Obituary
It is with sadness & deep regret that I have to annouce the death of a well-respected friend.
‘Sharpie’ passed away with barely a whimper in May 2008. Few will have noticed, even fewer will be concerned. Sharpie came into our lives a mere 3 & a bit years ago & in her short life managed to touch the hearts of practically no-one. She brought joy to literally tens of people, and no more.
I’m talking, of course, of that shining light in the gloomisphere of police publications, ‘The Sharp End‘. The last issue came out this month. After 38 issues - it started in January 2005 - someone has pulled the plug. The magazine itself doesn’t mention why, it just says basically, "so long & thanks for all the fish" (or is that the Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy?).
I’ve mentioned this mag before a couple of times. It seems that I’ve been about the only one discussing it because if you put "sharp end magazine" into Google, you come up with my blog entries third & fourth entries down. I won’t repeat my thoughts on the Sharp End, strap-line, "The Real Life Magazine for Real Life Policing Issues", yeah, right. Unlikely Cop did a reasonable review of it in February 2007. But save to say that it never really captured the attention of those of us in "real life Policing" situations and was basically just another managerial attempt to show how well they are policing the country.
It may be that it was designed to only run for 3 years & 4 months, it may be that the Home Office decided to withdraw funding, or it may be that nobody read it. Whatever the reason it has been withdrawn, I doubt many will be bothered.
Plodnomore says:
Perhaps it’s also a coincidence that it was introduced at roughly the same time as PCSOs. As with that august body, Sharpie was initially funded by the Home Office and then, financially, the plug was pulled. Perhaps the statisticians, crime experts (who have never personally dealt with a crime) and spin doctors, believed that, as with PCSOs, the funds for future editions would come from Police budgets. Personally, I found The Sharp End extremely handy. I wasn’t allowed to apply for a stand for my computer screen but found that, by placing it on 11 stacked copies, it was JUST the correct height for me. So I would like to thank the editors and publishers for producing this rag mag as it certainly changed this officer’s life for the better (alternatively I could have used flattened toilet rolls but they were useful!).
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:21 pm