the job society signed them on for in the first place, I say vigilante groups for every county. That’s public security!
Am I joking? :diablo:
Don’t even think about giving them money from flash boxes. The road to corruption and nepotism!
By: Arabella-Cox - 12th February 2008 at 19:41
I never said its easy, just to clear that up, i just know from past experience a fair few of them are lazy, unprofesional and generally unhelpfull, not every police guys semi useless but some come close. Anyways i couldnt do that job,to much pressure for my liking i admit.
By: mlc - 12th February 2008 at 18:20
If it’s such an easy job, I’m surprised you’re not all queuing to join.
(Disregard the three officers shot, six seriously stabbed -minor stabbings don’t count apparently, hundreds seriously assaulted in the first three weeks of this year)
If you want to know what it’s REALLY like, check this site out.
By: J Boyle - 11th February 2008 at 18:32
The standard complaint by the Swedish police is that “the politicians won’t give us enough money to recruit more policemen/women so we don’t have enough police to investigate minor crime”…
Same here.
The locals quit responding to minor car wrecks years ago, saying they’re too busy. Doing what, we’ve yet to figure out.
Years ago my sister’s car was rear ended by a Canadian teenager. Even with the plate number the cops wouldn’t do anything. I suggested they call the border station…”No, not our job they said.”
Stupid, ignorant, incompetent fools. All they do is sit at speed traps.
(I won’t mention the off-duty cop that was drinking at a bar, came out to find his car being burgled. That led to a car chase and this cop running through a neighborhood shooting at the alleged bad guy (who was shot in the head and survived.)
The would-be thief got off at trial, the cop is in trouble for shooting at him inthe crouded neighborhood & hitting several houses…and for using his gun after he’d been drinking.
The city’s going to get sued.
The would-be car (alleged) thief is going to get rich.
The idiot cop is going to get fired.
By: Jet 22 - 11th February 2008 at 17:04
Well it isnt that the Police cant solve Crime it is that the goverment wont give the police more powers to solve crimes and come down hard on ASBO Chavvie people.
Gordan Brown and his stupid policies 😡 😡
By: Arabella-Cox - 11th February 2008 at 16:50
Well no, they would clamp down on the “easy” to solve crime, such as driving offenses and litter dropping.
Was pulled over by the police yesterday on the way back from work policeman stopped me and said he saw “a silver golf jump a set of traffic lights in town”.
Only reply I need to show him up was……
“This is an Alfa mate” 😀 😀 😀
a case of the nearest to the description will do, they should issue the road traffic boys with the new updated version of “the Observers Book of Cars”, seriously this just highlights how an innocent driver can become involved in a situation not of his doing all because someone isnt doing their job properly namely the law.
By: cal900 - 11th February 2008 at 14:12
i don’t see the problem in a performance based pay rise, but that would mean the police actually pulling thier finger out a bit and doing something about crime…
Well no, they would clamp down on the “easy” to solve crime, such as driving offenses and litter dropping.
Was pulled over by the police yesterday on the way back from work policeman stopped me and said he saw “a silver golf jump a set of traffic lights in town”.
Only reply I need to show him up was……
“This is an Alfa mate” 😀 😀 😀
By: Papa Lima - 11th February 2008 at 13:38
They had all weekend to do it – in a multi-storey car park – it’s typical of Sweden that other people with cars parked nearby probably saw it being done and took no notice!
It took 2 months to repair the car, as there was also damage to the doors and ignition lock in an attempt to get in and drive it away, presumably, before they set about the engine! Apparently the immobiliser was very effective.
I now keep the car in a heated and securely locked underground car park that costs me a fortune in monthly charges, but the insurance costs the same!
By: Arabella-Cox - 11th February 2008 at 11:47
‘or the unfriendly people who stole the engine out of my car.’
wow…just wow, they actually stole the engine from your car and not the car itself? If so thats utterly bizarre! I had someone steal a windscreen wiper off my old Ford Escort years ago but a whole engine is a big job.
By: jbritchford - 11th February 2008 at 08:51
In my home town, there are only 4 officers on any one shift, to cover an area at least 20 miles wide and around 70,000 people. Forces are incompetently run by people more concerned with promotion than their duty, the whole organisational structure needs an overhaul.
As for performance based pay, it is quite simply ridiculous. Arrest targets? Officers can only make arrests based on reasonable suspicions, which have to be justified. Prosecutions are carried out by the CPS, which is next to useless. Solicitors often advise clients to say ‘no comment’ at interview as the odds are quite good the CPS will just lose the file and give no further action.
By: Papa Lima - 10th February 2008 at 15:12
The standard complaint by the Swedish police is that “the politicians won’t give us enough money to recruit more policemen/women so we don’t have enough police to investigate minor crime” such as a friend of mine who has been physically assaulted several times by the same lunatic, or the unfriendly people who stole the engine out of my car. Mean while the number of roadside cameras in Sweden is increasing exponentially, although each one costs a fortune to install!
By: Arabella-Cox - 10th February 2008 at 15:01
i don’t see the problem in a performance based pay rise, but that would mean the police actually pulling thier finger out a bit and doing something about crime…
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February 10, 2008 at 1:16 pm