An influential police constable and Oxford graduate who was tipped as a potential future high flyer in the Met has quit the force weeks after being shot at.

Rory Geoghegan claims rank and file officers are not getting enough support and that good officers are being mistreated by "elites."

In a valedictory post on his On The Beat blog, Mr Geoghegan, who has worked as a neighbourhood officer in Lambeth for the past three years, wrote that frontline officers were being “second-guessed by those with little or no idea” and were just “a number to some” and “a uniform to others.”

His comments were interpreted as a jibe at management in the force.

Mr Geoghegan says he was left “unprepared and ill-equipped for the trauma that hit really hard” after the incident in which he was shot at.

He was unhurt in the incident - but said the aftermath showed how some officers were being "taken for granted."

He told the Telegraph: “These experiences do not fill you with confidence. There seems a double standard at play between the care that we are often quite rightly expected to provide when dealing with the public and what is provided to officers and staff when the going gets tough.”

He also complained that public attitudes meant officers were becoming more risk averse and were afraid even to own up to honest mistakes.

He said: “Good police officers face the prospect and reality of physical assault - but they also face real danger in the form of unimaginable and unforgiving levels of scrutiny, all set within cultures and institutions that have developed a risk aversion and timidity that often leave the officer carrying the can on their own.

“Even where officers hold their hands up to an honest mistake, some are still being served for gross misconduct, are under investigation for months if not years - and for little, if any, public good.

“Such cases are hugely corrosive to their morale, the morale of their colleagues and ultimately the service delivered to the public.”

Fellow officers including Hampshire Fed chairman John Apter and Devon and Cornwall PC Alice Nicholas tweeted messages of support.

Mr Geoghegan previously worked as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining think tank the Institute for Government and then Policy Exchange.

Before joining the police as a regular Mr Geoghegan served as a special constable.

He has now reportedly applied to become a special constable again and is setting up a non-profit organisation to support frontline professionals and promote better policing and public safety.

In his blog post he wrote that being a PC was "quite possibly the best job in uniformed policing," adding that he had come to his decision to leave "with a heavy heart."