I was sitting there ...!

As the MET tries to cram more and more people into fewer and fewer buildings its 'Hot Desking' concept leads to desperate measures .

Stop now you crazy Diamond

A DIAMOND group has been formed in the upper reaches of the MET. I am not sure where they get the names. Clearly the old BRONZE, SILVER , GOLD is so last year.


One of its aims is to explore the possibilities of bumping up the Detective ranks ( of which the MET is severely short ) by using Specials and pushing new entrants straight through to DC pathways without, it would seem, the implied inconvenience of spending a couple of years learning the basics in a uniform role.Frankly I am not surprised that senior management think this is workable. There is much discussion in other police forums as to how desperate this idea is and I wont waste any more columns adding my 10 pence worth to it.


I then read we have an entity called MET Enterprises ( a nice consultancy fee somewhere coming up with this baby!) which aims to explore and utilise the MET brand. One of its aims is to sell the MET's worldwide reputation and in particular its world class training.


At around this point I had to stop and think WTF!


I am then convinced the brains behind this idea hasn't really thought though the business plan.
What have we to sell? I can understand, years back, a sharp suited MET Enterprise individual leading a mixed bunch of foreign  government officials around Hendon. They let them absorb the acres of well kept buildings, playing fields, the Driving school, The Detective Wing, the assorted specialised learning areas of the Peel Centre. Then to take in the discipline of the smart, uniformed cadres of the intakes marching around its grounds.


Now?


'Excuse me can you tell me what actually is the MET training school?
'Er......'its that new, not particularly imposing building surrounded by the new blocks of flats being built'.


I went past Hendon a few days back, The Detective training school site is now rubble. You can barely see our new 'Training block' for the flats being put up. The rest of the Estate will follow suit.
NSY in Victoria is now a shell. The jewels in the Crown have been well and truly sold on. The only people making money out of the MET are the sharp suited Estate agents flogging stuff ' off plan' for the Hendon and NSY sites.


And then the Mayor gets a wiff of MET Enterprise and demands it does no business with 'rogue regimes' What are we going to peddle to them. NCALT packages? Breaching human rights by boring people into submission.


We have hit the buffers and there is no wriggle room left. The MET has been squeezed to its limits.
I await management to form a PLATINUM group to sort things out.