“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.
