MET Police

wannabecyclist

So I have had another career option fly up for me. I was set on going ahead with a new job but after applying for the Met Police a few weeks ago they have invited me to the first stage assessment centre. Obviously a long way to go and I imagine a lot of competition, especially from people who are already serving as Specials/ & PCSO's.

However, assuming I would get in, anyone here a serving Police Officer and shed any light on current working conditions and are they enjoying it? My Father was a Police Officer for the Met for 30 years but as he is passed away and he retired when I was quite young I never really got much feedback from him. My Mother mentioned it was very stressful, you have your buzz from making a difference but ultimately the complaints, abuse and paperwork got too much for him and he retired as soon as he hit his 30 years service.

My other job option will involve shift work but not overnight, it would be more starting at 5/6am and finishing no later than midnight, would full blown overnight shifts get too much as you hit your 40's and 50's, especially with family? Also what is it like working in a station, can it become a bit of a testosterone fest or is it a slightly warmer environment?

arran77

There's a few plod on here who I'm sure can help you better but from people I know who have been in the past (they're older and so retired now) they say that the job changed massively, lots more paperwork, policies to follow, health and safety etc. which detracted from the job they wanted to do.

arthur_scrimshaw

My son has just had a job offer from Sussex Police after two years of trying to get in. He started as a Special in Hampshire, paid for a course which would supposedly fastrack his entry, then there was some recruitment issue in Hampshire so he transferred to Sussex as a Special and has now finally got in. They seem to give the applicants a tough time getting in but this is probably just to weed out the less committed. That said he loves being a Special and is looking forward to being paid for it!

Colinthecop

I joined the Met back in the 80's it was a great job.

Great fun, great pay, great conditions, great job, great people (the ones that stand next to you, not the ones with shiney arses on their trousers from sitting behind a desk).

Now...? Not so much.

I guess it's still good and you do still get a buzz from when it goes well, but the scrutiny you are under is incredible, internally and externally. It's like knowing that making even a simple mistake can get you front page tabloid coverage or the next youtube viral sensation.

Would I join today....? No, probably not.

napoleond

I thought I was well past half way through my service but with new pension changes I need to do an extra 9 years for a lot less. It wouldn't be so bad if it was still the job I joined to do. It isn't. I'd leave in a heartbneat if it weren't for financial commitments.

steve6690

Things are changing for the worse it's true, but I'd still join again. There's too much emphasis on "performance" (box ticking) still, despite the Home Office abolishing targets. I believe the shafting we've taken from this government over the last few years is just the beginning and if they get elected again they will slash budgets to ridiculously low levels, the goal being to run the service down by underfunding it then "rescue" it by using G4S et al to take over certain functions ie privatising parts of policing. But that's just my guess.
You'll probably start on a response shift so your arse will be run ragged but you'll love it. I'm fortunate enough to have worked my way onto a specialist role so I get to do a lot of the exciting stuff. I enjoy my job and consider myself lucky to have it. I just hate all the b*llocks that goes with it sometimes.
I'm not in the Met but I doubt it's much different down there.

gmb

I am in the same boat as NapD. I have too much invested to leave but I would not advise anyone to join in the current conditions. If you had asked me up until maybe three years ago I would have said go for it. The cuts are really biting and expectations from the bosses have risen.

mr_goo

I used to be a Special years ago in the Dorset Police. After a couple of years experience I started applying to be a Regular. I found that being a volunteer police man was no advantage at all. I passed all the medical, assessments and fitness requirements at the Hampshire HQ and was invited to attend interviews for Cheshire Police. Which I failed. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
I left the Specials after 5 years of service, as it was getting ridiculously PC, to the point where nicknames couldn't even be used, nor the telling of jokes. Lest someone is offended.

mr_goo

Seeing as there are a few regulars on here, and apologies for high jacking thread. But need some advice.

There has been a recovery vehicle 'legally abandoned' in our road for 11 weeks now. There are no parking restrictions and a valid tax disc is displayed. It has been reported to Hampshire Police frequently, yet they remain impotent in getting it removed. It is causing a hazard for the poor couple who have the unfortunate pleasure of having it outside their house as they cannot see the road to exit the drive. And the lady opposite had to be taken to hospital in an emergency a couple of weeks back and it caused an obstruction for the ambulance to manoeuvre.
All the Hants Police call centre will reveal is that the owner is based in Bournemouth area which is Dorset Police and therefore not the jurisdiction of Hants to make contact. Me thinks I and others are being fobbed off.

Any chance of one you can PNC a reg number and give me the owners details. Would love to call him and tell him that his lorry is going to be torched unless its removed tout de suite. Which is what I and others in the road feel like doing.

Mikey23

I think that would be serious misconduct ...

Monkeypump

Theoretically, of course, and possibly even hypothetically, I'd bin the idea of any checks and just torch it. Likely the only way to get a response and, ultimately, get rid.

frisbee

Monkeypump wrote:

Theoretically, of course, and possibly even hypothetically, I'd bin the idea of any checks and just torch it. Likely the only way to get a response and, ultimately, get rid.

Or call up and say you thought you saw someone putting a gun in it!

mr_goo

frisbee wrote:

Monkeypump wrote:

Theoretically, of course, and possibly even hypothetically, I'd bin the idea of any checks and just torch it. Likely the only way to get a response and, ultimately, get rid.

Or call up and say you thought you saw someone putting a gun in it!

I was actually thinking of breaking into it and hot wiring it. Then drive into Bournemouth and leave it outside the new police HQ.

Unfortunately I don't know how to hot wire a lorry. Unless its on YouTube.

arran77

Mr Goo wrote:

frisbee wrote:

Monkeypump wrote:

Theoretically, of course, and possibly even hypothetically, I'd bin the idea of any checks and just torch it. Likely the only way to get a response and, ultimately, get rid.

Or call up and say you thought you saw someone putting a gun in it!

I was actually thinking of breaking into it and hot wiring it. Then drive into Bournemouth and leave it outside the new police HQ.

Unfortunately I don't know how to hot wire a lorry. Unless its on YouTube.

Just go and find some of the undesirables you mentioned in your thread the other week, give them a few cans of special brew and I'm sure they'll deal with it for you.

wannabecyclist

What age were you guys when you joined the Police if you don't mind me asking? I don't want to delay it if I do join as I appreciate the pension reduces significantly but may be the Met could be too much of a commute for me.

Colinthecop

19 - which means I become a 'pensioner' at 49 in a couple of years time.

8)

As shite as the Met is, if you're in the South East, it's a no brainer.... Smart people join the Met, get a few years under their belt, a whole wealth of experience that the carrot crunching colleagues will never get, then move outwards and become one of those carrot crunchers. The main difference being, youll have much cooler stories to tell in the canteen about your early days.

wannabecyclist

Yeah I am in Herts so was thinking if I do get in I could move to Derby in a few years as my partners family live there and will mean I can get employment relatively easily. I am 32 so best get my skates on!

Yellow Peril

It will be a life changing experience one way or the other. give it a go, if it doesn't work out then move on to something else.

Pross

This is my daughter's ambition (Met, GMP or similar rather than a provincial force like Gwent). She passes out from police cadets in a couple of weeks and then intends doing either a criminology or specific policing degree while working as a PCSO or Special. She's the only person in her group of friends with a specific career path in mind. She's even decided she wants to specialise working in airports if possible (I'd assumed she's want to join the mounted division given she has been riding horses all her life).

I suspect that like many jobs it seems worse when you are in as the conditions have changed since you chose the career but for people joining fresh they don't know how it was and will probably enjoy it as much as their predecessors did when they first joined. I would have joined myself and applied when I was about 19 but that was back when they had more stringent requirements on height and eyesight (no glasses allowed) and I failed the eyesight requirements.

pliptrot

It seems everyone in the police thinks the police are having a hard time......given their supposed contact with the community this hand-ringing is rather odd, given that most of the spanish practises -which have allowed so many police who still read out loud to do so well- are still in place. Everyone's had a shafting guys, apart from the people the police are employed to protect. Have the police improved since 1984? No, not at all. Are they better paid than then? Yes, they get what constitutes very good pay for very little. Making a difference? Ask the family of Ian Tomlinson.

arran77

Interesting post there pliptrot :shock:

napoleond

People like pliptrot do not. have. a. CLUE.

pliptrot

NapoleonD wrote:

People like pliptrot do not. have. a. CLUE.

Really? then perhaps I should be a police officer. If you are one, you are very well paid for what you do, and are part of an institution that is proven -time and again- to be racist, incompetent, dishonest and indolent. Well done. My opinion? CLUE: if you can read this sentence, you are over-qualified to be in the police force.

napoleond

Indeed.
Obvious trolling.

arran77

pliptrot wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

People like pliptrot do not. have. a. CLUE.

Really? then perhaps I should be a police officer. If you are one, you are very well paid for what you do, and are part of an institution that is proven -time and again- to be racist, incompetent, dishonest and indolent. Well done. My opinion? CLUE: if you can read this sentence, you are over-qualified to be in the police force.

Someone seems to have a little bit on an issue :roll:

wannabecyclist

pliptrot wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

People like pliptrot do not. have. a. CLUE.

Really? then perhaps I should be a police officer. If you are one, you are very well paid for what you do, and are part of an institution that is proven -time and again- to be racist, incompetent, dishonest and indolent. Well done. My opinion? CLUE: if you can read this sentence, you are over-qualified to be in the police force.

I think millions may disagree with you.

http://www.polfed.org/events/police_bra ... _2013.aspx

Pross

pliptrot wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

People like pliptrot do not. have. a. CLUE.

Really? then perhaps I should be a police officer. If you are one, you are very well paid for what you do, and are part of an institution that is proven -time and again- to be racist, incompetent, dishonest and indolent. Well done. My opinion? CLUE: if you can read this sentence, you are over-qualified to be in the police force.

I'm obviously ideal police material then as I'm having a huge problem making sense of any of the sentences you have written. They appear to be making unusual use of the things such as punctuation and syntax that make a sentence comprehensible.

Peddle Up!

NapoleonD wrote:

I thought I was well past half way through my service but with new pension changes I need to do an extra 9 years for a lot less. It wouldn't be so bad if it was still the job I joined to do. It isn't. I'd leave in a heartbneat if it weren't for financial commitments.

It would be interesting to hear what's changed Nap, if you're minded to tell us.

napoleond

Mainly massive reduction in numbers. No promotion prospects. Quantity of time spent writing things up.

mamba80

Whatever the defenders of the Police may say, they appear to be in the news for corruption, deaths in custody, falsifying evidence, bullying, sexual harassment, falsifying crime stats, I could go on and name these but we all know what they are.
some of this is from the top down, a few CPO have been suspended or forced to resign, (no doubt with their pensions still intact?) but a lot is from the bobby on the beat (if he/she exists anymore?)

Interesting that a lot of the comments surround what the individual can get out of being in the Police/Met NOT what they can contribute to society.

napoleond

mamba80 wrote:

Interesting that a lot of the comments surround what the individual can get out of being in the Police/Met NOT what they can contribute to society.

Thats because it's a job.