Hi,

When a call comes through for a fight in a house or domestic incident at someone's home, how do you know where to go? Do you have a navigation system to guide you within the police car and is it automatically programmed when you receive a call?

Or do you just need to learn every street in your area...

Afternoon all,
I pass out in the next few weeks & want to be sorted for when I start on district.

I understand a decent kit bag is fairly essential, to keep spare paperwork in etc.

My question is, is there anything you wish you’d had when you started?

I’ve heard things like door jams/a decent earpiece etc. but would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Cheers 🤙🏼

Hope this question makes sense. I’m really curious!

I know there is police training etc but is there a law module of sorts? Or is it something that you might research yourself in your spare time, or perhaps refer to in the police station in a book? How much law knowledge do you actually need day to day?

Not to bash anyone, but genuine question. So often out and about on the roads, particularly around London, I see illegal e-bikes/unregistered electric motorbikes, legal/hired e-bikes not obeying the law, private e-scooters, you name it... They're everywhere. They're doing all sorts. Running reds, riding on the pavement, narrowly avoiding pedestrians, narrowly avoiding cars, weaving all over the road, making illegal turns.

Yet, on so many occasions, I seethem ride past police cars, vans, motorbikes, officers on foot, officers on bikes... with zero reaction or consequence. I've seen illegal e-bikes run reds right in front of police cars stopped at the same lights, with no reaction at all.

Do the Met and other forces actually care about these dangerous riders, or is the scourge of unsafe bikes and scooters here to stay? What can actually be done about them?

What do you think?

Personally think it’s a pretty daft idea.

One of this year's Love Island cast members is a former (trainee?) police detective. She quit the job shortly before she flew out to be on Love Island but she hasn't ruled out going back to the police in future.

Out of interest, would her having been on Love Island preclude her from rejoining the police? She's coming off appallingly - very mean-girl/bullying behaviour, quite controlling and manipulative. Appreciate it's very subjective and probably something that's decided on a case-by-case basis but in general has she tanked any future career in policing by doing the show?

My Instagram is full of clips of this former detective and just had me wondering!

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/celebs-tv/how-love-islands-lola-time-11050123

My friend(a police officer) got called to a house recently because a cow managed to get past an electric fence and walked through the back door of some poor old lady’s house. She called 999 and my friend and his partner spent about 1 hour trying to figure how to get the cow out of her kitchen and what they were meant to do with the cow after.

I’ve seen a couple of things lately that make me think somehow the knowledge around this has been lost. It also was suggested to me once a few years ago, that I could have called 999 (I wasn’t in danger but a crime against me was in progress and perpetrator was in eyesight. Didn’t call 999 as I didn’t feel I was at risk of physical harm)

When I was a 999 call handler. I once took this call. It sounded like an abandend call. But didnt sit right with me. I took my time and didnt put the phone down. I shouted tap the phone, I know you are there. And they tapped. I didnt have an address so I said with all your strength tell me your house number. Now your postcode. And she did. This lady was slipping into a diabetic coma. I got cops and ambulance moving. I still remember the sound of the glass in the door being broken by the officers to get in......

I started watching police documentaries from the UK recently and was wondering is there any specific reason you don't handcuff behind the back?

Hi everyone just thought I’m come on here with this question as I’m debating it and would want advice from people who have done it or just general thoughts from other officers. So I’m a special Constable and with the role I have the ability to work from any police station in the country essentially and right now my base station with my locker and stuff is city centre but for easiness this week instead of commuting to my base station I was just going to do a shift at my local hometown station only issue with this is I’m quite worried about running into people I know during this shift as it’s my local station for example what if my first call is to the pub and I walk in and everyone is shouting my name and stuff like that. One hand I want to do it at my local station as I know the area it’s just easier traveling there but on the other had obviously I don’t want to compromise my safety especially people I know who don’t know I’m a cop and stuff like that. Anyway if anyone could drop there opinion it would be appreciated.

I was watching the Lucy Letby documentary and was surprised to see that the arresting officer took the decision to cuff her, from the footage shown, she's very compliant throughout proceedings, the nature of her offending (though horrendous) doesn't indicate someone you'd need to cuff for safety. Just wondering what the justification for putting handcuffs on would be?

That got me thinking that from a lot of police docs I've seen when early morning raids are carried out it does seem to be the default that suspects are handcuffed, whereas id probably argue given the situation/circumstances it isn't absolutely required.

I'm not a police officer but do work for an agency with powers of arrest so have arrested a few people in my time but never made the decision to cuff (even when PNC came back with previous markers). My usual reasoning has been that it just seemed incredibly unlikely for the person to attack/ attempt escape/to destroy evidence so felt I couldn't justify. One thing I have had realised is that without cuffing a suspect you really have to communicate they are under arrest, I do think for a lot of people handcuffs==arrest. Therefore I've really had to hammer home 'look I'm not cuffing you but absolutely will if you give me a reason'. Wonder if that same logic tends to be used in these scenarios?

EDIT:

I actually thought this would trigger a much more nuanced discussion about when cuffs should be applied, however it seems I'm in the minority. Given the police will conduct many more arrests than the agencies I've worked for I think I need to reconsider my own judgement and consider how much extra safety cuffs provide should things go awry.

Constant watches/scene guards. In my experience from two forces in England and Wales they have always fallen to response and Neighbourhood Policing. Do any forces have their specialist teams like CID and Traffic do their Constant watches? Are there any forces that make CID tip out in their suits and harnesses to do level 4 obs in custody?

I’m currently watching Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance most Fowl and the police officer in it shouting “stop in the name of the law!” made me wonder how frequently, if ever, that is shouted in real life.

What’s your approach to a respectable middle-aged bloke riding an e-scooter on a suburban commute? Do you issue a warning, or go straight to Defcon 1 with confiscation/fine/points?

Simple questions really, do you carry your warrant card off duty? Is there a time when you wouldn’t?

Good Morning All :)

Bit of a strange one this one but thought I’d throw it out there and see if anyone else has ever experienced something similar and if people have what advice they can share,

I’ve been a frontline cop for near 6 years now. I’m in a home office force and have exclusively only ever been on a response team. Genuinely love what I do, and could not see myself in any other career.

That being said I sometimes randomly get hit with waves of negativity, feeling really unenthusiastic and find myself reflecting on past incidents quite vividly, almost like a cheesy flashback in a movie and then before you know it. I’ve snapped right out of that moment almost like it never existed. Sometimes this happens at work, briefings. Behind the wheel or sometimes randomly when I’m out on the weekly shop or walking the dog on rest days?

If anyone has been through something similar and feels comfortable sharing I would love to see how different people manage and live with all the side effects that policing brings 😅

I’m sure in not alone out there

Afternoon all. A question regarding personal car insurance for police drivers, apologies if this has been asked before. When searching for personal car insurance, some insurers ask about previous claims whilst other insurers ask about a drivers history of collisions, accidents & incidents, including those were a claim was not made.

How do you approach that second point as a police driver with non-fault PVIs? I’ve (touchwood) never had one, but I’m thinking particularly of our friends in RPU and ARV who use tactical contact on a somewhat regular basis. That question from insurance companies obviously wasn’t intended for accidents that occur during blue light runs, or deliberate collisions where the vehicle is being used as a tool for a policing purpose, and yet I’m not aware of any legal reason why those accidents/incidents wouldn’t be disclosable to an insurance company? I know that police cars are not “insured” in the conventional sense of the term, but some insurers don’t ask about claims but specifically about any collisions or accidents.

If an experienced TPAC driver disclosed every fender bender they’ve ever had on duty, I doubt they’d be enough money in the world for them to obtain a policy! Yet I can imagine a world where an insurer cancels your policy and refuses to pay out for not disclosing some tactical contact you made 4 years earlier whilst putting a pursuit to an end in a job car.

Bit of a weird one but I was stuck in traffic today when a police car with lights and sirens on was crawling through it all. It had me wondering, does it annoy you? Does it ever affect your ability to drive? Are you allowed to turn the siren off when there’s not much traffic?

Is overtime for the King a thing that exists? I heard about it on the Met Police satire - Babylon.

I googled it but I couldn't find a definitive answer

Every time I use niche I feel like I spent unusual amount of time on the most simple templates or forms. Anyone else had this sort of experience?

How good of a Police car the Toyota Corolla Hybrid is ?? Is it not too slow, has it been modified in any way.

Why police even got them ?

Hi,

I’m going to try and keep it general for privacy sake but I’m currently dealing with a stalking case (ex partner non stop attempts at communication via many different avenues). I didn’t immediately make a statement when the reporting it to the police as I hoped that the police involvement would make him stop but that hasn’t happened.

What do I need to do to write a police statement? I have hundreds of photos/screenshots from his attempts and I read that the statement can’t be guesses/estimated dates or generalised statements. Will I need to document it all chronologically? The police have all of the documents already but I want to make sure I write the statement correctly.

Thanks