Purpose
The purpose of the police can be found in many different places but this is mainly in the mission statement this sets out the common goals that the police are trying to do
The Actions of the police are governed by several different laws and acts of parliaments the main one being PACE (police and criminal evidence act) and the police act 1996 this controls local policing.
The responsibilities of the police is to carry out their roles and purpose and to provide the best possible service to the public this is where there first duty is it is to the public not the government. This means that the government and the government departments don’t have direct control over it instead it is controlled by local police authorities this is made up of a committee of councillors it makes sure that the police fits in with the local needs. Each police force has a mission statement these are produced to make sure that the public is well informed of what the police are doing. The police are also inspected on regular intervals to make sure that they are value for money they also have other commissions that investigate any complaints that are made against them.
The coastguard
The main role of the coastguard is the coordination of all maritime rescues around the UK with a total of 1.25 million miles of coast line and water to look after 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Monitoring radios and telephones for emergencies and coordinating the response to incidents by deploying some of the 400 + response teams from around the country this consists of helicopters and lifeboats. They also respond to pollution incidents where there may be a spill of something in the water they also inspect foreign ships and British ships for their safety. They also collect evidence and enforce laws that are for people who break laws these can be pollution employment and safety, they also oversee the salvage operations where they deal with ship wrecks. And investigating any wrecks that there are.
Purpose
The main purpose is to be world class agency that is committed to preventing the loss of life at sea. To ensure that ships are safe, and to prevent coastal pollution Safer Lives, Safer Ships, Cleaner Seas. The main law that governs this is the aviation and maritime security act 1990 this lays down laws regarding the, and security at harbours.
Responsibilities
The coastguard is run by the maritime and coastguard agency which is part of the department of transport. They are responsible to the public who use the sea or the coast line but they do not have the same systems that control their actions like the police do to make sure that the public is served inspections and reviews are carried out to make sure that it is value for money. In recent times they have been put under pressure to become more cost effective so they have had to cut down in size.
Describe the positive and negative aspects of working within the public services
Most public services have a good starting pay and a normal pay the best at the moment is the police where they receive £21,009 this raises to £23, 454 after completion of the 14 weeks training. There is an early retirement age the maximum time of service in the army is 22 years so if someone joins at 17 and they sign up for 22 years they will be 39 when they leave and they will have a pull pension and they are able to get another job. The pension is non contributory which means the employee doesn’t have to pay towards the pension. Most public services offer a good amount of holiday in the RAF they receive 47 days paid holiday a year. They receive good benefits these include free health care (army), free travel (police), cheap accommodation and cheap food (Army). Nearly all of the armed forces offer people the chance to do more training weather it is to learn a new skill or to do a degree they will give you the time and money to make more of yourself. You get a satisfaction from your job this could be from protecting your country in you are in the army all the way to saving someone’s life if you were in the fire brigade. You get camaraderie in all services you lose friends and you make friends all your life but when you make friend in a service you keep that friend until the day you die due to the fact that you have to work in pressurised situation where you need to depend on each other to get the job done. In most public services you may get to travel the world this is mainly in the armed forces where you get chance to serve in other countries doing a tour of duty.
Negative aspects
One negative aspect is shift rotations this makes it hard for people to keep relationships at home for example the police work 6 days in a row 2 mornings 2 afternoons and 2 nights then they have four days off. The amount of time also is hard as in the police if you are on an afternoon shift on a Friday or Saturday then you start an hour later and you finish 3 hours later. The job as a whole can be a negative aspect as sometime it can be hard for example being in a war zone is not nice and not many people would want to be in that situation. Some of the situations that you can get in in everyday work such as getting called to 2 sudden deaths and rapes are not nice but as a police officer you have to put all the hate and the “I don’t like this” in the back of your mind and you have to get on with the job. In most jobs there is a code of conduct but in the public services there is a strict code of conduct and the services will not allow any type of breech of that code of conduct this puts pressure on people to make sure they don’t do things wrong like wearing jewellery. In all public services except the fire brigade and the prison service are not allowed to strike due to the amount of people and that if they did it would make the UK an insecure place to live
