Having recently (and briefly) served as a frontline police officer in the Met I have experience of the inner workings of this organisation. Having chosen to leave the organisation in Feb 2022 before it swallowed me up I am not bound by any loyalties. I hope very much to be part of the solution, that’s my intention in writing. I am not compromised in any way other than the worry that writing openly and honestly will prohibit me from gaining work within this sector in the future. But if it does, it’s not a sector I wish to be a part of. The following is a brief insight into my experience of working here and in this particular blog I will focus on the phrase “it’s a disciplined service” – something that is repeatedly trotted out by senior leadership and a phrase I view as a serious barrier to cultural progression.

I joined the Metropolitan Police in March 2021 after a lengthy two year wait. Due to not having a degree (though I do have 16 years worth of experience in community and domestic abuse work including 3 years as a Police Community Support Officer in Sussex) I was “encouraged” by the recruitment team to take the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship route as they didn’t know when another route would be available. This was a tough decision as I had done reasonably well in community work but wanted to take everything I had learned into the Met so I agreed. This route has a lower starting wage and longer probation period than somebody who has a degree in, say, musical theatre. So that’s the value that is placed on relevant experience. Even prior to starting there were warning signs but here are a couple of observations relevant to this blog.

On Day 2 we were on a Microsoft Teams call (due to the pandemic). This was an induction week, learning about the organisation and different departments. A register was taken but there were some technical issues so people didn’t answer to their names immediately. This prompted a long serving PC to say “if you don’t answer f**king smartish I’ll be arranging for your door to get smashed in by a local unit. You all need to wake up.” He was coming out of the computer audio, the kids were home as it was the holidays but….it’s a disciplined service. I raised this with a senior officer the day after to be told that he had just explained his point incorrectly and was saying it was a welfare issue and they need to be sure people are still on the call. It proved to be a regular feature of his communication style. This guy just got a promotion.

I should mention that you don’t know where you are going to be posted prior to handing in your notice at your previous job. It’s a risk – you submit your preferred areas but there aren’t guarantees . After spending many days in London infront of powerpoint presentations where you learn some legislation and the basics of policing – you begin street duties. This is on the job work where you patrol the streets with a tutor and meet certain criteria to see if you are competent. Mine happened to be in an area that was tricky to get to from my home address. But like one sergeant said “the Met is not responsible for where you live”. I could write a whole blog unpicking that waste of words as the Met knows where you live prior to joining but I will resist.

The 7am start time – which I had been informed was the start time by recruitment – turned out not to be the start time. A sergeant informed us that you had to arrive at 6:45am. You don’t get paid for this by the way. This additional 15 minutes apparently prepares you for what life will be like when you are a response officer and you need to be at work, ready to go, 15 minutes before you start, again unpaid. Without boring you, my earliest train and bus connection meant that the bus left at the exact same time as the train got in. It was more realistic and less stressful for me to get the next bus that would get me in for 6:50, ready for 7 (the time I was getting paid to start). I explained this to the sergeant via an email. I received a reply which said no, its non-negotiable – you get there at 6:45am. Consequently one morning I was sprinting up the train platform to catch the bus, turned a corner and knocked another anxious runner straight onto the floor. A moment of reflection then. Why? Why am I doing this? Why am I smacking head first into another panicky commuter? When I did get there on time, we sat, we waited and we sat some more. Often nothing happened until tutors were ready and vehicles had been sourced. The person that showed me zero flexibility with my transport issue just qualified for promotion and appeared in a congratulatory email.

Prior to joining you understand that you are signing up for an emergency service and that if there is a “policing reason” you may need to be flexible. This is often said in the same breath as explaining why you need to do something arbitrary. A policing reason could be the tram disaster, an act of terrorism, staying late due to an arrest as examples. The above example of a 6:45am start time does not qualify as this. Infact, none of the demands I experienced ever really did qualify as this. But, that’s ok, its a disciplined service.

Before this e-mail seems too personal, too gripey I want to highlight that other colleagues of mine have experienced similar circumstances. These are not isolated incidents.

Whilst still in street duties I left my kit belt in the office. I had sat all day in the office due to a lack of tutors and was just zoned out by the intensity of sitting at a computer screen all day. (The only one in the office by the way). Two days later when I returned a tutor asked the group “who left their kit belt in the office?”. After some confusion, it turned out it was me. A mistake. An honest mistake as I shared a locker with someone else and saw theirs. Of course, you need to look after your kit belt, I get that. Fast forward half an hour and I am being forced to play battleships with the squared tile ceiling to locate the belt that tutors had put in the ceiling – infront of the rest of the group. Fast forward another 5 minutes and a PC (my equivalent) who I had never seen before but had wandered in and felt it necessary to point at me and say repeatedly “go to the caretakers office and get a f**king ladder” which I refused to do. My dignity is important to me. There was no follow up from seniors about this and it was only on my last day when I raised it in a meeting that I was told it would “be addressed”. Look, readers, let me be clear – it’s a disciplined service ok? This approach to discipline is standard faire right?

On one occasion we had a shift changed with two days notice and were told it was our fault it had caught us by surprise because we hadn’t checked our rotas. This was said infront of the whiteboard which still had the original shift on! When you have two children and need to book childcare a month in advance, does this help? Still in street duties by the way. No policing reason that I could see. I believe there was a wedding that some of the team wanted to attend. I’m not sure if I’ve said but it’s a….ahhh you get the idea.

Now, that is a fraction of what I have seen in my short time in the Met. These are very specific examples that happened to me and that I can 100% own. Having spent time in the charity sector, working for local councils and even another police force I have never experienced this attitude before. IT IS NOT NORMAL. So here, we hit problem number one. For those that have spent their entire careers in this police force there is a danger that you lose track of what normal is. Every sector is different of course and as some have said – the Met is a different beast. But in a good way? There’s quite a lot of evidence now that suggests not.

Let’s address one argument in defence of this approach – it builds resilience. What’s your definition of resilience? I’ve spent 8 hours with a dead child lying beside me, been at a stabbing, sudden death, mental health break down etc. This is the job. You know that this will be the case going in. I also have years of experience behind me working with trauma. This is the resilience you need in this line of work. In your early days in the police there is no choice about what you experience. You will attend it and you will need to find a way to cope with it. There are blue light champions who are internal staff with additional training in listening and supporting their colleagues. If you experience something particularly traumatic there can be additional support put in place. It felt as though the Met had some awareness of this. What you don’t know going in is the culture – other than what you hear and read which isn’t overly positive.

What the police should be – in my humble opinion – is a professional, uniformed and emergency service. These should be the words highlighted by senior leadership – not disciplined which has no set definition and is used as a way to remind you that you need to do as your told, shout at you and not question your seniors or, as one senior said – your superiors. Let’s define those three words:

Professional – Be in on time, be courteous and respectful, honest, have integrity, diligent, hard working, caring for your colleagues and the public. All traits that are quoted in the college of policing’s very own code of ethics. It’s here, check it out if you fancy https://www.college.police.uk/ethics/code-of-ethics Standard ways of behaving appropriately.

Uniformed – Have an awareness that how you look makes an impression on some. Its not the be all and end all in my opinion, although the endless e-mails from senior management could make you think otherwise. You would turn up smartly for a banking job or if you’re a waitress so do the same in this role.

Emergency – You will see some terrible things, meet people who are lost and are a risk to others. You will save some people’s lives, others won’t make it. You will arrest some worrying individuals. You are the first port of call for people in extreme distress. Sometimes you will get off late. Sometimes, in extreme circumstances you may be called in off rest days to support colleagues in dealing with major incidents. (the latter never happened to me)

Let’s define disciplined – in a major emergency, senior leadership will take the lead and you need to follow orders, kind of like if you work in any other sector and your manager tells you you need to do something. Only in the police you shouldn’t be questioning the decisions in these specific circumstances and they may not have the time to explain their rationale. Fine.

My experience of the use of the word disciplined though, and the experience of many other officer’s is that this word is used to remind you that the police owns you. You will do as your told and they can treat you as they wish. Oh and polish your shoes and tuck in your shirt in whilst I’m lambasting you. Not resilient enough? Then leave. You will have shifts changed at short notice due to “aid requirements” meaning another unit is short staffed and you are being moved. Deal with it.

What is the knock on effect of this? Well, it starts to erode your sense that you are an individual with legitimate concerns that are worth caring about. I don’t care about your IT technical difficulties, your transport issues, the fact you have children for example. It also inhibits people to challenge hierarchy. It promotes a culture of fear of speaking out, concerned you may get shouted down or worse. For those that do speak out many are so fatigued believing that they won’t be listened to anyway so – what is the point? And, as you go up the chain are senior leadership really challenging each other? The wage is very good as you go up the ranks. When does self preservation become a factor? Why rock the boat when you have secured such a decent pension and salary?

I have also had to listen to an obsession, an OBSESSION, from new colleagues who don’t want to wear the wrong thing and get a telling off. Are white trainers ok for a officer safety days? Should I wear a tie to uni? But not ask once, ask numerous times. Why is this the overwhelming anxiety? It certainly seems to be. Surely how you interact with the public and record enquiries and actions should supersede this?

The college of policing is attempting to promote the need to use rationale, reasoning around why decisions are made and to articulate yourself clearly. One day, this will catch on and when it does there will be many positive consequences for the police. And there are infact many officers that are professional, do stand by the code of ethics, who I would want to support my family if we were affected by some tragedy. Not all, but many.

My number one tip, stop repeating the well worn line that the police is a disciplined service as a poor, infantile control mechanism. It has no definition and gets bastardised by various people. Focus on professionalism and use your own college of policing standards as a bar. If there are issues with professionalism deal with it 1:1 via development plans as appropriate. Group tellings off do not work. If they do then show me the evidence. They promote an atmosphere of “get your head down, shut up and get on with it” rather than healthy challenge and increased understanding. There is no focus on management styles or even what good management of staff looks like within the promotion process. Arrogance permeates through the force and lines such “it’s a disciplined service” allow people to feed their sense of arrogance and entitlement with no reflection or concern.

I hope that helps, I’m off to find my pasta which my partner’s hidden under the floor boards.