Could not agree more! Tremendous amount of money wasted training, clothing and equipping 2.500 (YES two thousand five hundred) people who lasted a couple of months before they cut and run. Tip of the iceberg! heads need to roll off a few gravy trains and the 'we will not tolerate' brigade need to seriously WAKE UP!!!

Anyone who’s ever done an apprenticeship of any sort will tell you they’re long hours and hard graft so the policing one sounds about right

10-12 weeks in a PTC then 2 years interspersed with a few weeks in the force training dept. End product a fully fledged police constable. 30 years for a full pension and despite the Victorian restrictions on who could benefit a far better deal than the one currently on offer. Now the modernisers have effectively broken the system. A deeply flawed training programme which listening to some who have been through it sounds like they want the young officers to work a minimum 40 hours a week then put in another 20 or so to complete the course work. All to get a degree in policing which after 3 years means they will be swanning off into another job with a cracking CV no student debt and a fully paid degree. Sadly it would appear the drop out rate which across the board averages out a 9% shows that the system can not even retain these officers for the 3 years required to get the degree. So if they are burning out these people within 3 years what chance has the job of keeping people for the full 35 years. The cost will be an increasingly immature police force with little or no practical experience left on the street. This is a recipe for an unmitigated disaster. But will CoP and the rest of the supporters of this current system admit they have got it wrong?

There's loads and loads of reasons why this is happening. For me I feel I can sum it up in two sentences... the do-gooding woke brigade and the scrutineers have turned the job mega crap! And it's hard to retain staff in a mega crap role!

It all started to fall apart when RTC were closed and training went in the house gave those with no idea ie senior officers chance to meddle the system worked just needed brining up to date but no CoP got involved you know those who have no grasp on demands of day to day policing so invented a new system that would look good on their CVs flawed recruitment and training protected study days ignored and to many chasing a degree with no idea what is involved in modern day policing it was never going to work those experienced officers are sick of picking up the pieces and looking to leave asap

For decades police training was tailor made for policing, it was very clear what kind of organisation or institution you had joined, it was made very clear what was expected of you and from you. It was also made very clear what you could expect. Everything, every change brought about by Cameron, May, Herbert and Winsor has been about political control, influence and ideology. There aware less police officers, less police stations, poorer terms and conditions, poor retention, poor operational standards, poor supervision, poor leadership, legislation and policy. Diversity is not the key to good policing, political interference, correctness and control has caused irreparable damage. PS ….. if press reports are to be believed, who the hell thought it was acceptable to search a 14 year old female without an appt adult being present.

The retention fallout suggests to me that these recruits have made a poor career choice and are cutting their loses….. some of these people have been sold a false prospectus, the joined the police with little or no proper understanding of what the job in its truest form involves……

It isn't just Constable ranks where there are issues with retention. At Sergeant rank it is becoming impossible to fill with good quality people who want to hang around on the front line. The pressure put on the sergeants by this unworkable degree system is outrageous. Sergeants having to put the wheel back on constantly due to the number of inexperienced Constables. The ones that do complete their probation sail off into the sunset into an investigation role or some other Monday to Friday job leaving the very few that are left to try and keep things going. The end result... no one wants to be on response which ironically used to be the best part of the police. It just seems a lot of the new cops don't want to do the tough parts of the job. A colleague was telling me about one of their cops who refused point blank to go to a sudden death as they "didn't join the police to do that". Their weak spineless sergeant just gave the job to someone else! Unreal.

Retention issues also relate to this notion of police now students etc - only recruiting people from universities scheme - most without life experience / people skills in a role which goes beyond their heads and they quit. Students come in refusing to Do jobs, shift work and then some had their parents make a complaint that their child was off late for work and hadn’t mealed! This was a genuine complaint! We bypass the segment of society because we over emphasises the need for them to go to uni and not realising the skills and experience out there the police force miss out on! The new recruitment scheme is shambles as is the process to get sergeants in. The exams are ridiculous ! There maybe people who are good at the exam type Situations who easily pass but have no leadership skills or experience or just can’t perform and the good ones out there struggle with exam scenarios but are brilliant officers, leaders and know their job and how to it! Too many people going for promo with less than two Years in and don’t even have the skills / abilities needed. The whole thing is shambles … lot of experiences officers leaving because of the mess it’s in. College of policing need to have a rethink about what it’s doin! Even the criteria set to get into roles is outdated because it misses out on the diversity out there… each person has their own quality and skill set but if they don’t meet a criteria eg not a brilliant runner etc they won’t make the role! A skinny runner won’t be able To disarm or fight an armed violent unit like an officer who is built / stringer but not a size zero! It can’t even e corporate a diverse force! Look at uk cop humour a police officer commenting on sgts exams which was racist! You won’t attract people With that mindset! But hey Ho he’s a Runner , done the direct entry / police now Scheme! Yaay! Not!

Retention issues also relate to this notion of police now students etc - only recruiting people from universities scheme - most without life experience / people skills in a role which goes beyond their heads and they quit. Students come in refusing to Do jobs, shift work and then some had their parents make a complaint that their child was off late for work and hadn’t mealed! This was a genuine complaint! We bypass the segment of society because we over emphasises the need for them to go to uni and not realising the skills and experience out there the police force miss out on! The new recruitment scheme is shambles as is the process to get sergeants in. The exams are ridiculous ! There maybe people who are good at the exam type Situations who easily pass but have no leadership skills or experience or just can’t perform and the good ones out there struggle with exam scenarios but are brilliant officers, leaders and know their job and how to it! Too many people going for promo with less than two Years in and don’t even have the skills / abilities needed. The whole thing is shambles … lot of experiences officers leaving because of the mess it’s in. College of policing need to have a rethink about what it’s doin! Even the criteria set to get into roles is outdated because it misses out on the diversity out there… each person has their own quality and skill set but if they don’t meet a criteria eg not a brilliant runner etc they won’t make the role! A skinny runner won’t be able To disarm or fight an armed violent unit like an officer who is built / stringer but not a size zero! It can’t even e corporate a diverse force! Look at uk cop humour a police officer commenting on sgts exams which was racist! You won’t attract people With that mindset! But hey Ho he’s a Runner , done the direct entry / police now Scheme! Yaay! Not!

"woke brigade" Woke definition - alert to injustice in society, especially racism Isn't that part of a police officer's job?