Sergeant Simon.

I have never read any of Sgt Simon's postings and must regrettably say I have been lax.

I have just read his profile and thi sums it all up nicely I think. I really couldn't have worded it better.

A police sergeant on a response team in the outskirts of a major UK city. Response teams are the only people in the police who don’t have a remit, who have to deal with everything. We are the whipping boys and girls who work all hours with all sorts of targets and guidelines issued by office living senior management who, from my point of view, sometimes seem to have forgotten most of the realities of the 24hr response jockey. I work on the starfish principle in policing. For those who don’t know that story, its the boy walking on a beach where a storm tide has washed up thousands of starfish, which are slowly dying. As he walks, he picks up one starfish after another and throws it back to the water. A man sees this and asks why does he bother, as he could never make a difference to all the thousands stranded. The boy doesn’t break stride as he picks up another and throws it back. “It made a difference to that one”, he replied. Thats the way I work. I know I’ll never make a difference on a grand scale, but I’ll make a difference to an individual by doing each job properly each time it comes round, whether or not it complies with what I'm told I must do.

This sums it up nicely, a police officer who still has his own mind, long may we survive.

My social experiment from my last post has concluded and the positive outweighed the negative.

Regards.