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Thursday, May 11, 2006

Leaving the police deparment soon!

It's official. On June 18th, I leave the force and regain the right and ability to use my own judgement and initiative. The final shift should be a good one too - going out with a bang and all that! I might even reveal which Force I work for and where I work in this blog! Will shut this thing down shortly after.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend that anyone monitoring the slow demise of society in this country as we know it could do far worse than read anything by Theodore Dalrymple on the subject. This is a good example.

I have been reading "Blue Blood", a book by the erudite officer Edward Conlon, of his life and times as a police officer in New York City. Many of the observations about those he encounters, and the nature of the Job, have a haunting ability to mirror those sentiments that myself and many other bloggers express. Here are some choice quotes:

When talking about going through the complaints system and dealing with people, Conlon urges caution because "the Job can turn on a dime from ally to enemy"

"The fact of the matter is that all cops exist in a state of mild infraction ... their shoes aren't shined ... or they stopped to eat or cash a check without putting it over the air ... or they left their hat in the car when they went to a job. It was only recently that I learnt that you can get a Command Discipline for reading the newspaper in a patrol car, an offense for which I'd be serving life without parole if I'd been caught each time I'd committed it".

"No one is completely by-the-book, because our book is the Patrol Guide...self-described as 'flexible', which could be read cynically to mean that even if you followed every step, you could still get jammed up if things didn't work out, because you could have done it differently".

"A lot of our old street antics, the spirited improvisations and crazy chases, seemed needlessly risky for a game that was hardly worth winning."

Is there even any end to the game?

(c) Bow Street Runner. None of the material contained in this post, or this blog as a whole, may be reproduced without the express and written permission of Bow Street Runner. All rights reserved.
Comments:
You're leaving? :o
 
oh no you cant stop the blog . . .although it would be empty! Its one of the good police blogs on the net!

Good luck! :-)
 
Sorry to see you go.. keep the blog tho mate.. !
 
So what are you planning on doing after hanging up your uniform?
 
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