Another Constable

It’s a bit of an American phrase, and doesn’t really get “said” over here, but the concept is the same. One of the worst things about the job we do is that we can be thrust into hugely dangerous situations in the blink of an eye, especially when not expected. A random stop check and suddenly a gun is pointed at you (thankfully never happened to me but I know a few it has happened to), go to a domestic and all looks calm then someone comes at you with a knife in a crowded space (this one has happened to me), a 999 run and the roads look nice and safe then some nutter pops out in front of you despite all the lights and sirens (a daily occurence - thankfully I’m switched on enough to have managed to avoid all of the said nutters so far - fingers crossed!). Danger is all around us, and yet we don’t get too many injured police officers, certainly not seriously injured - thankfully.

Over the last few months though we’ve had a few. Too many really. Some injured quite badly too. The first thing I notice is how hearing about officers (whom you don’t even know) being injured affects you. It’s like we have some sort of bond that joins us across forces. If I heard “Plumber killed in freak water pipe incident” I’d not bat an eyelid (no offence to plumbers - please insert your occupation of choice in that headline). As soon as it’s “Police officer hurt in bizarre pomegranate slip horror” then I immediately feel concern for the wellbeing of said officer. It can’t be the fear that I personally know the injured officer either, as even if the headline is something like “Sussex Police Officer Hurt In Pursuit Crash” I would feel the same though I don’t know any officers in Sussex. I can’t really explain the feeling of camaraderie. It’s probably the same across many other professions, though I can’t say I ever lost any sleep if I heard of an IT specialist being hurt.

Worse still of course is when it involves people you work. It’s only at times like that you realise how much these people mean to you. It’s easy to think of your section as colleagues, mates, perhaps friends, but only when things start to get “real” do you realise it’s deeper than that. I suppose at the end of the day, our lives may depend on each other, and we do indeed form strong bonds, most of the time without realising it (that’s probably why so many police marriages end in divorce - lots of affairs in work due mainly to the fact you have to bond so closely to your colleagues in order to survive at times).

I suppose a lot of it is the fear “I could easily have been me”. Perhaps a selfish thought, but to counter that, I’ve honestly been in situations where I wished it HAD been me that was hurt instead of my colleague. Maybe that’s just blame avoidance though… it’s easy to feel responsible for the injuries sustained by friends, even when you weren’t there (or maybe because you weren’t there). So to all the workmates that have been injured past and present, take care of yourselves, and don’t rush back to work until you are ready. I love you guys.