But a study carried out among those who have quit the force early suggests rather than pay, they are unexpectedly being driven out by a poor workplace culture.
Professor Sarah Charman, from Portsmouth University, who carried out the research said people who had dreamed of joining the police all their lives quickly became disillusioned and this was having a knock-on effect on standards in the service.
She conducted exit interviews with almost 100 officers who have quit the force early and she said the reasons they gave were all remarkably similar.
Perhaps they all dream of kicking scrotes and villains then find out the job is to police Twitter?
Alas I suspect it is the opposite.
In the NHS there’s a curious problem wherein there aren’t enough secretaries, so doctors waste hours filling in long forms that a secretary could be doing.
I suspect the police is similar – too much form-filling, but a reluctance to hire non-operational staff because they can’t be used for political purposes.
I agree with Bernie. Been a lot of chatter on Twitter about the calibre of these new recruits and the expectations they have of the police (and work in general)…
I agree with Bernie and Julia. It’s the good cops who join the police for the right reasons who find out that it’s not a good place to be. They are the ones who are disillusioned. The police force has already been corrupted so that it’s only a good place for the psychopaths and thugs and those with no morals. It’s also a good place for those who will gladly follow any order from psychopaths and thugs ad those with no morals just get a salary with no care about what the police force really stands for.
Policing twitter and facebook is great for such people. They don’t need to do any real work. Then when they find a target they can go mob handed and batter down their door for some hurty words they posted.
Young person changes career. Would never happen in the old days.
The actual study, since British newspapers don’t have the decency to link the material they steal. Beware that the percentages switch between full and partial populations.
From a skim, the main factors are general complaints and nothing to do with politics:
– Workload / shift system and difficulty juggling caring responsibilities
– Lack of promotion opportunities
– Poor management including forced movements between teams
– Lack of voice / Talents not valued (e.g. being replaced by “civilians”)
– Bullying / harassment by managers
Politics is only cited by 50% of some subcategory smaller than 25% (Extrinsic Factors – the smallest category, but I don’t see size specified).
Also interesting: graduates complained more about progression (though the table also indicates they complained more about everything – possibly they just wrote more).
That’s one of the problems of making a job suddenly needing a degree, the people entering the workforce have different expectations about things like promotion as they see the degree as part of the time they have put in
Requiring a degree for a job which is mainly about people skills just does not work. Same in nursing. All it ends up with is people who have intelligence but no common sense.
@JK277 – “Also interesting: graduates complained more about progression”
Not surprising. Graduates have student loans to repay.
How many complained about thr institutional transphobia ?
My daughter is a new cop. The shifts are really grinding. The paperwork is unbelievable. There is no point in madating degrees for ordinary cops who have to stand on a cordon for a 9 hr shift in the rain or (the worst – watch a drunk,addict,nutter in a cell for 8 hr incase they kill themselves). Progression and pay is actually very good for police constables which is a working class job.
The police never had an officers and men divide. Perhaps this resulted in leaders who lacked some political skills that are now necessary. However the solution is not to say that every plod must be a graduate.