I Think The Police Are Taking The Piss.

[Diasi]

When they are using food banks.

https://yhoo.it/3YPmeGA Police Using Food Banks

[Michael Rolls]

the starting salary for a constable in England is £21,402, Top rate is £41,130 which take about seven years to reach. That starting salary is below the national average and the police federation claim that police salaries have fallen, in real terms, by almost 20% since 2000. If that claim is accurate it does seem that they have been getting a raw deal

[klondike]

Their pay looks low but their performance is even lower.

First hit on Google from UK police clear up rate....

Only 6% of burglaries a year are solved by police across England and Wales - a shockingly low figure that has decreased over the last few years.22 Oct 2022

Feel free to search - if you come up with any positive stories about our Police service be sure to post it. Everything I see is one cock up after another.

P.S. I don't class winning Macarena dancing competitions or who has the best rainbow painted police car as positive stories.

[Michael Rolls]

One possible contributary facto could be the number of police officers we have. Police per 100,000 population
England & Wales     212
France         422
Germany      349
Greece          507
Northern Ireland   362
Portugal      446
Scotland      318
Spain         534
Netherlands      295

Source
List of countries and dependencies by number of police officers - Wikipedia
It lists 146 countries. Only 36 have fewer police per head of population, so it's not only doctors and nurses where we seem to be getting short-changed
Even so, I still agree with you that there seem to be very few good tales to tell about the men in blue

[klondike]

Most of those foreign ones seem to spent a lot of time cracking the heads of the citizenry rather than solving crime though. Probably the actual solution rate has been similar for decades but pre PACE they could just fit up some local n'ere-do-well and close it off as solved.

[JBR]

One possible contributary facto could be the number of police officers we have. Police per 100,000 population
England & Wales  212
France 422
Germany 349
Greece 507
Northern Ireland 362
Portugal 446
Scotland 318
Spain 534
Netherlands 295

Source
List of countries and dependencies by number of police officers - Wikipedia

I agree.  Not only are the undermanned, but if and when you actually see one (I haven't for ages), they seem unable to deal with any of our problems.  As has been said, they seem to like tarting up their police cars (and possibly themselves) to support our trendy 'minorities'.

What I'd like to see is the removal of the proportion of our council tax which is said to go to the police, and provide us with the option of contributing to a local independent security force which will actually walk around our areas keeping an eye out for trouble, which the police don't do any more.
I understand that such private security services do not have the power of arrest, but they can detain until the police arrive to arrest them... assuming the police can find time to come out.  

[Alex]

This "salaries have fallen in real terms "  gets me, we could all say that couldn't we ?

[Michael Rolls]

not if you are an MP - they have done rather well!

[klondike]

They have to be compensated for intrusive examination of their expenses these days such as needing the stuff they are claiming for to do their job or producing receipts from somebody other than a friend or relative.

[Michael Rolls]

poor little (well, just as well not on results) darlings

[Michael Rolls]

Another report not showing the police in a good light.

Police drop most complaints of officer violence against women, figures show - BBC News

Oh, that was supposed to be  a link - what have I done wrong?

Another attempt
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64915126

[Diasi]

Another report not showing the police in a good light.

Police drop most complaints of officer violence against women, figures show - BBC News

Oh, that was supposed to be  a link - what have I done wrong?

Another attempt
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64915126

Domestic violence is rife in the police force.

[Alex]

Domestic violence is rife in the police force.

I wonder why that is ?  An old friend of mine suffered for years married to a policeman, it's hard to leave when you have nowhere to go and a couple of kids, you can't exactly go to the police either.  She eventually got out and divorced him.  It was years later that her daughter was able to tell my friend how her father had sexually abused her, so he was a right bad bugger.  It had a 'happy' ending though as he ended up living and dying alone in Thailand .

[Michael Rolls]

good!

[Diasi]

I wonder why that is ?  An old friend of mine suffered for years married to a policeman, it's hard to leave when you have nowhere to go and a couple of kids, you can't exactly go to the police either.  She eventually got out and divorced him.  It was years later that her daughter was able to tell my friend how her father had sexually abused her, so he was a right bad bugger.  It had a 'happy' ending though as he ended up living and dying alone in Thailand .

Indeed, Thailand seems to be the place for happy endings.

But I have a friend who had some poor childhood / teenage experiences, not sexual but bordering on violent, from a police officer parent.