Shortest Tour of Duty
Entry posted by Otee ·
1,395 views
The following recollection is purely approximate and occurred several weeks ago. Facts and certain details may be altered or omitted due to memory constraints and data protection.
The following what I did on duty post is short and unique to a situation about an off-duty intervention.
Rank: Special Constable
Length of Service: 1.5 years
Type of Shift: Unplanned
Location: Merseyside Police
1240 Booked off-duty after completing a module for the PNC from my training centre. It was a hot summers day and I was driving my personal vehicle back home. Visibility was great and I had my windows down with soft music to complement a rare weather event.
1250 No more than ten minutes into my drive, in the far distance I caught a mobile patrol van blocking the opposite oncoming lane of the road with blue lights on. Traffic was light and on a semi-residential street with two-lanes in each direction; the nearside lane was blocked on each side by parked vehicles. Focusing on a distant object, I can sort of make out the infamous body armour and white shirt of a police officer, sprinting. I slow down on the brakes, checking my rear mirrors before doing so and analyse the situation. It was clear now, an officer was pursuing a male who was running in the middle of the road. At this time there were no vehicles on the road apart from the police van and my vehicle.
I flipped the hazards on and It didn't take long before the foot pursuit of the suspect was within a 200 meters. At this point made a decision to decamp and assist but before doing so I did contemplate using my vehicle to block the path of the running suspect. This was not within my powers and policy to take this action after dynamically risk assessment based on the NDM.
I quickly turned off the engine and decamped to assist, not forgetting my keys. My adrenaline was in full-release mode and I started sprinting towards the suspect shouting "OFF-DUTY POLICE OFFICER. STOP NOW!" The uniformed officer was about 15 meters behind the male and as I closed in on the male after yelling my warning, head on in the middle of the road, I went in for a tackle. I grappled onto his rucksack, which slipped away unfortunately and began to spring after him. Without any kit or body armour to slow me down, I felt like Usain Bolt. A second grapple was successful and I tripped the male to the asphalt onto his back. Screaming like a maniac, ordering him to stop resisting and face the floor.
At this point he was reaching for something in his waistband. Before he could get anything, the officer decided to do a rugby dive and saddle his back like a horse and the both of us restrained him. He was subsequently handcuffed to the rear and after a brief conversation between the both of them, I gathered that the male fled after being detained section 1 PACE search. The officer continued with GOWISEL(Y) and a PCSO came running over out of breath and started to record details on their PNB. Forgetful me, forgot to show my warrant card and informed everyone that I was a police officer. I noted the time down on my wrist with a pen and the collar number of those present.
The search ended with a lock-knife being discovered in his waist-band (yes the one he was reaching for), several ID documents, credit cards and about £700 in cash. He was arrested for possession of an offensive weapon and suspicion of possession of articles used for fraud (s4 fraud act).
1330 Trip to custody involving a lengthy MG11, use of force statement and a full PNB entry. Shortly followed by a phone-call to the duty special supervision to inform them of my actions and emailing my supervision briefly explaining circumstances.
Couple weeks later, I was invited to a meeting with my supervision. Discussed at length not to obstruct public roads with my vehicle according to my MG11 and not to intervene unnecessarily whilst off-duty due to threat to police officers.
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