The tide needs to turn before we lose all our decent, hardworking officers who are asking themselves daily-just why are we doing this job?

The hardest job in our society today is without the shadow of a doubt- being a police officer. It is the job where you have the toughest challenges, the worst facilities, the least respect and an undeniable lack of support. And of course, lets not forget the cherry on the cake-the fear of being prosecuted for doing your job.

Yesterday, figures revealed by Simon Hill from the Met Police Federation showed a whopping 96% of officers had reported low morale. But is this truly shocking? Or did most members of public actually expect it after the continuous abuse officers face right across the board?

It is a job that is in the media daily, actually ad nauseum, it is the focus of endless tv documentaries that completely misrepresent the truth and have outrageous slants to what they want to achieve with no regard whatsoever for the facts.

On our streets, thanks to the endless attacks, our frontline officers have very little respect. They do however face endless abuse. Their workload increases daily. If you don’t know who you are going to call-you call the police. And no this is not a slogan for a film.

Their hours increase, their work increases, their support decreases. We all know by now that they don’t have any canteens, but seriously imagine a job where if you have time to eat, you eat in your vehicle and then get abuse hurled at you for eating. Nothing like a ‘Got nothing better to do than eat have you when our streets are full of rapists?’ line as you try and shove back a quick sandwich.

What is forgotten is that these frontline officers save lives. All it takes is a quick internet search on officers injured and the results will show just how many officers are injured daily tackling serious offenders armed with the most awful weapons on our streets. How many of us can finish a day’s work and say-today I stopped a man from injuring many because I put my own life at risk? Answers on a postcard.

Are we the only ones who hurl abuse at those who save lives?

Interestingly enough, all those in authority who repeatedly fail to support our officers, are all the ones who rely on those officers to protect them daily. Imagine having a person who is by your side to save your life and step in when needed, yet all you do is slam them for the work they are doing?

Social media is full of people who base their accounts on hurling abuse at the police. Interestingly enough, so many of them have never done the job so are completely unaware of the reality of what it does involve. Most of them if faced with the situations officers are faced with daily-would not just run for the hills but need a regular supply of those handy little white rolls.

Yes, there occasions when bad policing needs to be called out. There are numerous who have sadly been let down by officers and rightly that needs to be called out. But we are at a point now where we are losing so many officers because of the sorry state policing is in.

It really is time we support those officers who are out there doing an outstanding job and there are many. It is time those who are unaware of the challenges these officers face, go and witness for themselves what the job entails. The tide needs to turn before we lose all our decent, hardworking officers who are asking themselves daily-just why they are doing the job?

For the record-there are many out there whose voices are quiet but actually do appreciate everything these officers do in our community everyday.

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