Page 166 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

me I had been identified as a potential candidate and whilst it was not a
‘done-deal’ I wouldn’t be there if I wasn’t considered suitable for an
attachment.

D/Supt Kelly was a plain-speaking Irishman with a long and notorious career
in the CID and a reputation for being more than a little scary at first. I’d never
met him before the interview and sure enough, I found his direct questions
and statements challenging to say the least. He played bad cop and DCI
Heatley was the good cop in this scenario. Despite the prior assurances and
confidence of the DCI, I came out of the interview happy with my responses
but nonetheless uncertain of the outcome.

I didn’t have to wait too long to hear. A few days later DCI Heatley called me
down to Erdington to congratulate me on my successful interview and that I
would be starting as a CID Aide on Monday 21 October 1985.
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I was overjoyed. This was the challenge I wanted, to start all over again
attached full-time to a CID office team, with the opportunity to learn and
gain experience and the skills that would earn me the ultimate accolade of
being a Detective.

One daft memory lingers in my mind from my remaining weeks in uniform.

A new arrival in the beat office was an attractive woman police officer,
Karon Schofield. As you might imagine in a chauvinistic male dominated
environment, more male comment was made about her looks than her
abilities as a Police Officer. I had got to know Karon very well as my wife and I
had become friends with Karon and her husband who was a traffic officer.
Such was the gossip in the police, that I was always getting the ‘nudge-
nudge, wink-wink’ from colleagues who were convinced that you couldn’t
be good friends with a member of the opposite sex, and that there must be
an illicit affair going on that they could feed the rumour mill with.
Nothing was further from the truth. Yes, Karon’s looks were a welcome treat
for us all, especially to a male oriented team, but she arrived with a point to
prove, that first and foremost she wanted to earn recognition as a good
police officer. From everything I witnessed, she achieved that, never once
backing away from jobs, the physical arrests or the hard work that preceded
them.

Shortly after I heard the news of my pending CID attachment, Karon asked if I
would accompany her onto her Beat 30 as she had some gangs of youths
causing anti-social behavioural issues and she felt an increased uniform
presence for a couple of days would help her deal with the problem. We
would deal with the gangs we encountered firmly and it seemed to have the
effect Karon was hoping for. Page166