“Can Do!”
I was listening to the radio this week & Colonel Bob Stewart was on air discussing the current favourite of the red tops, the government’s betrayal of the armed forces by not providing the right kit. He said something which I thought was quite apt to the current betrayel of the government & senior officers of the police.
He said the problem with the armed forces was that they have a ‘can do’ attitude. Rather than being honest & upfront about their capabilities, when asked to do something, the Army always say, "sure, can do". They then go to war with the wrong kit, the wrong about of troops, the wrong policies because nobody has the balls to say "wait a minute, you can’t expect us t do that with this."
We do that all the time in the police. The government want to bring in a new law for us to enforce we say "sure, can do". They chiefs take away officers from the street but still expect us to deal with everything without making mistakes and making sure all targets are fulfilled we say, "sure, can do".
They take staff away from our shift and then give us even more work to do on top of the stuff we were doing before we say, "sure, can do".
Because we keep saying "can do" the decision makers see that whatever they do gets done so they can lop a few more staff off the list, take a bit more cash off the budget, accept a few more special operations or target fullfillment. All because nobody has the balls to stand up and say, "No, bollocks, we ain’t doing that until it’s resourced & managed properly."
Everyone suffers, the staff & the public.
Emily says:
Unfortunately so very true.
March 12th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Civ_In_The_City says:
True. Your previous posts have demonstrated the results of having a ‘can do’ attitude (or a JFDI attitude*) and the pressures that can be placed on staff because of it.
No Chief Constable wants to be seen rocking the gravy boat.
An example of mad logic recently:
Some bright spark suggested the other day that Formula 1 would be more exciting if they put the fastest cars at the back of the grid. How would YOU drive the qualifying laps if you wanted to be on pole position for the race?
A seemingly good idea on the surface completely fails to pass a reality check.
Sometimes you investigate a problem thoroughly and reach conclusions seemingly opposite to initial expectations. But in policing the concept of sanity checking ideas has gone awol.
Chief Constables want to be seen as ‘can do’ people, and have convinced themselves (or been convinced) that if they and the senior officers are managing things properly they can always have the right people in the right place at the right time. There is an outright refusal to acknowledge that sometimes demands outstrips supply.
The idea that ‘on paper’ a shift has 6 PC`s, 2 Sgts and an Inspector, while in reality the Inspector is on secondment to NPIA, 1 Sgt is on a fortnights leave in Dubai, 1 PC`s is on long term sickness, 1 is on a community relations task-force, 2 are waiting outside a courtroom somwhere, 1 has done a bunk to Barry Island for a laugh and there is actually 1 PC and his/her Sgt actually on duty.
Why does anyone allow the ‘on paper’ version to count?
Why does the police service allow the Government to declare that extended opening hours has been a great success?
Because of a ‘can do’ attitude. No matter what they throw at the police service it`s expected to cope.
If it was down to me I`d tell Gordon what he ‘can do’.
*(JFDI = Just Flippin’ Do It)
March 12th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
200 says:
Civ
Brilliant comment!! Thanks very much
March 12th, 2008 at 11:32 pm