Einstein : Not everything that can be counted counts. And not everything that counts can be counted.

Thursday 25 October 2007

I've moved.

I've moved to here.

http://whichendbites.wordpress.com/

For those who have taken the time to view please feel free to try my new place.

Tuesday 23 October 2007

Hi-lighters.

There appears to be a growing trend to add things to reports that are circulated.

This evil is the fashion to highlight things in the most irridescent, bright colours that can be found. Some reports are so bright you need sunglasses to read them.

We have had the hi-vis yellow tide ebbing and flowing on our streets to convince the public that we really are out there because just look, you can't miss the bright yellow jackets. Even in bright daylight, not just a health & safety thing at night.

The equally hi-vis yellow marker pens that appear to blight almost every report is surely not to convince us that there is more and more paperwork out there. I think we can work that out for ourselves.

We do not need hi-vis marker pen slashes to let us know there is too much paperwork out there. Not just the stuff that gets passed up or down the chain so everyone can see who has read what and who has marked the trendy buzz words or phrases. It even appears as grey blotches on emails and copies of messages sent by the internal mail network.

Hi-vis marker pens. They aren't big and they aren't clever.

Monday 22 October 2007

Diversity Training.

A Sergeant, an Inspector and a Superintendent recently attended a Diversity Training event at a non-police facility within their Force area. During their allocated lunch break, rather than sit amongst the other participants, they decided they would go out for a stroll to take some air and generally discuss the proceedings.

As they walked past a line of shops, the Sergeant, being very observant, spotted an old dull metal lamp in the window of a second hand shop. He went in, asked how much and ended up buying it for a fiver. The Inspector and Superintendent laughed as they thought this was stupid and irresponsible. All three returned to the facility after their stroll and whilst the Sergeant was rubbing the lamp with his sleeve to remove some of the grim that time had accumulated there was a bright flash and a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared they saw a Genie who spoke to them.

"You are the holders of the sacred lamp of Alcobar. Each of you I will grant 1 wish"

The Sergeant was caught out in a state of shock but the Inspector was quicker on his feet and replied " I wish to go to a desert hide-away with every luxury I could imagine and stay there for a month".

There was another flash and the Inspector had vanished.

The Sergeant then said, nervously, "I wish to be taken to a tropical island paradise full of the most desireable women in the world, to be looked after for the rest of my life and suffer no ills".

There was another flash and he too, had vanished.

The Superintendent looked at the Genie and said, "I want those two back here after lunch".

Thursday 18 October 2007

Swans.

The trouble with swans is that they are sedate and graceful creatures that should be restricted to waterways to do what swans do. Swans should be left alone on rivers, lakes or other bodies of water. That way they are no harm to themselves or anyone else. Anyone who has had a close encounter with a swan will know just how nasty they can be when they are pissed off. The experts will tell you that they are stressed or frightened but if you do have one of these 'meetings' then I assure you that you will be the stressed and frightened one.

So when I get a call asking for Dog support and foolishly don't ask for some background info I learn a lesson. Because I am deemed to know a little about dogs itis assumed, quite wrongly, that I am an expert on swans. I am not.

I arrive at the location but have to go on foot the last 300 yards because traffic in the City is at a standstill and I assume, again wrongly, that some heinous crime might have been committed and there is a preserved and contained scene.

The offence is obstruction of the highway, a main highway near the City centre. Amongst the stationary traffic I can see a circle of people all moving this way and that. It reminded me of a school playground fight with the circle of baying kids egging on one or other of the combatants. The baying was efforts to avoid the flapping and snapping bits of the offender.

The huge relief of the officers upon my arrival was about the same as my huge surprise and...........disappointment, shall we say.

These guys had been telling everyone that once the dog handler arrives he is the animal expert and he will sort it out. Yeah right on there then.

Then I am in the chair, that chair, all alone and the spotlight is on me and then magnus speaks.............your specialist subject is swans. Then this deranged thing goes straight for me, no warning at all, I back off initially and begin to circle to buy myself some time. I can remember on the news seeing someone holding a swan in a blanket. Thats it, I'll use a blanket. I say to the guys, 'you got a blanket in the car ?'

'No, nights used it and didn't replace it'. So much for kit checks.

Thats it, plan A is a gonner.

I've got to be 'professional' as thats what the bosses tell us. No matter how deep itis, just be professional. Its their way of telling us we can do what we want but we mustn't drop in the shite. There you are, arses covered.

Plan B hatches almost immediately.

I must be professional. I remember I have no hat on. How are people going to recognise me as a Police Officer. This is only a minor distraction from the problem I face. I quickly forget about it.

I say to them, 'You pair move around to try to get behind it and I'll catch it from the side'

I think I can use my anorak as a substitute blanket, its not as big, it might protect at least some of me. They give me that smug look as though there is an idiot in the immediate vicinity.

I remove said garment and try to make it a lot bigger then itis and approach slowly but the guys seem frozen on the spot. I say ' do something just to distract it a bit'.

They begin to shout and wave their arms and the swan goes all flappy and honky and I lunge forward covering one flapping wing with my anorak but, to my enormous relief, grab hold of the business end, the white feathery boa of a neck with the hissing, honking snapping mouthpiece on the end. I decide I am not letting go. I try to get up but have only two levers, my legs. My arms are otherwise engaged for the foreseeable future. I manage to get to my knees and the crowd are clapping and the guys tell comms that the obstruction has been removed. It has from one place but not from me. What the bloody hell are we going to do now.

The least we have to do is to get the traffic flowing again, my van is a long way away and we agree I shall get into the back of the car, their car, to consider the way forward. We get into the car, there are two heads apparently stuck to the respective side windows and we drive away.

We hear from comms, there is a guy who deals with swan rescues and rehab and such, they are going to ring him for advice. They do and we can take the swan to a place also nearby'ish for them to take custody of the offender.

We get there and the guys alight as though they are on a footchase, they do open the door for me but I am left to struggle out. The swan is greeted by the new custodian who is oblivious to everyone else around and takes the struggling beast from me and walks back into his property. He returns after a short while with all his bits intact and the swan confined in some form of carrying harness straightjacket that is designed for swans, funnily enough.

He tells us that the swan appears to be stressed and frightened and may have sustained a neck injury as it crashed to the road mistaking it for a river because it had been raining and the sun was reflecting off the wet road surface.

This man knows far too much for his own good. Itis time to go.

No one got bitten, not even a pecked ear. The swan, apparently, was none the worse for its ordeal and I found a small amount of green mess inside the sleeve of my anorak when I put it on again.

One thing, trust me on this, don't mess with swans.

Wednesday 17 October 2007

PC Lee Armstrong

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall, QC, you have restored a small amount of the faith I had lost that someone within the legal system has some common sense. Thank you.

New Dog

A colleague from a different part of the country sent me this. I must stress that this is not part of a new efficiency drive to reduce costs. Having said that, the food bill would reduce as we could go out catching chickens. The kennel space would be far smaller and only consist of a hole under the garden shed. I am beginning to think strategic here. There could be benefits somewhere. This would be a real plus with all the extra fox activity since the ban on hunting giving a seemingly endless supply.

What would you have done.

Put yourself in this position.

You are a manager who decides what resources to allocate to different 'target' needs.

You have two specific areas that you decide you need to provide support for.

The first is domestic burglaries within the metropolis.
The second is a vehicle safety related issue near a major travel related centre.

The resources you have at your disposal for these 'targets' are as below.

Dog Handlers and Traffic motorcyclists.

Now I would assign the Dog Handlers to the domestic burglary 'target' and the Traffic Motorcyclists to the vehicle safety related issue 'target'. To me this makes a lot of sense.

What would you have done ?

Religion.

I'm sure you've heard people talking about religion on the news or the radio and have formed the view that anyone who even thinks anything to the detriment of a certain religion is castigated as one of the 'ists.

Well this guy has his own views, as we all do. He talks some sense with a little humour.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=418_1176494781

Tuesday 16 October 2007

Harm or Hazard ?

Alcohol, harm or hazard ?

That is the dilemma I have after todays news.

Alcohol excesses are spoken about in this way but what is the difference ?

Too much is harmful, I agree.

Too much is a hazard if you get pissed and wander all over the road risking injury or death. Climbing of scaffolding to retrieve balloons is a definate no no, even if dressed as Captain Marvel. This is a potential hazard but definately harmful if it all goes horribly wrong.

I can only presume that this is some neat marketing trick by the Government to justify some costly research and then use this to raise taxes to deal with the effects but really to syphon the funds to another more politically deemed worthy cause.

Let's see, increase in duty on booze or a income tax hike ?
Perhaps even both ? Either way its bound to cost.

Run wild, run free.

It seems that research shows that children who are not subject to parental control, who come from troubled family relationships and other background reasons are allowed to grow up to become the thugs and anti-social hooligans of tomorrow.

Ask anyone who has Policed our society for a number of years and they too could have come up with this exact point. You don't need to be a professor or hold a degree in one of the 'ologies to be able to come to this same conclusion.

The cycle of disorderly, anti-social violent and disrespectful behaviour begins at home, is endorsed and allowed to flourish by a society that fails to challenge and stop this menace.

Parents who allow this to thrive and challenge every attempt to stop it have meant that other areas are useless in developing good behaviour. Itis claimed to be the fault of everyone apart from the parents because too many fail to see or accept the responsibility that goes with raising their children.

Sadly those who take the time, effort and responsibility seriously appear to be getting more and more of a minority.

The triangle of learning and respect begins its most important phase in the home environment, supported and developed by the schools and followed up by the Police who represent the laws of the land.

It seems on too many occasions that the Police now cater for the increasing number who fall through this net. The net is full of holes that seem to get ever bigger.

Saturday 13 October 2007

Bureaucracy ? Whats all that about then ?

Thanks to a comment posted on one of my posts by Steve Roberts I have had a look at this posted on his blog Abundant Harmonies:

http://aboundsound.blogspot.com/2007/08/shaper-wrecker-team-dynamics-one-reason.html

I think he has a valid point. In fact I think he has several valid points.

Thursday 11 October 2007

Teamwork.

'M' District is being hit by another spate of vehicle crime. We are able to read the daily crime intelligence and hit on the subject before the analysts recognise the trend and send the info to who ever presents it at the monthly management meeting. The groups are putting out a plain car and a couple in plain clothes out on foot in the area to see who is about and try to turn stuff up. They have the luxury of one and six on nights. As much time as I can make free I am there as well waiting for a snifter and to back up the troops. This is how we do this thing called Policing. Response who want to catch the bad guys and skippers who fully support that attitude. Everyone else there to offer the specialist skills when they are needed. Teamwork I think its called.

I hear the unit call in a person on foot and I am not far away so start to drift that way, its called self deployment and is sometimes not the tool of choice for some.

I hear the sound of an approach for a stop turn rather quickly into a footchase, I'm following the locations trying to anticipate the likely route and itis clear that local knowledge is keeping this guy ahead of his pursuers. Then nothing. They have lost him. I make for the last sighting, not calling up the pursuers incase they are lying low and I don't want to give their location away by their radios relaying my call, just in case they are that close. I get near and wait for only a few seconds, they must have heard the van and decide to call me. Dog vans are not made for silent approach.

We RV and I get the story, tried to stop a male with haversack acting suspiciously near a line of cars and he is off on his toes. Came around a corner and its as though he has been beamed up somewhere. Luckily for me they knew I was about and never started the search for themselves.

Its very windy, they can't understand why I've asked them to split up onto different corners and why I've gone to the far end of the street to begin my search. I set the boy up, give my challenge to give matey a chance to give himself up. Nothing. I send him and he is away, criss crossing the area in front of us, zig zagging across the wind, he is hunting. Not for food but for his quarry, for me, for the team.

Quickly the signs are that someone else is around, close, very close. My friend vanishes through a gap in a fence,I hear scrambling and a deep growling bark as he closes in. Matey boy is suddenly up over a high fence and off down the road, I go to where my friend is trying desperately to get over the fence but he is too close to get a good jump. I help him over, shouting at the world to keep still and my friend fixes his sights and sets off after his quarry. I get back onto the street at just the right time to see matey boy vault a fence that must have been 8 feet high and out of sight. I get there, help the dog over, even manage to get over myself and then see matey garden hopping several gardens away. This is a good game, we deicde to play as well. Not exactly hot fuzz but we follow on just the same. At the end of the line of houses there is a ditch, a wide ditch, in the distance there is a shape running, my friend clears the ditch but I do not. I wade through the half I cannot clear and I am chasing my friend chasing his quarry, across a large grassed area. The running figure disappears into the hedgeline. When I get there I hear nothing. I see nothing. It is dark and still. After all itis late. I know my friend. He uses the wind and will try there first. I feel the breeze to my right so I head right. In the distance I hear my friend, the sound of his frustration carries a long way. We are at a high metal gate and fencing. We get over, I harness him up and begin to track. I follow him following his quarry. We go on for what seems like ages but in reality is a matter of minutes.

I know as we approach the brambles that we have been successful. My friend knows he has been successful. He begins to growl and then bark as we approach. We stop just short and I shout for our quarry to come out and lie on the floor. I tell him who I am. If he does exactly what I say he will be fine. If he runs again I will send the dog after him. This time everything is in my favour. I tell him this. His eyes tell me exactly what he is going to do. I tell him not to even think about it. The dog wants to bite him if he gives the chance. He's off again, he is quick but not quick enough. I hear the thump as he crashes to the ground, followed by the yell as he realises that he is not going to get away this time.

A couple of response are well chuffed. This was a great stop for them and they are pleased with my support. I search the route we have gone and recover a haversack, torch, tools for the trade and several car radios. Luckily all they want from me is a statement and a copy of my book.

I will sleep well in the morning.

Wednesday 10 October 2007

ACPO concerns.

It appears that heads have been above the parapet concerning a variety of statistics that can be wrongly interpretted and Forces unfairly criticised.

If I believe the reports, Chief Constables have raised objections over rules that seem to pander to ethnic minority groups.

Home Office figures allegedly show show that officers spend more than a third of their day attending meetings, preparing evidence of dealing with bureaucracy.

The framework for producing these 'vital' statistics is a comlplex one, somewhat bureaucratic (no surprise there then) costly to Forces to administer and can be misinterpreted.

Police minister Tony McNulty admits that curbing Police Bureaucracy remains a work in progress.

Ken Jones, the ACPO president has many concerns at these published figures but also believes that centrally compiled statistics returns cannot hope to fully reflect concerns that communities may have or the wider complex threats to society. Fair play to you Ken for raising this important issue.

I know this much.

With Government Ministers and some Chief Constables continually claiming to want to reduce bureaucracy, there is no actual reduction in the amount of centrally complied statistics that are submitted by individual officers. The tide of bureaucracy flows ever one increasing way and over the head of individual officers. This is something that we are told to do and is expected from us. Regardless of an individual officer's views, this is what the management want and there is hell to play if forms are not submitted when required, either daily or monthly as the case may be.

The danger is that Chief Constables will see what areas are in the spotlight for hitting the right performance scoring areas in the next tactical or relevant period and deal with these issues to try to avoid being penalised as a result of missing the perceived hot issues. This sounds like political direction as opposed to reacting to needs of society and the community as a whole.

Stop & Search

It seems that there might some new stop & search going on soon.

What heinous crime are we looking towards ?

Those criminals who dump their weekly rubbish unlawfully ?
Those who put out more than someone thinks they should ?

Will it fall into the 'detectable' category ?

I suppose somewhere down the line there is some financial saving to be had by reducing the amount that households will be allowed to put out for collection.

Less to collect, less to dispose of, less staff, less vehicles, less
maintenance etc etc etc.

The obvious thing seems to be that this will only encourage some in society to dump it anywhere they can.

Any savings will then be taken up by extra work for some to dispose of this dumped garbage. There will be the council wardens whose responsibility it will be to exercise these stop & search powers for vehicles used by suspected dumpers. How are they going to stop vehicles for searching, seize and impound such suspected vehicles ? Where are they going to store the vehicles when they are impounded ?

I wonder what sort of form they will have to fill in for statistical or other reasons.

I also wonder what self classification rubbish dumpers will opt for. Where will the forms be stored ?

I also wonder who will come along and sort out all the crap when it all goes pear shaped.

Why not just retain the weekly collections and avoid all the trouble, extra inconvenience, crap dumped all over the place and the extra expenses that will be incurred.

Give that man a prize.

The correct answer was............................

Stan still, you are correct.
Go out and buy yourself a nice cake.

The first was a dog and the second was a human.


Stan........nice to see you are still in circulation.

Monday 8 October 2007

Two patients.

Two patients limp into two different medical surgeries with the similar complaints.

Both have a great deal of trouble walking, both are in considerable pain and appear to need a hip replacement. This is later confirmed following all of the relevant examination processes.

Patient 'A' is examined within the hour, is x-rayed the same day and has a time booked for surgery the very next week.

Patient 'B' sees his family doctor after waiting over a week for an appointment after a telephone consultation. Then waits four months to see a specialist, then after another 3 months gets x-rays completed. These aren't reviewed for another 6 weeks and finally surgery is scheduled for 9 months from that time.

Why the different treatment for the two patients?

Saturday 6 October 2007

Economy.

I have recently visited a large organisation and sat a while in the plush surroundings awaiting the arrival of one of the directors for a bit of a chat.

We talked at length about the macro economy, micro economy and the social economy.
This guy had a degree in economics or someting technically superior to my grasp of reality. I found out that almost all of the consideration for most decisions was given to the first two and the social effects of many of these policies did not warrant full consideration.

The savings gained by employing less well trained staff turned into a financial loss which more than doubled that saved in the initial one off saving. This was by the increased training needed, new corporate uniforms, their inability to deal with a lot of the work they should really be able to do and as a result an increasing workload was placed on the shoulders of other employees, sometimes other departments, they even got new vehicles for christ's sake.

I found out that the Chairperson has become concerned about the job of her ordinary employees becoming submerged under a heavy bureaucratic burden.

She ( a she for the plot) has made several publicised statements explaining her desire to remove these unnecessary burdens in the hope of making things more efficient by removing this problem. She does not appear to have made this clear to her Directors and regional managers.

The Directors and regional managers still seem more concerned with statistics and targets as well as the heavy bureaucratic burden of multi-duplicated adminstration
that goes with such an important process. They regularly inform their staff of the importance of such targets and the deadlines for submission so that they can discuss these at their meetings.

I learnt that in the despatch department they were failing to meet their performance targets. They were all roundly flogged and a new and dynamic method was put in place to help their strategic strategy. They decided to increase the number of deliveries for the delivery department so they could be seen to be up to the mark and hitting their targets. The Director of the depatch department would get the credit for this dramatic increase in performance and service delivery.

At the next monthly meeting of the Directors, the Director in charge of delivery was roundly chastised because his (a he just for the plot) department had failed to meet their target and deliveries were delayed and some long overdue. He raised the issue of an increased delivery workload with no additional staff or vehicles. He had new adminstration systems put in place that he had not yet trained his department in. He agreed to see what could be done to increase his departments performance before the next meeting to ensure he was seen to be promoting the brand and the strategic corporate goals.

At the next meeting he announced that he had improved his performance target figures everyone seemed happy. He had done this by restricting his delivery staff to their old style of service delivery, in so much as their did one job at a time, did it well and with great care for their customers. His satisfaction figures were also back to their former levels. Even though the director had to take staff away from their prime functions to gather this statistical information, analyse it and forward it to other departments he was still able to improve his department's performance because his staff were dedicated, loyal and hard working. They covered for the loss of staff and made his department a success. The director got great praise from the Chairperson and a financial bonus as well. Well done.

Sadly, the despatch department incurred the wrath of the Chairperson as they had, again, fallen behind against their performance targets. I understand that they are thinking about reorganisation with their department as this is another new and radical way to sort out their problems. I believe that they may even consider a merger to help cut costs and make a considerable efficiency saving.

Does this sound at all familiar ?

As Einstein said, "Not everything that can be counted counts. And not everything that counts can be counted."

On my way out I saw that this company were recruiting, I also saw several vacancies advertised in the local press. I though about a bit of a career change but as I looked I saw that none of the posts were for the jobs I had expected from such a large organisation. They offered wonderful conditions but the prospect did not really appeal to me. I could facilitate, administrate, monitor a whole range of things, advise, ensure compliance of a whole range of other things, support and assist in other areas, work with multi-agencies, record things and work in a dedicated team managed by a team leader. Sadly none of this was what I really wanted to do.

Suddenly my interest faded and I tried to find my car in the vastness of car park central. Some jobsworth had put a ticket on my screen because I had allegedly parked in the wrong place even though I was at the car park extremities and there were actually some spare places, even on a Wednesday. CCTV would be examined and I would be informed of the consequences.

Friday 5 October 2007

A SENIOR MOMENT

A group of young students were on a bus discussing the burden placed on society by the older generation of pensioners. One of the pensioners took great exeption to some of the comments and stated that he thought it was impossible for some of the older generation to understand todays younger generation and vice-versa. Things had changed so much during the years between their ages. As he was explaining the student interrupted him.

"You grew up in a different world, actually an almost primitive one," the student said, loud enough for all his friends and most of the other passengers to hear.

"The young people of today grew up with colour high definition digital television, high quality music on CD's and MP3 players, jet travel, space travel, trains that have never travelled faster, man walking on the moon, our spaceships have visited Mars. We have nuclear energy, electric and hydrogen cars, computers with light-speed processing and ..."

The pensioner interrupted him and said "You're right, son. We didn't have those things to enjoy and marvel at when we were young.......so we invented them. What are you doing for the next generation?"

The applause was resounding...

Wednesday 3 October 2007

A,B,C, its as easy as 1,2,3.

Well its interesting when you speak to colleagues from other areas or Forces and see that itis not only you that has a rather large volume of paperwork that you feel is irrelevant, unnecessary and adds to the burden of paperwork you already have to do as part of your effort to justify yourself. The management line appears to be that this is highly relevant to do and is essential. Essential for who ? Essential to what goal ? Certainly not to anyone who has to complete them, apparently.

I now understand what the unwelcome envelope that arrives for some contains, when they dare open it, not an invitation to a late night candlelight supper or free cinema tickets but something else, a little more daunting and unwelcome. The additional level of time taken to complete said forms always seems to go down very well with the protagonists. Unlike the 5 minutes a day itis alleged they will take.

Its as easy as 1,2,3. Do you believe that ?

Tuesday 2 October 2007

INTERESTING STUFF ?

In the 1400's a law was set forth in England that a man was allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb"
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Many years ago in Scotland , a new game was invented. It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"...and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.
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Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury.
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Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
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Coca-Cola was originally green.
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It is impossible to lick your elbow.
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Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar
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If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
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Q. If you were to spell out numbers in English, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"?

A. One thousand
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Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?

A. All were invented by women.
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In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes.

When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "goodnight, sleep tight."
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It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.
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In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down."
It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"
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Many years ago in England , pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.
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At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow!

Monday 1 October 2007

Thanks

I have been deeply touched by the numbers of responses to my 90 minutes post. This post was real and was spawned by the demise of my ex-partner who enjoyed a short retirement of only a couple of years with me before illness dictated the unfortunate course of events. Now over 60 comments is a record, for me anyway, this far exceeds anything else I have received.

I would like to thank all those who took the time and effort to visit, especially those from the Gadget pages following the post there.

Anyone who has forged a close relationship with one of our canine friends will understand the deep feelings towards an animal that asks nothing but gives everything
for seemingly little or no reward.

Anyone who has had the good fortune to work closely with such an animal and spend more time with it than you spend with your family will understand my sentiment.

Anyone who has had the even better fortune to work with a colleague who will follow blindly and is willing to protect you without question will understand the trust and depth of working relationship we have with our dogs.

We are lucky, lucky people. I have been very fortunate indeed to have been in such a position. I have parted company with other dogs, but not in the same emotional way.
Some dogs are special. This one was definately was.

I have been, shall we say, out of circulation and it was the Gadget post on the enormous and willing support we get from our 'non-police' support/admin colleagues that has drawn me back to the keyboard.