Page 69 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

jibes seriously. I quickly realised that coppers must have asbestos throats if the
speed they gulped hot tea down them was anything to go by.

Ten to six and Bob called out to me “C’mon Sprog, let’s get going”. Gary was
right, Bob was a grafter as I was to see for myself and from the second we got
into the Marina which was our fast response vehicle, he never called me
Sprog again. He was a big bloke, with heavily tattoed arms. He was always
getting a bollocking for refusing to roll his shirt sleeves down to cover them
(which in those days was a disciplinary no-no).

The units working response shifts were and still are the ‘bread and butter’ of
uniform policing. This is where everyone starts their career as a police officer.
Whether detectives or chief constables, ‘fliers’ or ‘plodders’, it was rare that
one didn’t return to ‘the shift’, at some point throughout what was the
traditional thirty years’ service.

The response crews are the ‘thin blue line’, often under-resourced, full of
probationary officers with under two years’ service, working unsociable shifts,
and having to deal with everything that is thrown at them. Often they have
little time to assess a situation that can have life-threatening implications for
themselves or the public involved. At all times they have to act within the law
whilst at the same time developing a ‘sixth sense’ and acting on pure instinct.

The first shift was uneventful, so Bob took the opportunity to show me around
the patch, stopping a few cars so I could issue HO/RT1 (Home Office Road
Traffic 1 form, requesting driver to produce their documents). He also taught
me how to use the in-car force radio which connected to West Midlands
Police Force Control room at Bourneville Lane, which was the centre of
communication for the force as opposed to the Burndept radios which were
for local use, connecting to Sergeant Clemerson at Erdington control. I
remember with pride my first test call on the force radio, which seems rather
trivial now but back then it was another first under my belt. We had to use the
car call sign as the control room knew what area we covered with that call
sign in the event we needed urgent assistance. “Delta Zulu 7 test call please
Yankee Mike” (Yankee Mike was the call sign for the force control centre).
“Loud and clear Delta Zulu 7 thank you”. I was to perform that check every
time I was posted as an observer in the fast response Zulu.

Everywhere we went, they all knew Bob. We chatted away as we patrolled
and I learned about his passion for music, he followed the popular two-tone
bands which was apt, given the sirens on our car! I was to work as Bob’s
observer for the first week and learn a lot of the basics from him. First watch
as it was called seemed filled with false alarm calls as shop proprietors
opened up and road traffic accidents as the rush hour picked up each day.

During that first week, I got to know most of the shift on first name terms. PS’s Page69
Trevor Lane and Roger Clemerson were both totally approachable and