Monday, May 22, 2006

Lovely AOL!... and Specials.

Sorry it's been a while since I last posted, it appears AOL have cancelled my account, they advised I rang them up and asked to cancel it... now last time I remember I never made such a call! So they say we are sorry, and it will take 2 weeks to reconnect the broadband. So i am having to do this from work. Anyway...
I have not mentioned this in the past, but i'm also a Special Constable. I have just finished my training and will be carrying out my first shift on Sunday.
When i'm dispatching it's great having Specials on duty as an extra resource. When my officers are run ragged with usual crap jobs and you get enthusiastic Specials shouting up to go to others jobs it's a massive weight lifted of their shoulders.
There is one specifically who is always there to help out, always shouts up for jobs, he is first class.
Now, i have spoken to a few full time Officers about their opinion of Specials. There clearly are two type of Officer out there, one who think specials are great and much help, and others, that think they are a pain in the arse and nothing but a hinderance.
The first type:
These appear to be Officers who genuinely appreciate the help and efforts specials put in, the time they take out of their personal life to help their local community, whethers its on a Friday night dealing with fights, or part of the Beat Team chasing kids around all day. These are usually nice Police Officers, friendly and prepared to help anyone... members of the public and other officers (specials and full time)
The second type:
These, from what it seems have a problem with Specials, they have either had a run in with one, or been in a position where their Special colleague has... let them down to a degree, and since that one thing, they think "all Specials are shite"
The reason I joined was something to do between now/then to joining as a full time officer. In my interview I made it clear that thats what I was doing, and they were fine with it. Other do genuinely want to make a difference to their community... yet there are others... that want "THE POWER"
On my course there were some very strange people from all walks of life, some tall, some fat, some short, some old, some young, some weak, some plain lacking in common sense, and well... looking at them I thought... why?
We all have our reasons, whether they are just applying now, just finished training, or been in 41 years in some cases.
The question is... COULD YOU?
P.S. I found the picture from Google of a Special in South Yorks... I had to laugh at where his strap was...

2 Comments:

Blogger ExtraSpecialCopper said...

yes he appears to be wearing some sort of "lip strap" must be force specific hey!

We have some controllers who are useless when it comes to specials, they forget about us, ignore us, send us to juvinile nuisance jobs up untill 11 then ignore us, when we ask for PNC checks we get told to standby, whilst several other officers are allowed to skip the queue and do theirs.

On the other hand there are some of the controllers who I will do anything for as they are fantastic and let you go to loads of jobs whether it be kids or code ones and in return they get specials calling up more doing more jobs.

The same can be said for regular officers too! There are some who simply see you as a spare part and that you only come in for a friday night until midnight or something and just ignore you and just say "oh them specials" whereas other officers go out of their way to get specials involved and take good care of them (as said in one of my previous blog entrys!)

Anyway good that you have managed to get back on your blog - was time for an update! hehe

23 May 2006 at 09:27  
Blogger DogsBody said...

Good luck with your first duty - hope it's eventful for you :)

I think I fall into the first catagory of regulars that you described, I really enjoy patrolling with the specials at my nick as they are all really keen to get involved

Liked the picture of the special on your post but who wears the strap on their wooden top, let alone in a stupid place like that! :)

23 May 2006 at 16:49  

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