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Live chat with senior Met police officer
**helen**
Deactivated Posts: 9,235 Supreme Poster
in General Chat
When: Wednesday 23rd April 7-8pm
Where: http://www.thesite.org/realchat/client/chat.jsp
Commander Rod Jarman will be online between 7-8pm to answer your questions. Rod is a senior officer within the Metropolitan Police Service with specific responsibilities for the eight Boroughs in North West London, Stop and Search, Safer Neighbourhoods to name but a few.
Rod became the Borough Commander in Southwark in 1999. During this time he led the community and long-term response to the murder of Damilola Taylor; a number of multi-agency initiatives tackling hate crime and supporting young people.
If you'd like to ask questions about policing in London, stop and search, or anything else related to Rod's work then join us next wednesday. You can also post questions in this thread if you don't think you'll make it. :thumb:
Where: http://www.thesite.org/realchat/client/chat.jsp
Commander Rod Jarman will be online between 7-8pm to answer your questions. Rod is a senior officer within the Metropolitan Police Service with specific responsibilities for the eight Boroughs in North West London, Stop and Search, Safer Neighbourhoods to name but a few.
Rod became the Borough Commander in Southwark in 1999. During this time he led the community and long-term response to the murder of Damilola Taylor; a number of multi-agency initiatives tackling hate crime and supporting young people.
If you'd like to ask questions about policing in London, stop and search, or anything else related to Rod's work then join us next wednesday. You can also post questions in this thread if you don't think you'll make it. :thumb:
0
Comments
See you there.
Gordon Brown has said cannabis should be class b again ...despite the advice of his own scientific and medical advisers. Since cannabis was reclassified as class c ...the police on the beat have been able to get on with more important things and cannabis use actualy fell ...so all in all the downgrading has proved to be a positive thing ...do you think regrading it to class c will bennefit anyone and if so ...who and how?
Mnay people are growing cannabis for pleasure and for medical use ...not for profit ...how does this harm or threaten society in any way?
Isn't it time that the courts gave out harsher sentences for drink related crime? The violence and vandalism now associated with alcohol surely needs to be tackled with more custodial sentences.
Any chance we could PM across questions if we cant attend?
Kicking off about now i think.
Wednesday 23rd April 7-8pm
it's next week - feel free to send any questions for it by pm or post them here :thumb:
Still won't be on it anyway...
Think the question of cannabis legalisation should be brought up..
What do you think of them ...good idea bad idea?
Many people in my local community ...especialy the old and the vulnerable ...love to see these young people out on the streets in uniform but some people say they are a waste of time.
Would you back getting more of them on the streets ...if not ...why not?
Just the ones you meet...
A lot of PCSO's I know are middle-aged professionals who've traded in their old jobs in buisness to join the police, but in a lighter role.
Here's one that's not too offensive though: are PCs told not to smile or accept hospitality, or do they just act frostily / emotionless with people for some unknown reason. In my experience this is not the case so much with senior police staff who will have a laugh and joke while you give them your statements. Should PCs be told to 'lighten up' with joe public? This may help to polarise them less against local communities where there is a 'them' and 'us' attitude. I think PCSOs may be going some way towards being the friendly face of the police but I have to say I've not come across many, normally they just tell you to stop riding bicycles on pavements or something equally patronising / waste of time...
Come on don't be shy ...he won't send whowhere round with the rubber truncheons.
If I was this guy I would be ashamed to read it and more ashamed to spend an hour chatting to you lot with such little respect shown.
You want PC's e.t.c. to be friendly, and they often are. However it's rare you will see one in a neutral setting, ie walking down the street saying hello to people. Most of the time you will see them actively engaged in policing activity, which will often involve hostility and violence. I'm sorry, but if you want police officers to be polite whilst they're trying to wrestle someone who's just attacked another cop in the street then you need to move to toy-town.
Also, it depends on the area you live. I work in a semi-rural environment, yes I cover a couple of large towns but the vast majority of people accept the police and support us. The situation changes vastly when you get closer to a city.
As for what PCSO's do, the majority of people only know what a PCSO does from what the Daily Mail says, which is a shite paper anyway. We do a lot more than telling people to stop riding bikes on the pavement e.t.c. lol.
In my days on the wrong side of the law i gave a lot of plain clothes coppers hell ...and they still managed ...mostly ...to retain a sense of humour and ...mostly ...stayed within the law themselves ...not something i could do in their position. I'd end up chinin someone to easily.
That was just my experience of them
The big exception was when in York a inspector / detective was asking me about an attempted burglar and he was actually quite 'down to earth' rather than maintaining this air of proximity. I don't know quite how to describe it, maybe you know what I mean though. It's like some doctors, see you as a case number rather than a person.
I've spoken to a few bobbys when they're just chilling and they're friendly enough people, but when they've got the hat on suddenly Mr / Mrs Serious comes out
Luckily I've never been in a situation where PCs have been wrestling me to the ground, I wouldn't expect them to be extremely polite then.
No not at all. I meant my questions weren't going to yield constructive answers, such as 'why are the police round here incompetent'
I fully support the work the police do and understand they have a difficult job and have defended them many times on here against abuse especially after the De Mendez incident (even if it did later turn out that the police acted incorrectly) - I said they have a difficult job with difficult often life or death decisions and joe public (us) probably does not understand the scope of this and so we are not in a fair position to judge their actions.
I hope the comments about disrespect weren't aimed at me, because I did not mean any. My question was sincere though, when police put on their uniform they must enter a second persona; are they encouraged to maintain some kind of social proximity with regards to people on the street, not allowing themselves to integrate to maintain the point that they are professionals there to do a job, 'not your mate' as they might put it.
IF that is the case, do you think it does more harm than good? On the positive side it means people will maintain respect for them as they're not prancing off down the street singing songs - nobody in their right mind feels comfortable poking fun at a PC 'for a laugh'. On the negative side, it further polarises them from the rest of society where people may feel like police aren't 'in touch' with them.
I draw parallels with squaddies in Iraq and Afghanistan who had (are having) to win the battle of the hearts and minds - to varying degrees of success. But we've all seen the pictures and videos from over there of average squaddies saying hello to average Iraqis and trying to build bridges, rather than maintain that separation that in many cases I feel that UK PCs do.
I hope that clarifies my question a bit further.
edit: in some ways, this is linked to the custodial system in that some advocate taking a softer approach of getting convicts into training and jobs, whereas some advocate a more punitive approach to act as a greater deterrant
edit2: if I have come across as disrespectful I apologise, I'm not used to qualifying all my comments on here. I think the service we have here is a hundred times better than in many other countries (though that doesn't mean there's no room for improvement
edit3: another example is teachers in schools. My school let you address teachers by their first name, no uniform, breaking down a lot of formality to create a friendly environment. Some schools decide that it's best to keep a very rigid chain of command so to speak, where you must address teachers by their surnames or sir / miss.
I agree ...and remember i have been seriously on the wrong side of the law. Despite this i think i have always had respect for them ...mostly.
On my criminal record it actualy said ...on my profi;le ...likeable rouge roag ...however you bleedin spell it ...and i was quite proud of that. Once i got into the heroin ...i think that changed to...bastard!
We've got a few old school rogues on my patch, nice guys actually they've always got the time to say hello and are very pro-active when it comes to dealing with their offspring if they get into trouble. But stick some scrap metal in front of them or offer them a deal on a ringed car and they'll snap your hands off lol.
But i do still like a smoook ...