Page 102 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

A vocation is a lifelong journey that we either accept or reject over time. We
must find patterns in our lives that we are drawn to, enjoy, are energized by
and that motivate us to dig deeper, where we feel we can make a real
difference. This was what lay at the root of my becoming a Police Officer and
I would stay just so long as I felt I was fulfilling my life’s vocation.

The twelve months after passing my probationary milestone brought many
more criminal arrests, court attendances, sudden deaths, road traffic matters,
football matches, shoplifters, domestic disputes, runaway children and other
incidents that would make the year pass quickly.

It was noting the passing of time that forced me to consider my options within
the service.

• I wanted to pass my police driving course so I could drive as well as be
an observer or walk the shopping area beats on the patch.
• Already studying hard, I wanted to pass my Sergeants examination
(which we were told was the equivalent of a law degree). I wasn’t in a
rush for promotion just yet, but I wanted the exam under my belt.
• Criminal Investigation work and becoming a Detective on the CID was
my ultimate dream.
• Before setting out to achieve the CID dream, there were a couple of
areas of the job I wanted to have under my belt for experience
namely:
• An attachment to the Accident Enquiry Squad. RTA’s - Road Traffic
Accidents and determining the causation and dealing with any
offences that were disclosed was the singular part of the traffic role
that DID interest me. (Co-incidentally, RTA’s would represent a huge
part of my future career beyond the police).
• To work a local beat as a Resident Beat Officer. On shift when posted
to foot patrol it was often with the primary responsibility to protect retail
and commercial premises on one of the main shopping runs, Erdington
High Street, Hawthorn Road and Kingstanding Circle, where activity
centered around commercial premises. Whilst the need for these
postings were accepted, they rarely offered adequate opportunity to
get in deep under the skin of residents and to increase my local
knowledge of criminals on the patch and their behavioural patterns
that I felt would make me a better, more effective policeman.

Setting my plans in motion, I befriended Sergeant Cummins at Queens Road
Police Station, who was the supervisor in charge of the Accident Enquiry
Squad, based at Kingstanding Police Station. He told me that a vacancy was
coming up when an officer was due to transfer back to his shift. I typed my
Page102
report requesting an AES attachment which my shift Inspector endorsed.