By: Bill Jack
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Bill Jack is a retired police officer whose service spanned almost 30 years, beginning as a police cadet in Lanarkshire and ending in the Gorbals area of Glasgow. He later qualified and worked as a primary school teacher and is now a professional book indexer. He is married with two children and two grandchildren.
The intention of the police cadet scheme of the 1960s-1990s was to scoop up potential recruits to the police service who might otherwise have found other careers by the time they reached the age of 19 and could join the force. Cadets were supposed to learn about and take some part in, policing while also being given time to further their general education
It doesn’t seem to have worked out like that for Bill Jack, who joined the Lanarkshire Constabulary cadets in 1970. Well, he certainly learned about policing but not in the way that he was meant to. He encountered any number of time-serving or generally unenthusiastic PCs and sergeants, and the more senior officers pretty well ignored him unless they needed him to fetch tea or cigarettes. There was an attitude that the whole force was personally funded by the Chief Constable so that everything was done as cheaply as possible and any reimbursement of expenses was out of the question
He has written a very funny account of his experiences, none of which deterred him from eventually signing up as a PC in the force, which shortly afterward became part of Strathclyde Police. Definitely a very different view of life in the Job
The intention of the police cadet scheme of the 1960s-1990s was to scoop up potential recruits to the police service who might otherwise have found other careers by the time they reached the age of 19 and could join the force. Cadets were also being given time to further their general education
It doesn’t seem to have worked out like that for Bill Jack, who joined the Lanarkshire Constabulary cadets in 1970. Well, he certainly learned about policing but not in the way that he was meant to. He encountered any number of time-serving or generally unenthusiastic PCs and sergeants, and the more senior officers pretty well ignored him unless they needed him to fetch tea or cigarettes. There was an attitude that the whole force was personally funded by the Chief Constable so that everything was done as cheaply as possible and any reimbursement of expenses was out of the question
Bill has written a very funny account of his experiences, none of which deterred him from eventually signing up as a PC in the force, which shortly afterwards became part of Strathclyde Police. Definitely a very different view of life in the Job
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