Friday 19 February 2010

Me and the Qld Police Service

Well, about this time last year I was beginning - FK time flies - my 200 hour course that's a requirement for joining the QPS. I hadn't ever really considered myself worthy of such a role until I started doing security and had contact with its members on a regular basis. I figured they weren't any smarter or able than me and I wasn't getting anywhere or even would HAVE the opportunity to progress onto anything long term beneficial in regards to career or stimulation doing security. Definitely not saying it's a shit job - well, it is in some respects - but it's a noble and tough career to exist in but the risk most definitely outweighs the benefits. I've been punched, had people try to stab me, had bottles chucked at me, continual abuse, watched people literally get the life beaten out of them, glassed, stabbed, endless fights, drugs, domestic violence, mental illness, suicides, what PTSD does to blokes, and just the worst mankind has to offer each other all for the sake of security of a building and the people in it. That shit keeps you awake at night for little or no mental payoff.

Fuck. That.

So I do this course which was diploma level study of 7 modules of Justice Administration. MAJORLY interesting topics from law to interrogation and everything in between. I smoked the course with distinction, credits, and passes, and loved it. In the process was the getting fit part which is FKN hard considering how much I had to lose but it was worth it. The support to get from people when talking about it helps you along. Amazing the level respect the PS has considering the reaming they get in the media ... anywhoo.

After the course I had the opportunity to meet and talk with people who are in and around the Service. Everyone from kids of coppers to recruits to long term members and the media gave me a resounding reality they echoed which was It. Just. Ain't. Worth. It.

Straight off the bat they're 12 hour shifts and if you're at a car stack near the end of shift you could be looking at 15 hour shift but still needing to turn up for the next shift. Next, is the wage. You make just under a grand a week. Considering the shit you go through the remuneration doesn't match up .. tho is alright, but comparatively.....?. Then is the mental aspects of wiping up dead kids and ones who've been brutalised. I talked with a active detective who can't sleep and is an alcoholic. I work with his daughter. Relationships take a battering, then there is personal quality of life.

I know from experience that some things just outweigh others in regards to quality of life. I know how tough 12 hour shifts are alone - security - let alone considering extra stresses. I know from experience I can earn the same wage as a cop with less hours work. Right now my current job earns me the same wage - as long as the hours are there - and the work hours are 8:30 to 4:00 excluding Thursdays cause of late night shopping. But then that's only till about 8pm.

Am I as stimulated as I could be in the cops? .... no ... is the quality of live apparently better ... most definitely. I'm learning everything about running a cafe and there's a rumbling in the back of my head about running my own one day ... maybe.

No one should die at work, and no one should be left out to dry by their superiors. Life is just too short. Life, for me, is about what I've got at home, not about what I do when I'm not here.

RIP QPS for me.

9 comments:

  1. It is a very hard job, there is no doubt about that, but realising it is not for you early is not only smart but honest and that I wish would happen with more recruits. So many are in the job simply because they wanted security. Making it so much harder for the ones prepared to put up with the crap.
    Good on you, no matter what you decide to do Moko, you will make a go of it, because of your own strong mind.

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  2. mmmm..yes, kinda have to agree with ay, but it is most assuredly an individual thing. I would opt for TMU down here, thats traffic management Unit and THATS Highway Patrol, still, wiping up dead people and smashes etc etc..

    Good call, do what you reckon is right for you!

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  3. Probably a good call, Moko. A pity, though. The coppers need people with your smarts.

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  4. It's a pity that the people who'd add the most to vocations like the coppers, or even teaching, are the people who figure out the fastest that it's not a good job.

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  5. I think I see a part of the problem "a grand a week". Bloody ridiculous.

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  6. I concur. I did nigh on 12 years in the NSW Police. Saw the best and worst of people...mostly the worst! Saw stuff most people never see, thankfully none of it involved kids. I stayed in because I thought 'Hey, it's a big company, I'll find a nice specialist job somewhere' - but it never happened. Oh sure I did temporary or part time stints in this and that, but my card was stamped 'G.D.s only'. Ultimately I decided I was sick of trying to fix other people's problems when I couldn't fix my own. And some other stuff too, including wondering if I was going to come home from this shift or the next.

    I finally left - and now 11 years later I'm considering applying for the NSW Ambulance Service! I must be a sucker for punishment.

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  7. Thanks guys. Very much appreciated.

    Bondiboy66. Thanks mate. My brother is a paramedic and loves it. I think the stresses are very much the same, but he's worked himself to be just short of a doctor through the ambo's.

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  8. Sounds rather like my best mate - he joined the ambos about the time I joined the cops. He is now at the top of his profession (some 23 years later), and is a paramedic on a certain helicopter rescue service.

    The ambos or the firies would have to be better than the cops. Certain aspects, like less paperwork, are good. But further, the role is clearly defined - person bleeds, call ambos. Building burns, call firies. ANYTHING else, call the cops. And you only act for the good of all, unlike the cops where you come into opposition with people at times - sometimes the very people you are there to help! E.g., attend a domestic, wife getting flogged by hubby. We go to arrest hubby, then she turns on us with a frying pan shouting 'Don't take him, I love him!!'...when not 15 minutes earlier he was beating the proverbial out of her.

    So yeah, you can do better than the cops methinks. But then, someone has to do it!

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  9. Moko

    I thought that you had your heart set on joining.

    If you are not fully committed to it then it is probably the wisest move.

    Whatever you do you should do to the best of your ability (as I'm sure you do).

    Gaz

    ps at least you got fit duirng the process

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