I don't think I would join up again. I'm not in uniform anymore and I do have a great job but there is so much paperwork / computer work that it stops you actually doing much police work.

For example I've spent ten hours today in front of a computer putting in an application to conduct surveillance on a violent robber. The guy is a arsehole but I have to justify why I should be allowed to violate his human rights (ie right to privacy etc) and then conduct a full risk assessment around conducting surveillance on him. I have to state how I will make sure we don't cause him any psychological harm and that we don't cause any moral issues within his community etc. Its total bullshit. I then have to duplicate that on other forms basically for anything I want to do to investigate this guy. He won't get looked at for a good week as it takes that long for all the applications to go in, a supervisor to endorse them then some poor superintendent to right a huge great reply to authorise it. It then has to be reviewed once a month with another great review form (duplicated over three computer systems) and associated risk assessments.

But at least I will be able to sleep at night knowing I have respected his human rights