Just another day, a police car pulls a car over and checks a driver, the check is fine and the driver goes about their business.................
Now the rest of the story:
- At some point in the past a police officer, somewhere in the country, arrests a suspect for dealing drugs.
- The officer puts intelligence into Police systems, an intelligence unit checks it, grades it and distributes it, this goes into the ANPR system.
- That intelligence includes car numbers and associates.
- The car drives into our City
- The automatic number plate reader system (ANPR) reads the number, checks it and finds the drugs warning marker
- An officer in the communications department checks the system and puts out a message to all patrolling officers to be on the lookout
- The vehicle is spotted by the Plymouth CCTV team
- Patrolling officers are directed to the vehicle by the CCTV team, they decide to let it move and stop it somewhere where the risk of a pursuit will be minimised
- Other officers, including a drugs dog, discretely move into the vicinity to support their colleagues
- The car is stopped, the dealer is not present, the occupiers of the vehicle are fine and are thanked for their cooperation
- All parties go about their business
- As for the dealer, all in good time.......
This is just one of many stories from one team on one shift. Our business is 24/7 and there are such events all the time. The key to delivering high quality policing is operating as a team. Our public face is the patrolling PC, Special Constable and PCSO, behind them and not seen is all the rest of our units., working together.
