Friday 26 November 2010
(Rest day)
Today is my last blog and luckily I'm on a rest day. I hope the last two weeks have given an insight into the types of incidents that we deal with on a daily basis.
Hopefully it has also shown that officers have to make decisions for people, and, despite how ridiculous they may appear to the general public, these decisions involve issues that have to be dealt with one way or another. Police officers are the ones who have to take the decisions, justify them and account for them - particularly if something goes wrong.
As many have expressed, we live in a society that leans towards a 'blame and complaint' culture. Everyone looks for someone else to blame. I always maintain that the way you behave towards me, dictates how I deal with you. Behaviour of a type breeds more behaviour in that vein.
No matter what opinion the programme may have given people about the Medway Towns, it's probably no different to any other area. However, when you consider that it's an area of around 100 square miles and an approximate population of 270,000 people, with areas of social depravation (as there are in every town), high unemployment, private and social rented accommodations and clusters of densely populated areas, then you'll realise that problems are going to occur. What was shown in Coppers was a small percentage of the population who we'll come into contact with a large percentage of the time.
I will defend the Medway towns to a degree, as I grew up here and have lived and worked here. It's a great place to work from a policing point of view. The majority of people live happily in Medway and this is how it should be viewed.
I was considering writing a little sonnet, or perhaps plagiarising something from the internet. In the same way Danny Mac demonstrated that, while in his cell with only a pencil and a bible, he managed to create some vile lyrics against being imprisoned for his crimes against society. I don't think I have ever heard 'duff' or 'Kings Cross' in the bible.
Well, armed only with my finger and an Iphone I decided against it for many reasons - the main one being I wouldn't feel comfortable saying 'braaaaaaaaap, braaaaaaap' at the end. I'll leave that to the rappers.
I don't put on a uniform and suddenly become someone else. I have seen things you would never want to see and dealt with things you would never want to witness. I've been in situations that I have felt uncomfortable in, but still have to get on with it. To say that police officers are not affected by these situations is wrong. In the same way that people deal with things that happen to them in life, we have to find ways of dealing with incidents we attend. That goes for all police officers everywhere who put their lives at risk every day to protect their communities they serve.
Finally, I would like to thank Blast Films, in particular Tim, Holly and Shanthy for the production of the film. For making a programme that shows that officers are normal people doing a very difficult job. It's been a great documentary depicting the human aspect of policing.
George Shokar
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