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Comment on Rotten apples or rotten barrel? - Why police forces are magnets for the wrong kind of men

Potentially unpopular opinion here, but isn’t 750 in five years across two countries fairly small? It’s around 16 cases per year per country.

It’s 75 a year per country. A bit under 1.5 cases a week.

I have no way of assessing this against other professions but there are 150k police officers and 600k teachers - if there were 300 allegations a year against teachers in England, I’d imagine there’d be uproar.

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soyagi@yiffit.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Whoops, my math was off there. You’re right.

Funny you should mention teachers but a very recent report says that a quarter of teachers have had allegations made against them, and 10% have been subjected to a formal disciplinary process during their career. Source: www.tes.com/…/teacher-allegations-parents-pupils

There’s no uproar because the majority of allegations are just that. Allegations. While I have no doubt there are bad people in all walks of life, I do not believe most allegations hold weight. In both policing and teaching there is a power balance that works to and against each party’s advantage. Making allegations against a person in a position of power is a strong weapon (though, yes, on the flip side, taking advantage of being in a position of power is also something people can do).

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- Emperor@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  taking advantage of being in a position of power is also something people can do
  
  But also the wrong sort of people get drawn to those positions of authority, see also scout masters, vicars, Radio One DJs (I’d not want to figure out what the percentage of offenders is there), etc. The important thing is the oversight and taking allegations seriously so the proper wrong 'uns don’t slip through the cracks.
  
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