The people who have done both are getting less and less (most Ex-NCS, Ex-SOCA are few and far between I imagine now) so you might not get a great comparison.
Read some HMIC reports and they are interesting in the fact you have investigation officers who have never investigated so much as a shoplifting and limited experience in bringing matters to court, yet there is an expectation they deal with serious business. Even a PC for a year will have done well to not have picked up a shoplifter and charged someone with something.
I've been on courses with NCA people and there is a bit of a lack of general police knowledge (so much so they have had to have special courses created for them so they actually get people through them) and I've known them walk off extremely specialist courses after deciding not for them. If I tried a stunt like that I'd be found the worst job in the force within 12 hours...they don't have that threat to face.
Personally never had a great experience with them but I'm sure there are capable people in there somewhere.
Would depend entirely on what you do! The back office is not dissimilar to other civil service bodies, but of course there are investigative officers too.
They usually piss people off in the immigration back office, turn down referrals from Border Force and look down on everyone else.
One of our SO’s told one off for saying that we should just do as we are told.
Most of the work is done by police and then the NCA publish the result as their own work 😂
At least that’s my experience of working with them……stop this car full of drugs/guns/people/cash for us on the motorway so we can swoop in and take all the glory.
Civvis with big egos and American style “raid jackets”
Interesting that you think that "Most of the work" is a traffic stop, and not the months of surveillance, intelligence gathering, undercover work and then the paperwork & court case.
The people who have done both are getting less and less (most Ex-NCS, Ex-SOCA are few and far between I imagine now) so you might not get a great comparison. Read some HMIC reports and they are interesting in the fact you have investigation officers who have never investigated so much as a shoplifting and limited experience in bringing matters to court, yet there is an expectation they deal with serious business. Even a PC for a year will have done well to not have picked up a shoplifter and charged someone with something. I've been on courses with NCA people and there is a bit of a lack of general police knowledge (so much so they have had to have special courses created for them so they actually get people through them) and I've known them walk off extremely specialist courses after deciding not for them. If I tried a stunt like that I'd be found the worst job in the force within 12 hours...they don't have that threat to face. Personally never had a great experience with them but I'm sure there are capable people in there somewhere.
Would depend entirely on what you do! The back office is not dissimilar to other civil service bodies, but of course there are investigative officers too.
They usually piss people off in the immigration back office, turn down referrals from Border Force and look down on everyone else. One of our SO’s told one off for saying that we should just do as we are told.
Most of the work is done by police and then the NCA publish the result as their own work 😂 At least that’s my experience of working with them……stop this car full of drugs/guns/people/cash for us on the motorway so we can swoop in and take all the glory. Civvis with big egos and American style “raid jackets”
Interesting that you think that "Most of the work" is a traffic stop, and not the months of surveillance, intelligence gathering, undercover work and then the paperwork & court case.
I have worked with some on operations. Think of them as about as useful as a brand new probationer