ARSE COVERING AND SCARED
We the Police are scared to make decisions and are afraid of making mistakes, or so says Sir Ronnie Flanagan the chief inspector of constabulary.
The thing is I agree with him on that, we are an arse covering occupation!
The report by sir Ronnie says we are suffering excess bureaucracy and we are form writers and not crime fighters. Again there is truth in these words, it was only today that the administrators were chasing me for a form to claim a detection for a reprimand that I dealt with recently.
I had already sent a copy of the reprimand to the bean counting department but that got lost so they were flapping around trying to detect it. It’s crazy that we the front line officers are having to pay lip service to the managers.
If we charge, caution, report for summons or reprimand they can claim a detection, so claim it!! just don’t make us send you a shit load of duplicated forms; go and find them yourself or just take my word for it that it has been done, I don’t care to be honest. I am here to serve the public and to prevent and detect crime, arrest offenders and put them in front of the court. No-one cares about counting it and no-one want bobbies to spend hours duplicating all the forms just so it can be looked at.
Ministers say they have cut 9000 forms, what a load of bollocks that must be, I don’t recon we have that many forms let alone how they could cut that many. It’s only this last month that yet another MG form has been added to our work load for ALL prosecution files, another totally unnecessary form may I add that relates to the seizure of assets and financial investigations, MG17.
We will wait with bated breath to see if the government can do what they have always failed to do, cut bureaucracy and paperwork.
See more of the same here.
September 12, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Very well said, it does make me angry that Mr FLANNIGAN gets paid a handsome bounty for stating the bleeding obvious though. I would also take issue, as a frontline officer I quite often make decisions and I am not afraid of being held accountable for. What really annoys me, as it clearly does you, is that we are spending all our bloody time existing to make the auditors life easier instead of doing police work. Well, I am fed up of it. What are we paying the ‘auditors’ for. The public I suspect don’t care how many crimes happen, or how many we detect – I certainly don’t, but what really does get them angry is that when they call the police because they need us, it takes 24 hours or more to arrive – even if it is a 999 call. That is more important than me making the bean counters life easier. – so detections – stuff em!!
September 12, 2007 at 7:17 pm
One form, that hasn’t been filled in 9000 times?
September 12, 2007 at 10:29 pm
You sound like I feel!
September 12, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Agree 100% and I’ve said very similar to you on my blog as well. I am sick and tired of filling in numerous forms just so to please the yogurt knitters with their statistics. The public want us on the streets and I want to be on the streets. If I wanted to be a secretary, I would have applied to be one.
September 13, 2007 at 12:51 pm
http://pandatales.blogspot.com/
Weird way these things vary across the country…
Still everyone has their own opinion …
Keep up the work, Like the Blog
)
September 13, 2007 at 1:35 pm
One of Sir Ronnie Flanagan’s proposals is that each constabulary has to put in place a anti- bureaucracy team that has its own self monitoring team with a best value team. Consisting of one superintendent two chief inspectors one inspector six sergeants and twenty five police constables. And as the current headquarters staff are under stress all new staff will be drawn from the over staffed front line policing.
There will then follow a period of consultation when the new department will implement a series of forms (New) that will be distributed the each area for front line officer to complete prior to the end of each shift asking them to evaluate how the new anti-bureaucracy is performing and non compliance to completing the forms may lead to disciplinary procedures being instigated against the office in question.
September 13, 2007 at 6:20 pm
The HMIC, Ronnie old boy, appears to be in the pockets of Chiefs, (note: not the Indians, unless they are welathy like). He won’t change much, because it keeps him in with the Queen, and the Chiefs. It keeps his team in jobs. It keeps him in a job. Call me cynical, but it’s true.
September 13, 2007 at 6:21 pm
welathy is the Indian pronounciation of the term wealthy. Excellent comment Bob by the way.
September 14, 2007 at 11:17 am
http://twining.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/225/
September 14, 2007 at 4:25 pm
We have just taken on a scheme that means that a file first goes through our shift sergeant, over that hurdle then onto the Divisional Admin Sgt, then an appointment is made with the CPS to determine if they can be charged and what with. All files are now full files too, with ALL witnesses and the whole shebang of MG6 forms too.
For everything. Shoplifts, assaults, the lot.
Massed form filling, to go with patrol profiles, beat profiles, community engagement profiles and strategies, PACT meetings.
Stop the ride, I want to get off.
September 14, 2007 at 11:50 pm
It’s all right for Ronnie to sound so smug about us being Risk averse. Is he going to come down and sign off my MISPER then> or the Child Protection incident I’m dealing with? or is he around if a firearms job goes bent? While it’s still the case that we can loose our pension/mortgage/job/liberty if sopmething goes bent; what does he expect except a mountain of auditable paper to cover our arses?
September 15, 2007 at 9:00 am
Sir,
Ronnie gets all sorts of good deals. He discusses confidential information released to him with Chief Officer’s. That’s how f****** independant the HMIC inspection is? Jobs for the boys.
Twining