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However, all officers involved in this case seem to suffer from sudden illnesses. The first assigned to the case several weeks ago got a slipped disk in his spine, the one who was supposed to work with me today had a heart attack during the weekend.
The officer who finally debriefed (right choice of words?) me today didn't know I was coming at all, then spent almost 30 minutes finding the right folder (constantly querying his PC and shuffling through his sick colleagues desk), then spent another 10 minutes figuring out what it was all about...
Finally we came to the point where I explained everything which I have witnessed, and at the end he said that now he understood what it was about and that he needs to write everything down. At that point I thought I'd be out of there within the next 10/15 minutes. Ha!
This cop was so technologically challenged, he didn't even knew about the basics of cut and paste! He deleted items solely with the DEL key, he rewrote complete passages which simply needed to be moved down a few lines. At one point he tried to cut and paste, but not via shortkeys but via the menu. But he didn't even know how to mark passages right, so he pasted too much, which cost him 5 minutes to sort it out.
I'm not saying he was dumb! But he was so clearly suffering from work overload and was so insecure with his (MS-Word like) application that the act of writing it all down took most of the time.
How can that be? Aren't we supposed to have an efficient police force? Aren't they supposed to be properly trained? It makes me wonder what ELSE might be neglected in their training, or what ELSE might suffer from their work overload.
I feel a little bit less safe now.
You can train for incompetence and insecurity, but not as well for overload. The other fellow that uses our PC is pretty competent, self-taught. But when I hover nearby he can become completely fumbled, sort of like you just described. I've learned I can help more by not helping at all.
I am challenged on all legal technicalities of police work. But I guess your deposition should not have been written down by a cop.
Real cops are trained to deal with very difficult and dangerous situations (dealing with violent or intoxicated persons, high speed car chases, and the likes, all day long). All this without loosing their cool. Frankly it's the last job I would pick. I would probably break down, knock someone out and loose my badge under a week.
I would also feel safer if all real cops where out there in the streets instead of writing down depositions in some office. There should be clerks to do that.
Hat's off the real cops, in most cases, I admire them.
;-)
Syzygy
*In the UK (as well as other places, I'm sure), amongst a few other meanings, PC is also the standard abbreviation for Police Constable.
I would also feel safer if all real cops where out there in the streets instead of writing down depositions in some office. There should be clerks to do that.
True, but if they have to do it, wouldn't it save time in the long run to send them all on a basic IT literacy course? I think EVERYONE should probably get to go on one free. Especially people who are too old to have had the chance in school/college.
That is probably the case in most countries, for legal reasons, I guess. You are right about the training, HelenDev. The worst part is he probably had his training already. For local politics reason a bunch of goons, where hired as cops in the 60's. Else from charging at crowds with shields and sticks, not much more was expected from them. Fortunatly, most of them retired already.
Younger cops are better selected from their psychological profile, but probably could use a couple of hours of typing a day, as breaks...
All in all it was almost enjoyeable - he was a nice person, and his social skills were far better than his PC skills.
When questioned, he said that he didn't know how to use a computer, and didn't want to. :)
You mean... they hired you then? ;)
