Good things of 2006

I did mean to post about this the other day. And I tell you what, I found it a lot harder than I thought I would.

Its difficult this job. When I do a job well, the circumstances of it invariably mean I almost wish I didn't have to do it in the first place. For example- dealing with the person who jumped off a building in front of us. We did all we could beforehand, and dealt with the aftermath in the correct way, did a solid professional job that earned us thanks of senior management. Yet I wish we never had to be there in the first place.

I suppose thats the funny thing about this job. In an ideal world, there would be no need for police. Everyone would drive according to the rules of the road, everyone would have loving supportive families.

But as we all know, this world is far from ideal. I think it's part the reason I joined this job in the first place. The place is messed up and some people do stupid or selfish things that end in tragedy (any number of road accidents), some people are deliberately, well, evil. Every day it seems I hear of a call to a deception burglary, where some pond life has gone out of his way to deliberately try and wring as much cash out of some old dear as he can, by posing as someone who wants to help. Sometimes we do feel like a row of King Canute types in daft helmets trying to order back (sorry, ask politely if it doesn't mind) a tide of scum.

Every so often in this job you can make a positive impact on peoples lives, even if it is a time when you are bringing them terrible news. The irony of that isn't lost on me, but it's at the worst times you need the best officers. Which is something that simply cannot be quantified, much to the despair of those who are desperate to attach a quantifiable value to an officer. Some of the frustration that you see across all these police blogs is because government and senior management don't seem to care about actually making a difference to individuals. If it can't be measured, then they're not interested. You can never get a performance indicator from a death message (i.e. telling a next of kin that a loved one has died.) But that brief visit from an officer or two will be remembered by that person for the rest of their lives. Do you think they'll care about press releases from police chiefs and Home Office that the rate of theft of pedal cycles has risen?

Apologies for going on a touch, most of this I've said already at some point. I guess its because I thought the best way I could say I had a good year would be to say I had no need to do anything at all. And yes I know that opens the door for abuse, but I hope you know what I really meant by it!