Originally Posted by interpretrix
There are far too many complaints about the RAF Police. They are responsible for Discipline and Security in addition to law enforcement. Some may be bad apples but most are not. They are also underrpaid considering their responsibilities and should be higher pay band and substantive corporals on completing their course.
Surely this is a "come-on"?
OK, I'll bite. I'd venture to suggest that the MT driver who drives a bus full of children to the XMAS outing has a whole lot more responsibility on his shoulders than the plod guarding a building.
Sub Cpl on completion of a noddy course? In your dreams. Maybe the RAF needs a JNCO rank specifically for RAFP. Not like a JT, who is not an NCO. A rank which is an NCO rank, and therefore can issue orders, but of sufficiently minimal standing that it is an admin convenience. Like the Redcap LCPLs.
The fact is that nearly all ranks and trades in all the forces have a need to exist, to ensure that the job is done. Some are more essential than others though, and of the RAF ground trades, the ones that get the aircraft in the air with all the right bits on them are the more important ones. Sure, the chefs need to feed the techies, and the Dibble needs to guard the airfield, but at the end of the day, the most basic things that everyone learns in the forces is how to guard and feed themselves.
That said, the RAF Police have an outstanding role in the "blue light taxi" service, and I got on just fine with the Snowdrops when I served with the RAF. Mostly because they were sub Cpls in their late 20s, not snot nosed little $hits, and those that were, were kept in check by the older hands. We helped them out with Army bits of kit that they weren't scaled for, and they left us alone. Good deal all round.