Jump to content

Tempo's Special Blog

A blog by Tempo + in General

  • entries
    6
  • comments
    26
  • views
    2,156

My First Duty as a Special Constable

Tempo

Entry posted by Tempo + ·

3,942 views

 Share

Rank: Special Constable

Planned duty time: 0830HRS-1630HRS

Length of service: First duty

 

So I have recently had my first duty, I have had good fun reading other members blogs on this site so I thought I would begin to put down some things from my shifts for others to read and also for myself to read back in the future perhaps. Do bare with me I'm not a talented writer and this is the first one! 

All times are estimates as my PNB is at the station.

0830: Meet with fellow special that I will be crewed with, he has been great and has made the settling in at the station really painless so I was feeling pretty clam about the upcoming shift we went though some of the paper work I will need to get together such as stop and search forms, DASH forms etc.

0900: Check emails. Talk to some of the regs that are on duty and let the sergeant know we are around today and will be taking up foot patrol in the town. Check briefing for any nasties that we could maybe see on our travels and note down details.

0930: Begin foot patrol, the public are very happy and surprised to see two police officers actually walking through the town, we engage with members of the public giving directions and just general chit chat. It was nice to see the public feeling reassured to see a officer presence which is becoming less and less these days.

1100: Foot patrol takes us through the graveyard a hot spot in the town for drug and alcohol use. Lo and behold as we walk through we find two males sitting behind one of the out buildings with a open bottle of cider and a few other cans with them, both heavily in drink but compliant. We get them to pour the alcohol away and clean the area they have been in, turns out one of the males was at court only the day before on shoplifting charges and was giving a suspended sentence for the second time. Colleague runs them both through PNC, neither are wanted but markers on one of the males due to having uncapped needles on him in the past and a history of drug misuse for this we decide to search him under s23 MDA. Colleague completes the search and I completed the form which was good for me. 

1200: Head back to the station to give sergeant the paperwork from the search and to make sure it was completed correctly, thankfully it was! ask if we can get a car to go over to the next town over, there is one available so we take it.

1230: refs break consisting of a large chicken pasty and a bottle of water...now we just need to find somewhere to eat it! while we are finding a place to park to eat loads of reports of RTC's in the area are coming through, probably due to the conditions and people not driving appropriately for them.

1315: Head over to the other town and show our face at the station, talk to the sergeant there and get briefed on persons of interest in the area at the moment 2 took our interest in particular one was a female who has been in the town around school kicking out times heavily in drink causing problems and another was a male who is a prolific shoplifter in the area at the moment. We decide to start a foot patrol in the town on the off chance they may be around.

1400: No trace on either POI, once again public are happy to see police on patrol engaging with them. Head back to the station and decide we are going to go back to the main station.

1410: serious RTC comes over the radio possible fatalities, we call up saying we can go code 5 as we are only 10 minutes away. We go code 5 and make our way to the collision.

1425: Code 6. 2 vehicle collision on a busy A road between a hatchback travelling eastbound and a tipper truck which was travelling westbound, it seems the truck has had a mechanical issue and the driver has said that he couldnt keep it from going into the opposite carriageway and has hit the hatchback with his nearside hitting the offside of the hatchback. Speak to sergeant on scene who asks us to begin with controlling traffic with my colleague and myself going either end of the collision and directing them through between us.

1450: Fire/Ambulance leave the scene. Eastbound carriage is still shut but westbound carriage is now open. The amount of rubber neckers is unbelievable and some more accidents almost happen!

1555: Recovery vehicles arrive for the vehicles.

1612: Highways arrive to clear the carriageway and fix the road which has taken some damage from the collision.

1635: Leave scene, have to go to a local station to drop of some cones that were used in the scene 

1710: return to the station 

1730: Book off duty! I will add there where thankfully no fatalities at the RTC and only minor injures were sustained in the end which was very lucky judging by the state of the hatchback. I had a really good first duty and learnt that even when it is "Q" anything can come in at any time as it did with this serious RTC. I learnt alot today and cant wait to get back out there!

Hopefully this was at least barely readable and interesting!

 

 

  • Like 6
 Share

15 Comments

Recommended Comments

  • Management
Chief Cheetah

Chief Cheetah 6,902

Posted

  • Management

Thanks for sharing Tempo, this will definitely hit our twitter and Facebook feeds at some point today.  You have been awarded 2 points for it's submission.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Will

Thanks Tempo, was an interesting read!

The warning sign (based purely on what you have written) - it is a big no-no to be giving grounds for stop & search based on previous convictions or PNC warning markers (as per PACE Code A 2.2). Just to be aware of to prevent getting into hot water in the future :) 

Link to comment
Tempo

Thanks guys, I will looks to add more to these as time goes on! @Will thanks for that, we did check the grounds with our SGT afterwards and he seemed to be happy but I shall check into this and brush up on my grounds for search for next time, I appreciate the advice :)

Link to comment
ScotLass

ScotLass + 638

Posted

Thanks Tempo, was an interesting read!

The warning sign (based purely on what you have written) - it is a big no-no to be giving grounds for stop & search based on previous convictions or PNC warning markers (as per PACE Code A 2.2). Just to be aware of to prevent getting into hot water in the future :) 

You can use markers as justification for search though - no?  As warning markers are classed as intelligence?

Not an argument, just a genuine question!

Link to comment
Elena

I enjoyed reading this! Sounded like a lovely first duty, and looking forward to seeing more

Link to comment
Pyramid

Thanks Tempo, was an interesting read!

The warning sign (based purely on what you have written) - it is a big no-no to be giving grounds for stop & search based on previous convictions or PNC warning markers (as per PACE Code A 2.2). Just to be aware of to prevent getting into hot water in the future :) 

Agree - I think you would struggle to get over the "reasonable suspicion" threshold under s.23 MDA based solely on intel that the person has a history of drug use. You need something to found a suspicion that they are in possession at that particular time/place. 

Link to comment
Klaus

Klaus 585

Posted (edited)

You can use markers as justification for search though - no?  As warning markers are classed as intelligence?

Not an argument, just a genuine question!

They can build towards grounds, but on their own they are not grounds. It also depends how old they are, whether they are relevant, etc.

 

The purpose of warning signals is to warn us as officers what we might expect from a person, so that we can react to their presence accordingly. They're not supposed to be 'intel markers'.

Edited by Klaus
Link to comment
ScotLass

ScotLass + 638

Posted

They can build towards grounds, but on their own they are not grounds. It also depends how old they are, whether they are relevant, etc.

What about in conjunction with the location being a known hotspot for anti-social behaviour and that they were already intoxicated?

The reason I ask is that I have corroborated a few S23 searches and I'm curious as to how much you have to justify it. I guess it's all circumstantial so that's why we can't use one reason by itself?

Link to comment
Will

Will 54

Posted (edited)

What about in conjunction with the location being a known hotspot for anti-social behaviour and that they were already intoxicated?

The reason I ask is that I have corroborated a few S23 searches and I'm curious as to how much you have to justify it. I guess it's all circumstantial so that's why we can't use one reason by itself?

Have a read of section 2 of PACE Code A: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/384108/2013PACEcodeA.pdf

I don't mean that as a put-down, it's genuinely quite interesting to see what it would consider acceptable as reasonable suspicion. s2.4 mentions how the intel should be current. Also s2.2 states that previous convictions can't even form part of your grounds for a search. So essentially, you should have grounds regardless of what information PNC checks yield.

Edited by Will
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Klaus

Klaus 585

Posted (edited)

Remember that a warning signal on PNC is not just the one word 'Drugs', there will be an explanation attached, so always ask for it so you get the context of the marker.

Someone could be given DRUGS for "Known to have smoked cannabis" or "Habitual heroin injector. Carries uncapped needles often."

Obviously, depending on what you've got someone stopped for, the difference between the two could be very important and you need to ascertain that.

The same goes for other markers. W/M does not necessarily mean W/M. And as for Foxtrot, I saw someone who had been given that marker once for "admitted owning a BB gun once".

Lesson of the day, always ask your control for all the info there is, and don't take the marker at face value.

Edited by Klaus
  • Like 2
Link to comment
MajorDisaster

MajorDisaster + 579

Posted

Good duty.  We spend less and less time on foot these days.  Happy blogging!

Link to comment
Tempo

I shall add a bit more information for what I believed at the time of the search our grounds were. We had intel on the male having been found with uncapped needles in his possession in the past as well as being a known drug user. He was also at the time in an area which is a known hotspot for drug and alcohol misuse this is what we used as our grounds and the SGT was happy with the grounds for the search as I wrote in my original post. 

 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...