Memory is the guardian of everything – Inspector Gadget
Posted by nakedcop on February 7, 2007
Copyright © Inspector Gadget - View this article and others HERE
First published Monday 22nd January 2007:
Memory Is The Guardian Of Everything
Question for you:
You are a Chief Inspector, and you attend the parade at the start of a shift (which is rare for you to do). During that parade you hear for the first time that one of the Constables present has been awarded a nationaly recognised gallantry award. This is a huge achievement for the officer and the Force.After the parade, would you;
a) Take the officer aside and congratulate him personally?
b) Ignore the whole issue?
c) Send an angry email to his Inspector complaining that some of the other officers were dressed incorrectly during the parade, and that the Sergeant did not conduct the parade in what you regard as a correct manner, making no mention of the bravery award?
The Chief Inspector at F Division chose c) as the answer.
Note to self; Personal ambition is all very well – but let’s not forget the context within which we serve, and get so obsessed by the ‘points’ to be earned by highlighting uniform standards and crime statistics that we cannot see the imense damage we have just done to morale. In the final analysis, noone will remember the Sanction Detected rate on that day, noone will remember if a Constable failed to iron his shirt – but they will remember this crass stupidity and lack of imagination forever.
I’m embarrassed to wear pips this week. I’ve seen some poor leadership in my time, even in war, but this is the bottom of the barrel.
I’ve given up saying ‘you couldn’t make this up’.
