Page 109 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

lived in lower cost housing in the lower post codes. As most of the
opportunistic crime occurred in these areas, the conclusion must be drawn
that the poor were mainly stealing from each other. The richer privately-
owned properties were targeted by the more sophisticated career criminals.

The population on beat 33 was mixed. As with many post
war council housing estates, there were many middle
aged and elderly occupants. These were often soft
targets for those with criminal intent and would complain
of excessive noise, verbal abuse and anti-social type
behaviour. Left unchecked, it was these feral youngsters
causing the problems that would likely progress to more
serious criminal activity in later years. In the weeks and
months ahead, I spent considerable time investigating
the key players in their game, adding to information
known about them, their associates and antecedents.

Brought up on rough council estates into my late teens,
in a household living hand to mouth on the breadline, I
am proud of the job my mom and dad did bringing up
four sons. Despite the lack of material wealth and
comforts, they endowed us with the sense of ‘right and
wrong’ so we would never dream of taking or damaging
property that didn’t belong to us or to intentionally inflict
hurt or pain to others. Even though they were to never
acquire the basic label of ‘comfortable’, they
maintained we should work hard with honesty to get
Figure 43 Circa 1984 what we wanted in life, there were no short cuts.

Coming face to face daily with so many whose moral compass was either
broken or non-existent, was a constant source of irritation to me. The majority
of folk I came across were the ‘salt-of-the-earth’ law-abiding community
spirited types, so it was always objectionable to me when greed and laziness
created innocent victims. It was my inherent loathing of injustice that drove
me to a career of service, values that will remain with me for my lifetime.
Beat work brought me more examples of the human condition at its most
abhorrent than I could have imagined. On shifts our exposure was limited,
being sent to an RTA one minute, an elderly shoplifter the next, motoring
offenders and, in the main, the victims of crime and less frequently, the
perpetrators of it. The difference was stark and quickly became apparent.

Against this backcloth, I set about making my beat a better place for the
good folk to live, and a place where the bad guys had less of an easy ride.

I quickly realised my efforts here would only be a drop-in-the-ocean. Page109