Morning all,
yesterday i attended an address whereby they were reporting a group of youths outside their flat block hanging around being a nuisance, when they saw on their CCTV one of them pulled a weapon out of their waistband. (this bit isn’t entirely important)

they also informed me that at the back of the estate behind the bin shed is a bit of unused space with a wooden panel covering an entrance, and said panel is locked with a bike lock. they told me that these boys go in there frequently during the day and during the night.

my question is, do i have any powers to remove said bike lock to investigate what’s behind, as i think it could be used as some form of stash area. i’m not able to jump over the wooden panel as it’s a thin piece of wood and would not hold my weight, and is also probably 8ft+

it’s within an estate making it public access, no signage to say it’s private property and it looks like it’s been jerry rigged and not done professionally in any way.

Hi all,

I've been warned to Magistrates Court in a few weeks and it will be my first time. I'm a police witness, not OIC and it's for a fairly low level traffic offence. I'm giving evidence via live link.

Could you offer me some advice please? Court etiquette, what might be expected of me? The kind of questions I might be asked etc

The more insight the better.

Thanks very much in advance

Hello all,

A year ago I suffered a serious injury on duty, a broken ankle, tore my spring and deltoid ligaments and Tibial Tendon along with it, complete freak accident whilst chasing after a suspect. Unfortunately, this injury occurred whilst still in probation

A year later and I'm still in recovery and just struggling with some pain during certain ranges of movement, but enough that I can't return to active duty safely. And due to that, I also can't be signed off from my probation.

I've been on light duties and desk based since November last year, so I didn't waste any time in showing I wanted to get back into work.

I've now been told the job is considering issuing a reg 13 as I still haven't fully recovered.

My question if anything, is where do I stand? I can only recover as fast as my body allows and have had physio, consultation, Flint House and as stated above, have returned to work and demonstrated that I can do the job, just not yet do it 'on the beat'

Any help, advice, or other wise words would be appreciated

I joined the PCDA pathway in the Met in 2022. That pathway is a three year long probation that includes multiple stints at university, for assignments.
A year after I joined, in 2023, I was injured on duty, a fall whilst restraining a suspect during arrest. I walked away with a slight limp and a bit of soreness but nothing of immense concern.
Two nights after that, I woke up to my whole body shooting off with severe nerve pain, and then, half paralysis down my right side for about 2 months.
After a couple years of investigation by the NHS, and a ton of other crazy symptoms, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. According to my neurologist, it appears that the physical trauma of my injury, unearthed/triggered my MS, I had not a single symptom prior to that incident.
 
My problem lies in the fact that whilst under my NHS investigation, I was NANO. Since being diagnosed, I have also been NANO. So I was inside two out of the three years of my probation. I then got a year’s extension, but I have still been inside. During this time I have been off sick a few times with two substantial periods of sickness lasting three months.
I was very fit and active before my injury, but I cannot wear the Met kit currently, I’m not physically strong enough, yet. I started treatment (injections), my symptoms are far more manageable and I feel my body is stronger. I am slowly training my body in the gym as well, being careful and mindful of my limits and relearning my bodies capabilities.
 
I have been under reg 13 for a while now, I had a final stage meeting at NSY in May where they concluded that they would give me until December to ‘prove myself’ and become fully operational.
However after a meeting recently with Occupational Health where I was informed I would not be signed off to do my JRFT, PST, and ELS, due to concerns around my symptoms and a recently found brain lesion, I have now been invited in for that final stage meeting again next month.
My fed rep reckons its bad news, a.k.a. dismissal.
I’ve asked to have till December to get my strength up and to be operational but the met want it done their way, with me out on the street instantly even though I still have uni work and other admin related to my probation to complete and to avoid flaring up my MS, I would need to adjust into being frontline again.

I’m very stuck right now, has anyone got any advice for me?
 

The IOPC are recruiting “lead investigators”. A handsome salary of £37k.

But there’s a catch. Extremely rigours vetting. What kind of level, you ask?

A standard DBS check, and meeting the Civil Service’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard. BPSS essentially adds nothing – it’s just standard right to work and referencing checks and includes a basic DBS, so the standard DBS done by the IOPC marginally beats that.

IOPC investigators should not be given unrestricted access to police resources, material or premises with such lax vetting standards.

I'm writing a crime novel set in London 1986. I'm trying to establish whether police stations had staff canteens that operated 24/7 during this time.

Also, would someone of Detective Constable rank ever be rostered 'on call' or would it always be a case of being assigned either an early shift, late shift, or night shift?

If 'on call' was a thing, did they have police issue pagers or were they just phoned at home on the big old phones we used to have back in the day?

If they were phoned while on -call would they report to their police station and be given info about the crime they were going to attend?

Or would all details be explained over the phone along with the crime scene location, and they would make their own way there by car and meet the other investigating officer at the scene?

And if it was a crime scene involving a human skeleton being unearthed, would uniform also attend on twos and blues? Nearly every Midsomer Murder I've watched shows parked up police cars with flashing lights in the dead of night even if it's a hundred year old skeleton!

I've googled it all but I just don't know how accurate it is, so I thought I would ask here and get the facts from your lived experience. I hope someone can help. Thank you in advance for any info.

I see the upper age limit for applying to be a special is 57, and there doesn’t seem to be a mention of retirement age? How often do you often find yourself working with people in their mid to late 50s? Also how long do the older people keep working in the job - will you find them still working well into their 60s?

Seems extremely short sighted to cut them up like this.

Hello.

I stopped a car the other day where the drivers details all checked out, he could tell me the address the car was registered to and insured to, but it was probably 300 miles away.

When I asked him at the time why it’s registered so far away he said that’s where he lives.

Anyway I issued him a TOR for due care and during that interaction he started hurrying me along saying he needed to get home to his wife and kids. He also had many members of the public stop and speak to him as if he was good friends with them. I asked him why he calls the house he was pointing to as ‘home’ if he lives so far away, to which he said he can live wherever he wants.

I suspect he had his car registered/insured outside of force deliberately, but wasn’t sure if there was anything I could do about it, as after all the car does have insurance.

Was there/is there something I could do if I suspect he’s incorrectly registered the car at an address he isn’t living at?

Is the pension contribution fixed or can it be moved? First few years it'll be a killer for me otherwise.

Good day! I live next to a police station and overlook a set of traffic lights that police vehicles use to get from the station onto the main roads.

Quite often I'll hear sirens and I can easily see what happens from my window. Sometimes officers leave the station with lights and sirens on, then end up joining the queue at the traffic lights. They'll either keep the lights and sirens going, switch the sirens off and leave just the blue lights on, or occasionally they keep repeatedly sounding the horn behind a vehicle, which appears to me is to encourage traffic to move.

My understanding is that, in the UK, drivers aren't supposed to break traffic laws just to let an emergency vehicle through. But I'm curious how police officers actually view this in practice. If the only way for a driver to move would be to go through a red light, mount the pavement, or do something else that would normally be an offence, what would you rather they do?

Does it depend on the urgency of the call or the way the police vehicle is driving (for example, lights only versus lights, sirens and horn)?

I'd be really interested to hear from police officers about what you're taught, as well as what you actually hope drivers will do in situations like this.

Thank you all.

Evenin' all 🚔

Im 5 years in, and beginning to feel like due to both active decisions on my part, but also unfortunate circumstances, Ive allowed my policing career to completely stall.

I guess this will be a combination of a rant and also a 'Has this ever happened to you?' type post.

Initially on the Direct Entry DC route when, during my patrol stint I felt that I wanted to have longer than 12 weeks on patrol (ideally 2 years) to be confident and competent before becoming a DC rather than rushing through the process.

Before anyone says - I knew that the DC route would be structured this way, with limited time to gather decent experience. If i could apply again Id have applied for the PC programme.

My views weren't particularly listened to. My patrol section were prepared to fight to keep me as they needed the numbers.

However SLT felt I should best continue on the DC path as structured.

I did this, spent 4 months on a DV investigations section which I really enjoyed. It was well resourced, there was consistent leadership etc etc. Initially this would have been 8 months before moving onto CID.

Due to needing bums on seats in CID - the DV department attachment was cut down to 4 months by SLT. Sergeants protested but alas - deaf ears.

I moved onto CID as ordered. Whilst juggling my OCP, workload (which was now both patrol jobs and some complex multi-offence DV jobs), and the uni work.

At that point which was early 2023, I collapsed into myself like a falling star. I had 6 weeks signed off by my GP, started counselling etc.

The SLT compromise was returning to DV section to keep me employed, and would also allow me to finish the student side of everything too.

3.5 years, however, I am still on the same department.

This is where I feel like ive failed myself, left it too long and too late to apply for other departments or go back to patrol essentially.

The DV department I have been on for 3.5 years has been absolutely run into the ground.

- 4 sections split into 2 regional sectors each requiring a Sgt ( so 8 sgts really). Due to sickness/stress there are 2 Sgts covering, with the expectation that patrol sgts will cover as well as managing their own patrol sections with their own resourcing challenges too.

- There has been no contingency in place to either replace even temporarily the Sgts who are off at the moment on the DV department.

- PCs are completely buckling under workloads that now are not being reviewed. SLT are expiring yet the bosses still want answers despite the clear lack of Sgts at the moment.

- We are losing PCs also due to stress, illness, and a couple now on maternity leave. Again - no contingency to replace/cover. I believe the morale of the DV department has spread across the force and because of poor management noone wants to come and cover, which I completely understand.

- The DV PCs who have remained, including myself, have now taken on the role of specialist Domestic Abuse Officers/Safeguarding Officers as that particular section has been disbanded. So the expectation is on PCs to issue DVDs, degrade PPN/DARA assessments, further manage risk aside from the risk we are all carrying already on our workloads. This would be fine except - we havent been trained in this additional specialist role. We are all prepared that something is going to go quite terribly/tragically wrong.

- On an absolute personal side note, due to resourcing within the DV department, officers that have applied for other roles whether it be CID, patrol, etc, are being actively held back due by our bosses because of the numbers. I myself have just applied to CID which my Inspector has seemingly purposefully not even acknowledged, and I am aware of at least 2 other officers who have passed their NIE in March this year, yet are not being authorised to actually take their PIP2 course/tutorship.

- on top of this, we're all having leave for 2027 refused due to 'below threshold'. We're talking 7, 9, 12 months in advance.

I love policing. I always wanted to do this. And the challenges I expected, such as dealing with FATACs, sudden deaths, conflict, heavy workloads,, etc etc - I anticipated worst case scenario with it all. And ive handled all this throughout my 5 years reasonably well, I think.

However, I really did not expect the lack of support for PCs, and indeed PS', the seemingly awful decision making from SLT, and the expectation to remain positive. I really thought the police would be better than that in that respect.

I won't specify what force Im in.

Im aware TJIF. Everywhere. North, South, East, West.

I guess Im posting to ask-

- does any of this post chime with anyone else on a personal note?

- has anyone experienced the embargo of officers not being released fairly for roles they've fair and squarely applied for?

- can anyone see it getting better?

Good evening all.

There's talk that my force could potentially be moving to the investigation pattern currently used by Kent police, does anyone have insights on what this is and how it affects work life balance etc?

If it helps we're currently on a 4 on 4 off pattern

Just read an article on crimewatch Facebook page about the suspect in the Anne Widdecombe case. I was quite surprised that his photo and a heap of personal details had been released without him even being charged.

So I was wondering how does this happen? It is a specific release by the police? If so, why? What operational benefit does it have? Or is it a rogue leak? I just can’t help thinking that this guy may be innocent and his entire life has been put out in public without his consent. Surely there should be some protections around this?

How do you guys manage the gym on a 2-2-2 pattern with 4 rest days? Need to get back into lifting consistently and wondering how everyone else fits it in

Hi all,

Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (Police CPI), with support from the Home Office, has launched the Little Yellow Crime Prevention Handbook as a Progressive Web App (PWA).

The Little Yellow Crime Prevention Handbook is a widely used crime prevention resource across police forces, offering advice on everything from home security and vehicle crime to personal safety and fraud prevention.

Recently, the content has been completely updated and rewritten for a public audience, and it's now available as a progressive web app, so it's easy to access on a phone without needing to carry another booklet.

This community has a huge amount of practical experience, so we'd really appreciate your honest feedback to ensure it's useful in practice.

The PWA can be accessed here: https://crimeprevention.securedbydesign.com/

A few questions:

• Would you have any recommendations or suggestions as to how this can be made more useful in practice?
• What prevention topics, tools or guidance would you like to see included?
• Are there any features that would make it easier to use while on duty?

We're looking for ideas on how to make it as helpful as possible for officers and the public, so any feedback is welcome.

I'm in a FiveM RP server, and we are opening a motorbike division. I'm wondering if there is a public document that I can use to help me make a training document?

Hi folks, I'm wondering if anyone here may be able to advise me on something regarding my final payslip with my current force...

For context, I've been with my current force for just under 3 years, and I'm on paypoint 3 payscale.

I handed in my resignation to my current force last month as I am due to transfer to a different force on the 20th July 2026. I am still employed with my current force until the 19th July 2026. It's also worth mentioning that I have been working on Response since Feb 2026.

I have just received my final payslip from my current force, and I'm...slightly shocked, to say the least, with my final payslip. I have been paid considerably less than what I am normally paid in a month. My previous payments have always been just over £2K a month, however this month I have only been paid just over £1.4K .

I have been on annual leave for 2 weeks as I had annual leave to use up prior to my transfer. I was told by my current force that my annual leave entitlement was in order and I would not owe the force any money following my transfer.

Apologies for such a long winded post, but is anyone able to suggest why I have been paid significantly less then what I normally earn? Any help would be greatly appreciated