Liverpool armed policeman disciplined after popping into bike shop while on duty

I've mailed my complaint to MP and referred them to this site. Coppers are lambasted for sitting in their cars and not engaging with 'the community'. As soon as one does he gets reported by some sly busybody. Armed officers are constantly on alert so if one wants to take a break why not? The same busybody would soon be raging to the Echo if the officer concerned refused to answer a call because he or she was on an official rest break. I just hope the self righteous pillock isn't a cyclist.

Oh ffs. It's not like he handed his sidearm to a crim 'here mind this while I have a look in this bike shop'. I hope the discipline fit the crime - no custard creams with his tea maybe?

What with all of the public sector cuts, why is it that police forces are allowed to be so shockingly shambolically bad?. Every day sees a new example of the police epically failing and wasting public money. My parents like to watch those TV programmes like "Coppers in Choppers" etc, all I see is people who are hopelessly incompetent at their job, and in any other field would simply not have a job, nor a company to work for. If a library, hospital, day centre, school or business was as hopelessly bad, it would have been closed down years ago. From the genuinely tragic (Jean Charles de Menezes eg.) to the merely bathetic it seems that UK policing is so completely messed up as to be irreparable.
An example from my local paper, "The police helicopter was scrambled to stop a suspected drunk driver"
WTF?
A helicopter? at what £10,000 ph?
To achieve what could be done with two cars?
In the event the 'drunk driver' was not even drunk, just not very good at driving.
Or the 'Helicopters Heroes' of Oxfordshire who saw fit to respond to some children having a kickabout in a pub garden and who had accidentally broken a pane of glass in a neighbour's greenhouse?
http://bit.ly/qFwWEO
No offence intended to present company, who I am sure are wonderful, but in the above example WTF is this guy:
(Chief Inspector Mark Stanton, head of firearms for Merseyside Police,) thinking of?

“I would like to apologise to the local community for the behaviour of these officers.

“As soon as the matter was brought to our attention, we immediately spoke to the officers who admitted that they should not have stopped at the shop while they were out on patrol.

“They have been given strong management advice and are fully aware that their actions did not reflect well on themselves, their colleagues or the force.

“They are in no doubt that their future conduct is under close scrutiny.

“While this behaviour is disappointing, the overwhelming majority of my staff are both conscientious and committed to protecting the public and providing an excellent policing service to our communities.”

Does he have nothing better to do? Is there no press officer to deal with this? The copper in question was quite obviously doing nothing wrong or reprehensible and yet his cretin of a boss feels that this is an appropriate response. Despair.

What a crock

As a serving PC ( and an ex firearms officer) I can tell you that we are all on the verge of giving up and leaving society to rot in its own filth. I'm sure the majority of the public support us but the media, politicians and even our own bosses seem to take every opportunity to score points at our expense and undermine us.
On ARV duty I was expected to be overtly armed at all times, but I am also entitled to a one hour lunch break in my ten hour shift. 95% of the time my colleagues and I don't get to take anywhere near this, if at all. We are encouraged to take our breaks publicly so as to still be available to the public and still provide a visible presence. But if this is the way they want to play it i'm going back to the nick, shutting the door and making damn sure I take a full hour off with no interruptions.

I used to work in a bike shop and we had an armed copper in on quite a few occasions, buying bits and pieces, having a look and a chat. Actually worked both ways as he was able to tell us all the latest goings on. He got called out once - his colleague waiting in the unmarked car put the sirens on, the guy just stopped mid conversation, ran out the door and was in the car and away in seconds. Nice bloke and it seems a bit harsh to discipline a policeman just for being in a bike shop!

A shocking waste of police resources to discipline him for this. I think I'll be contacting Merseyside Police to complain about this!

The fact is we are going to get used to seeing more armed officers because of the high incidence of gun crime. (I think Nottingham still has armed patrols.) What's the first thing tourists see when they arrive at Heathrow? Armed officers with MP5s and Glocks.

Give the copper break, he must be entitled to a rest period at some time. you should come to london the old bill are always in evans cycles in the cut, 4 at a time normally, whats the problem???

As a serving cop i have to be careful what i say BUT disciplining him is a bit rich unless it was because he was carrying his side arm ?

Beat officers and 24/7 responce officers are actively encouraged to go into shops to show their face and make shop keepers feel more secure.

Ridiculous. Know the shop well. It has a lot of very exepensive bikes. Since Formby Cycles has had a couple of scallies running out with bikes in the past 18 months perhaps the copper should have said he was checking in with staff. I know they'd back him in that. The more coppers who ride bikes and talk to cyclists the better. The Echo's a rag - doesn't represent the people of Merseyside and should be ignored.

We all do it we're out on the road.... whether we are a policeman or a IT/salesman etc...... In america police "duty visits" are part of the culture... lets all get real....

I feel sorry for the paper who and Why they had to publish it...

The police have a hard enough job to do over the next few years of AUSTERITY and it WILL get even harder...

PS I hope they return my Red Colnago Master 54cm Campy Super Record ASAP

I see loads of police getting Burgers from McD at lunch time. At least this guy was healthy and has a decent hobby. It all depends if he was on his lunch. Let's face it he was not going to leave his firearm in the car and the bike shop was not going to get robbed while he was in there. They should let him off.