But I love him!

When I joined the job my tutor wisely told me that there were three things guaranteed to get you in trouble, all of them starting with 'P'. Paperwork (not managing it), Property (not managing it / updating it) and Police officers (not managing it / sleeping with it). Of these three I have fallen foul of two but am still here to tell the tale. Since the introduction of our domestic violence policy there is now a fourth P. This stands for Positive Action (not taking it).
Domestics are, like it or not, bread and butter policing. If standing in between two warring, drunk people listening to allegations from both sides whilst little Johnny tearfully looks on is not your bag, then I sincerely advise you not to take up a career as a police officer. There is an expectation that a phone call to the police is all it takes to resolve problems with relationships in minutes that have taken years to break down. Thankfully the vast majority of domestics fall into the 'verbal argument - no offences' category, but some become violent from pushing and shoving to full blown ABH assaults or sometimes even worse. For this reason, dear reader, we and the other 42 police forces in the UK have a policy that in some form or another insists on 'positive action'. So what is it? Loosely speaking it's a policy that insists that where offences are evident OR alleged then the attending officers MUST take some kind of action that will involve arresting either (sometimes both) party and bringing them to justice. This is despite the aggrieved party refusing to assist police by giving a statement or assisting with a prosecution. If an offence is disclosed the officer is duty bound to feel someone's collar. Now I get this, it's to protect those who do not have the courage or capacity to give evidence. I'm all for it and it's there to protect those who cannot or will not use their voice.

But. Yes there is a but. We know it, the job knows it, CPS know it and worst of all many of our aggrieved know it. The very worst thing about having this policy is that one of the two warring drunks has to maliciously say 'he pushed me' and the alleged assailant is unceremoniously brought into custody, without any thought for evidence. Chances of getting a statement are slim, if you do the chances of it being 'withdrawn' later are great. The suspect is interviewed, he denies it, the offence NFA by CPS or someone wearing fancier epaulettes than you. The suspect is freed, back to the insanity of their drink / drug fuelled relationship.
Now I like arresting people who assault their partners. Nobody should be allowed to get away with it and the positive action policy is in place to deal with the shortcomings of evidence. I have been to many jobs where I've only got to see a slight bruising on a tear stained cheek to know that matey is coming in for a chat. What I have a big problem is those individuals who know the system, know that we will shout 'how high' when they ask us to jump for them by making spurious allegations I have a bigger problem when there are 6 officers on duty to police a town of 60,000 and my time is taken up nicking someone who doesn't need nicking, completing domestic violence forms and chasing the 'victim' for a statement. No doubt there are other people out there who need my attendance more. The problem is that I don't want to lose my pension if the very worst happens, so a lot of dots are dotted and t's crossed just to cover my back.



-- Post From My iPhone