Page 216 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

As we entered the island I saw the BMW being driven at high speed straight
toward the road block, headlights on full beam. The BMW swerved around
the marked police car, mounting the pavement and racing off along
Orphanage Road, We swung around in pursuit and suddenly it turned into
Orchard Road and stopped in the junction. Both front doors flew open and
the driver and passenger jumped out and started running. Dave went after
the driver and I chased the passenger, a ginger haired youth. He ran around
a bend in the road and must have thought I’d lost sight of him, but I saw him
leap over a fence and duck down into a garden. I looked over the low fence
and there he was lying on his back. I reached over and took a firm hold of his
arm – “you’re nicked son” was all I could manage, regaining my breath
before cautioning him. “Yeah ok – fair enough” he said. I will call this lad
Ginger (as that was his real nickname anyway). A marked police car turned
up and conveyed ‘Ginger’ back to the station where Derek Forest and I
conducted the interview. In conversation later, he admitted he loved the
buzz of nicking cars. Ginger and I were to develop a healthy cop and robber
relationship that would prove fruitful for me over coming months.

At about this time, as brightly as the burglary squad firework had burned, it
was disbanded. The word Squad had become synonymous with the
Birmingham serious crime squad (SCS) which was being dismantled on the
orders of the new Chief Constable Geoffrey Dear. Allegations of
unprofessional even criminal conduct by officers had been made and the
squad members were sent back to work on divisional CID teams. This subject
will be covered in more detail later. For now, any team labelled a squad was
being dismantled. However, what could not be denied, was the
effectiveness of the Erdington team led by Nigel Wier and it would not be
long before those team members would once again be making an impact.
As 19 April 1986 loomed closer I became concerned that my dreams of
th
becoming a detective would fizzle out as this was the date my CID
attachment was due to end. I’d had a wonderful time and tasted the fruit
and now I wanted the DC job more than ever. The Detective Chief Inspector
who had put me forward for the attachment was to put my mind at rest. He
called me into his office to explain that whilst the Burglary Squad was no
more in title, the need for a select team of dedicated officers to target the
volume crimes was still needed. A Local Crime Team was to be formed and I
was invited to join that team, which would be headed by a Detective who
had transferred from the SCS – Cliff Wesley, supported by Mark (Bosher)
Webster, who had been a panda car driver from my D Unit uniform days. The
other PC invited was Gavin Buckley, a degree copper who was keen as
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mustard and industrious to a fault.