28 November 2004
Week Twenty – STREET DUTIES…
My first day almost started very badly. I got the driving in thing right (did I mention my parents helped me buy a legendary Skoda Favorit?), which was a huge relief and then went to get changed in our 1 star locker room and on trying to lift my only pair of trousers I had with me past my knees, I thought, crap…..nightmare, either I have put on ten stone, or these ain’t my trousers! I checked them and they were my old Hendon room mates (who’s a lot skinnier than me). What an absolute disaster. I started to panic but thank the lord when Sam turned up, she had accidentally brought mine so phewff, I didn’t have to struggle in to those hot pants. No other major faux pas just yet, so that’s nice.
The first thing I notice is this. I have, this week, spent some time at Tooting, Battersea and Wandsworth police stations, and without exception, not a single one of them has on display a single clock that actually tells the correct time. I don’t know why this is, it’s incredibly odd but that is the case.
So, I have just finished my first 6 day stint on the streets of Wandsworth. Three of those six days were training and classroom based but for the other three, I was out being PC Woody for real! It still seems very surreal to be real Old Bill but I have to say, I have thoroughly enjoyed myself this week.
First day, we met all our instructors for this ten week Street Duties course and so far, they all seem absolutely brill. I think I have been incredibly fortunate throughout my time at Hendon with instructors and now that trend seems to be continuing. They have been very supportive and the Sergeant who initially put the fear of God in me, actually seems like a top man and I think we are going to get the most possible out of the next ten weeks.
They are clearly going to be biased but everyone at Wandsworth keeps telling us how lucky we are to be starting our career in the Wandsworth borough and I think I would agree with them. We have all had some great experiences this week and have all now had at least one arrest. Every day for me now, I have either been a witnessing or arresting officer to a shoplifting arrest. Of course, the first time I did it, I was very nervous. I was pleased to not stumble over the caution but that was the easy part. I was terrified doing my first interview and that’s for probably about the most straightforward offence I will ever have to deal with. First arrest was for you, Ersk.
The first guy my colleague Rich arrested was a top man! I know I probably shouldn’t say that but he really was a nice bloke and we had such a laugh with him. He was gay and no stranger to the custody suite so I took the opportunity to ask him lots of questions about whether he has a preference for whether a male or female searches him etc. It was almost sad to see him be released again, he shook my hand on the way out and I wished him well on his way! I’ll no doubt catch up with him again next week.
I am already well aware that I need to feel far less sorry for people who break the law as at the moment, when they have a little cry, I feel absolutely terrible. My second arrest, this poor poor lady who had no electricity as she was so poor and just wanted a nice pair of trousers to try and get a job, oh, my little heart was breaking, I wanted to give her a big hug and buy her a nice suit myself. Obviously, I will need to sort this out and become bitter and cynical to make a proper police officer but I think it will take time, all the people I have arrested or given tickets to so far have been so pleasant!
I have also had a few run ins with people with mental health problems and that can be quite scary as they are so unpredictable but I have managed to hold my composure so far I think.
I have a little bet with one of my instructors next week that I am hoping to win and the result will be clear on Wednesday. We tried to execute an arrest warrant for a chap who had failed to appear in court for a traffic offence. When we went to his address he claimed to be the man in question’s brother, although he perfectly matched the description, scars and all. He told us he didn’t drive so it couldn’t possibly be him. My instructor explained to him that because he matched the description, he really needed to do more to convince us he was the brother and not the man we were after so he produced a letter with his name and address on. What my colleague didn’t notice was that it was a motor insurance quote from Norwich Union Direct meaning he was lying about the whole not driving thing. I didn’t want to undermine the guy I was with and it is so hard to know what we can and can’t do yet so I didn’t say anything until we got back in the Panda. He wasn’t happy as I think he then felt a bit embarrassed. My gut feeling was the dude was lying so we had a little bet and we will go back and get him next week and take him in to fingerprint him and find out. 20p coming my way for sure!
Each day I have been out and about I have ended up doing quite a bit of overtime so that’s great for the cashola flow but I cannot explain how exhausted I am today! I did a 13 hour shift yesterday and could barely keep my eyes open writing the CRIS report but we muddled through. It was the end of a 60 hour week so my poor little body just wanted to give up really. It is staggering how much paperwork you have to do when you arrest someone for the most basic crime and I am amazed nothing has been done about it. You have to have about 4 unique numbers for each case, never mind each person’s unique numbers and the duplication of data – shocking.
Anyway, all in all, it’s been a really enjoyable week, I like the station, I love the peeps I am working with, I love speeding round the streets of Wandsworth with the blues and twos on and I can’t wait to get out there and get more experience under by utility belt and start trying to get some confidence together to feel like I can actually deal with things myself rather than feeling pretty useless.
We have a fines system in place for mistakes etc. made by us pupils and I have already had two 20p fines for cheeky comments! It’s all in good fun though, I just can’t help myself really. We have had a couple of fines for fellow pupils accidentally pressing the emergency button on the radios too, which is a much heavier fine but we are all having a laugh.
I have realised that not much at all that you get taught at Hendon is the way that it is really done which I kind of expected but it does frustrate me a bit as you get used to doing things a certain way and you almost need to unlearn everything you were taught and re-learn the practical way to do things but it will all come together with time.
So, I’ve done a whole range of things this week – I’ve searched some very stinky feet without putting gloves on (I didn’t want to offend my poor prisoner but I won’t do that again!), I’ve tried to serve a summons, I have executed an arrest warrant, I have issued several FPNs for driving down a bus lane (all Wandsworth drivers, just don’t bother for these ten weeks, one of us will definitely catch you and we’re not really allowed to use our discretion just yet), reported someone for no tax, done a stint in the Station Reception Office, arrested two people, searched them, given my OATS to the custody Sergeant, taken DNA, fingerprints and conducted two interviews and oh, dealt with shed loads of paperwork and well, that about wraps it up. How could I ever get bored in this job and we haven’t even touched the surface yet. I haven’t slept or eaten much but hey, that stuff’s just for wimps anyway!
OK, I am going to stop writing now as I could probably go on forever. I am about to start a 9 day stint, most of which are evening shifts so I should see some quite different offences this week, drink driving, drunk and disorderly, domestics and the like so that should be very exciting. Drink driving being one of the offences I particularly have a problem with people committing, I can’t wait to get my grubby probationer, non-discretionary hands on them. If I have anything to do with it, they will be going down.
Anyway, I’ll update this again some time next weekend. Have fun folks and I will catch up with you all soon.
PC Woody
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