Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

[Zincubus]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!




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[Twocky61]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

Sadly in the US nowadays some schools have armed security guards

What with all these school shootings such as Brenda Spencer shooting her class 'mates' & the Columbine case ...........

[Mulletino]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

I forgot to recount this tale:

The old local Bobby also posted that he used to take a well earned break on his beat, sitting on a bench behind the local church which had a lovely view of the lower lying areas at night, with his helmet off.
He'd still have his cape on though so people wandering through the church yard would see a shadowy figure in the dark with a cape and think he was a vampire. He said he enjoyed that. XD

[battyrat]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

We always used to have a police presence on our estate when I was a kid. There were two police houses up behind our near the primary school. They were built as part of the community in the late 50's.In the early 80's they sold the houses on privately. Since then it's been a downhill spiral in this area. Everybody knew the local policemen, but now we hardly see them unless something has happened. I often think if the police houses were still used as they were intended we would get a lot less open crime in the area.

[Mulletino]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

In my dad's younger days, they'd get into fights (he was a Rocker so would often go to seaside towns to fight the mods) and if the Southend Police caught you, they'd give you a kicking somewhere, they just accepted it, they had a rep for being a bit tough, nobody complained, that was life.

A guy i worked with was a football hooligan in the 80s, he told me that when they got caught fighting the Police gave them a choice, going to the station to get booked (where they'd miss the match) or 3 minutes in the back of the paddy wagon getting a shoeing, most of the time they chose the kicking, nobody complained, that was life.

The local Bobby from where I used to live is retired now. As kids (in the 70s/80s) he'd tell us off or book us for things we did wrong, even loitering too long in one area we'd get moved on, we moved, we didn't have a single thought about being abusive to him, he (and the Force) had our respect. He'd take down our names and addresses, sometimes he'd pay our parents a visit and we'd get a clump from them for it, nobody complained, that was life.

That local bobby posts on a FB page i'm part of, he'd long retired but you can tell even when he was getting to the end of his duty before retirement, he wasn't happy with where the force was going then, not it's worse as they cut over 3000 jobs in the local force and have much less funding. This has resulted in the removal of the local Bobby as we know them, add to that the local council's insane decision to save money by turning off the streetlights at midnight and you've a recipe for crime.
My parents have lived in the same house for 46 years, not once been burgled (someone tried once in the early 80s but my dad caught them and chased after them), yet the other year they were. Would this have happened had there still been local patrols and streetlighting all night? I doubt it.

Unfortunately though, we'll never go back to the old ways as there are far too many people ready to cry foul as soon as one thing is out of place with the way the Police respond to an event. These are probably the same snowflakes that would also cry that the Police are doing nothing when they finally do need them themselves. It's a tough job, one that i;d hate to do, but I do thank those that do decide to do it for their service. Especially the fact that the UK Police are unarmed yet still go into dangerous situations on a daily basis.

I had a female friend who joined the Met Police in the 2000s, she quit after a year as she couldn't handle the face to face threats she got from crims, threatening to rape and kill her and her family etc, which she just had to take, if that were me, I wouldn't be able to hold back from making them regret those threats.

[George 1978]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

I do admire the difficult job that the police have to do - each day one does not know what is going to happen, just like the ambulance paramedics and fire fighters. Don't forget that the police are not superheroes or magicians - they are just human beings like the rest of us.

These days policing had to modernise than in the past - gone are the days of the Dixon of Dock Green stereotype where we have the Bobby on the beat with an Adrian Mole-alike summing up at the end - they were the days when there were more harmony in our communities, and people old enough to remember could easily say that they could leave their door open and no one dared to go inside. This was 40 years before the Tony Martin case mind you, and still applied during the DYR eras.

We have more terrorist attacks and stabbings (London and Manchester last year are some examples) which the local and regional news lap up very quickly. The 2011 riots for example - I was disgusted that Casualty had parodied the incident in one of their storylines a year or so later, and now even one of the other soap operas are going to do something similar.

Someone who was in my class at school back in the 1980s was murdered just before Christmas 2016 and despite the police arresting and charging the person responsible - and bringing them to court for justice, one still tends to feel that the police has still let us down, by the fact that they cannot bring the victim back to life, in which case, justice can never be done 100% in that respect. I felt as if I was about to be sick when I heard his name used in a news report on local radio when they announced that his killer was found guilty. I am just glad that I no longer live in the inner-city area where I grew up and now live in the suburbs. No police officer could being him back to life.

The police have a more challenging role than ever before, and most of the time, it's all about red tape and bureaucracy - signing forms and warrants, being stuck at office desks etc, rather than out and about chasing offenders and catching them. These days, wearing a police uniform is like fancy dress, especially when the PCSOs were introduced by David Blunkett in 2003.

[Twocky61]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

Good point Richard

[Richard1978]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

Classic case in point with me:

When I was around seventeen I stole a car to go for a drive

The car was double parked outside a row of shops with the key in the door lock

I sat on the wall drinking a can of coke getting up the nerve to take the car

Then I took it

I drove around the block and having second thought I drove it back to where I found it & parked it where I had found it

As I was getting out of the car a local bobby asked me what I was doing

I told him truthfully I had taken it for a drive but had second thoughts

He told me not to do it again & sent me on my way

Nowadays the police have little discretion about whether to arrest or not and as for charging that is out of the hands of the police too with the advent of the CPS

IMO I think it should go back to the police; they're on the ground after all, not sat in an office as are the CPS

As long as you can route out corruption!

[Twocky61]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

I'm also one of those kids that remembers the Police having the power to either clip you round the ear or take your name and address down and 'come and see your parents tonight about this'...

Classic case in point with me:

When I was around seventeen I stole a car to go for a drive

The car was double parked outside a row of shops with the key in the door lock

I sat on the wall drinking a can of coke getting up the nerve to take the car

Then I took it

I drove around the block and having second thought I drove it back to where I found it & parked it where I had found it

As I was getting out of the car a local bobby asked me what I was doing

I told him truthfully I had taken it for a drive but had second thoughts

He told me not to do it again & sent me on my way

Nowadays the police have little discretion about whether to arrest or not and as for charging that is out of the hands of the police too with the advent of the CPS

IMO I think it should go back to the police; they're on the ground after all, not sat in an office as are the CPS

[darren]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

its great to see how those youths where inspired by the police getting there hands dirty.
so often both police and the youth of today get a bad reputation tony.


it seems those youths in your area responded as they saw the police doing something for their community.


i would not be shocked if there was something in the local paper about what the youths and the police did.


i had problems ion the street i live in a few yrs back with people tipping bins over,one lot playing footie against a neighbours car,and some people dealing illegal substances.


the police where very good and nipped it in the bud fairly quick.

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I have to say, while I appreciate that policing has changed-and while I myself have had "issues" with certain police officers in the past-the officer who heads up the Safer Neighbourhood Team in our area, who is effectively our 'local' beat bobby-has made a real difference in our village over the last few years and I think is generally highly respected. We used to have a real problem with a few antisocial elements amongst the local youth, but he seems able to rein them in by engaging with them on a level they understand. I'm on the Parish Council here, and a couple of months ago we decided to install a new all-weather shelter in an out of the way area where the kids tend to congregate, because they'd been saying for a couple of years that they just wanted somewhere to hang out without being constantly supervised (as in the youth club) or told to move on, and PC Austin and one of the local PCSO's turned up in civvies to help some local volunteers prepare the ground where the thing was to be installed. Half a dozen of the local youths, who'd never shown any signs of community spirit whatsoever, happened along and saw them doing it-and the next day, those same lads turned up, unasked, to help put the shelter up and worked like Trojans humping materials around for about five hours. I don't think they'd have done that if they hadn't seen the local police getting their hands dirty on their behalf.

[tony ingram]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

I have to say, while I appreciate that policing has changed-and while I myself have had "issues" with certain police officers in the past-the officer who heads up the Safer Neighbourhood Team in our area, who is effectively our 'local' beat bobby-has made a real difference in our village over the last few years and I think is generally highly respected. We used to have a real problem with a few antisocial elements amongst the local youth, but he seems able to rein them in by engaging with them on a level they understand. I'm on the Parish Council here, and a couple of months ago we decided to install a new all-weather shelter in an out of the way area where the kids tend to congregate, because they'd been saying for a couple of years that they just wanted somewhere to hang out without being constantly supervised (as in the youth club) or told to move on, and PC Austin and one of the local PCSO's turned up in civvies to help some local volunteers prepare the ground where the thing was to be installed. Half a dozen of the local youths, who'd never shown any signs of community spirit whatsoever, happened along and saw them doing it-and the next day, those same lads turned up, unasked, to help put the shelter up and worked like Trojans humping materials around for about five hours. I don't think they'd have done that if they hadn't seen the local police getting their hands dirty on their behalf.

[markey]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

I made the original post in this thread and can certainly relate to may of the points made in the subsequent posts. What I do recall is that there was a real sense of true respect, regardless of whether we are talking about community officers (beat bobbies), the more regimental types or even newbies. I can remember one at the magistrates court there was a multi-day trial case taking place where the defendants were a group of lads charged with various public order offences. One lunch-time they all disappeared (no guesses where to!) and strolled back arriving dead on the re-start time. The magistrate was furious that they hadn't got back earlier and as he told them so, one of them grinned. The magistrate instructed a young copper to take the offending lad outside and make sure he understood the error of his ways. The lad stood sheepishly outside the court getting a right telling-off.

Imagine that now?

[MandM]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

The change in policing was brought about by PACE (Police And Criminal Evidence) designed to curb the practices of fitting up anyone you did not like. Thatcher changed their role into front line troops, Miners Strike, Steel Strike etc. Now they walk around dressed in a uniform like Robocop with anti stab vests, armed with a Baton, Pepper Spray and Taser. Policing has changed - but for better or worse depends upon your experiences and skin colour - ethnicity etc.

[MandM]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

The police are people we don't want to see - until we need them. As for institutional racist I prefer to think that they were inadvertent racists. I don't think that the majority held what we would call today racist attitudes. This was a time when black and white culture was parodied in TV programs characters like "Alf Garnet" and programs like "Love thy Neighbour" Long before political correctness became a byword. There are always good and bad coppers. What has changed is the attitude to the police which has changed from respect to disenchantment. Policing with the consent of the public is a thing of the past. I don't expect it will change for the better anytime soon.

Where is Dixon of Dock green when you need him!

Evening all!

[darren]

Re: Policing and Police Officers - then and now!

this is sad.
he seemed like a real nice fella .
he really did care abot everyone.

We had a local bobby that used to walk around where I grew up. Constable Weatherby knew everyone and everything. I mean literally everything. Phone numbers of people in the village. Every person car registration. The name of very person and what their job was. When they were going on holiday. If kids were sick he'd know (he used to check in to see if kids were skiving off school). Literally everything that happened in the village went through him at some point. I remember being really young once and loosing one of my gloves. Constable Weatherby had it in his lost property box. They closed his police station down in the late 80's and replaced him with out of towners. Eventually we got community police again, but they were not real police, just volunteers.

His office/house has been pulled down now. It used to be here.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=wf33...,16.98,,0,7.19