Page 215 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

Christmas Eve arrived and once again I was to be reminded that crime didn’t
stop for Christmas. Traditionally a time for joy, love and cheer, there was not
much of that about as I conducted an interview for a bloke arrested for
wounding. As I took his fingerprints after the interview and was present as he
was charged, I reflected that he and his victim would not remember this
Christmas with much affection.

The year started as the last one ended, January and February was busy with
what by now had become almost routine interviews for robbery, yet more
cheque fraud, woundings and petty theft. In the middle of all that, I assisted
Taff Harris with the enquiry, arrest and interview of a 15 year old youth for
indecent assault on a six year old girl. Despite not yet being a father myself, I
found offences against innocent children among the most abhorrent. I was
glad that on this occasion a more experienced Detective Sergeant led the
enquiry as I wasn’t convinced I would have acted as professionally without
his supervision.

January also saw the introduction of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act
(PACE). The 1981 Brixton riots and the subsequent Scarman report were key
factors in the passage of the Act. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
was brought in following recommendations set out by the Royal Commission
on Criminal Procedure. The purpose of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act
1984 was to unify police powers under one code of practice and to balance
carefully the rights of the individual against the powers of the police.

At the time, many officers complained it added an unnecessary level of extra
bureaucracy to the operational side of the job, requiring a lot more detailed
recording of almost every action taken by a police officer arrested persons
were involved.
My 26 birthday came and went early in March and I recall a sense of
th
appreciation that even with the routine enquiries we were all obliged to carry
out, I was doing the job I loved. We always want more in life and the two
things I wanted most was a slot on the burglary squad and ultimately a
detectives’ job.

Late in the month I was sitting doing paperwork in the office with my police
radio switched on. I always had a radio nearby, listening in to what was
going on out there on the streets. I heard the controller give out a message
that Nigel Wier and Derek Forest were pursuing a stolen BMW vehicle in Holly
lane, Erdington. The youngest DC Dave Storr winked and waved his car keys
at me, the signal that we would get out there and join the chase. I’m not sure
that today the job would approve of us racing about in private cars, but the
adrenalin was pumping and off we went.

As Dave drove us up Orphanage Road toward the traffic island junction with Page215
Holly Lane, we saw a marked police car in a road block position up ahead.