Are YOU applying to join the PSNI?

Shield

Hi everyone.

I'd like to just remind everyone that the PSNI actively monitor this forum. As such, you should do your best to try and avoid giving out any information about you that may lead to identifying you.

You might think that something as simple as posting your A/C score is safe enough. It is, if that's all you're willing to post. Unfortunately, some posters will, over time, give away a little bit of info here, a little there, and all of a sudden, there's only 1 applicant who scored 68% in the A/C, and had their medical on 26th of September. Alternatively, there's only 1 applicant who scored 71 in the Initial Selection Test, and did their PCA on the 11th of August. I hope it goes without saying that these are just sample dates to illustrate the point, and are not the actual details of any person.

If you are going to give away information in the hopes that it will assist others, I would advise that you say something like: "My A/C score was in the 60-70% bracket" or "My IST score was in the 70s". This way, it's harder for the Organisation to identify you, go online and have a look at your social networking, and flag it as a concern. The type of people who give away lots of personal information on a forum are usually the type of people who have 514 friends on Facebook, can't wait to tell them about the omelette they had, and live to tweet. In other words, they are the Organisation's nightmare in human form.

If you think this even loosely describes you, and you're serious about this job, you need to start thinking about reining it in a little. Make no mistake, there are people out there who would not think twice about killing you because you applied for this job. The Ronan Kerr murder didn't happen overnight, and even though he was only days out of his Tutorship, my guess is that they knew about him for a while, they watched for opportunities to strike, patterns and times of movement, and so on. I hate mentioning him, and I do so with respect, but I know that he would want everyone out there to start thinking about personal security. Who have you told? More importantly, who could have they told?

Please, please, please, start thinking about your personal security if you haven't already. Start treating your life as if you were a Constable. Don't have social networking accounts set to 'Public', as it's just giving away pictures and locations of yourself. To quote the Deputy Director of the CIA, Christopher Sartinsky:

"After years of secretly monitoring the public, we were astounded so many people would willingly publicise where they live, their religious and political views, an alphabetised list of all their friends, personal e-mail addresses, phone numbers, hundreds of photos of themselves, and even status updates about what they were doing moment to moment. It is truly a dream come true for the CIA".

This isn't addressed to any one person in particular. It's more a reminder to anyone who is interested in this job that it does carry the ultimate risk, and YOU are responsible for what you post. If you have unwittingly made it easy for the Organisation to identify you through social networking, then you need to start making changes to your behaviour for your own protection and preservation.

If you have any concerns, please feel free to send me a PM on this, or anything else that might be on your mind in relation to your interest in the PSNI.

Thanks for reading.

Shield.
PS - I'm not posting this in my capacity as a Moderator. I'm posting this with my police hat firmly on. This means you are permitted to comment, ask questions, respectfully give your opinion if you disagree, or relate a story that you think would be beneficial to others.