1. - It stops all the wasters that get into the job over here. There are plenty of them. Be afraid if you ever need a cop and one turns up. Be very afraid.

2. No. Police, at least over here are not taught anywhere near enough to be granted any form of qualification, just from basic training. Trust me, you don't get taught much.. (The difference between Burglary 9(i)a and 9(i)b anyone?!)
Although, that said, All forces now use SOLAP to train new recruits. SOLAP offers either a foundation degree or an NVQ as part of the training. The degree is totally crap. It's a degree in "Police Studies" - to you and me, thats a fluffy heart bleeding liberal standing at the front of a lecture room trying to change the police into social workers then getting you to write about 15 essays about it... (In your own time of course!)

(Can you tell I think modern British policing is Buggered?!) P.S. Read PC Daviv Copperfield's book "Wasting Police Time" available from Amazon, you'll get the drift.

3. Exactly, you hardly get any input on what you need to know, like the law for example?!

You spend half an hour learning the Theft Act and 4 days (no lie) on diversity training.

You also get taught to tell someone after a fight in the street where you've had to use CS on them, that they will recieve a leaflet in custody about what happened to them (Bah!!)

9(i)a Burglary in a dwelling
9(i)b Burglary in other than a dwelling

FYI

No, it's not. LOL (Are you a police officer by any chance?!)

The difference is in the intent of the person involved.


s9(1)(a)

A person is guilty of burglary if he enters any building or part of a building as a trespasser with intent to steal , inflict grievous bodily harm, or do unlawful damage to the building or anything in it


s9 (1)(b)

A person is guilty of burglary if, having entered a building or part of a building as a trespasser, he steals or attempts to steal anything in the building, or inflicts or attempts to inflict grievous bodily harm on any person in the building.

Oooh... handbags at dawn girls!

apropos of nothing, I have just noticed that I am using a Calgary Police Services mousemat. How fitting, considering the amount I have had to do with them in my short time living here. ..... and I was such a good girl before I came over here!

No I'm not I just work for the police!!

And I just got my definitions from the police national legal database but I didn't study it in depth - just a quick scan in between jobs at work (while the boss wasn't looking!!)