Today's newspaper contains the stories of some of the nominees for the Police Bravery Awards. The few examples given vary in their nature, and it raises a couple of points. If someone applies to work in a role that is by its very nature likely to involve danger, it does seem quite strange to highlight people who do their job for an award. I do not begrudge recognition to people who put themselves at risk, but it starts to become a strange world when we are supposed to compare acts of bravery and decide on who deserves a gong.
Stopping a car because the driver was using a mobile phone was clearly a routine thing for a policeman to be doing. The priority for policing these days is to make sure that most resources are targeted at car drivers, whether to catch them speeding, parking in the wrong place, or doing anything that can lead to a ticket and fine. Anyway, using a mobile phone is obviously wrong. The fact that the driver decided to ram the police car putting both vehicles out of action was no doubt shocking, but the policeman gave chase and caught the passenger, using spray CS gas to restrain him. Now, not to take anything away from the efforts of the copper, I am struggling to see how that deserves nomination for bravery (?)
Still, there are other examples of the police doing things less associated with their actual job specification, and it is actually nice to see that in any event, efforts are made by those employed to do the right thing. They are of course best placed in most cases to act, because they have been trained to a high level to do the right thing. In fact, I would say that police officers have a duty to take action in a lot of challenging circumstances; it is part of the job to take some risks and be brave. In a similar way, courage and bravery are needed to be in the armed services. Making comparisons between various acts is weird, though, to establish whose efforts were best deserving of a gong.
The other point, though, is how from time to time we read about other really stupid incidents where no action is taken by those charged with protecting the public, or providing an important service. Are there other awards, not for bravery but for Non Action? These could include the times when someone is struggling in water and for supposed health and safety reasons, people stand and watch the individual drown. There are some really stupid approaches taken these days, which demonstrate how those in jobs that are supposed to have some significance and purpose manage to actually avoid the whole reason for their existence by not acting when it comes to the crunch. That's like being a soldier and then refusing to join in when there's some fighting to be done.
I think that bravery awards are a step too far. Yes, recognise bravery, but don't make it into a competition, or an annual event. That actually belittles the genuine efforts of some. I would also like to see those who have chosen a career/job in public service, often in uniform, promise to do something if the situation demands it, not just quote rule number 32a and loiter without doing anything constructive.
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