I made the switch from the police to train driving so perhaps can shed some light:
Policing cons
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Pay: A Met new joiner will be on about £25K (figures include £6k London weighting). It used to take about ten years to get to £39-40K, but I gather that timescale may have reduced slightly. Try the Home Office website. A new police sergeant will be on about £45k, Inspector about £50-55K, Chief Insp (soon to be disbanded, watch this space, about £60K), Superintendent about £70-80K. If you reach Inspector within ten years you're doing very well. Many try and fail. Your pay scales are decided by the government *major klaxon warning number one*. We had a three year pay freeze when I was there, which is why I'm perplexed when railway staff advocate rail renationalisation. You will pay 15% of your monthly pay into the New Police Pension Scheme *major klaxon number two*. It's not a bad scheme, but it's changed from final salary to career average, so not as good as it used to be. The scheme change twice whilst I was there...which means it will probably change again within the next ten years.
Travel: You no longer receive any travel benefits apart from the London Underground, so if you have to get overground trains you'll have to fork out for it like everyone else. You'll be working alongside PCs who have ten years service and can get from London to Brighton, Didcot, Southend, Leicester, Brum on old ATOC privileges for nothing.
Shifts: If posted to uniformed response when you start, you'll be doing earlies, lates and nights in the same week (2x2x2) and won't know whether you're coming or going. On that pattern you then officially have four days off, but the first is spent sleeping. And the fourth is sometimes used as a training day. Doing that combination of shifts every week is a killer. Neighbourhood teams and CID generally do earlies and lates, but do nights every so often. You will leave work late on a very regular basis, especially when you're new. If someone gets stabbed in hour 9 of your 10 hour shift, you can't say 'sorry mate I finish in an hour'....you'll be down the hospital for the next few hours with the victim and book off three or four hours late. Same with late arrests - you 'own' that job through custody until you've done the minimum for initial investigation and handed the prisoner over to CID etc. There you are, breezing along on a summers day with 30 minutes to go on your 8 hour early turn then - bang, there's a juvenile shoplifter at Boots with you name on it (oh and they're pregnant and don't speak English). That's another three-four hours added onto your day in the click of a finger. Events! And for that reason you can't ever plan anything on your work days.
Rest days: You will have a rest pattern but it won't be guaranteed - by that I mean you might be off Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs next week (having finished 2x2x2), but you can have any of those canceled at a moments notice if there is stuff happening - unforeseen events, e.g. terrorism, riots etc. They don't like cancelling RDs, but they do it if they have to. Demonstrations etc are often policed through RD working (i.e. you have been compulsory warned for that day a few months/weeks in advance -eg your fourth rest day). Same with CPS court warnings (which can last one, two, three days etc). If these fall on rest days - tough. There are some dates in the year which you will only get off if you're lucky in the very limited annual leave draw - e.g. August bank holiday, Christmas, New Years Eve, England football etc.
Staff welfare: You are essentially a digit. The Met employs 50,000 people (about 31-32,000 cops). The atmosphere can be a little hard nosed and uncaring. If on your regular shifts you get off at 0300 due to late arrest, getting home is your problem...there won't be any lifts or taxis. Your team supervisors will have gone home at 2300 when the shift officially finished. You'll be at the mercy of the incoming 'shift' and you don't exist in their eyes! Tonight is another good example - NYE shifts will be finishing at 0400....if you're one of the cops on duty in central London you'll be kipping on the floor of the nick until the first trains at 0730/0800, unless you're lucky to have a night bus going you're way or are getting ferried back to an outer borough nick in a police carrier where you've parked your car. If you work in a central borough then parking is a nightmare. The Met have sold off a lot of their real estate due to budget cuts, so being able to park at a nick is a luxury rather than a right. Most cops use public transport, unless they work in outer boroughs - e.g. Havering, Bexley etc that have residential streets near the nicks. Oh and getting followed back to your car by the local scum bags, lets not go there....
The public: Behaviour is generally getting worse, a growing number of people have no respect for the uniform. You'll have mobile phones shoved in your face when you're just trying to do your job. People will spit at you, punch you etc etc. They won't get punished at court. People will submit malicious complaints against you just to muddy the waters, even if you were 100% justified in doing what you're doing. These drag on for months causing you undue stress.
The work: 90% of police work is mundane monotony, having to deal with societies dregs. Standing outside for eight hours in January guarding a crime scene, or guarding a prisoner at hospital who've you've had to strap the bed because he keeps trying to hit you or escape. Strip searching someone in custody who has sh*t themselves. Reporting endless 'domestics' of Wayne and Waynetta slob, or the 'missing' kids who are seldom missing. More and more police time is taken up with tasks which should be the preserve of other agencies, but thanks to the Tory cuts tend to fall onto the police - people having mental health crisis, concerns for welfare in the community etc etc.
No industrial rights: The Pol Fed is not a union. They help you when facing the music - e.g. complaints, court etc. You have no industrial rights. You can't strike. You can't work to rule. If you don't like something, tough.
Breaks - on uniformed response (and CID) in busy boroughs, getting time to eat can be a nightmare. You've worked your butt off, managed to grab a kebab, just about to eat it when your Sergeant turfs you out for the next emergency call. Kebab goes in the bin. Breaks are a luxury, not a right. On bad days you will do a 10hr shift without eating. At Notting Hill Carnival you might do 18. Oh and of course the "got time to eat have you" comments from the oh so adoring public. Tesco sandwichs eaten in the car are the norm.
Policing plus points
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Variety: every day really is different. You can't say that about too many jobs. One day you're cutting a dead person down from a tree, the next you're stood on The Mall wearing your tunic and white gloves waiting for the Queen to go by. Or blue lighting someone to a hospital so they see their critical relative in A&E or returning a confused elderly person home before they come to harm.
Career development: there are numerous avenues to specialise and/or get promotion. This is more so in the Met than county constabularies due to its vast size. Competition is usually fierce as people try to escape the drudgery of day to day policing.
Results: seeing someone you nicked/investigated getting a decent sentence at court is very satisfying. You won't see that as often with routine uniform work but if you move into CID and undertake more serious investigations you'll be in court more often.
Develops you as a person: soft skills dealing with people, dealing with trauma, accidents etc. It definitely made me more resilient. Standing in the witness box under cross examination in front of a jury for three hours is a test.....
The people you work with: on the whole great guys and gals who you can share a laugh will and have each others backs. The dark humour will get you through those dark times....
Stories for the grandkids: you get to see/do some things that other people will never get the chance to. Front row positions during ceremonial events like Remembrance Sunday, the Queens birthday parade, the Olympics etc. If these sort of things float your boat, obviously....
Excitement: it does happen...just not as often as portrayed in police TV shows. You will have foot chases, car chases etc etc. You will Taser someone. And once you've apprehended your 'man' it's then time to calm down and spend the next few hours writing war and peace statements. If firearms and fast cars interest you then obviously there's the chance to diversify into firearms or traffic postings. Cruising down the Thames with your Ray bans on...
Job security: You won't get made redundant, and if you manage to keep your nose clean you'll have a job until retirement. When that will be seems to move with every new Home Secretary!
Read this from a couple of years ago, nothing much has changed:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...olice-former-met-officer-on-service-in-crisis
I'm new to driving, but here's what I think of it so far:
Train driving cons
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Solitary work: bad if you don't like your own company. Thankfully I like it.
Monotony: - on Crossrail this will probably be worse than elsewhere as it's one route, same with Gatwick Express etc. I think that would bore me to pieces. Thankfully we have a variety of routes at our depot. Once you've done a few years at Crossrail and have your key, you could move elsewhere...
Earlies - the earlies are very early, this might bother you depending on your commute. But then your working day is over quicker. Personally I feel better on the railway shifts than the policing ones.
Money trap: the money is very good, so good that most stay in the driving grade. You can go into management positions, but then you risk job security and no guarantee you'll earn as much (at least to start with).
Incidents: very easy to have them if you don't remain vigilant (and also being aware of what other people should be doing - e.g. platform staff). Too many safety of the line incidents will reduce your desirability with other companies.
Automation: a long way off yet, but it will come eventually. Even when it does I think trains will still have human oversight in the cabs. I assume Crossrail would be more of a candidate for ATO than other routes as it will be one traction type and has similar characteristics to the Thameslink core...
Train driving plus points
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Unlike policing, good pay from the moment you're qualified, good pension and regular increments which the government has no say over.
Unlike policing, excellent travel benefits (ATOC 75% etc)
Unlike policing, strong union representation
Unlike policing, you have a guaranteed rest day pattern at a TOC and won't have them cancelled.
Unlike policing, its a 35 hour week, not 40
Unlike policing, at TOC more often than not you'll finish on time or thereabouts (unless it goes really wrong)
Unlike policing, you don't have passengers trying to take lumps out of you on a regular basis (yes I know there are always exceptions)
Unlike policing, you're sat in a warm cab not freezing your nuts off outside
Unlike policing, at a TOC you won't be doing full nights every week (although at some depots you will do some now and then).
Unlike policing, you do the job on your diagram and don't have managers chasing you down on the radio 24/7 asking what you're up to.
Unlike policing, your 'paperwork' will amount to a few lines on a 'please explain' or an incident report sheet
Unlike policing, you get a defined break on your diagram
I could go on and on (please no, stop!!). Perhaps I'm a little biased, but those are my initial thoughts. I enjoyed the first few years of policing...but then as time went on, dealing with people (often drunk) you require the patience of a saint.
You could always try one and, if you don't like it, try the other. If you try policing, then switch to the railways and don't like it, the police will always take you back as rejoiner (used to be within five years of leaving, it might have changed).
