[This post was not written by PC Fuzz, but has been re-posted on various sites including that of PC Fuzz]
Dear Mr Cameron,
Yesterday I was called out to an incident where an 80 year old man had fallen out of his bath seat and landed in the bath upside down. He was trapped and screaming for help with his legs trapped in the bath seat.
His neighbours heard him screaming and called 999. The doors and windows were locked and he was screaming in agony. I arrived, broke the door down and went into the bathroom to find a very scared elderly male laying naked, freezing cold trapped in his bath by a disability aid that was supposed to help him. He took one look at me and began to cry with relief.
We are so short of officers and resources on every shift that we are stretched to breaking point and already we are forced into saying no to some jobs that used to be graded prompt… such as this. At some point very soon we will be dealing with CRIME ONLY because 1) we are being told to keep the figures up and 2) we haven’t got the resources to deal with anything more.
There are serious arguments going on over the radio between control room staff and officers on the ground regularly because they have statistics to meet, and we aren’t dealing with incidents we attend quickly enough. We are all stressed and biting at each other, when we used to work as a team. Stress = mistakes and mistakes in this job costs lives.
What’s going to happen to the old man in future? Whilst dealing with this man, wrapping him in a dressing gown, my radio goes off again. A 16 year old girl – suicide attempt- stood on a bridge on the M25.
No other units available. None! I’m not trained to talk down a suicidal teen! But there is no one. All tucked up far away on other jobs. It’s a good job I don’t need immediate assistance with a male trying to break the bedroom door down and knife his wife, like the previous evening, when I was once again single crewed.
What do you want me to do? Stay with the man who’s still shaking in shock? Go to the girl who’s just about to jump onto a busy motorway or do we not attend these jobs and just deal with crime? Like the man trying to kill his wife …… On my own with no back up!
I’ve just got home and I’m sitting here wondering if I can handle this anymore; is it worth me getting hurt? I have 2 young disabled children. What would happen to them? I’m a single mum, with childcare fees and with the cost of living so high I’d be better off on benefits.
Being a police officer is firstly about saving life and limb and not statistics, not saving money and certainly not votes. We are stretched to the point that it is now dangerous. Your cuts are putting my life at risk and that of the public. You have just destroyed my pension and frozen my wages.
All these things are going through my mind all the time, morale at work is at rock bottom. All police officers are feeling like this at the moment but we are all holding on in hope you will realise what a mistake you have made.
Surely you will see sense before it’s too late? This isn’t just whinging because we don’t like cuts…. this is a genuinely dangerous situation. Would you like me to wear a body camera for a week? Will you watch what’s really happening on the frontline and what police officers face on a daily basis?
Mr Cameron, you tell me why I should stay in my job?
Via PC Fuzz
[...] an anonymous police officer expressed the feelings of many at the frontline when he wrote an open letter to the Prime Minister (re-posted on PC [...]