GunstarCowboy

How long did it take for you to get to the bar from University?

And did you have to eat at the Inns of Court? What were the meals like?

Sorry for the wall of text.

Here in the UK, there seems to be a bit of an anti-police theme running through the media at the moment - especially the press and the television news.

Every story featuring police seems to subtly imply that policemen are all bent and that they are really on the take, are thugs, or are covering something up.

It really seemed to step up a gear around the time that Ian Tomlinson was filmed being hit with a baton, and since then we've had heavy suggestions that other officers were involved in the newspapers hacking scandal and in handing interesting stories over to the press for a fee. Just yesterday we had heavy hints that officers at the scene of Mark Duggan's shooting might not be telling the absolute truth about his having a gun, and that possibly someone in the West Yorks force unfairly influenced investigating officers investigating Jimmy Savile. There are many other examples.

As you can tell, I'm choosing my words extremely carefully, and I'm not interested in the specific examples, or in the individuals concerned in these stories.

I know that no system is perfect, and that some individuals may be acting in a manner that isn't exactly in the best interests of the public or their respective forces. But I also believe that officers are - on the whole - people doing a job that there's no way I'd have the bollocks to do, and that they really believe in and are committed to their job.

How does it effect you as an officer to turn on the TV or radio and see this kind of coverage of the force on a frequent basis? How do you deal with it? Any idea why it's happening? And have you noticed a change in attitude from the public since this recent portrayal of the police in the media came about?

Thanks for doing this AMA, btw.

TL;DR - the UK police are getting an increased image bashing from the media. What's it feel like on the police side?