Good and bad. Seriously. I grew up in London so my opinion was quite poor. I know of good and bad though and even Stephen Lawrence's murder has some evidence of how individual officers take their responsibilities seriously -- the person who called the ambulance and gave him first aid was an off-duty officer. My brother was mugged when he was 13 and the officer was pretty honest that the nature of the crime and the lack of anything beyond a description of the mugger was unlikely yo yield any results but took him to the football match him and his friend were going to and then made sure to pick them up and drive them home when it had finished.
I have had bad and good personally - I've seen multiple acts of police violence, was cautioned for common assault after I had rung 999 when my partner had hit me in the face. Confused and already long traumatised the idea of actually talking to police was too much (he'd taken the phone and hung up, I was largely screaming for help and I think I wanted medical attention more than talking to police officers, who I didn't trust) and he'd also calmed down and was apologetic. We had weed in the house and were in a pretty shit situation with having to move at short notice with no money or jobs. Anyway, I tried to tell them I had problems and didn't want to talk to them but they escalated it and treated me with suspicion (where my PTSD brain reacted by being even more suspicious of them) and after being pushed into a wall and given a bear hug without consent by the female officer, I blew up and pushed them back. That was enough to get arrested. If they had bodycams, I think they would've lost their jobs.
That said, I've since had some quite good ones. I was doing (and still am at times tbh) something stupid because I've genuinely been sent mad by how many times I've been referred to mental health services for it to just derail all my self-care efforts and efforts to seek proper physical care. Pretty sure all the officers involved didn't want to do much about it and even after my behaviour continued, they didn't call the police (or the police have since ignored it). They did give me a facile warning that it would escalate if I did so? Anyway, my welfare checks have been alright. If anything my biggest concern with the police is the officer who came to do one after I got frustrated with my shitty home life and a partner who wouldn't grow up a couple of years ago. He would blame me for not having a job but would be next to useless support wise if I tried to get one. I feel like a shadow of him and that he's tried to stop me having my own personality. He's happiest when I just do whatever shit to appease him and be together. We've been together since I was 19 BTW and let me let myself go massively because being attractive matters in finding a partner, right? So wanting to feel more attractive is proof of me wanting to be with someone else, right? Anyway, this is related to the police in that I confused in a complaint where I felt bullied by a healthcare professional I wanted to talk about some of this with, in relation to physical pain in my jaw and dental issues. They got scared by my being potentially litigious and referred it to the police. I was reasonably open about it to the officers but, despite my mild autism, I'm fairly sure this guy was flirting with me and found me attractive, and not in a creepy way either. It was mutual and I was going to go back to my Mum and Dad's as there's about a dozen level crossings to get hit by a train. I didn't tell him this as I didn't want to get sectioned but I talked about a lot and he was making a lot of eye contact and half smiles. A one point he got pretty annoyed when I talked about the length of my relationship and dropping out of university which had meant a lot to me and he tried to get around me and open my front door (you can't open it from the outside as it has a broken handle) and I had to calm him down - I got the impression he wanted to confront my partner in a very sweetly intentioned white Knight way (and consequently wasn't having that, it wouldn't have helped me and he could have got himself into trouble and wasn't worth it). He tried more than once to convince me to go with him somewhere (professionally so). But he did kind of suggest I could come back here. And when I did there were a few strange things that happened which have stopped but occasionally, like when I had to ring the police a couple of weeks ago because my partner was screaming at me and driving erratically in the car, it was a silent call but with evidence of an aggressive male and the person who responded was...a woman on her own. A bit taller than 5 foot. She did refer to herself as 'we' though - like, she asked where we were parked because they couldn't find us on the main street. She also asked some questions which didn't feel that standard but they might have been, like has ANYONE stalked or harassed you? Which is interesting because...I think said officer might have tried to pick me up, once in a patrol car (assume he was going to hand me a note and get me to meet him at a later date) but I freaked out because of the joint in my pocket. Then a normal car pulled up on one of my now routine walks and beeped at me. I turned and the guy was staring and grinning. It's important to note that I couldn't remember his face, just eyes and lips (because I'm not gonna lie, I was into this guy but kind of scared because I wasn't expecting the police that day and my boyfriend and I had just been arguing) and he kind of has generic white face for these parts so idk if the guy had just accidentally beeped his horn or if it was him. But that stopped after that. And it just weirds me out more than anything. I worry he thinks I'm a liar because I've stayed. Or stupid. I'm just weak tbf. But yeah, I kind of call that stalking. And I don't know how to think about it because, honestly, if he'd just put a note through my door I'd have jumped at it. But weirdly, I can see how he might have chosen the stalker route because of plausible deniability and getting to keep his job if I turned him down or seemed uninterested, even if I did report. Maybe it's that I don't like? Thinking he's kind of relying on being able to call me crazy if things went sour. Also, I might just be crazy and he has done nothing other than have a nice conversation with a woman for ten minutes. This seems likely but there's a bunch of smaller details I've not mentioned and a couple of events that make me go hm. I just don't think anyone reading this cares that much.
Luckily, me and my partner have one last chance to turn over half a leaf. But if this all doesn't work out, which will be hard because I feel pretty worried about mu health (compulsive smoking as a form of self harm and passive suicidal intention) which makes trying seem pointless. Having a kid out of the question, unless things really radically change.
Also my partner isn't that bad. I'm talking about the worst of his behaviour and it doesn't account for my bad behaviour, either. We're both mentally unwell, not psychotic but traumatised and depressed and I've long had barriers to a normal life even before I met him. But there is love in our relationship which is quite important. Please don't worry about this idiot lady, basically.
