Toribash
Original Post
AMA - I am a UK Police Officer willing to answer (almost) all your questions!
So, hi.

First off:
IF YOU KNOW ME, PLEASE DON'T OUT ME, LIKE - SERIOUSLY PLEASE
I'm sure we are all aware- there are people out there that are only out to cause harm to others, and a police officer is a great target

I do not represent the UK Police or any Police for that matter, and I am only stating personal views based on the limited experience that I have within the job. Please do not take anything I say as an official statement, as it is not anything of the sort.


Now for the rules
1. I reserve the right to refuse your question without reason (though I will probably give you one).
2. I'll take all abuse, but I'd like to see this thread stay open for a bit, so if we could keep it at a low.
3. As there is no way to provide proof without outing my personal details - I will NOT be providing visual proof. But please feel free to grill me on anything UK Police
4. Max 3 questions per post, I do not get heaps of free time, and so I will try and be as active as possible, but, no promises.

I may add some more rules as and when they become relevant

A bit about me



So
Without Further Ado
Toribash...
Ask me Anything
Last edited by QuestionTime; Sep 21, 2020 at 06:24 AM.
Sorry if anything does not make sense, or seems out of place, it's 5am and I'm starting to get tired

Originally Posted by Maya View Post
Here's a bunch off the top of my head. Answer any you're comfortable with. For context - I'm an active protester opposing the police here in the US (and a police abolitionist).

Have you ever reported a fellow officer for acts of prejudice or illegal activity?
Fortunately, I have seldom had dealings with this kind of thing within our relief (team). We did have one case, whereby a male was bypassing domestic safeguarding paperwork to make his life easier, and it came back to bite him on the bum. Yes, I reported this, as hard as it was for me to do.

Have you ever taken part in the quelling of protests?
See this is a difficult one. The short answer is yes but no.
I sense your intellect and so I don't feel I need to cite the European Convention on Human Rights, and so obviously we observe all these rights via the Human Rights Act 1998. As a result the right to freedom of speech and protest are a big part of these rights, and so peaceful protesting is absolutely a part of this also.
We do however reserve a right in law to impose conditions and/or restricitions on a protest to prevent serious disruption, disorder or damage to property.
Essentially peaceful preotests are fine, but protests do not provide a legal exemption to commit crimes.
To actually answer your question, the one time I have become associated with a protest was a few extinction rebellion protests across the country. You have to go through a Police Support Unit (PSU) Course to actually don the gear and shield and get involved. This protest was not 'quelled' however and so it is difficult for me to say yes- as I was protecting the preotestors from members of the public.


Have you ever taken part in a union bust?
Excuse my ignorance, I have never heard of a union bust in our area, or at all for that matter in the UK. If such a thing does exist then I wouldm have thought it would been handled by the PSU trained officers, not I.

I believe that targeting the roots of crime (desperation caused by financial hardship and oppression) is much more effective that punitive justice just as positive reinforcement works much better for toddlers than physical punishment. What are your thoughts on this?
So my personal thoughts may be quite controversial. I believe as a police force, and a law enforcement unit- we deal with the punitive justice that comes as a result of the failure to target the roots of crime.
Having said that, we do try our best to avoid such justice, where we have a system of (with exclusion to serious crime such as murder and rape etc.) Out of Court Disposals (OOCD) which will usually involve such things as drug seminars, 1 to 1 alcohol or domestic abuse councelling etc. etc.
The plan (for me at least) is not to chuck everyone infront of a judge, in fact quite the opposite. I have found (some) positive results by getting people to understand the negative connotations of commiting such crimes, and at the crux of it, why it is a crime in the first place.


Do you enjoy making arrests?
This is another yes, and no.
The arrests I enjoy making, are the ones where I know that I may well have just saved someones life, or finally ended a long spout of crime that has plagued many innocent people. Take for example a suspect that I arrested for 6x counts of distraction burglary, targeting the elderly with dementia related conditions. All of those people had lost not only items with massive emotional vaule, but also lost all faith in the safety and security of their own home, the one place that you are meant to be most safe - so yes, I must admit chasing our suspect and eventually bring him into custody was enjoyable, yes.
But general arrests, I don't get a kick out of no. We have set necessaeties for arrest set out in Code G of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. We can't just arrest people by default because they have commited a crime, or because we get a bit of enjoyment in the process, it 'just doesn't cut it' as we'd say. We only arrest when we feel absolutely necessary for safeguarding or evidential purposes.


Do you often observe fellow officers expressing enjoyment in making arrests?
Not other than a first arrest for a new officer which is always a celebaratory occasion, as you feel you are now the 'real deal' (but the arrest must still be necessary and lawful, of course), or for a very similar reason than I have stated above.

Who looks into possible corruption within the department? Who elects those people?
So we have 2/3 groups that look into corruption within the police departments. As with different policing styles in different states of the US, there are also slightly different tweaks to policy within UK Police Forces and their jurisdiction. This is all goverened, though, by a main body called the National Police Chief's Council (NPCC) where all jurisdictions are represented to establish an effective economic policing strategy. Corruption and complaints sort of come into this but not really, as all members of the body ware Police Officers
With regards to Corruption and complaints though, it generally starts at the bottomand works it way up. If a complaint can be handled at the line-manager(supervisor) level, then it will, otherwise it will escalate up the rank until it reaches the Professional Standards Depertment (PSD). Again, this team works within the Police but are not police officers (and are incredibly strict on Police Conduct, whether you will trust me on that or not)

If all this fails, and the complaint still stands, there then lies the governing body for police conduct and complaints, named the Independant Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) which is a public body that has no links to the Police other than the fact they scrutinise them. This is members of the public surverying what we do and establishing their verdict on the legality or integrity of what we do. Obviously they are taught the basics so they know our general day to day life, but everything we do is closely monitored and traceable, so no one is safe.

I have my own views about the IOPC, which is that it is very difficult for someone who has never been or trained to be a Police officer, to then tell a Police officer how to work. Exaggerated but relatable to someone who has flown a Cessna, trying to tell a pilot of an Airbus how to do their job.
I do however see the benefits with regards to public confidence and to ensure that what we are doing is honest and true to our best efforts.


Do you feel like you're making a difference?
Yes, I do. Whether it be talking someone out of taking their life, bringing someone back to life, or safeguarding victims of serious crime, I take pride in the fact I can go home, and believe that I have made a difference, however mynute, for the better (In my opinion of course)

How do you feel about police abolition? What do you know about police abolition?
I know little of it, other than it is all the rave in the US. You'll probably be able to educate me on this aspect. What is planned on replacing the Police? How is it planned for justice to be kept? I'm not clued up unfortunately

Do you think jails are effective? What do you think they're effective at?
I'm indifferent about this I am afraid. I've never been a prison officer (known as a Detention Officer (DO) in the UK) and so I have not experienced what rehabilitation work they do, or whether it's just temporary accomodation for criminals before they return to commit crimes again- I cannot say.

Would you follow the orders of a commanding officer even if those orders were immoral?
You'll have to expand on this or site some example, for the moment though my answer is a hefty no.

Have you ever arrested anyone for possession of weed? If not, would you?
I have arrested two people for cultivation of cannbis, but this is all. Possession of Cannabis is dealt with as quite a low level offence, and as aforementioned, there is not generally any reason to arrest someone for simple possession of Cannabis, unless they refuse to provide their details for interview and outcome (Usually an educational youtube video on the effect of cannabis, unless a repeat offender).
The times that arrests come into play is for larger scale cannabis offences, such as cultivation or Possession of Cannabis with the Intent to Supply (PWITS). Basically, drug dealers and cultivators are the ones that are more liekly to get arrested, not users.


Why did you want to join the army?
I did a Combined Cadet Force at school, where I joinewd the Army secion and found it good fun, I enjoyed the order and binary rules for some reason. This may have been young ignorance however, as in hindsight I think the Police was a much better place for me.

Well there goes the 3 question rule, but hey-ho, they are all good valid questions so I can't complain.

I've added my answers underneath the question for easier reference!

Originally Posted by Dare View Post
1. If I catch a police going over the speed limit can I record it and report them? I tend to see this alot and as us civilians when we see the cops we tend to slow down so we don't get a speeding ticket. However if the cop can speed without getting caught, how is this fair?

I could generalize the statement above to any other possible violations. What can be done if the police does something wrong but one can't do anything about it because the police have the power to give violations/tickets.
This can also be generalized to the idea between the current issue around black lives matter. As the speeding analogy is essentially the same idea as the black lives matter issue, but in a more ethical/political level.

So with regards to speeding, all Police, when sworn in, have legal exemptions in certain cases, this includes contravening the speed limit, traffic lights and driving on the wrong side of the road for a policing purpose, where a normal member of public couldn't normally. You are in your right to complain via the many methods offered to you, just have a look at your local constabularys website and it should be well signposted. alternatively
I don't know what you mean about expanding the sppeding analogy into the black lives matter 'issue' if you could please expand on this.



2. I don't live in the UK, but I would assume that the UK/US have somewhat similar rules. In your opinion what can be done to maximize the equality and idealogy between all police officers?

For instance in my opinion, I believe that there should be police officers in society, HOWEVER, they should all go to law school. To me that is the only logical option that even makes sense. Police officers hold up the law, however, many abuse it diminishing the equality/idealogy of police officers. If police officers hold up our law, but don't even understand law, then why have police officers. They should just make law school a requirement and select only people that understand the law to instruct other on doing the right thing, and in difference police officers should get a boost in salary. In counterarguments I do understand that police do have to go to police academy or something similar, however, police do not learn enough during that short perioid compared to people that go to law school.

So we do 16 weeks of training which is essentially a week of Officer Safety (PAVA Deployment, Baton use, tactial communications and manouvers etc) and then 15 weeks of learning what I would call 'practical policing law'.
Our trainers are solely law trainers. You are right, it does feel crammed at times, but to be honest, whatever you learn, you act on instinct when you are actually out policing. Like I could learn that the legal definition of Theft is to Unlawfully appropriate property with the intent of permentantly depriving somone of it, but at the time they are probably trying to hit, tackle or stab you, and so you just learn practically what Theft would constitute, etc.
When we come to interview in custody for an offence, or on the way to a job, we may brush up on the ins and outs of the law, but it's very much a learn by doing it job- which is why I guess the training is so crammed.



These may not be the questions you were looking for, but I'm just curious in your opinion and answers.

The same applies with emboldened answers within the quote.
As a cop and a kid comes up to u and asks you to help him tie his shoe would u do it
what about walking a granny across the street
and the most important question of them all how much time do you spend on toribash playing
i'll ask the basic bitch questions

- weirdest call you've answered?
- any repeat 'customer' stories?
alright guy
Removed a couple low quality posts and placed some infractions. I really do think this is an interesting topic, and I love to see some awesome questions and answers flowing through here.

@trollers: don’t shitpost, just this once.

May come back to make a couple questions of my own later. Cool thread.
.
Have you ever been in a gunfight?

If I was able to have one wish, it would be to live closer to my one true love Fred, his beard tastes so nice.
He is also a far superior tk player.
LegGang
Hello again

Originally Posted by Dare View Post
Interesting, I did not know the police officer have that right with speeding 0_0

But previously when I mean speeding analogy with black lives matter, I'm connecting them due to the fact that when a police officer does something (like speeding or in this case harm to a civilian), nothing happens or nothing usually can be done at that moment in time because the cop thinks he/she is doing the right thing. To civilians it's hard to counter-argue against police officers because many of them think "what's the point, the police can make up some bs and ticket/arrest you or not even listen to you at all. Then it turns into a hassle, of going to court, etc.".

So I think personally there's this massive pre-emptive view that complaining about the Police will get you nowhere. We worry at every job we go to about complaints, as it's the fastest way out of your job, and you can get them for doing what you think is the right thing at the time.
I get that some Police may 'shoo you away' because we aren't really used to people helping out, they are normally just gathering around to get in the way or to cause a scene. What you think is right may be completely different to what that Police officer thinks is right- and usually we come with the training and experience to back it up. That's not intended to be cocky, but if a electrician (for example) went up to a doctor and told him he is treating that patient wrong, he would probably also tell you to go away, however right you thought you were.
Part of it as well, at least in my view, is that in the Police, you have to make many fast time decisions that could ultimately end in things going seriously wrong. What is even worse though, is when you don't make a decision at all- you will not even make it through training. The job is about believing in yourself, because if you don't believe in what you are doing, then everyone around you won't believe in you either. That air of confidence is critical to the job which is likely why it is so prevalent.


Now, this is where the issue of the training comes in and as you said it's "crammed and you learn on the job" and as a result I'm sure many police officers try to make there life easier or learn "wrong" during the job to a point they're unethical. To an extent this could be true for some police officers. But dont get me wrong, there are many great cops out there.

So, theres two categories for people who stretch the boundaries of the job. You have the people that do it to 'make their life easier' and you have the people that do it, as it is equally effective whilst still allowing you to get on to the next job, where someone elses life is at risk. The people who do it to make their life easier very quikcly go amuck.
I admit, on shift, I shortcut many things- the biggest one being a thing called 'Officer Discretion'. In short, if a crime is reported to a police officer in person, and they don't deem it necessary to be raised, it won't be raised. Seldom do we really get to do this anymore, but at the end of the day it's still a shortcut. The only time we will never ever ever shortcut is with safeguarding.


In my opinion the police force is necessary for the stability of society, however the current system is very flawed and needs changes.

One more question, been always curious about this. Does a cop need to meet a certain quota each month or year? Like giving a certain amount fo tickets or reaching a certain total value of tickets given.
I can't speak for the entire UK, as I can't with most things, but in our jurisdication- no, definititively 100% no, nada, never. I can't think of anything more corrupt and wrong.


Originally Posted by iTemp View Post
As a cop and a kid comes up to u and asks you to help him tie his shoe would u do it
If I was granted the time to stand around and do nothing, then most likely yes
what about walking a granny across the street
Most likely yes
and the most important question of them all how much time do you spend on toribash playing
Not a lot at all anymore unfortunately, I don't get a huge amount of freetime for gaming anymore

Originally Posted by Shmevin View Post
Thank you for your service. o7
Thanks man

Originally Posted by fudgiebalz View Post
i'll ask the basic bitch questions

- weirdest call you've answered?
[REDACTED] Sorry
- any repeat 'customer' stories?
You'd be scarily surprised how many of our customers are repeat.

Originally Posted by Creati0n View Post
Removed a couple low quality posts and placed some infractions. I really do think this is an interesting topic, and I love to see some awesome questions and answers flowing through here.

@trollers: don’t shitpost, just this once.

May come back to make a couple questions of my own later. Cool thread.

Thanks for the help and support!

Originally Posted by Fire View Post
Have you ever been in a gunfight?
Not thus far, we're normally pretty clued up on it, and there isn't a huge firearm supply in our area. Generally we'll know and firearms trained officers will attend instead.

Answers in bold text inside their respective quotes as above
Last edited by QuestionTime; Sep 25, 2020 at 01:44 PM.
How does your career affect your private life (such as mental health)?

Apathetic User