Wastage: Are Police Advertising Methods at Fault?
| Date | 01 April 1958 |
| Published date | 01 April 1958 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5803100207 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
112
THE
POLICE
JOURNAL
Wastage:
Are
Police
Advertising
Methods
at
Fault?
By A SENIOR
OFFICER
THE
recent report of the Select Committee on Estimates on Police
Expenditure in England and Wales refers, among other things,
to the question of wastage in Police forces, and points out the disturb-
ing fact that between 1946 and 1956 almost as many men left pre-
maturely as those who completed their normal service.
In referring to recruits who leave during the first two years of their
service, the Committee comments "recruits are accepted who are not
reasonably sure in their own minds - of the implications of their
prospective conditions of service," and follows this later by stating
that prospective recruits should fully understand the conditions of
service of a constable.
One wonders, in view of this, if the Committee were at all uneasy
as to the way men are invited to become policemen. To
put
the point
more clearly we might ask ourselves,
"Are
police recruiting methods
faulty and does this account for some of the wastage?"
The
writer
believes that the answer is in the affirmative because, quite bluntly,
we make a Police career look attractive to potential recruits without
disclosing the disadvantages.
I believe that more reliable, although perhaps fewer, men will be
obtained if we are franker with them, and that, in consequence,
wastage will be considerably reduced. Many of the young men who
have left and are leaving the service, do so because police work is
not what they thought it would be. They thought, for instance, that
they would become detectives in no time at all; that there would be
constant excitement--chasing bandits at eighty miles an hour, and so
on. Generally, they had mistaken ideas that apoliceman's life is a
glamorous one.
I hasten to add that these faulty ideas about police duty may not
have been instilled by officers responsible for recruiting. Often, young
men come into the service with a "Dixon of Dock Green" complex, or
with other fancy opinions they have gained through following the
exciting adventures of "policemen" on television or at the cinema.
What, then, can be done about this? One cannot expect brief
advertisements in newspapers such as that which exhorts a youngster
to "Get in London's Police and Get
on!"
to give much detail,
but
when he calls at the police station making further enquiries he should
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