’Tis the season to be jolly – even for those on the frontline

As families and friends around the world prepare to celebrate Christmas and the New Year, those in the emergency services could be forgiven for not feeling particularly festive.

After all, anyone working in the blue-light sector – whether on the frontline, or in an equally crucial backroom, behind the scenes role – knows that 999 calls go up with the Christmas decorations, and stay up until the start of the New Year.

And this year the added Christmas demand comes at the end of what has already been a high-pressured 12 months. Caught in the middle of applying and enforcing some often-confusing Covid guidance and legislation, the service has also been under scrutiny over race and representation, the use of force, violence against women and girls, misogyny… in fact you can take almost any of society’s ills, and find those leading the debate shining the spotlight on law enforcement at some point.

So officers could be forgiven if they lacked that festive feeling. Mince pie anyone? I’ll pass. ’Tis the season to be jolly? Not really.

Quality time

Except that’s not the case. Because just like the rest of society, those in policing look forward to enjoying quality time with the people they love (as well as the relatives they might just tolerate for two weeks of the year!).

So the vast majority of you – we all know a Grinch or two, policing or otherwise – will be cherishing the time you get to spend in the company of family and friends, whether it’s for long lunches and exchanging presents, out on winter walks, or relaxing in front of the fire or a good film on TV.

One thing that makes policing and the emergency services different is that many of you will be organising those precious times around shifts at unsociable hours, facing the usual risks, threats and trauma that the job involves, so that every one of us can experience a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.

It’s one of the many things that sets police and other emergency services staff apart from the rest of us. And it’s something for which we should be, and are, extremely grateful.

A heartfelt thank you

Of course, people being people, we often fail to show our gratitude. Society is always quick to pillory, slow to praise, and policing is regularly and routinely taken for granted by the vast majority of us.

So to those of you doing a job that so many of us couldn’t or wouldn’t – thank you. To those who have 25 or 30 years in, those who are a recent recruits, and everyone in between – thank you. To those keeping the roads safe, responding to people in crisis, protecting the vulnerable, taking the violent off the streets, and the countless other tasks and commitments that police officers face today – thank you.

Our thanks may not make up for the hundreds of headlines, thousands of tweets, and comments you experience on a daily basis. But it is genuine and heartfelt. And while most of us don’t express it often enough, when we do it is on behalf of millions of others.

From all of us at Policing Insight, to all the police officers and staff, police volunteers, members of academia, and those associated with the global police community – we wish you a safe, happy and enjoyable Christmas and New Year.