Great! Thank god! What huge waste of time and effort that was trying to force me to comply with it, in the process changing nothing, wasting vast sums of money and then getting rid of it!

Another 'fad' passes into the void and we move on into money saving and difficult times for the civvies and other wasters on the payroll. Whispers have been heard in the nick of certain people being moved around, certain office positions being removed completely and PCs with no street experience for over a decade now possibly being stuck out in the front line! It's amusing at the very least (if I was a MOP I would be terrified!) but it does start to make you wonder what the structure of policing in the country is going to be in 12 months time.

In my case I don't have a huge amount to worry about, recruitment and retention has been a huge issue of late and needless to say I'm...

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What the media can't seem to deal with is that he was a NORMAL bloke. Well, as normal as the next man and he happened to be a firearms holder. He wasn't a psycho mentalist in his spare time and didn't ear living creatures as per the Crossbow Killer chap - there's no story. As to why he had a breakdown, it doesn't really matter does it? He lost it and in his rage picked up a couple of weapons and decided to do the unthinkable.

As far as for the police response I can't see any other force reacting differently, or for that matter any quicker. In the more remote parts of the county I work in I could see a madman having a good twenty minutes before police arrived - and that's with the suspect remaining where he is!! With a moving target and no ANPR it must have been a nightmare you literally are waiting...

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A few lads I know will make good, if not, great Sergeants and I can only wish them well.

What fascinates me now is seeing how the 'Part one'ers' start adapting their behaviour to how they feel a Sergeant should be behaving. I love seeing how suddenly they start taking an interest in how a job in reviewed or how job allocations are made as opposed to just moaning about it as a typical PC does (Well me at least!)

In some of the more poorly selected individuals the 'treading on people' starts... any opportunity, however petty, is taken to either make themselves look better or other look worse. Minor errors made by once colleagues become serious and huge incompetency issues and advice is dished out however unwanted and ill thought out. If a PC ever did this to me they would get a Foxtrot...

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Then a small group walked through. 5 males, two in black and white hoodies (despite the heat), the rest with grubby t-shirts and all with a customary beer in hand. I was pretty sure their faces were red from the alcohol as opposed to any sun burn and I could smell cannabis wafting from them.

I sat their pretty relaxed, I didn't recognise any of them - I don't work my own patch - but I knew the local response lads would know their names by sight. One lad at the back of the group was then approached by a younger kid who then feigned a punch to the older one.

The older youth then turned to him and yelled "PUSSY" to which the younger lad replied "C**T".

My stomach tensed "Why the hell did they have to come here of all places?" I said to the missus. I watched them mooch past and they ended up 200 yards away. Long smoking papers appeared and more wafts of skunk floated by.

I put the thought...

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Briefly it's about a couple of crews working the same Ambulance, 212 in this case, and doing the rounds in Reading. The normal reality stuff you'd imagine but this really succeeds because there's barely any voice over and the crew just tell it how it is. The majority of the serious jobs they seem to go to get called in to the police first and I did mentally tick off the jobs they were going to and sharing in their cynicism.

Half baked suicide attempt - Check

RTC with uncompliant 'driver' - Check

Male hit in face by 'friend' - Check

Drug addict female in need of another hit - Check

Street drinker unconscious in local park - Check

I loved the sense of tedium they left in, the sense of trying to pass the time in between jobs and using the black humour to do it. I particularly liked the poorly numbered houses...

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See you next year!

If ever we needed more evidence that policing is little more than political tinkering then the policing pledge is a clear demonstration of it. You'd think it was an election year of something wouldn't you?! ;)

Labour panicking, seeing the complete and utter shit heap that is the modern police service and deciding to try and 'spin' their way out of it.

How does it affect me? Day to day I do nothing differently, nothing at all. The SMT, certainly for my poor response based colleague, appear utterly obsessed with it. Seeing the posters on the wall and the amount of times they mention 'serving' or 'liaising' or 'visibility' and it makes me wonder if we have any powers to deal with bad people any more? I've even heard that SMTs have been having HQ type civvies dropping into nicks to test the PCs on their...

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My favourite part is:

As opposed to what exactly? Standing out on a point in -2℃?

Well I never! I would have thought 'Police Officers' would enjoy freezing their bollocks off instead - bunch of weirdo sadists that they are...

Have a good New Year everyone, let's make sure these numpties are out of No 10 in 2010 for ALL our sakes!