On the 5th September I completed 22 years’ service as a police officer and last week attended a ceremony at West Mercia’s Headquarters along with 49 other colleagues to receive our medals, writes Inspector Richard Langton.

This was a wonderful occasion where our families were with us to enjoy some recognition for their support and to share the moment.

The Chief Constable came up with a simple statistic which staggered me: the medal recipients that evening alone had contributed over a thousand years of public service! Since then I’ve reflected quite a bit on the last 22 years and wondered what it was about being a police officer which ensured that so many of us choose to serve such long careers.

I have been asked many times, and often by young people, “What’s it like to be a police officer?” I invariably reply with a cheesy recruitment statement like, “It’s exciting, challenging, rewarding” etc. These things are true, of course, but I think from now on I will answer the question with what it really feels like to be a Police Officer.

Like many others I joined the Police Force (as it was known in those days) because I had a genuine desire to help others and play an important role in society. I also had an overwhelming sense of ‘right and wrong’ and a desire to help someone when their life’s just not fair. Twenty two years on and the desire is as strong as it has ever been.

No-one joins the police to become wealthy; you would have to reach dizzier heights than this one to achieve that! Police Officers are driven by the fantastic, warming feeling you get when you know you have done your best for someone and made a contribution to their life which made it just a little bit better.

I’m going to be clear right now that we don’t always get it right. (You’d stop reading right now if I didn’t.) We make mistakes, we let people down and we can be clumsy. I have done and been all of these things because at the end of the day (and contrary to rumours) we are human beings after all with all the infallibility that comes with that. The critical thing is to identify and acknowledge when we get it wrong and work harder to address those issues.

I hate complaints. We all hate complaints but when they are justified they are justified. Very often the complaints and criticisms of the service we provide are based on a lack of understanding or third party perceptions. I recently witnessed a conversation between a young PC and a member of the public which disappointed and saddened me greatly.

We have recently been investigating a very serious sexual offence which resulted in a significant number of arrests and hundreds of hours by detectives, unformed staff, forensic officers, family liaison officers – all working together as a team to do our best for the victim. During the investigation officers guarded the scene around the clock and I went to speak to the officer on the ‘scene guard’ to gauge levels of public interest and concern.

While we were talking a middle-aged lady approached the officer and with a smile, very politely asked for the time. The officer returned the smile and replied, “Yes of course, it’s five to three”. The lady then put her shopping down, looked at her own watch (which was displaying the correct time, as was the large town clock immediately behind her). I asked her why she had asked for the time and she replied, “Because she’s just standing there and I pay her wages with my taxes so I’m getting my money’s worth”.

I was astounded by this comment, especially considering the huge effort so many staff had made with this investigation. I imagine that the lady was unaware of why the officer was there and had probably seen her standing there, apparently doing nothing, for most of the morning. I asked the officer how she felt about the comment and she just shrugged her shoulders and smiled, saying, “Happens all the time”.

Maybe we need to work harder to tell you what we do and why we do it. We don’t want unhappy people and yes it does hurt to hear comments like this – even more so the horrendous verbal abuse and threats that this and other officers have to put up with from violent and drunken people late at night. Not to mention being assaulted.

But sometimes complaints and criticisms can have a positive effect in helping us to improve our processes and methods.

I have recently worked closely with Telford’s Private Hire Drivers, following concerns which were made in the media about the quality of service we were providing to local taxi drivers. The subsequent meetings we have had have resulted in a much better understanding of each other’s organisations and helped us see how, unwittingly, we were actually working against each other.

We have since agreed upon a simple protocol which will significantly improve how we work together and lead to a reduction in crime and an increase in confidence for those drivers.

For 22 years I have worked alongside some of the most impressive and dedicated people you might ever wish to meet. I am still moved by the compassion and professionalism I see in even some of the most young in service. But I am equally aware that sometimes officers will fall below the standards the public not just expect, but are entitled to, and it is my responsibility and that of us all to keep striving to give you the best service we can.

I wanted to take the opportunity in this blog to share some honest and personal thoughts and perhaps give a slightly different insight into what being a police officer really means.

So to answer the question posed at the beginning: how do I feel about being a police officer?

Proud.