Now here’s something we haven’t heard before.
According to the Guardian, an entire team of police officers in London were given the ‘ol heave-ho by the Metropolitan Police after an investigation discovered that some of these officers were taking in their on-duty time to play poker and backgammon, watching TV, and cleaning golf clubs.
In a statement to the media, the Met discussed the situation, saying: “The disciplinary panel heard evidence that officers from the team had played backgammon and poker whilst on duty, watched TV in the office, frequently failed to go out on patrol, had not worked full tours of duty and also claimed overtime that had not been worked.”
“In addition, one officer had gone out for runs during the working day whilst a further officer cleaned his golf clubs in the office. These activities appear to have taken place at the expense of policing duties, such as patrolling the local area.”
Commander Allan Gibson, head of the MPS directorate of professional standards, told the Guardian: “These officers let the whole of the service down with their behaviour; but more importantly they let down their local community.
“There is no place for lazy attitudes in the MPS and those who are found to be failing in their duties will be held to account.”
On our end, we don’t agree with this decision and feel that its unwarranted. So these officers played some games while on duty; everybody does it once in a while. They didn’t steal anything. They didn’t hurt anyone. They played games. We have no problem with people who prefer to play poker at any point in their lives, and using it as a cause for termination is a little too excessive. Suspend them without pay for two weeks, or maybe even a month. Maybe they’ll learn their lessons that way. But letting them go completely? A little too harsh, fellas.
Be that as it may, we’re not the ones hammering down the punishments so its completely out of our hands. Unfortunately for these police officers, the people over at the MPS parking aren’t as lenient and casual on the matter, and the decision to impose the (harsh) penalty was made after it was determined that a number of these officers from the Safer Neighbourhood Team in the Mottingham and Chislehurst North ward in Bromley all spent hours on duty playing games instead of doing their jobs.
At the end of the day, this should be a lesson learned from all parties.
