Rank: Special Constable

Length of service: 12 months

Planned hours: 1400-2200

Location: Metropolitan Police Service

Type of shift: Borough action day

 

 

1200- Arrive at the nick and kit up early as I have some intel reports to add with a non-IPS officer that will be parading with me today. I also had to create a report for an incident I attended a few nights ago which wasn’t at the time deemed appropriate for a report, but a supervisor had decided it was. So all of that was completed and a clean slate ready for todays shift.

 

1400- There is a borough wide operation today, engaging with the public, attending pre-planned raids and operations. We travel by train from our station to the patrol base as the IRV I had reserved has been given away to a PCSO. Been told to return in an hour or so and it should be back.

 

1440- Arrive at the patrol base and find the Sgt and inspector running the ops, and they have no knowledge that we are assisting today. Great. Receive rushed tasking’s for the town centre, high visibility patrols as it is a well-known ASB and drugs hotspot. It is also very transient, a station for the mainline, underground line and several bus routes.

We head back to our station to get that vehicle as it will be handy if we are called to assist between our tasking.

 

1540- Arrive back, no such luck, someone else had nabbed they keys. Sgt is apologetic, but I explain not to worry as they obviously needed it more than we did. My colleague runs through what he need to gain toward IPS status. There is a busy junction controlled by traffic signals just by the nick as I decide we should spend some time here in high-vis and try to spot some traffic offences for him. Several minutes later we have a Luton tail van stopped as the driver was wearing no belt.

Shortly after the driver is dealt with, another motorist is stopped for the same offence. Most worryingly she stated that she was on the school run and was soon to have her kids in the car. Another FPN issued by my colleague and words of advice given regarding belting up.

 

1630- We are back on location in the town centre. Greet the NPT PCSOs that have a stall outside the rail station for the community engagement. They are helping with marking bikes, and offering burglary prevention advice.

We begin a slow foot patrol covering known hang out area that frequent drug users. Nobody in sight. This is beginning to look like a slow shift I think.

 

1700- *Emergency activation* It’s the PCSOs at the rail station, stating that a male has either been assaulted in the street or hit by a vehicle.

I call in my position after the broadcast and me and my colleague sprint the 500 metre distance we were at the time. Shouting for people to move the whole time, the pavements are full of commuters by this time.

 

1701- We arrive at the station, I can see the high-vis jackets in the road and make my way over. Im faced with a male laying in the middle of the road, hes still conscious at this point (thank god) but maybe not so… hes disorientated and keeps trying to sit up. While slipping on some gloves the PCSO begins to explain what he has managed to get out of the male so far. It appears he has been struck by the bus, which was stopped just behind us.

 

This all seems to roll into one as I obviously had quite a lot going on and it’s still a slight blur.

 

The remainder of the PCSOs were directed by myself to stop the traffic as buses and taxis were still trying to weave around us. We were pretty much in the middle of the two way carriageway.

 

I was now keeping the victim on the floor, he had a huge gash on the left side of his head. I was applying pressure directly to the wound with my hand while also controlling his head.

 

The operator was nagging for updates, so I explained to my colleague what I wanted and he broadcast everything perfectly. LAS were on route along with multiple units to handle the crowds which were now beginning to circle around us, and the traffic.

 

17??- Thankfully a dog unit responding to an ‘I grade’ nearby cancelled and diverted. He was the first on scene and came over with a substantial first aid kit. I was glad to have some experienced help. I run through what we already knew and what had been done so far. My colleague applied a bandage to the chaps head. I re applied pressure and kept on the hold. The dog officer then went through the chaps pockets looking for any ID as by now he was just rambling and not making any sense at all.

 

17??- Responding units began to arrive and relieved my colleague and the PCSOs. The response ambulance also arrived at this time and I gave the handover.

 

1715- LAS bus arrives. There are now hundreds of people on the pavements each side of the road with their camera phones out. I did not have time to notice, but apparently many were like this straight after this guy was hit by the bus.

He is being treated as life changing, the road is kept closed and the duty Inspector is on his way down.

 

1730- I find my colleague who with the assistance of a PC is now collecting accounts into a CARB from the bus driver and a witness of what happened. The driver stated that he was moving along the road, and another bus was approaching him in the other direction. Then all he saw was a figure sprinting across the road to beat both of the busses passing each other. Well obviously this guy wasn’t as fast as he thought, and is luck he didn’t get hit and go under the bus before it stopped. Luckily he bounced off the front and into the middle of the road.

 

1800- Victim is updated to be stable and no longer life threatening. The paramedic told us that he would of eventually bled out had we not quickly applied the pressure to the large wound on his head. The Insp gives the call to re-open the road and clear the scene. A rather large pool of clotted blood now all over the road, and is washed away by several bottles of water donated by the newsagent owner opposite. We speak to a few more PCs who attended before we leave and collect any further CARB booklets to put the report on. Another thankyou to the dog handler and we head back to our nick.

 

1840- Stop in and order a chicken shish kebab from the shop a few along from the nick and retire to dinner before putting the reports on for the day.

 

2000- One of our S/Sgts has dropped in to complete some admin, so we explain what we got involved with today. He congratulates us both on our hard work.

 

2100- Reports finished, and de-kit. Head home an hour early as we are both drained