Operational verses Strategic ?

I overheard an interesting conversation the other day. A Sgt was deep in conversation with another Sgt who had failed his board and been through the de-brief processes to discuss where he had gone wrong and how he could improve for the next time he might submit himself (I have assumed he is a male officer) for scrutiny in the promotion stakes.

The reason this Sgt had failed his board, apparantly, was because he had too much Operational experience and needed to widen his Strategic experience. I don't know what the bloody hell all this meant but I would have thought that Operational experience was not only essential but absolutely vital. Was this just some form of management bullshite to fob him off ? Or was it really a major factor in deciding who is allowed into the club ? You decide.

An end to targets ?

It seems that someone within the ranks of those who can, has. Someone who can sort stuff, has decided that targets are to be scrapped. Deputy Chief Constable David Warcup from Northumbria Police has decided that the targets and their resulting league table were not an effective way of measuring performance. He also stated "We would absolutely discourage anybody from using their powers simply to meet targets."

For the full article please hit the link.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/6579677.stm

Let's see, will this stop things down our way ? You might think so, but I couldn't possibly comment. I suspect that we will still have our multitude of duplicated information to submit so the management can assess who, in their opinion, is seen to be lazy & workshy.

The Ultimate Gift.

Yet another officer has been killed in the line of duty, this time our colleage Richard Gray from West Mercia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/shropshire/6631223.stm

Deepest sympathies to Richard's family and condolences to friends and colleagues.

He has given the ultimate gift to the community he served. His gift of life.

Rest in peace.

http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/

Learning or understanding ?

Funny thing death, as some other posts have said. My own death experiences have been rekindled recently and taken my mind back. I remember how stupid my old dad used to appear to me and how much rubbish he used to talk. Then I became aware of how much he had suddenly learnt, about all sorts of stuff. He appeared to have gained an awful lot of knowledge and experience overnight and became almost a pleasure to have a conversation with. How could this have mysteriously happened in such a short space of time. Had he been to nightschool ? No. Could it possibly be anything to do with my sudden burst of maturity and life experience, seeing things and people differently ? Probably so. Funny how you get to a certain age and you actually see things, understand stuff and generally become more aware of so much more of what is going on. I would have loved to have told him, but sadly, it was too late. Lots of things are out there, if we choose to see and understand. Don't miss the opportunity, you might not get another chance.

Chimps without hoods.

I watched an interesting documentary the other day about chimpazees and drew some amazingly close comparisons with some of the modern, misunderstood youth of todays society.

They live in family groups, the chimps that is, some of them quite large. They have a strict heirarchy and appropriate acceptible behaviour levels. Any deviation from this is enforced rigorously and is quite brutal if needed to make the correct point and quell the insurrection. Itis over when itis over and normality returns to the fold. It appears that this is how they sort out the pecking order to sustain a successful group. The adolescents practice this behaviour amongst themselves as a preparation for the big wide world when they are mature enough to see and fit into the bigger picture.

The adolescent chimps appear to prefer to hang around in gangs, terrorising the small, weak or aged when the opportunities allow and appear to get great fun out it. The pester the bloody hell out of them (we call it bullying) and generally make their lives a misery. Getting their kicks I presume. They are unable to settle for any long period of time and appear to get, what I would called bored, for want of a better word. Then they are off looking for their kicks to amuse and stimulate themselves.

The ones they don't mess with are the higher ranking males or females, because that means serious trouble. A bit like being grounded but with longer, sharper teeth. When these more dominant or mature chimps get really pissed off they are not slow in showing their annoyance and put the rowdy adolescents firmly in their place. A bit like the Police and SAS all wrapped into one but without the long drawn out legal proceedures. Needless to say, the adolescents know exactly who not to piss off. There is also no appeals process. The status quo is restored for a while before they start to gang up on the weak, young and old again. The really troublesome adolescents can be driven out of the group if they are a pain and lose the benefit of numbers for companionship, food and protection.

So maybe this disruptive, disrespectful and annoying behaviour of the hooded hordes is an ancient genetic trend or perhaps some of them are closer to chimpazees than we think. And where are the adults (higher ranking males & females) to sort out the troublesome adolescents ?

Importance of statistics

I appears that somewhere out there, the perceived decent into mistrust by the management or justification of their position means that we have to submit ever more 'important' statistical information, which is more than probably duplicated from other pieces of paperwork. The reason for this is to justify our existence by wasting time submitting statistical information to allow others to judge our performance against whatever the current 'in' target is, as highlighted by one or other daily/weekly/monthly meetings. Some Forces even have a meetings flow-chart. Some Forces have even made this one of the objectives for officers to achieve in their yearly appraisal system, the accurate and prompt submission of paperwork, including relevant stats of course. The days when officers used their common sense in tandem with Policing skills and gleaned info from crime & intelligence briefing sheets appears top be long gone to allow then to direct/target their patrols have faded off into the ether. They are told what the target is, often after they have already become aware of the problem by using their skills. Who said anything about reducing paperwork to get more on the streets ? Well someone has because they have it splashed over the various forms of media and news. Not one single mention of positive or negative returns here, just saying what everyone knows but is doing nothing about it as usual.

Congratulations to Mr Carrot

Just a quick few words of appreciation to Raw Carrot for my first post replies. There I was thinking I was out there in the darkness all alone, how wrong I was. Many thanks.