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Police: Wake up call.

Written by RSS Poster The Blue Light Run on the - A Police Blog
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I opened my heart up today. For years I've been holding it in, trying to be strong for those around me, not wanting to worry my nearest and dearest.

I haven't been able to tell anyone how the demons would visit me in the night, to keep me awake and to claw at my soul. Not for a long time. Not even my wife who has stood shoulder to shoulder with me during the darkest of times.

Today that all changed. I opened up to a friend I hadn't seen for best part of 15 years. Why? I don't really know. I think it's because I knew he wouldn't judge me, that he genuinely wanted to know how I 'do' the things I do. I told him about my demons and how it has left me feeling in my advancing years. He didn't judge me. He just listened, he then told me he was proud of me. This is something I haven't heard for a long time, gone are the days of feeling proud of what you do, the family don't mention it anymore and the job I used to love became just that; a job. With so much anti police sentiment out there, he made me stop and realise that you know what? The people I work with...

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Police: La fin

Written by RSS Poster The Blue Light Run on the - A Police Blog
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This is the end my friends, I am signing off blogger for the foreseeable future.

You may have noticed that updates have dried up, this is not due to any pressure from above its purely due to the relentless work load that I, along with 1000's of colleagues, have to endure thanks to the cutbacks levied by our government. I go to work, get run ragged for 10+ hours and then hopefully come home in one piece where I have to slip into Dad and husband mode.

Whilst I love my job (there really is nothing like it), the office of constable is being eroded away along with any goodwill I once had. This means the very last thing I want to do is dwell on my day. I just want to chill, be a dad, stop my marriage falling apart and avoid having a heart attack! I hope you understand. I have had some truly great times in this job and I have shared just a few of them on this blog.

Furthermore in my force there seems to be a witch hunt for bloggers & social media users who are bringing the service into disrepute. A close friend of mine is currently under investigation for...

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Police: Not another statistic thank you.

Written by RSS Poster The Blue Light Run on the - A Police Blog
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Two days ago I went toe to toe with a young man who had mental health issues, plus markers for violence, mental health and weapons. My control room tried (& failed) to send me to this job single crewed by splitting up the crew. If they didn't know who he was before they dispatched me then I could forgive them, but they knew everything about him (it was a domestic).
15 minutes later I was rolling around with this young man at the top of a set of stairs, he was trying to bite me, head butt me and claw at my face. A few palm strikes and an unapproved force head lock managed to get him under control (17 stone on his back helped too) until he was unceremoniously carried downstairs into the back of a van, snarling & gnashing his teeth.
Now, there were two officers, both of us got stuck in and made equal contributions to getting hands down (the head lock was my colleagues main contribution). The fact is we had a very long struggle, the male managed to get to his knees again despite two burly coppers doing their best to pin him down. It was...

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Police: 999, what's your emergency?

Written by RSS Poster The Blue Light Run on the - A Police Blog
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It's not difficult, if you are reporting a crime in progress, a road accident, or someone is in danger ask for the police. If you see a building on fire or a cat up a tree, ask for fire brigade. If someone has collapsed in a shop or suffering a heart attack, then ask for ambulance. If you don't know, tell the operator what's going on and they will decide. Quite often all three will turn up anyway, so don't worry about it. I was a job last week where we had coastguard turn up too, so it was a full house. Anyway I digress.

Last week I attended a concern for safety job. Caller reported that her lodger had come home at 2am with a nasty head injury. The caller couldn't get much out of him due to his intoxication, so the police were sent, 'just in case'. Now I don't mind, but my medical skills are not up to the standard of say a paramedic or ambulance technician. In fact they were nowhere near. My medical skills are BLS (basic life support), a pair of latex gloves and a no.3 field dressing. Our victim of crime (?) was not making any sense,...

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Police: 999, what's your emergency?

Written by RSS Poster The Blue Light Run on the - A Police Blog
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It's not difficult, if you are reporting a crime in progress, a road accident, or someone is in danger ask for the police. If you see a building on fire or a cat up a tree, ask for fire brigade. If someone has collapsed in a shop or suffering a heart attack, then ask for ambulance. If you don't know, tell the operator what's going on and they will decide. Quite often all three will turn up anyway, so don't worry about it. I was a job last week where we had coastguard turn up too, so it was a full house. Anyway I digress.

Last week I attended a concern for safety job. Caller reported that her lodger had come home at 2am with a nasty head injury. The caller couldn't get much out of him due to his intoxication, so the police were sent, 'just in case'. Now I don't mind, but my medical skills are not up to the standard of say a paramedic or ambulance technician. In fact they were nowhere near. My medical skills are BLS (basic life support), a pair of latex gloves and a no.3 field dressing. Our victim of crime (?) was not making any sense,...

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Police: Do you know where your kids are?

Written by RSS Poster The Blue Light Run on the - A Police Blog
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The charm of some of our young adults today leaves a lot to be desired. I'm used to abuse from all ages, in my line of work you need to have skin thicker than a particularly crusty crocodile and the professional thing to do is to just ignore it and put it down to a lack of respect, morales and a generally bad attitude.
Its fair to say that most of these incidents are alcohol based, fuelled by some illicit drugs and bravado. I don't really care, I turn up do my job, deal with anything I have to and once done move onto the next job. This really is a meat factory.
However every now & then my mettle is tested and my professional hat slips a little.
Take last night, it appears to be a night of concern for safety calls. They are all drunk persons who have fallen by the wayside. I have been to three similar calls tonight, ambulance also attend to check them over / convey to hospital. The green gods / goddesses of the ambulance service are under the same, if not more strain than us. They've seen it all before, they check, assess and patch up...

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Police: Unfamiliar territory

Written by RSS Poster The Blue Light Run on the - A Police Blog
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Today I find myself in unfamiliar territory, I'm on constant obs in custody. In case you don't know what this is, it's basically me watching a prisoner very very closely to ensure he doesn't become ill, violent or self harm. The chap we arrested at 8am this morning ticks all of the right boxes so he now wearing an attractive blue self harm suit and has my ugly mug staring at him. Don't get me wrong, I've done loads of these over the years however this particular job does not fall within the remit of my current role (response). So why am I here? It's quite simple, we have run out of police officers. As I walked through the custody block I saw four other officers sat in uncomfortable chairs, flicking through well thumbed copies of 'hello' magazine or making small talk with their prisoners in a vain attempt to while away the hours.
Yes you heard right. Five police officers all being paid to sit on their arses in order to make sure no harm comes to their subjects. Now I get this, nobody likes a death in custody (the paperwork & resulting IPCC...

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Police: No class

Written by RSS Poster The Blue Light Run on the - A Police Blog
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Last night I sat outside three nightclubs in my response car, all within spitting distance of each other. The atmosphere was pretty good, a few goons here & there but nothing that would put a dampener on anyone's evening. It was a mixed crowd, some donning party dresses, Santa clause hats and copious amounts of tinsel. Others seem to have come straight from the pub, having made no effort to dress up. It appears that standards have dropped and times are hard, therefore the management of these establishments were keen to accept punters wearing trainers even jogging bottoms. This was much to the annoyance of Clyde the doorman, who has worked the doors since I was clubbing (yes, THAT long) . Clyde still wears his trademark black crombie coat, tie and highly buffed shoes. Clyde monitors every customer, shakes his head visibly when a blatant ne'er do well stands before him in a swagger. A quick search and an I.D check & the track suit wearing chump is admitted much to
Clyde's disgust.
It's only 2300 hours and the night is young. We have a quick chat with Clyde,...

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Police: Weapon of offence

Written by RSS Poster The Blue Light Run on the - A Police Blog
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A knock on the door at 5.10 generally means one of three things .... An over zealous postie, someone collecting a debt or the police.

I knocked hard on the door, I had already been let into the communal area by another insomniac resident. The call was a disturbance heard, sounds of a fight / shouting & screaming.

A faint voice was heard from inside. 'Who is it?'
'Police' I replied 'can you please open the door'
'No I can't...I'm er, busy'
Some strange sounds came from the other side, hushed whispers, drawers being opened & closed. I placed my hand on the CS spray and flipped the cap, ready to deploy. If anyone answered the door with anything that looked remotely like a weapon they were going to get a face full of CS.
I banged on the door again 'I'll rephrase that, we are coming in so you had better open it'.
More hushed voices, at least two. What are they hiding? Are they getting rid of drugs? Weapons? I press my right palm against the door to feel if it has any 'give'...just before I use my 17 stone frame to gain access, the door is opened by a...

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Police: Due process

Written by RSS Poster The Blue Light Run on the - A Police Blog
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Today I am due to give evidence at court. This is a not guilty plea and centers around a domestic abuse incident - long story short, victim calls us to state her ex is kicking her front door in (no giggling at the back), we arrive he is still outside at scene, she is cowering in her bedroom cuddling her small petrified child. There is no damage to the door & all the victim wants is for her ex to leave her alone.
Whilst speaking to the suspect he makes threats to come back & smash her front door in. Yes, in front of police officers. So, of course I arrest him for using violence to secure entry.
Our suspect is incredibly surprised at being arrested and begs, pleads & cries whilst in handcuffs. Why is this nasty police officer taking me away? Why am I not helping him gain access to see his petrified 6 year old son?
All fairly straight forward eh? Two police officer statements, a positive statement from the aggrieved (a genuine victim for a change). Our suspect is charged with sctn 4 order offence & bailed to court. He pleads not guilty and here we are some...

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Wake up call.
La fin
Not another statistic thank you.
999, what's your emergency?
999, what's your emergency?

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