This Station (like many others) is now Closed

Like many areas of traditional policing (as we once knew it in the UK), this station has now closed down.

The last encumbent, one of the many 'Edmund Davies' babies, has now completed his thirty years, has no interest in continuing until the age of 55yrs and has shuffled off into blissfull retirement...

Do I miss it? Only a little bit but what saddens me the most is; the police service that once had worldwide respect is now declining towards the point of no return and, the people who suffer the most are the communities we once proudly served.

Thanks for nothing Mr Politician!!!

Johno Hills (Ex Sussex Detective)

Johno Hills (Ex Police Officer): As a police officer of four years with Thames Valley and latterly Sussex Police, Ex DC Johno Hills understood early on in his training that the level of crime depended on the opportunity for it to actually occur in the first place before it could succeed. In short prevention is better than cure!

Some have suggested that Mr Hills may have some personal axe to grind with his previous employer and, that is why he has ‘jumped on the band wagon’ of berating this government’s policing policies. Whatever his personal reasons, and there may be some, the fact remains, the vast majority of his ‘observations’ and ‘concerns are correct. This has to be classed as extremely astute, for one so young in service. In that short length of time in ‘the job’, he found himself chasing quick and easy detections in order to get a ‘tick in the box’ and, convince his supervisors to consider him as a ‘performing officer’.

Now most of us would agree there has to be some form of benchmark as to an individuals performance however, that benchmark should only ever be an indicator or first line of evidence for a manager to ‘effectively’ motivate or reprimand their staff, in other words, actually manage them, a skill that for one reason or another is often sadly lacking today.

Mr Hills ultimately paid the price for challenging the establishment and his employers in February 2007 however, by raising his head above the parapet, he found himself ‘at odds with the responsibilities of a serving police officer’ and this led to his subsequent resignation and later suspension. Mr Hills states “the loss of my job and career is inconsequential when considering how much there is to gain”.

After spending an hour or two reading his blog articles and comments from readers it was apparent, his thoughts and concerns about Britain’s police service are justifiable and supported with reasoned arguments. The quotations from Sir Robert Peel which I found in his pages (and have used myself before) are as relevant to policing in the 21^st Century as they were when they were originally written in the 1800's:

• "The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions."


• "The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it."


• "Whether the police are effective is not measured on the number of arrests, but on the lack of crime."

Whether or not Mr Hills is receiving financial remuneration, as a direct result of his outpourings, is immaterial now he has left ‘the job’. What should be of more concern to us all is; why an apparently well motivated police officer should feel such a strong need to take the actions he did? I for one wish him every success in his future!

TOAST?

Yesterday evening I received a Royal Commandment to watch ‘The Queen’. Fortunately it wasn’t some last minute Royal Visit with the usual scrabble for police resources or some inane public function with masses of self important civic dignitaries or even, a Freddy Mercury concert (he’s dead any way). No this was the film portrayal of HRH by Dame Helen Mirren on ITV. The ‘Royal Command’? Oh, that came from Mrs ‘V’ who tends to get a bit fed up of me being at work or, ‘missing presumed internet bound’! She often swears I have more interest in the computer than her? Not so! Anyway I digress. Isn’t that a good thing these days? Oh no, that’s ‘diversity’, knew it began with ‘D’.

Any way there I was, settled in the armchair with my glass of something warming, fighting the usual traits of tiredness ensconced in front of the TV, when I quickly realised she was holding my complete attention. Helen that is (not the missus), she had quickly succumbed to a deep slumber induced by two days of twelve hour shifts. Pity really, she had been looking forward to the program. It appears the high acclaim showered on the production by critics was well founded for a change. I must admit I’d been a little sceptical about the plot etc. and was fully expecting some trashy half baked box office money spinner. Not a bit of it, the film went on to show both the good and bad of our national structure.

The Bad: It showed how fickle and shallow our politicians are. How often their only interest is the latest sound bite opportunity or, blind pandering to public opinion to remain in power. Often at the expense of ‘u’ turns on policy and avoidance of manifesto promises. The good? Well that’s an easy one to answer: Tradition, Stability, High Standards and the ability to totally rise above mass hysteria. All of which are traits evident in the British Police Service. Some of the fundamental things that make our Monarchy (and the Police), so respected in the majority of the civilised world. When politicians don’t have an input.

Now call me cynical, but I’m sat this morning with my cup of tea and fag when GMTV announce; ‘According to the results of a YouGov survey, only 17% of people think the Government is doing a good job when dealing the effects of anti-social behaviour’. And this is quickly followed by; the ‘apparent’ withdrawal by British Troops from Basra, a fact confirmed later in the day by the BBC. Whoops, Government taking a bit of a battering again! Fly on the wall at No. 10 hears Gordon Brown red at the gills and shouting to his cronies: “Quick… Get them out of Iraq now! Thanks’ to Tony’s dithering about I’ve only been here five minutes and I’m bloody sure I’m not getting kicked out yet!

‘Royalist’ or ‘Republican’, you can’t underestimate the significance of Her Majesty (or the police) to this Nation. They are both British commodities we’d be lost without. A factor evidenced by a viewing report in The Guardian: Television premiere of Oscar-winning movie The Queen brought some right royal cheer to ITV1 last night, pulling in nearly 8 million viewers.

Oh yes the toast??? My Lords, Ladies & Gentlemen… THE QUEEN, God Bless Her!

Isn't Technology Wonderful?

Isn’t Technology Wonderful? - In a moment of thought and reflection about changes in the job, whilst enjoying my pot of tea and a fag, I got to thinking about how technology is helping the police? And, whilst thumbing through a local paper I found, Police to wear video cameras in battle against street crime – Coppers are going hi-tech in the war against crime - by wearing video cameras on their heads to film incidents as they unfold. (York Press 200807).

Amazing thought I, this new line of kit called ‘headcams’ apparently, are going to be “North Yorkshire Police's latest weapon to tackle antisocial behaviour”. The media hack went on to report the comments of the local A/Inspector, who obviously extolled the virtues of these modern gizmos (in true ‘grasp the sound bite’ fashion)… “The use of headcams by North Yorkshire Police has the ability to positively impact on our big five objectives”. Now I can partly agree with the; "headcams will bring offenders to justice by producing compelling evidence for prosecution files” but surely, it’s the cop that ‘brings the offender to justice’? After all, the gizmo is just an electronic visual pocket book! And yes it will “reduce the challenge to officers in court and decrease the number of malicious complaints against police” however, there was a time (prior to media and film intervention) when the public and the legal system, actually believed and trusted the British Bobby!

This ‘new’ gizmo was ‘successfully trialled in Plymouth’ during 2004/05 and in July this year The Home Office announced: More police head cameras to help fight crime. Apparently they would ‘provide police with an extra £3 million to fund a national roll-out of revolutionary head camera technology’. At the time Tony McNulty was ‘delighted to announce’ the extra funding. It’s just a pity his government isn’t as enamored about paying cops a reasonable wage but that’s another story!

The problem here that repeats itself far too often is; proper funding of the police service and the provision of the latest tools is actually an ongoing and necessary expense. It is not sufficient that government and ‘partner agencies’ carry on with their mistaken belief that, things will get better if we drop the cops a ‘donation’ now and then, just to suit current public opinion or political direction.

Tony McNulty also said; “clear evidence provided by head camera footage means that offenders have less opportunity to deny their involvement, leading to less paperwork for the police”. It might reduce the written description about the offence in the officer’s statement but I’ll bet you any money, there will be numerous statistical return forms to complete so the force can report on their success to the Home Office!

Continuing with my amazement I decided to Google the subject and, as suspected, I found this ‘latest police innovation’ is hardly ‘new’ at all. Apart from the Devon & Cornwall Home Office trial in 2006 several other forces had already used the gizmo?

• Police to get 'RoboCop' cameras - police in London are to be equipped with head-mounted cameras (CnetUK 201106).

• And three years earlier; Helmets housing concealed cameras are to be worn by police in Sussex (BBC 051203).


• And still earlier; Police on patrol in the West Midlands are road testing cameras in their cycle helmets to capture crimes on film (BBC 110902).

And there was a load more…

Shouldn’t complain I suppose, at least the roll out is gathering at a pace quicker than Airwave Radio did. Airwave or TETRA, was a technology that although reported as flawed in some respects, was actually developed back in the early to mid eighties announced in the mid nineties and is only now available to all UK police forces! Devon & Cornwall Constabulary also reported this one as ‘new’ in 2003! And, I suupose it would be too much to ask for the tecno geeks to wander too far north of Watford after all, the uphill climb would be too much for their blood preasure to endure! Must admit having Airwave is better than having to extract the antenna from my nose each time I went to use my Pye PF1 Pocket phone though.

Right, where’s my hard boiled egg gone???

Evening All... PC Dixon reporting for duty!

A NORTH-EAST chief constable yesterday (230807) introduced "the Dixons of Dock Green for the 21st Century" as he unveiled plans to put hundreds of officers onto neighbourhood beats. Cleveland Police are to ‘flood local communities’ with officers in the hope of driving down crime and restoring public confidence in policing. At the launch (see BBC Video Report), Chief Constable Sean Price likened the idea to the classic BBC television series. He went on to say the ‘traditional style of policing is now back, with nearly 600 police and community support officers dedicated to community beats across Teesside’. The initiative apparently is part of a scheme whereby the Cleveland force will sign up to the One North East Regional Image campaign.

Alf says: Here we go again with the 'reinvention of the wheel'? When I joined, policing was all about providing a service to the community and the neighbourhood; it’s only since the government started with their target driven performance culture, that we were forced into loosing sight of that. Anyways, they reckon that ‘image is everything’ don’t they? What would I know after twenty odd years? It must be nice though to have almost half our actual force establishment dedicated to the task of Neighbourhood Policing, in a force area smaller than any one of our divisions! (I know it should be BCU or ACU but I can’t get used to this new terminology)

BBC: Force plans street patrols boost… Hundreds more officers are to be assigned to community policing duties across Teesside. Mr Price said: "I have carried out extensive consultation and the public and their representatives have made it very clear that they want a more visible, community-based police service”.

Alf Says: And I wonder just how much public money and police resources were actually expended on finding that out? Could have gone into any police station and asked any bobby that! You know, the ones who are chained to a desk filling out mountains of paperwork or submitting the latest target returns for some ‘special operation’. The one, that for all intents and purposes, is just a normal policing function except it has a fancy bloody title.

In November 2004 the BBC reported: “It is rare to hear a government minister interviewed these days without the words 'record numbers of police' popping up somewhere”. The report went on to highlight that; the majority of political comment in this vein is often just spin and rhetoric.

Alf Says: Three years down the line and the ACPO officers now appear to have attended the same ‘media sound bite course’ and, I for one don’t feel able to think any differently. Far too often it’s all about individuals in high places, attempting to get recognised as ‘suitable’ to lead a bigger force, or the next half baked government policing initiative (with a bigger salary)!

Dixon History: Beginning in 1955 and finally ending in 1976, Dixon of Dock Green was the longest running police series on British television and although its homeliness would later become a benchmark to measure the "realism" of later police series, such as Z Cars and The Bill, it was an enormously popular series.

Alf Says: As there is only one place in the UK called Dock Green (to my knowledge), in the town of Crewkerne (Somerset), perhaps we should take on their vision for Neighbourhood Policing by watching the Avon & Somerset 'Stronger Neighbourhoods' video. After all, it can clearly be seen from their figures that, Crewkerne is a hotbed of urban deprivation and crime. They’ve actually had 209 so far this financial year however, the hard work and determination of their NPT has significantly reduced this figure in the last year by 37… There’s successful target driven performance for you!

Alf also says: I note from the Northern Echo article that, to my knowledge, at least three of the Cleveland NPT Managers are transferees from the North Riding. I suppose it’s refreshing to see that ‘we’ have helped Cleveland put the old fashioned values back into policing. Just a pity our area establishment and structure can only afford this luxury at the expense of 24/7 response policing.

Sgt Oscar Blaketon

There was a time when the majority of Sergeants were like Oscar Blaketon, the one who confronted me when paraded for duty at my first station certainly was! Some would say he was a throwback from a bygone era and that may be so, at least you knew where you stood, what was expected of you and what would happen if you didn't come up to scratch!

There doesn't seem to be many of the Oscar types these days, many of them are more like PC Geoff Younger with stripes and with a similar length of service! There was a lot to be said for having a Sergeant with some experience and wool on his back. I say 'his' because that's how it was, I think there was less than half a dozen female Sergeants in the force when I joined. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not sexist or have any desire to return to the days of the 'Policewoman's Department' however, even with today's maternity and flexible working considerations, there is still a limited number of female Sergeants, despite large intakes of female recruits?

I suppose many of those we recruit don't see the police force as a career any more, male or female. Indeed, the powers that be don't even promote the job as a 30yr career? It appears that being a police officer for a few years is just another notch on a CV for many, I suppose that saves money for the employers in not having to pay long service salaries and pensions! One of the main problems is, having no Oscar Blaketons along with rafts of inexperience Constables, the police service is in danger of deskilling.

Bring back the Oscar Blaketons that's what I say!

Ashfordly Police Station

Asfordly Police Station will be farmiliar to regular viewers of Heartbeat and, the interior of the parade room. It features in almost every episode, usually filled with bobbies working on their reports, drinking tea or simply gossiping. This could have been my blog base but the pub was more to my liking and, all incumbants of the station drink at the Aidensfield Arms in any case!

I suppose during my service I can find similarities with myself and some of the Heartbeat characters. I started off as a PC Phil Bellamy, did a long period as a Village Bobby like PC Nick Rowan and yes I did have my own Claude Jeremia Greengrass! Finally and after performing long periods as an Acting Sgt Oscar Blaketon I'm a PC Alf Ventress finally waiting for my well earned and iminent retirement.

The similarities will change once retired... I'm more likely to be a Blaketon in a pub as opposed to a police civilian clerk like Ventress!

History Stuff

The North Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire. In 1974 both the administrative county and the Lieutenancy of the North Riding of Yorkshire were abolished, being succeeded in most of the Riding by the new non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire.

The biggest county in England & Wales, North Yorkshire (in particular the North Yorks Moors) is the setting for the TV Series of 'Heartbeat'. It is also the home of this blog and the area I have worked for the majority of my adult life. Although rural and picturesque, even North Yorkshire is starting to suffer from the Great British underclass!

See Metropolitan Police - British Police History