Well, in two weeks I will no longer be a cop… as I walked along the beach t’other day looking for fossils, I reflected on that very thought.
I spoke to a couple of people and they often ask “what do you do?” I give them my cover story that I am a paleontologist… and I realised that I didn’t care I wasn’t a copper any more… all those years gone…for a very ungrateful group of people…
The scary thing is I know I won’t miss it because I don’t miss it now…
Reading the papers doesn’t help…when you see the utter contempt this “government” holds for the police it sickens me… I know teaching isn’t much better but the hours are so much better…
It can’t come soon enough…
Shijuro (nearer Go-juro though...) is not georgedixon's relatively honest Blog 
XX The scary thing is I know I won’t miss it because I don’t miss it now…XX
Youm will. I do.
Little things, like a group of rowdy teenagers, all of a sudden, you have no warrant card…..
It WILL get to you.
The phrase “once a copper always a copper” is as true as…. na, I am not religious, so as true as granit is stone.
I am now on the verge. I did GB civy and military police, then German military police (reserve). My great Grandfather was a copper, my grandfather, and my “Father” were all police.
It is “in the blood.”
Sorry, but you are infected.
Come back in six months and tell us that you have NEVER missed your warrant. 😉
Maybe…but I know myself…I hate it now…this isn’t the job I joined…I had my mourning years ago…
Spot on
Actually I missed my black rover because without it I had to start paying on the tubes and buses and didn’t have a clue about how to get a ticket. I mean apart from anything else you actually have to queue with the great unwashed. Best advice and I still have mine 8 yrs on is to get a wallet the same size as a warrant card, 30 years of making sure it is in your pocket and not losing 3 days pay takes a while to wear off. What galls me now is that I am proud to tell people that I was a policeman, the trouble is that the image has been tarnished by people who not even fit to wear the uniform.
“Come back in six”
Sorry, I forgot myself, off COURSE you are ALLWAYS welcome here! 😉 😉 🙂
I will now go away and slap myself profuisely.
Lol..it’s my page!
Ha ha I think he meant Germany 😉
If he is in charge of German Immigration I won’t bother. All that double crossing and poor spelling.
Yeah, like we all speak German.
XX 🙂 I find it better to diliniate what I am quoting from my reply.
Just a habit of mine on sites that have no “quote” option.
Murrphy00, That as well. 😉 🙂
Good for you. I envy you so much. I can’t wait to tell the commissioner exactly what I think of his job. Not that they’ll accept that its how most coppers feel.
Good on you Shij and I wish you all the best outside of the job.
I’m in the process of digging my escape tunnel. There was a time I loved the job and couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I’ve worked damn hard over the years and made many sacrifices to my personal life. I’ve helped no end of people and I’ve had some very nasty, vile people put away but all this just seemes worthless to me now. I will continue to work hard because that’s the type of person I am but I will not put my personal and family life on hold for this job. The sooner I get out the better.
I actually thought things couldn’t get worse than when I was in. They are.
Cor!
What is Lance on about?
BE – He’s on about £20k, I think – as a post person.
Plus of course his earnings as an author – say another twenty quid – and a huge ego trip.
:P-)
Does he dig the hole and concrete in the post or was he a person once but not anymore?
I think the latter… he disappeared up his own caricature!
Different if he’d been a Post Captain of course.
Eight years now since I handed in the warrant card. Deeply sad at the time, as I was leaving a job I loved, though a small amount of relief that I was escaping the encroaching political correctness and sterile managerial systems which had made doing my job more difficult. I miss some of the people I worked with, as they were rather more than just work colleagues – knowing they were behind you backing you up in a public order situation, makes them more than just colleagues. I miss the sense of pride of walking down the street in my uniform, medal ribbons on my tunic and the Bone Dome on my head (so handy for hiding a couple of Eccles cakes underneath on the way back to the nick for refs). Like FT suggested, there will be times you’ll appraise a situation and think, “If only…….” but then remember you’re no longer part of the team, and then you’ll miss it. Whatever you do, try not to be a retread, always hanging about the nick or striking up a conversation with uniformed officers you don’t know, simply because they are there. Old colleagues you do meet, greet them warmly, talk about the old days and agree that you were in the Job during its best years. Reunions are good, as is subscribing to the Force magazine – if only to reassure yourself that the job has gone to pot since you left. Enjoy your retirement, you’ve earned it, and always be proud of the fact that you were a Copper.
Not a chance… I hate the job now…so much that I’ve left it with two years to go…it’s financial suicide-yes…but my mental health it’s more important than money…
I will be home 5 days out of every 7…another very important factor… the police have given me nothing but trouble: an ulcer, a damaged shoulder, depression and stress to the point of making me ill… so I won’t be sad to go…I’ll miss some of the people…
Spare a thought for those of us who now have to pound the beat and suffer similarly until we’re 60 to get a much diluted pension. It’ll hardly ever happen, which is what Cameron wanted of course.
TJF has never been truer.
I do…you deserve more…
Good luck to you though, sincerely. And sorry you’ve had to make the decision to leave your once beloved vocation so near to your pensionable date. I think most of us who’ve done a few years fully understand. I’ve no doubt you’ll be missed on team.
I think that it is extremely sad that you, amongst many excellent officers, have reached the point of hating the job you aspired to do – to the best of your ability – and loved (your love for the job as it should be is evident in every post). It is very evident that you care about what you do and are not there just to pick up the paycheque every month.
Maybe its time you went before it irrepably damages you as a person, so I wish you every success in your new life, take your time to adjust to your new expectations and reflect that your contribution made a genuine difference. It isn’t your fault that it has become impossible to do the job in the manner that you know is the best – courtesy of meddling politicians and their acolytes.
I wish you the very best in all that lies ahead of you Shij. It’s tragic that you and other good Officers are leaving or have already left because of a vindictive Government, a spineless ACPO/SMT and an impotent & self serving Federation. Of course the victims in this tragedy are the public and those Officers joining the job who will be denied the benefit of your experience.
All the good wishes in the world for the future!
I have been retired for 13 years now, and have never ever missed the Job. I have missed the camaraderie within the job, and the friends who used to watch my back and who remained when I moved.
[These are still friends, and we meet if we are in each others neck of the woods]
Like you, I was stressed to the max, but managed to hold out for several final years.
I would wish you luck again, but I think your luck is in leaving now, while you can move on and up!
Each one of us thinks of the job using our own time and experience as the standard by which we make that judgement. When I think of the job, I’m back in the fifties and sixties, when you think of it you are in the eighties and nineties. Sit me down with a serving officer now and I would have difficulty understanding what he says. We are all locked in to our own time, but running through all the times is a common thread which you will find impossible to erase.
I wish you well, but come what may you will miss the job as we all do sooner or later.
SP.
I’ve only got two and a bit years left and I’m considering that “financial suicide” might just be worth it. The money’s not the bee all and end all. Yes to go now I’d lose a fair bit of cash (to say the least) but this job’s f*cked me up to such an extent, I cannot imagine another two years of this sh*t. There’s far more to life than this.
It will be interesting to see what you think or feel one or two years on. There will be things you miss – the teamwork, the elation of a good result, being part of a disciplined outfit (once you get rid of the management – nights were always best!), making decisions that really count, court warfare – I loved trashing barristers. But it all costs – I went when you could still get a sick pension. I was close to thirty but it didn’t matter. If I had stayed, some prisoner was going to hospital and I was going to jail. Leaving early cost me about 80k in lost earnings/pension but I’m happy enough and I am nearly sane. Who knows; a few more years and I might actually turn into a human being but I doubt it. As one of the earlier posts has said; ‘It’s in the blood’ and you can never really be free. I wish you all the very best in your new life and when you look back, remember the good that you did.
It is in the blood but you have to break free, I know a guy who hasn’t and he is an awful bore. I admire the police officers who do the job by that I mean in the main PCs up to Inspector. If I see guys out on the beat I always stop and talk to them and where possible I say hello to them at court. I have been out for 8 yrs and as SP so rightly says, I have passed my sell by date in terms of understanding what the job has become.
Nah you’d both be fine. It’s same sh!t different sh!t management.
So no change there then
Incidentally I fancied a change
The Oracle reports that one in two PC’s want to leave the Service, based on a poll of 809 Officers. The Tories cunning plan is coming to fruition. My advice is if you don’t have a trade, learn one, and if its financially viable, move on; your health will thank you, as will your loved ones. I left and did a law degree & went on to become a Barrister. Not bad for a lad from a a council estate! The point I make to you is that if I can do it, there’s no reason why you can’t. I’ve met very few Officers who couldn’t make a success of whatever profession they chose. Shij has the right idea & its testimony to how bad things are in that he’s leaving not too far from from his 30 years.
Very good advice Doxon. I am in the process of getting called myself.
Thank you & Congratulations BE.
Without breaching anonymity are you able to reveal which Inn you are with?
The best I can do is North of the Watford Gap. I’m with a very old and established Chambers with 4 QC’s. You will find out, as I quickly did, that you learn so much from working in Chambers. Whilst I don’t subscribe to the oft repeated claim that SA’s ruin the junior bar by taking work that was traditionally theirs, I have a feeling that once you are called you will notice a marked improvement in how you are perceived in the higher courts.
Well I should have followed my ambition and gone straight to the bar upon retirement but I was offered a training contract and it seemed churlish to say no. It has worked out well and I have done a wide variety of trials but now everyone and his uncle is appearing at CC. Some with wigs others not. I mean in theory you could be doing a CC trial before you have even cut your teeth in the Mags Ct.
XX Well I should have followed my ambition and gone straight to the bar upon retirement XX
Youre going to the bar, mines a half liter Lambs navy, with a half pint of cider chaser!
Sorry Doxon, I am trying to reply to XBut typically, the one I want to reply to has no “reply button.” Brief Encounter | August 21, 2013 at 3:33 pm |
GL shij.
Guess I’ll have to goto the police equivalent of alcoholics anonymous so stay sane for next few years.
Must keep smiling though………….
Could you not have ground out the last few on a part time basis.I dropped hrs 3yrs ago.
Part time coppers? I thought they were called “Specials”???
incidentally im off nxt year when im 50 with 25 in.Cant wait.Best of luck to you my friend