Should police officers swear?

[Lady Whistledown]

You're missing the point about what Collar Feeler is saying.

I rarely swear in the presence of the public, clearly it would compromise my position if I told someone to stop f***ing swearing. That said, there are circumstances when the only way you can get through to someone is to do so in terms that they understand. Asking some pissed up tool for the fourteenth time if he wouldn't mind awfully moving along isn't likely to have any impact, on the other hand if I responded in his sort of manner it does sometimes have the desired effect. In some ways it shocks people into a response.

And spare me the "if we swore we'd be arrested" line: nobody gets arrested for one instance of saying "f***" in the middle of a sentence. To get nicked you'd have to be doing it loudly, repeatedly, in the presence of people who might actually find it offensive, or after already having been warned about your conduct.

We accept that people swear, we all do it, it's only a problem in the context of a particular situation, and if you've been acting like a twunt for half an hour, then yes, shouting f*** off might be the final straw that gets you an £80 fine. But that's all it is. It's hardly the same as a private conversation in which one person uses a profanity or two to another.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

You're missing the point about what Collar Feeler is saying.

I rarely swear in the presence of the public, clearly it would compromise my position if I told someone to stop f***ing swearing. That said, there are circumstances when the only way you can get through to someone is to do so in terms that they understand. Asking some pissed up tool for the fourteenth time if he wouldn't mind awfully moving along isn't likely to have any impact, on the other hand if I responded in his sort of manner it does sometimes have the desired effect. In some ways it shocks people into a response.

And spare me the "if we swore we'd be arrested" line: nobody gets arrested for one instance of saying "f***" in the middle of a sentence. To get nicked you'd have to be doing it loudly, repeatedly, in the presence of people who might actually find it offensive, or after already having been warned about your conduct.

We accept that people swear, we all do it, it's only a problem in the context of a particular situation, and if you've been acting like a twunt for half an hour, then yes, shouting f*** off might be the final straw that gets you an £80 fine. But that's all it is. It's hardly the same as a private conversation in which one person uses a profanity or two to another.

Reminds me of someone I used to work with, who claimed he did this ... it's sounds a bit apocryphal to me, but anyway ..... on getting stopped for speeding and being asked to step out of the car

"Officer - could you arrest me if I thought you were a c*nt ?"
"Er, no sir"
"I think you're a c*nt"

 

[The Grockle]

A close friend got into a punch up with two coppers when we were in our late teens, just before they absolutely battered him with night sticks one of them called him a horrible little c**t.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

"Officer - could you arrest me if I thought you were a c*nt ?"
"Er, no sir"
"I think you're a c*nt"

..and what was the next line?

 

[tonymgc]

Depends on the situation, If there's a nutter swinging a bat at you i can't see a 'Put the bat down please sir' working.

 

[jevs]

..and what was the next line?

"what lane of the A23 would you like to land in sir ?"

 

[Robbie G]

Has this thread got anything to do with the Coppers programme which was on the box last night?

I was amazed how agressive and pumped up the police were.

I know policing a town centre is stressful, so why not recruit calmer people to do the job? Having plod strutting around town with an attitude of 'we say jump' is not healthy.

I thought the complete opposite.

They made a great point that when they were younger they wouldn't even dream of swearing at a police officer; exactly what I was like as a kid. I'd say it's more prominent now of younger people (not all of course!) not to have high respect for the police.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I thought the complete opposite.

They made a great point that when they were younger they wouldn't even dream of swearing at a police officer; exactly what I was like as a kid. I'd say it's more prominent now of younger people (not all of course!) not to have high respect for the police.

I agree about not swearing at a police office. But I found their general demeanor left a lot to be desired. For example, that student at the begining of the programme. Why not ignore him? He was not fighting or being lairy or anything. All he did was mutter 'pigs'. If they react in such an aggressive manner to something like this then what about when the stakes are higher? Why run the risk of escalating the situation?

 

[User removed 4]

I agree about not swearing at a police office. But I found their general demeanor left a lot to be desired. For example, that student at the begining of the programme. Why not ignore him? He was not fighting or being lairy or anything. All he did was mutter 'pigs'. If they react in such an aggressive manner to something like this then what about when the stakes are higher? Why run the risk of escalating the situation?

Much as i'm not particularly fond of coppers, if they let that go then people will push their luck more, if its deemed acceptable to call coppers pigs to their faces, the next step will be manhandling or whatnot, its pretty obvious really. In fact , your post is a bit stupid to be honest.

 

[Icy Gull]

Thankless job being a policeman/woman imo, especially if you have to deal with pissed up aggressive revellers regularly. Gonna drive you to use bad language surely.

 

[Robbie G]

I agree about not swearing at a police office. But I found their general demeanor left a lot to be desired. For example, that student at the begining of the programme. Why not ignore him? He was not fighting or being lairy or anything. All he did was mutter 'pigs'. If they react in such an aggressive manner to something like this then what about when the stakes are higher? Why run the risk of escalating the situation?

I'll be honest I didn't see the very beginning of the programme so can't comment on this.

But sorting out drunken arguments/fights every week must be a nightmare.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Much as i'm not particularly fond of coppers, if they let that go then people will push their luck more, if its deemed acceptable to call coppers pigs to their faces, the next step will be manhandling or whatnot, its pretty obvious really. In fact , your post is a bit stupid to be honest.

Did you see the programme? The guy was just a docile bod who did nothing more than mutter 'pigs' under his breath and not to the copper's face. Fair enough, pull him up on this...but the situation ended up with a lot of pushing, shouting and aggression from the plod. All very unneccessary in my opinion and in my view mainly driven by the officer's handling of the situation. I do not think muttering 'pigs' is the gateway to being a greater criminal. Nothing more than a foolish comment... so maybe sometimes they should just let things go for the greater good.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

But sorting out drunken arguments/fights every week must be a nightmare.

This I agree with. Some of the people filmed were horrible. Those two looked up in the back of the van showing off their cuffed hands. Nutters.

 

[User removed 4]

Did you see the programme? The guy was just a docile bod who did nothing more than mutter 'pigs' under his breath and not to the copper's face. Fair enough, pull him up on this...but the situation ended up with a lot of pushing, shouting and aggression from the plod. All very unneccessary in my opinion and in my view mainly driven by the officer's handling of the situation. I do not think muttering 'pigs' is the gateway to being a greater criminal. Nothing more than a foolish comment... so maybe sometimes they should just let things go for the greater good.

i did see the programme and agree that the individual concerned didnt look like he was going to be much of a threat but it's not just him is it? and they looked as if they were pretty stretched for manpower, not a lot of time for gentle talking to's to complete f***ing oddballs like the bloke concerned

 

[Barrel of Fun]

A close friend got into a punch up with two coppers when we were in our late teens, just before they absolutely battered him with night sticks one of them called him a horrible little c**t.

He probably was if he managed to get himself into a fight with two policemen.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

You're missing the point about what Collar Feeler is saying.

I rarely swear in the presence of the public, clearly it would compromise my position if I told someone to stop f***ing swearing. That said, there are circumstances when the only way you can get through to someone is to do so in terms that they understand. Asking some pissed up tool for the fourteenth time if he wouldn't mind awfully moving along isn't likely to have any impact, on the other hand if I responded in his sort of manner it does sometimes have the desired effect. In some ways it shocks people into a response.

And spare me the "if we swore we'd be arrested" line: nobody gets arrested for one instance of saying "f***" in the middle of a sentence. To get nicked you'd have to be doing it loudly, repeatedly, in the presence of people who might actually find it offensive, or after already having been warned about your conduct.

We accept that people swear, we all do it, it's only a problem in the context of a particular situation, and if you've been acting like a twunt for half an hour, then yes, shouting f*** off might be the final straw that gets you an £80 fine. But that's all it is. It's hardly the same as a private conversation in which one person uses a profanity or two to another.

Strangely though, other people who can come across the situation of being sworn at during their duties would be sacked for swearing back - shop assistants, waiters and even stewards. One would think that, given police officers have the full weight of the law behind them, they would show some restraint and not swear at all in a confrontation with the public.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

i did see the programme and agree that the individual concerned didnt look like he was going to be much of a threat but it's not just him is it? and they looked as if they were pretty stretched for manpower, not a lot of time for gentle talking to's to complete f***ing oddballs like the bloke concerned

If they're over-stretched even more reason for ignoring him. They should save their time and energy for banging up goons called Bushy.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Strangely though, other people who can come across the situation of being sworn at during their duties would be sacked for swearing back - shop assistants, waiters and even stewards. One would think that, given police officers have the full weight of the law behind them, they would show some restraint and not swear at all in a confrontation with the public.

Christ. Comparing shop assistants to police.

I'm not sure shop assistants or waiters are ever called up to try and make an arrest or control someone, whilst having a drunken idiot or three interfere with the situation. My experience of stewards are that they will generally swear like a trooper if someone is being rowdy and interfering with someone being ejected.

I'm pretty sure the police would have been swearing when they were attacked by the students, whilst trying to bring some sort of control to the situation. I'm not going to condemn them for that.

 

[User removed 4]

He probably was if he managed to get himself into a fight with two policemen.

I would have thought several recent high profile cases would've shown you that the police are not always innocent victims.

 

[Lyndhurst 14]

If you’re armed to the teeth like the NYPD you don’t really need to swear!