Painless.

I was not sure whether I should write this one.  Then I was.

I have been thinking about suicide lately. Quite a lot.

It's not in a "taking my own life" sort of way, but in a "what can we do about it" sort of way.

It is a painful and heart breaking reality that suicide is all too much a part of life.  It's a bad part of life.  It's a part of life worth trying to make better.  I've avoided even talking about it, until recently. That has made it difficult to do anything about it.  I now talk about suicide.

Every copper I know has been touched by a job where someone has taken their own life.  I and four other officers I know have had to watch helplessly as people took their own life.  It sucks.

And it was shocking to realize that three colleagues I have worked alongside on various teams have also taken their own life.

Until recently Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly had the highest per capita suicide rate in the UK.  It is fourth now.  Nationally there are about 6,000 death certificates issued each year which show the cause of death as suicide. Putting that in perspective, since 2010 there have been less than 2000 fatalities per year on our roads. 

I know all this because I have had the opportunity to attend two courses recently.  The first organised by the Police Federation and designed to help officers help officers, and the second organised by the National Health Service in Cornwall designed to equip anyone who wanted with the knowledge and skills to help someone who is having thoughts of suicide.  This course is called Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training or ASIST, and like lots of good stuff lately seems to have kicked off in Canada.

One of the interesting things I saw on the course was this;

Bridge between suicide and hope

Two hundred suicide interventions is a lot.  It's way more than anyone I know, and I know a couple of very experienced Hostage and Crisis Negotiators.  So I guess Sergeant Briggs knows what he is talking about.  He actually talks through what is in the syllabus of the course pretty well in one way or another.  There’s just one thing extra I’d mention.

That is the "why" would you take your own life?

There are suicide survivors who have told their stories and explained the reasons they made attempts on their own lives.  There are some common experiences.

Bad things happened in their lives; so many, so bad or so big that it feels as if they just can’t be faced or "dealt with".  Usually there was also lot of other stuff causing stress and worry.  They became physically or emotionally isolated for whatever reason. Some had reached out or made "cries for help" which did not help. Others couldn't ask for help. Most had slipped into clinical depression and could not see a way out.

The instructors on the course described it as being in an utterly "hopeless and helpless" place.  It's a horrid, painful place to be.

Most of those brave people who have shared their experience as survivors said two things about the attempt itself.  First was that they made the decision to suicide because they wanted the pain to stop, not because they wanted to be dead.  Second was that during the event they regretted what they had done and wanted to live.

So what can be done about it?  Apart from being a friend?

Well, assuming we have taken the time and trouble to go and talk to someone we are worried about:

1.  Listen carefully and see if they mention or you think suicide is on their mind.

2.  If a suicide inkling is there, then ask them.  The advice is that no survivor has said they thought of suicide because someone asked them. Just the opposite.  A version of, "You seem to be going through a lot at the moment.  I am worried for you.  Have you had any thoughts of suicide?" seemed to work well on course.

3.  Now, this is the "how long is a piece of string" bit.  Talk to them and try to get them to tell their story. Listen well when they talk. Do not judge them.  If you can, gently guide them into explaining why they are in the situation they are in.  Don't tell them to "get a grip" or anything similar.

4.  Keep a look out for turning points; turning away from suicide.

5.  Help them take the first step back from suicide; taking them home to a relative or friend or going with them to make an appointment with a GP.  Something like that.

Finally, if it does not end well it is not your fault.  You tried.  In the same way a medical first aider may try and it still end badly.  If it does end well, you just saved someone's life.

Do let me know if there's anything else you would like to know.  I can phone a friend if I don't know.

But if you need help now you should know that I don't see your messages for a while, so why not phone one of your friends, or the Samaritans.  They're good people.  Their number is 116 123.

Yours

Inspector


PS - Please drive with care, be kind to others and yourself, and don't steal stuff. 

Confessions and Cars, or "Lights, Sirens and the Highway Code"

My Tutor Constable was called Henry.  He was wise, humorous and knew the first name of every landlord on our patch.  He was also able to fill an entire shift relaying tales of daring do and the particular insight into the human condition they afforded.


I remember two of these insights; "No bloke driving a car badly in the history of blokes driving cars badly has ever said 'Sorry Constable, good to know and do you have any useful advice for me?', and ‘No bloke in the history of blokes being told to calm down, has ever calmed down because a copper told them to calm down'. "


And now I would like to share my confession; just between you and me.


It's about the driving bit. 


"I am an Inspector in the Devon and Cornwall Police and I have, more than once had a word with myself about my bad driving and twice been set on the path to a Speed Awareness course by the flash of a camera."


The words of advice to myself were of the “verbal warning and educating" variety, rather than reporting myself for the consideration of a prosecution. I am not sure I could even report myself. And I won’t waste the time of “Legal” trying to find out.


One example was a few weeks ago.  I was in my own car heading to a beach with a car full of spaniels. I was driving an old, tatty and suitably scuffed recreational 4x4.  I was on a minor single lane road lined by tall hedges and trees right up to the junction about 100 yards ahead. 


Then I heard it.  The “wah, wah, wah” warble of an emergency vehicle.  I felt that twinge of anxiety and started to look for the flashing blue lights.  About 3 cars back was a police car with its blues and twos in full display.


The police speak “I was proceeding….” version is that my vehicle and the vehicles behind me would block the carriageway as it narrowed and the emergency vehicle would have to wait for us all to manoeuvre the junction safely on to the A road.  I therefore indicated, to the near side whilst progressively slowing my vehicle and coming to a stop before the road narrowed.


The “keeping it real” version is that I said “Where the foxtrot is that coming from?” to the spaniels. I then peered into the mirrors and tried to look over my shoulder. I thought the police driver would be grumpy if I got in the way of the junction. I indicated, pulled left and braked.  The car behind me slowed and pulled over too, the car behind that hadn’t seen the police car and went to overtake us. The police car had to brake heavily. The car in the way didn’t know where to go and tried to go to the right, effectively blocking the width of the road.  The police car switched all the flashy noisy things off and sat there until we sorted ourselves out.  It was not pretty or quick.


Once safely on my way to the beach I had a word to myself about my bad driving.  I certainly didn’t say to myself, “Sorry Inspector, good to know and do you have any useful advice for me?”.  In my head it was the fault of the car behind the car behind. Or even the Highways Agency for the road layout.  Or perhaps the farmer who hadn’t cut back the trees so I could see if the A road was clear.  Or maybe………


I ended up asking a proper driving professional, a supervisor in the Serious Collisions Unit what the advice and guidance is.  An officer who, with his colleagues on the unit has more experience of when driving goes wrong than anyone should have.  His reply, well it started like this:

“As always the Highway Code tells us everything we need to know about life… or is it just the rules of the road… I always get those two mixed up…”

It went on to very professionally explain it all came down to rule 219 which tells us all about Emergency and Incident Response Vehicles.  The best part says, “Consider the route of such a vehicle and take appropriate action to let it pass, while complying with all traffic signs.”

But like most things all it will tells us is the “what” to do.  We have to work out the “how” ourselves.  If our "how" is perhaps not the best "how" we may even get told it was bad driving.  But hopefully we won’t get told to calm down.

Yours truly,

Inspector

I would ask that you drive carefully, are kind and calm and be content with what is already yours or can be legally acquired.

PS – I recently saw a version of Henry’s wisdom on the side of a mug.  It made me chuckle.

We're all going on a summer holiday.

Just a fairly short entry this time.

It's a nasty topic, but I am really pleased we can talk about it.  That's because I used to lie awake worrying about what I should do as a Critical Incident Manager, and what to tell people to do in the first few minutes of an attack like this.

This advice from the National Police Chiefs’ Council has my “what to tell people to do” worries covered.  I'm still working on the "what I should do" bit.

So if you’re heading to Cornwall or the Isles of Scilly, or anywhere else for that matter for a holiday this is worth watching.

 Run Hide Tell on YouTube

There’s just one extra thing I would also ask you to think about. But not too much.

That’s what you would do if you found yourself face to face with the baddie, with nowhere left to run or hide and all the telling you could manage had been done.

I don’t think there is a right answer.

Me, whatever the answer turned out to be I’d prefer to actually be "doing something about it"; apart from the obvious which would be sorted by a change of underwear after it's all over

If I surrendered and it ended badly I’d feel like such a doofus.

If I tried to talk my way out I would be aiming for the most Oscar winning,  Brexit level negotiating I could manage. If I fought it would be with the nastiest weapon I had to hand and with as much aggression as I could manage.

And please do remember, this is incredibly rare compared to other bad things we deal with all the time. 
So enjoy your holidays when they come.

Yours

Inspector

PS, when on holiday please drive safely, be kind, respect other peoples stuff.

 

Doing a proper job.

I've just been looking at the Office of National Statistics website. It's very thorough. But it does use a lot of acronyms.

One of the acronyms is IDACI.  It stands for "Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index".  It is a figure that gets lower as the number of children who, for whatever reason, don't have what they need gets higher.

I remember one child I met. This lad must have been about three; a cheeky little chap who was rocking the saggy nappy, grubby dummy outfit as he strutted barefoot into the room.   He also looked pretty proud of his body art; an oddly orange patch down his front with pale streaks where the  dummy couldn't quite stop the dribble dripping onto his tummy.

If he is still with us he will be in his 30s by now.

We remember the children we meet.  We safeguard them as best we can as police officers. There are more officers than people may think who go that extra mile.  This is one of them. 

"As a former housing officer this officer was already aware of the high levels of poverty that existed in some parts of Cornwall when she joined the police.

During her work as a front line Patrol Officer she again saw first hand the effects of poverty on the young. At work she conscientiously fulfilled the Force Mission to protect the vulnerable.  But not being content to limit her compassion to work hours, this officer decided to do something for the families she saw struggling to provide for their children.  Drawing upon her experience with community action groups and charities, in June 2016 she started her own community action group “Little Wrens Wardrobe”.

Using crowd funding she was able to rent a small industrial unit on a nearby industrial estate.  By sheer hard work, dedication and raw energy, as well as her considerable persuasive skills, she established a network of donors and up to 15 volunteers to gather and sort through clothing, equipment, books and toys.  The idea was to respond to the needs of distressed families by taking referrals from professionals and volunteer organisations who worked with vulnerable families and children.

It was not long before news of Little Wrens Wardrobe spread with referrals coming from social services, mental health workers, domestic violence advocates, drugs and addiction support workers and hostels. Parents escaping violence, with mental health difficulties, addictions or simply going through a bit of a rough patch are amongst those helped.  In addition Little Wrens Wardrobe held  three free “thrift shop” events; events that would be respectful and accepting of those who came to use the service for free.

This officer works hard to break down the barriers that may stop someone asking for help.  She keeps her work and Little Wrens personas separate so as not to deter those she has had cause to deal with when in uniform.

The service is available to anyone in North Cornwall, and so far families from Bodmin, Wadebridge, Launceston, Camelford and Bude have been helped.  It is impressive how this officer has dedicated herself to building the capacity of Little Wrens Wardrobe.

This community group has responded to over 400 referrals from numerous statutory partners, run free “book hunts” for children during holidays, raised over £8000 pounds and is well into an 8 week process to apply for charitable status with the Charities Commission."

Now that's what I call a proper job.

Yours

Inspector

PS - Please, please drive carefully.  Be kind to each other. Don't mess with other people's stuff.  

Instinct, luck and who knows what?

I still don't know why this officer crawled to the edge of a very unstable cliff at this exact spot.


Judging from last time we spoke nor did he.


However I am so grateful he did, despite our “conversation” about staying safe as he was allocated this job.


This is the resultant recommendation for a Chief Constable's Commendation, written some months ago and awarded this May.


"During a search for a lady who was in her 80s and considered to be at high risk of coming to harm, the actions taken by this officer showed initiative, bravery and ultimately saved the lady’s life.


The lady lived at home with her son; a man in his fifties and a chronic alcoholic.


A third party called the police with concerns after a garbled and worrying message from the son.


When police arrived it was immediately apparent that the lady was missing. It was a cold, drizzly night with mist, thick cloud cover and strong winds.  The lady was assessed as being at high risk. Extensive searches and enquiries were completed around their home and likely locations, but throughout the son continued to be unable to talk coherently with police or give a meaningful account.


At the first opportunity in the morning this officer went to the address to talk again with the son. With intelligent and thoughtful questioning of a still challenging individual the officer managed to piece together an account of the previous day.


He gleaned that the lady was intent on taking her own life.  In amongst the rambling and random account of where the son “thought” his mother had gone, the officer caught a passing comment that she once threatened to jump from cliffs along a section of the coast path known to the officer.


With no better lead the officer went to these cliffs and made his way along the coast path. It is a rugged coastal path with unstable overhangs and small bays where landslides are common. Conditions remained challenging with rain, low cloud, brisk winds and continuing cold weather. From the path you cannot see over the edge.


Still not sure if the lady had come to this location, and with no other help immediately available the officer decided to go outside of the safety fencing to check places where he felt the lady could have jumped.


In a small bay where the officer knew the soil and plants overhang a dangerous cliff of 80 feet, he approached the cliff edge on his hands and knees. By this time thoroughly wet and muddy, he managed to get close enough to peer over the edge and see below.


On a ledge roughly 40 feet down the cliff he saw what he described as ‘a bin bag or a pile of something black’.  Rather than ignore what seemed to be a small pile of flotsam he decided to shout out the ladies name against the wind.


He saw movement and a hand poked out of the black bundle and waved.


It was impossible to climb down from the overhanging shrubs the officer was lying on, so he called for assistance and made his way back to the nearest route he could find down to the beach.  Once there he was about 100 yards from where he thought the lady was.  The way there was underwater with a high tide and a choppy sea state of 4 or 5. The only way to get to the stranded lady was to wade through the surf of breaking waves up to waist height with the constant risk of losing his footing. At what he judged to be the right place he started to climb a difficult sloping cliff face up to the lady.


He again caught sight of her and made his way to her, joining her on the ledge she had been on for over 18 hours and overnight. She was hypothermic, badly bruised and had cut her leg exposing the bone. He reassured her, treated her badly cut leg and warmed her as best he could using his coat and body warmth. He remained calm, controlled and stabilised the casualty whilst providing sufficient information to arrange a helicopter winch rescue.


He put himself at considerable risk on more than one occasion during this adventure and was on the ledge for nearly two hours.


The ladies life was saved and appropriate support put in place for her.”




That’s it.








To whom it may concern,
please drive carefully, try to be kind to each other and don’t mess with stuff that isn’t yours.

Just to say..........

I have a friend. Honestly, I do. He is a former colleague but I can prove he is also a friend because Facebook says so.  He is a quietly spoken, kind, clever and thoughtful guy.

He also owns a gun shop. It is a good gun shop. It is the type of gun shop that sells really sleek looking hand guns and rifles to smart looking people who want to be prepared for a home invasion or hunting season or the apocalypse or perhaps who just like guns.

He does not live in the UK.

Once we, as in me and my friend and a couple of other former colleagues who did not end up as my friends, were hanging about waiting for a briefing on something ever so important. I can’t remember what it was.

I can remember what we talked about.

There was the “guilty pleasure food” we would head for when we got home.  I won’t share what mine was for fear of being mocked by my colleagues, but the clue is that they are made in vast quantities in Callington.  And with less automation across the rest of Cornwall.

Then my friend asked whether I knew the story of the “Cornish 9 / 11 Hero”. I didn’t.  His name is Rick Rescorla.  It’s an inspiring story if you get the time to look it up.

I am pretty sure it was after 9 / 11 my friend’s gun shop started.

We don’t have gun shops in the UK of the type my friend had and still has.

But more and more recently we do see coppers out on the streets with guns, which is a change.  Firearms have become a more common sight in the UK.

I don’t think most of us are used to the sight.

Two armed officers, both of whom I’d served with as a Constable on patrol, turned up our office on Tuesday.  They had just finished dealing with and recording a domestic incident, and had dropped into the nick to grab a cuppa and use the porcelain facilities before resuming patrol.  I wasn’t used to seeing them with guns and it felt a little strange to think these were the guys I used to stand beside at the occasional “confrontational” situation.

I was interested to see how the community reacted to them and what they would say to the great British Public if they could.

There were two things.

The first officer went for an explanation about what to do if see an emergency vehicle with its blue lights and sirens operating whilst driving.  That should really get its own blog.  So it will.

Now there’s something to look forward to.

The second officer thought it would be a good thing to explain it is ok to have random people come up to unarmed and armed officers to say hi, have a chat. 

He explained that a man had approached them when they were patrolling a town centre.

He had clocked[i] the fellow walking towards him and automatically made his assessment. This member of the public coming towards him smiled and looked a little embarrassed. The officer prepared himself for one of the “Public Information” questions that are so common. How do I get to such and such?  What bus do I need to catch to get to? My neighbour has done this and what will the police do about it? That type of thing.

What actually happened was that this fellow walked up to officer and said “I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for everything you do to keep us safe”.

It took the officer a while to figure out how to respond.  In the end he settled for “You’re welcome”.

 The fellow then left, looking a bit less embarrassed.

 The officer had a brief whispered conversation with his colleague to decide if the man had been taking the mickey, or was being genuine.  The officer describing the events to me made a point of saying the whole experience left him feeling a little stunned.

In the end they decided the man seemed genuine.

Another officer in the office at the time said, “That happened to me when I was PSU[ii] in Exeter.  Some teenager came up to me and said “Thank you for being there to protect us”.”

This was the first time anyone had said anything like that to either officer.  In the years they had been a police officer no stranger, no run of mill member of the community had approached them for no discernible reason other than simply to say thank you.

The armed officer has served for nearly 15 years.

The second officer has served for 13 years.

And apparently the act of saying thank you is spreading.

Our deputy Chief Constable is at Glastonbury.  He has just tweeted “Can’t move anywhere without people shaking our hands. Great public support for the police”.

I have to admit I feel a little “stunned” myself.

What with guns being seen strapped to police officers on the streets, referenda, elections, wicked people doing horrid things, tragedies and outpourings of love life can already feel a bit overwhelming.

Add to that a very real, positive and noticeable change in the way people relate to and behave towards the police family and I think it’s understandable that some of us are not quite sure how to respond.

“You’re welcome” seems a little inadequate.

So I just wanted to say that if anyone feels a new sense of gratitude or respect for the police family it is good to let us know.  Any letter, email or conversation you have that lets us know you care is a good thing. Your kindness and support is appreciated, immensely.

But it may take the street tempered and world weary members of the police family a little while to become used to having nice things said to them whilst out in the public eye.

I’d ask that you be patient with us. It is a pretty new thing for us and we have yet to work out a better reply than “You’re welcome”.

 

 

 

Oh, and to everyone who is in the ambulance, fire and rescue and police families in whatever role, you are awesome.

 

PS – please drive safely, be kind to each other and don’t mess with other people’s stuff.

 

---

[i] “Clock”: to see, to notice, to have your attention drawn to. As in “I clocked the bloke who had been on briefing”.  Old Bill Slang – none existent publications.

 

[ii] “PSU” an abbreviation of Police Support Unit also known as “the big van full of police officers with shields and crash helmets” and “ a unit of police officers who have undergone specialist tactical training in Public Order and Riot Control.” www.cambs.police.uk/about/psu

 

Anniversaries and amalgamations

When there is a lot going on it is a good to remind yourself of a little history and why you are here.


Devon and Cornwall Police have been doing that recently.


On the 1st April this year we were officially 50 years old.


That is seven years younger than Simon Cowell and five years older than David Walliams according to Wikipedia.


And we have been celebrating. There have been "High Teas" for former officers and our friends, events to meet the public, a time capsule entombed in a mini obelisk and fancy "50th Anniversary" epaulettes sold to raise money for the Chief Constable's charities.


Our history may not be as long as some, such as the Metropolitan Police in London who opened for business in 1829 and haven't closed since, or the Great Western Railway (GWR) that ran its first train in 1835.


The track Isambard Kingdom Brunel built still crosses his bridge at Saltash and runs the length of Cornwall to Penzance.  I once met a "passed fireman" who used to work the footplate and feed coal to the boiler of a GWR engine, and he had stories about smaller railway companies joining GWR.


So it has been for Devon and Cornwall Police.  In 1967 the Cornwall County and Isles of Scilly Constabulary, more  commonly called the Cornwall County Constabulary joined the Devon and Plymouth Constabularies and so we were born. 


The Cornwall County Constabulary of 178 constables, 1 sergeant major, 2 superintendents and 1 chief constable in the name of Colonel Walter Raleigh Gilbert was formed 110 years earlier in 1856. 
He was a descendent of the Sir Walter Raleigh's half brother.


At this time there had for 20 years already been Borough Police forces in Bodmin, Liskeard, Launceston, Truro, Falmouth, Helston, Penryn and St Ives.  The Cornwall County Constabulary filled the gaps and started amalgamating these smaller forces.


The Bodmin Borough Police, all 3 of them, held out until 1866 before amalgamation.


The final amalgamation was in 1947 when the Isels of Scilly Constabulary joined forces.  I don't know how many of them there was, but I would guess that they needed some persuading.


The world continues to change, the era of fish riots in Penzance where the Army helped the Chief Constable restore order and cutlass wounds were common have thankfully long gone.  Today has its own challenges which in time will seem to be outdated and things of the past.


Right now we are working ever closer with Dorset Police in a Strategic Alliance. 


So that is my police family's history, up until now.


As to the why we are here, I'll summarise how my Chief Constable and a former Commissioner of the Metropolis put it.


We prevent and detect harm and crime, protect the vulnerable, safeguard communities and we are always resilient and ethical.

It's a little too long to make a strap line or sticker for a police car, but some things just are.

And it's not really changed in the last 160 years.  I like to think it is pretty well summarized by the saying we are "The Thin Blue Line".

That's it for now except to say please take care when you are driving, be kind to each other and try not to covet your neighbour's nice things.

Remembering

I write.  I like to write.

Sometimes I write for work, sometimes I write for myself and my own enjoyment.

But on the odd occasion more recently I write as a coping strategy, a personal little therapy to work through and make sense of bad events and sad memories.

Today I want to work through recent events.

There was a minute of silence on Friday.  It was at 11 o'clock in the morning and I was sat at my desk

The drilling and chipping around the station stopped. Men in dusty overalls paused in their labour. My colleague sat, arms resting in her lap, no victims of crime on the end of the phone or updates to crime enquiries to be tapped into the keyboard.

We sat in silence remembering the awful events in Manchester, to show our respect for those who had been taken from their families and friends too soon, too unfairly, too brutally.

We had done something similar few short weeks ago after the horrible attack in London.

That time my colleagues and I had stood in front of the station, heads bowed. We remembered, we showed our respect, we thought of our fallen colleague.

Whilst standing outside the police station and on Friday I felt angry at the perpetrators.

I felt overwhelming sympathy for the bereaved.

I felt sorrow and respect for the families, friends and first responders.

 I knew some of them will have to live with the psychological impact of those events; the illogical guilt, the "what if", the "if only".

I wanted to tell each of them I that it will hurt and the hurt can be utterly overwhelming, that there will be a hole in their lives and their guts that nothing will fill.

Especially I wanted to tell them it is OK to feel that way.  It really does suck, but it is OK to feel these things, and they don't need to beat you or define you. It is possible to live with those feelings and memories, and to go on to feel happiness again and make a good life; for the sake of those gone before us I truly believe we must.

This is not and could never be a comparison between my experiences and those touched by recent terrorist attacks.  My bad experiences do not compare, and I won't dwell on them here.  However I do want to share what a person I respect enormously shared with me.

I'm not sure why, but that is always where my mind goes in vivid detail during times of remembrance.

It was almost 9 years ago.

I was squatting in a metal walled work space with broken fire main pipes running up the wall to my left, sunlight coming through the doorway that was behind my right shoulder and a bunch of broken furniture in the corner. My back was against the wall, an internal bulkhead that was pleasantly cool.

Around the workspace seven or eight Iraqi Marines sat on the floor paying close attention to the man sat opposite me. He was Doc, and I remember vividly a part of his battlefield first aid lecture. He was explaining  what to consider when treating an eviscerated casualty.  Doc was there as a US Navy Independent Duty Corpsmen. They're good people.

We were two “coalition” personnel who went to the Iraqi accommodation block at one end of the al-Basra Oil Terminal, or ABOT as it was called, to occassionally deliver training.

The Iraqi living conditions on ABOT were not good.  The majority of the coalition staff were at the other end of ABOT about one kilometre away along a steel walkway. The coalition accommodation was better. We were 12 miles off the Iraqi coast.

At the time of this lecture there was a suicide bombing campaign centred on Baghdad being orchestrated by al-Qaeda.  I don't know how many bombs had been detonated, but fatalities and casualties were being counted in the hundreds.  Families of some of these Iraqi Marines lived in Baghdad and I've no doubt friends and relatives of the Iraqi Marines I was helping train had been lost to suicide bombs.

The marines listened with understandable concentration.  They were incredibly professional, proud and motivated.  They asked questions in broken English. What they were learning were skills they could expect to use for real.

Along with Doc I joined the Iraqi training officer in their canteen for a sweet tea.  We talked.

I can't remember the context exactly, but talking about the situation in Baghdad seems likely. My memory is that the training officer said something like.


"The sadness and fear that comes from these outrages does not have to paralyse you forever.  To live with that sadness and fear we must understand why we feel them. Then we must practice taking the sadness and fear  out of our memories. Then we will be able to live again."

Looking back to when I started working through my own issues, with the help of a couple of therapists and a bunch of SSRI meds, it seems to me I was being taken through the steps the Iraqi training officer was describing.

Survivors, families, friends and first responders will go on.  To those who have gone ahead I'd just like to say, "At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember you."



 PS - I would also ask that you drive safely, are kind to each other and respect each other's stuff.

One of the family.

PCSOs, or Police Community Support Officers for those of us in England and Wales¹ who still speak English and not Acronym², started to appear in the Devon and Cornwall Police around 2004. They are awesome members of the police family.

Anti-social behaviour was on the rise and on the telly; the two traditional precursors to news outlets letting us know we are going to “crack down” on something.

I was a Constable in Cornwall at the time and sure enough we cracked down. PCSOs had been recruited and I had been told to complete the Anti-Social Behaviour Act of 2003 “Eee Learning” package. It's a training method that got it's name after an enthusiastic Yorkshire student was told they were going on a training course devoid of human interaction. Or maybe not.

So the office of PCSO held by my current office mates has been around well over 10 years. That is about 25³ or so “cop years” which are measured on the relativity based “life experienced” scale.

What they do with the powers and authorities they have been given is phenomenal. They work with councils, schools, doctors and social workers to look after vulnerable people. They also contribute to searching for high risk missing persons, staffing cordons at major crimes, conduct the pervasive “concern for welfare” door knocks, shepherd drunks, keep the lid on disputes between neighbours and “crack down” on anti-social behaviour as well as much more.

And PCSOs do all this whilst being the approachable, and sometimes only face of policing in their communities. I have no doubt that PCSOs are doing the majority of everything I did as a Constable. However PCSOs are not allowed to be in charge of putting a prosecution case file together, or get involved in the “dynamic and confrontational” aspects of policing the streets. That said, a PCSO and I once got a written pat on the back from a Chief Superintendent following a very exciting bit of rough and tumble. We both collected a few bumps and bruises, and a fellow went off to prison for an extended stay. Just awesome.

But times have moved on.

Alongside the police the 213 Parish and Town Councils in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall Council, the Fire and Rescue Service, housing associations and others have got much better at working together to address the anti-social behaviour of the few.

As is the way of the world, other unpleasant human behaviour is on the rise and on the telly. I am standing by to crack down on it, whatever it may be. I am sure my PCSO colleagues and I will adapt again, perhaps see a new acronym join our family, and embark on another bout of computer based education.

I hope you have a great week.

Inspector blogging

PS -- please drive safe, be kind, respect other's stuff.

1PCSO in Scotland stands for Police Custody and Security Officer, a bit like a Detention Officer here but with car keys and lots more collecting and transporting of prisoners and people with the police because they are poorly - in their mental health.

2I am not a big fan of using letters instead of words. Consider World Wide Web versus WWW for instance.

3Which is not as long as Community Service Officers have been around in some Police Departments in the United States of America.

Push the button.

I am back in the Patrol Office for a little while.

Actually it is the former Detective Superintendent's meeting room into which displaced staff at the station have moved whilst “building improvements” take place.

The disadvantage is that I get easily distracted from important analysis and project management by chatting with the the Patrol, Neighbourhood, Public Protection, Alarm Fitters and Crime Management Hub staff.

The advantage is that I get easily distracted from important analysis and project management by chatting with the the Patrol, Neighbourhood, Public Protection, Alarm Fitters and Crime Management Hub staff.

One morning last week I was lucky enough to chat with a Patrol Officer as he finished off his last night shift before his rest days.

I would like to share with you his 'job of the set¹'.

He is a quietly spoken and friendly fellow with a ready smile and seemed to enjoy telling me how he got to “blow stuff up!”. That's not exactly how he described it, but close enough.

You see, of the millions of tons of explosives we Europeans have thrown, fired, launched and dropped at and on each other over the last 120 years an unknown percentage did not go bang. On small item from that percentage, for an unknown reason was found in a remote rural corner of South East Cornwall.

The finder called us, we called the Army, the Army called the Navy and in the way of things we sent a Patrol Officer to put up tape and 'keep the public safe'.

Over the next four or so hours I like to think he may have seen a fox, some moorland sheep and ponies in the distance and perhaps an early Skylark or two. He didn't say. But he did say that the public, who may have had some kind of sixth sense, were not to be seen anywhere.

In an impressively military way the Navy arrived, probably with a rubber boat on the roof rack. These guys always have a rubber boat on the roof rack. They might call it a de-rigged eight foot Gemini secured to a vehicle mounted boat cradle. I won't. Also, on arrival these guys always ask the police officer to move the tape back “another 50 yards mate”. They then have a huddle, look at the picture again, and put a bunch of explosives next to the bomb. They may use phrases like extend the blast area cordon, Render Safe Procedure assessment, disposal charges and munitions. I won't.

Once the necessary had been done, the area thoroughly checked and the team were stood behind something solid, the “Navy bloke in charge” asked the Patrol Officer if he wanted to “press the button?” Who wouldn't?

The sequence of events went something like this.

The “Navy bloke in charge” held the detonator with confident, professional nonchalance as he said to the Patrol Officer “What you need to do is squeeze this handle and at the same time press this button.....”

Here it is worth pointing out that a police officer usually has to work out a “course of action” in confusing and volatile situations, using limited and unreliable information, often provided by emotional and sometimes chemically enhanced people, who have an agenda or worse.

To have a crystal clear situation with unambiguous instructions is something just too lovely to ignore.

The Patrol Officer immediately reached out, took the detonator, squeezed the handle and pushed the button.

The small black plume of dirt propelled by white smoke jumped into the air, instantly followed by the intimidating boom and the satisfyingly chunky shock wave. Or that is how I like to think it went down.

What the Patrol Officer did say is that after the loud bang the Navy bloke in charge went pale and went on the say “......after I do one last safety check, give the all clear and tell you to go ahead.”

Have a great day,

Inspector

PS – I like to speak plainly. It has helped when I have been working out my own courses of action.

PPS – Please drive safely even when you're a bit late, be kind to each other, and leave other people's stuff alone.

1“Set” in this context means a 'set' of six shifts worked as 2 days, 2 lates and 2 nights.

Have you seen what's on the telly?

Have you seen our new show on the telly?  It is called Devon and Cornwall Cops and is on ITV.

It's another factual TV show.

I try and avoid them.

I accidentally saw the end of an episode this week.  To my surprise it was  actually quite good and nice easy watching.  The show would make me want to join up if I hadn't already done so.

However it will probably come as no surprise to you that a certain amount of editing has gone on; and quite right too.   I am sure the same is true for Brit Cops War On Crime, Road Knights Specialist Super Heroic Traffic Cops (I may have made that one up) and many more.  Most seem to play up the crime and human drama.

It seems that is not the case for Devon and Cornwall Cops.

So far we have a Neil Morrissey narrated meander through the more enjoyable or amusing aspects of the Job, especially if they happen to be taking place somewhere picturesque.

When I asked colleagues what they thought of the show I got mixed reactions.

More than one said we had been made to look like tourist guide carrot crunchers with no crimes to investigate or vulnerable people to protect.
 
Now I knew where they were coming from, and had some sympathy, but I happened to genuinely like what I saw of the program.

I like it that the good and amusing things about this job get shown on telly.  There's plenty of programs out there already broadcasting the nasty work we have to do and the nasty places we have to go.

And I have also learnt that the nasty details of our work that get talked about in the car or office, are often better off staying in the car or the office. Especially when people who do not work in our cars and offices say they really want to know what we have been talking about.

This was reinforced for me during a Sunday Lunch friends had invited me to, friends I had not seen for some years.  A partner of one of my friends was insistent that the police was an easy job and that they wanted to know "but what is it that you actually do?"  I told them  It wasn't what they had been expecting.  I haven't been invited back yet.

So, have you seen Devon and Cornwall Cops?  If you have or are going to then enjoy the scenery and the humour in some of the more ridiculous things we do on behalf of our communities.  But do remember there is a lot more happening that isn't being talked about, and probably shouldn't be talked about on prime time telly.

Yours ever,

Inspector

PS - Please do drive safely, be kind to each other and don't take stuff that isn't yours.

An “Inspector blogging” was born

I joined the police for the first time 33 years ago. 

It was on a Monday.  

Lots of stuff happened and I left about 3 years later to go traveling, which is not that unusual.  I did not however buy a pair of flip flops, dress like a pirate and disappear over the horizon in a camper van.  Instead I asked the Queen to kindly give me a job.  Well, maybe I didn’t ask the Queen directly but the application forms had “Royal” written all over them. I got the job, moved out of London and off I went in a grey ship.  

It was fun, amongst a lot of other things.  

I left about 16 years later. 

It was on a Thursday.  

On a Monday I joined the police again, except this time I was living in Cornwall and not London.  

I’ve been here ever since and lots of stuff is still happening in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.  I have often thought that some of the happening stuff may be useful or interesting to someone.  And now I have a desk job and seldom wear a funny hat or drive quickly (and safely!) I thought that every week or two I would write this blog. An “Inspector blogging” was born. 

That is the introduction written, and I look forward to sharing some of the stuff that is going on in April here in the sunny Duchy.  

PS - I wanted Inspector Gadget, but that’s been taken.  
PPS – Drive safely, be kind to each other, don’t pinch stuff.