Page 106 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

be recognised when he was asked to form and run a squad to manage the
growing spate of burglaries on the patch. With his choice of team members,
not surprisingly he chose Terry Cleaver first, then a colleague DC Dave
Forrester and another excellent officer I admired PC Derek Forest. More of this
later when I realised my ambition to work with these officers.

Nigel Wier is the author of several books himself, including one that tells the
compelling story of his life as a police Officer, the vas majority of which was
spent as a Detective. His book is available on Amazon entitled ‘The Memoirs
of a Birmingham Policeman (1975 – 2005)’ I can heartily recommend it as a
fascinating insight into a lifetime in the CID.

Whilst it was my aim to join the CID and become a Detective, I had to walk
before I could run. Walk I did for the next two years as a Permanent Beat
Officer on a busy beat that took in Kingstanding Police Station.

Resident or Permanent Beat Officers (RBO/PBO) has their own designated
area to police called a Beat. This dates to the policing of yesteryear when
the Local ‘Bobby’ knew his or her patch and everyone on it, if a crime was
committed, he/she may not have evidence to prove who was responsible
but from their detailed local knowledge, in all likelihood would have a sound
idea of the identity of the culprit. It was this degree of local knowledge I
wanted to acquire for myself.

Whilst posted to the AES, I became friendly with Police Sergeant Mick Callow
who ran the RBO’s department at Kingstanding. I learned that a vacancy for
Beat 33 was coming up as my AES attachment was due to come to an end.
Mick said he would endorse my application for the post if I applied, so I
submitted the report. He also told me that I would be favourite as I’d now
passed my Sergeants exam and I could get some useful ‘Acting Sergeant’
experience.

Within 24 hours of submitting the report I was summoned to Erdington to see
Inspector Ian Booth, who wasted no time congratulating me in having
secured the position of RBO for Beat 33.
Nowadays the Local Beat Officer role has changed. At the time of writing the
West Midlands force is divided into 8 Neighbourhood Policing Units (NPUs),
each headed by a Chief Superintendent, who is responsible for the overall
policing and management of the area. The 8 NPUs are policed by
neighbourhood teams. Each team contains police officers, police community
support officers and special constables.

Page106