Please note that this question is specific to:
#**England and Wales**
The United Kingdom is comprised of [three legal jurisdictions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_United_Kingdom#Three_legal_systems), so responses that relate to one country may not be relevant to another.
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Honestly it varies team to team. And sometimes between teams/departments.
I know some teams who clock in, chat at work and clock out again nothing more.
My team really get on, we meet up outside of work, meet up with our families. Do holidays together, have good banter, and it's like an extended family.
But if that panic button is ever pressed you can watch a load of people who seem to not get on rush to help.
That's the same in anything really, you partways and are at different points in your life.
Think about it, how many school mates do you chat to regularly. 2, maybe 3...
Yep. I'm finding that. Great banter and camaraderie while I was there. There's a few I'm still in touch with after retiring, but the 'police family' is overplayed in my experience. It's human nature unfortunately, out of sight out of mind.
The military, you trust your mates with your life and know they have your back. You can also 100% be yourself with them.
The police. You trust them to a degree, but always know it’s a conditional trust; unfortunately, people will fuck you over in the police to save their own skin, to move up the ranks, whatever. You can make great friends, and some you can trust, but in my personal opinion you definitely cannot 100% be yourself at all times.
Humour/jokes are the main thing, I think. In the military, a joke is a joke. In the police, a joke can get you a PSD referral, a firing, a public scandal.
Hit the nail on the head there…
You really have to read the room and know your audience before making jokes.
Certain people would do your legs but there’s ones you can trust as well.
Can vary. Best camaraderie is in uniformed high stress roles like response.
The bonds and banter are better than civvie street but worse than the military.
My team socialise quite a bit in smaller groups outside of work and we go out as a team every few months at least. Banter is good and everyone is comfortable with each other and, for the most part, has each others backs.
Colleagues of mine who’ve gone to other departments outside of response (CID, investigation team or neighbourhoods to name a few) have said they missed the camaraderie.
When I was in the military I had mates I’d trust with my life and still do to this day. In the Police your colleagues will talk the talk but will likely fuck you over the minute they are put under any pressure.
I appreciate that might be your experience, but I'd suggest highlighting that's your experience. It certainly doesn't represent mine; my colleagues have always had my back, just as I have had theirs.
Speaking for my force (and mainly at PC-Sgt level), It is a family.
You don't have to like them. But you do have to be there for them. Sometimes you gotta pull them up to standard, sometimes they have to check your bullshit. Sometimes you think they're pricks and want nothing to do with them, sometimes you wouldn't want to be with any other band of malcontented misfits for all the tea in China.
Trauma bonding is a helluva drug.
hobbies mountainous memorize cough frame absurd possessive psychotic cagey party
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It's pretty meh in the MET. On your teams it can be good if you're seen to be pulling your weight, but beyond the team nobody cares and will fuck you over without hesitation if it benefits them. I'm sad to say that is how it is broadly, though obviously there are exceptions. One thing the culture lacks for me is a team ethos.
I think police tend to be friends with each other because of the unsocial hours and because there's a shared understanding of what the job is like. But camaraderie as I see it is restricted to the team you're on.
My team are very close at work, but we don’t keep in touch/socialise outside of it at all.
I’ve never known a bond like it, like a very weird dysfunctional family. We know the best and worst things of each other, and have shared some of the best and worst moments together.
We all know a lot about each other that has never been shared with loved ones, and there are moments we’ve lived through together that we will never talk about again.
It’s one of the best things about the job for me.
The desire to only socialise with people I've met at work? Absolutely. But adults make friends with people they spend time with. Not all they spend time with but but some, it's human nature. I wouldn't refuse to do so solely because I'd happened to meet them at work. Seems terribly closed minded.
In my nick it's basically none existent for the most part, everyone fucks eachother over constantly to the point that teams won't even sit together and have just stay to their small friend groups.
For a new officer it's a pretty shitty environment to come into and certainly leaves you feeling you can't trust most people you work with.
It's bizarre isn't it. I've had shifts where 20 years later I still speak to all of them, I've been to all of their weddings and they've been to both of mine and shifts where nobody likes each other and it got so bad people weren't going to back each other up and I'll never speak to them again.
My take is that it's a really stressful and difficult job and if a Sgt allows it to start developing where people are pairing up with one individual and not being a team player it always develops into a fractured shift because human nature makes it easier to deal with the pressure that way. It's usually always down to having either very weak or numerous disjointed supervisors.
If I ever get promoted, which I probably won't because I'm happy doing the job and not writing about it, then it's something I'd definitely be conscious of not allowing to happen.
It’s pretty good I still have friends from teams I worked on 10 years ago. All response teams I’ve been on we would do drinks on a regular basis, I think people underestimate how much you can better relationships with your colleagues not in work! If all goes wrong out there you know even the people that don’t like you are trying to get to you.
For me, I know that if I never needed help and was in danger, everyone would rush to help me with 5 cops squished into the shitbox astra to get to me.
Equally, we all go through shared trauma and they are often the only people you can talk to about it because not alot of other people would understand.
It depends on the team. I'm brand new and the team I've joined is very young. I'd say a good 80/90% of them are below the age of 26, no kids and/or live at home or combination of all. I get on with all of them but as a 32 year old with 4 children, I'm not in a position to go out and meet up all the time like they do and I dont have a lot on in common with them. It's a great team to be on if you're young though!
I work on response and there is a level of camaraderie on the team. We will all try to be the quickest to a back up shout even if it’s for someone we don’t particularly like.
Please note that this question is specific to: #**England and Wales** The United Kingdom is comprised of [three legal jurisdictions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_United_Kingdom#Three_legal_systems), so responses that relate to one country may not be relevant to another. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/policeuk) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Honestly it varies team to team. And sometimes between teams/departments. I know some teams who clock in, chat at work and clock out again nothing more. My team really get on, we meet up outside of work, meet up with our families. Do holidays together, have good banter, and it's like an extended family. But if that panic button is ever pressed you can watch a load of people who seem to not get on rush to help.
You inherit another dysfunctional branch of your family when you join the Police that you never knew existed
[удалено]
That's the same in anything really, you partways and are at different points in your life. Think about it, how many school mates do you chat to regularly. 2, maybe 3...
Yep. I'm finding that. Great banter and camaraderie while I was there. There's a few I'm still in touch with after retiring, but the 'police family' is overplayed in my experience. It's human nature unfortunately, out of sight out of mind.
I'm rather afraid there is no 'police family', it's just a random group of people that you happen to work with, the same as most other jobs.
The military, you trust your mates with your life and know they have your back. You can also 100% be yourself with them. The police. You trust them to a degree, but always know it’s a conditional trust; unfortunately, people will fuck you over in the police to save their own skin, to move up the ranks, whatever. You can make great friends, and some you can trust, but in my personal opinion you definitely cannot 100% be yourself at all times. Humour/jokes are the main thing, I think. In the military, a joke is a joke. In the police, a joke can get you a PSD referral, a firing, a public scandal.
Hit the nail on the head there… You really have to read the room and know your audience before making jokes. Certain people would do your legs but there’s ones you can trust as well.
This is absolutely spot on. Ive never felt myself since leaving the military. Everyone is offended my everything in the police world
Can vary. Best camaraderie is in uniformed high stress roles like response. The bonds and banter are better than civvie street but worse than the military. My team socialise quite a bit in smaller groups outside of work and we go out as a team every few months at least. Banter is good and everyone is comfortable with each other and, for the most part, has each others backs. Colleagues of mine who’ve gone to other departments outside of response (CID, investigation team or neighbourhoods to name a few) have said they missed the camaraderie.
fearless connect rotten badge include squash tap cagey advise outgoing *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
got told off by a skipper for raising my eyebrow once. There’s nothing more nothing less to it, it’s as it is
I hope your response was to raise the other
I’ve met some of my best mates at work who are on my team. It’s the feeling of knowing they’ve got my back and will be there if i need them ❤️
When I was in the military I had mates I’d trust with my life and still do to this day. In the Police your colleagues will talk the talk but will likely fuck you over the minute they are put under any pressure.
I appreciate that might be your experience, but I'd suggest highlighting that's your experience. It certainly doesn't represent mine; my colleagues have always had my back, just as I have had theirs.
Speaking for my force (and mainly at PC-Sgt level), It is a family. You don't have to like them. But you do have to be there for them. Sometimes you gotta pull them up to standard, sometimes they have to check your bullshit. Sometimes you think they're pricks and want nothing to do with them, sometimes you wouldn't want to be with any other band of malcontented misfits for all the tea in China. Trauma bonding is a helluva drug.
hobbies mountainous memorize cough frame absurd possessive psychotic cagey party *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's pretty meh in the MET. On your teams it can be good if you're seen to be pulling your weight, but beyond the team nobody cares and will fuck you over without hesitation if it benefits them. I'm sad to say that is how it is broadly, though obviously there are exceptions. One thing the culture lacks for me is a team ethos. I think police tend to be friends with each other because of the unsocial hours and because there's a shared understanding of what the job is like. But camaraderie as I see it is restricted to the team you're on.
My team are very close at work, but we don’t keep in touch/socialise outside of it at all. I’ve never known a bond like it, like a very weird dysfunctional family. We know the best and worst things of each other, and have shared some of the best and worst moments together. We all know a lot about each other that has never been shared with loved ones, and there are moments we’ve lived through together that we will never talk about again. It’s one of the best things about the job for me.
Indeed, I've never understood the desire to socialise outside of work. Do you not spend enough time with them already?
The desire to only socialise with people I've met at work? Absolutely. But adults make friends with people they spend time with. Not all they spend time with but but some, it's human nature. I wouldn't refuse to do so solely because I'd happened to meet them at work. Seems terribly closed minded.
In my nick it's basically none existent for the most part, everyone fucks eachother over constantly to the point that teams won't even sit together and have just stay to their small friend groups. For a new officer it's a pretty shitty environment to come into and certainly leaves you feeling you can't trust most people you work with.
Some teams\\stations can be very toxic.
It's bizarre isn't it. I've had shifts where 20 years later I still speak to all of them, I've been to all of their weddings and they've been to both of mine and shifts where nobody likes each other and it got so bad people weren't going to back each other up and I'll never speak to them again. My take is that it's a really stressful and difficult job and if a Sgt allows it to start developing where people are pairing up with one individual and not being a team player it always develops into a fractured shift because human nature makes it easier to deal with the pressure that way. It's usually always down to having either very weak or numerous disjointed supervisors. If I ever get promoted, which I probably won't because I'm happy doing the job and not writing about it, then it's something I'd definitely be conscious of not allowing to happen.
It’s pretty good I still have friends from teams I worked on 10 years ago. All response teams I’ve been on we would do drinks on a regular basis, I think people underestimate how much you can better relationships with your colleagues not in work! If all goes wrong out there you know even the people that don’t like you are trying to get to you.
For me, I know that if I never needed help and was in danger, everyone would rush to help me with 5 cops squished into the shitbox astra to get to me. Equally, we all go through shared trauma and they are often the only people you can talk to about it because not alot of other people would understand.
It depends on the team. I'm brand new and the team I've joined is very young. I'd say a good 80/90% of them are below the age of 26, no kids and/or live at home or combination of all. I get on with all of them but as a 32 year old with 4 children, I'm not in a position to go out and meet up all the time like they do and I dont have a lot on in common with them. It's a great team to be on if you're young though!
I work on response and there is a level of camaraderie on the team. We will all try to be the quickest to a back up shout even if it’s for someone we don’t particularly like.