Special Constabulary

Be Special!

Plymouth Police want more Special Constables. Details of the roles are on this link. Anyone is welcome to apply, I am particularly interested in mature people who would like to see a long term future with the Specials rather than a route into the regular force (there is no age limit!).

In Plymouth our Specials are a major part of our policing team and are making a real difference. Our Superintendant of Specials, Nicky Sleight is looking to build up a new contingent. We would like to see some in the July training course. It is a great role that can be flexible around your available time, experience and interests. Click here for some great case studies. Members of Police Staff are welcome to become Specials.

On a different note, thank you to those who applied to be volunteer drivers, we are almost ready to start the scheme, 5 people will be driving police officers to court and providing other routine transport. This will allow us to keep our marked fleet on the road for operational police use.

Monday 17th

Today was started and finished in seats of authority!

This morning, first thing I was in the Head's office at Eggbuckland Community College, then at the end of the day I joined the magistrates association of Plymouth at their AGM.

Eggbuckland school's principle, Katrina Borowski invited me up to the school to look at what is being done to integrate the school in it's local community and create high standards of behaviour. I went there with my colleague, Chief Inspector Paul Northcott. We were shown around by two students, Sam and Matthew. It was clear this is a school aspiring to and delivering high standards. We discussed ways in which schools and police can do yet more work together for the good of all. We were particularly impressed with schools approach to citizenship and went onto our day's work inspired by the discussion. Plymouth's young people are our future, yes some do act badly, but the vast majority are a credit to themselves, their families and their communities.

(funny....28 years after leaving school, it still feels risky sitting in the Head's office!)

During the morning the Senior Management Team of Plymouth Police met to discuss events over the weekend and plan for the challenges ahead. The officers working over the weekend did some cracking work. Considerable challenges after I finished on Friday night. Two of our senior officers ending up chasing and wrestling a young brawler much to the amusement of everybody else! Interestingly the extended licensing hours we now have mean that our weekend night time policing operation now runs through to five in the morning, and on Saturday the team were still busy then.

At lunch time I went to City College. We have some of our PCSO's on a multi agency "Neighbourhood Management" course. They are working with colleagues from the Fire Service and today they were presenting on projects they had completed. Very high standards. We have managed to recruit and retain some excellent people. City College and in particular Sue Atkinson the course manager are providing some excellent training.

Early afternoon, a discussiion with Jill Crumpton & Craig Anderson who have come down from Greenwich Council and Police tp look at our cell based alcohol intervention policy. There are quite a few interesting similarities between Plymouth and Greenwich and we are interested in learning from each others good and bad points.

Later in the day, meeting with Louise Baxter and John Williams of the excellent Street Pastors initiative. This is going to start soon. They already have 50 volunteers who are going to provide care and attention to vulnerable people out and about in the city centre at night. They are going to start in Mutley Plain then spread out from there as they get more experience. Insp Pete Willingham has taken this on for the police and is pictured (right) with Lousie and John.

Later.... down to Plymouth Magistrates Court to meet the Magistrates Association for their AGM. I had the rare pleasure of sitting up on the bench, looking down into the body of the court. After nearly 30 years of policing, I had never seen the court from this perspective! Very good to meet with the magistrates in this informal way.

Just time for a brief spot of patrol on the way back to Charles Cross and an interesting unplanned meeting with a couple of people who had probably been celebrating St Patrick's day too much and too early! It looked like a great St Patrick's night brewing outside Kitty O'Hanlon's next to the court.

With a liberal does of paperwork and emails to fill the gaps, another day of interest and challenge in the City. The main thing, as ever, is the sheer quantity of people who want to deliver of their best for us all.

Survey Results

That you know the name of your Neighbourhood Beat Manager is really important to us. The majority of those who responded to the last survey didn't know, nor knew the name of their local PCSO. We are about to launch a new Neighbourhood Policing web site, with a post code search facility. I will checking again once the site is live!

Good news that most peoplw knew our non emergency number

08452 777444

and website address

http://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk .

Policing Plymouth - John Hoblyn

John is a regular correspondant to the Herald on a wide range of issues. He has frequently written on policing issues. I have invited John to contribute his views on this blog. Yer tiz!

"I have several friends who are Police Officers. Because of what they tell me and what I have seen during my visit to Crownhill, I know how hard they work and how much is done by the force to catch criminals.

Sadly for all these people who are working so hard, I feel that one of the major problems facing the Police is that there is a gap between the work they do and the public perception. Crime may well be reducing, we may well live in an extremely safe country, but to many people the Police have lost control. I have heard many people say, when discussing crimes which have affected them, ”I didn’t phone the Police, what’s the point? They won’t do anything and even if they do catch the person who did this he’ll just get away with it. Of course, if I was speeding it would be a different story!”

Of course there is no truth in much of this but it doesn’t matter. As far as many people are concerned they are rarely affected by crime themselves (bearing out the fact that we DO live in a relatively crime-free country). Anyone unlucky enough to be affected by a major crime is likely to find excellent service, and nobody would expect less.

The problem comes with the low-level crime, the kind of thing which affects many of us from time to time. This is likely to give a less positive image of the Police and the justice system in general. Low-level theft is hardly worth reporting, unless your insurance company insists on a crime number before paying out. The chance of someone getting caught is very low, the chance of getting your belongings back even lower and the chance of the miscreant, if he is caught, being punished in a meaningful way is non-existent. This is a sad indictment of all those officers who are working hard trying to catch small-time thieves, but looking from the outside it is the view people see.

Similarly, consider an old person who is scared to leave home because of the intimidating gang of youths who meet every night outside. He or she calls the Police but either nothing happens or a Police car arrives some hours later and either finds that the troublemakers have now all gone home, or the occupant of the car stops, has a word with the youths and drives off. The youths may be quieter for a while and then they return to their previous, rowdy behaviour.

In all honesty what can the Police do? The youths may well be a nuisance but being a nuisance is not actually against the law. In most cases rowdy youths know there is a limit beyond which they should not step, and they moderate their behaviour accordingly. The problem comes when some of the youths realise that no matter how badly they behave little or nothing will be done to them. This can lead, in extreme circumstances, to these youths getting totally out of control. They get more mouthy and intimidating, eventually leading to the oft-repeated headlines concerning a law-abiding citizen who asks them to keep the noise down and ends up dead.

Every time a member of the public calls the Police and gets no response, or what they see as a response which does not address the problem, it is a nail in the coffin of public trust in the Police. Jim Webster appears to be trying to address the problem of noisy, drunken youths, but he doesn’t have enough officers to cover every area. The response is targeted at areas which suffer from particularly bad problems, which simply pushes the youths, many of whom are not from that area, to regroup elsewhere. What we need is a city-wide response, but there are simply not enough officers to go around.

The Flanagan report, with its criticism of government-imposed paperwork and targets, may help this situation assuming that the reduction in paperwork does not then lead to a reduction in Police numbers, which was also recommended in the Flanagan report. The very last thing we need right now is fewer Police!

Some interesting facts appeared in the papers after the sad death of Michael Todd, Chief of Greater Manchester Police. Mr Todd was known and respected as a “Copper’s copper”, an old fashioned thief-taker. He was not known for being politically correct, he was frequently to be seen patrolling the streets of Manchester and even wrestling a suspect to the ground. One of his first acts on taking over the job was to take 200 officers off traffic duty and put them on the beat. He also managed to persuade our notoriously anti-police government to fund an increase in officers. The end result of all this? Burglaries were down 41%, robberies 32% and car crime by 25%. Funny that!

Oh and by the way, his was the only force whose speed cameras made a loss!"

Friday, great day

Some days just work. Friday was one of those days. As a Plymothian it is great to have the opportunity to lead the policing of the City. We have got so many people committed to bringing down crime and the fear of crime, both in the force and partnered to it that it is hard to keep up with it all.

Yesterday I had the chance to move around quite a few different areas of our work and partnerships. It was very inspiring and just what I needed after a long old week.

First thing... Victim Support Devon, based at Newton Abbot, discussing how the police could work even close with them. Vicitm Support are an independant charity, we work with them by referring victims of crime to them. They do a great job, not just offering caring concern after a crime has occurred (and that is very important) but also giving practical help in all kinds of areas. Great business for us since they deliver care and support while we move to solve crime and prevent others.

Here is a link to their website.

Then back to Crownhill for some paperwork and brief discussions with my team. We are very focussed right now on bringing down crime levels, particularly car crime and burglary which have seen an increase recently.

Here is a Herald article about a recent spate

Mid day, I went to Whitleigh for the closure of the "Week of Action". This is part of a series that the Plymouth Community Safety Partnership is running. This is our fifth week of action, which have been run in various parts of the City. The aim is to bring together many agencies to focus on issues that affect local communities. Police officers and PCSO's get stuck in, doing community work and enforcement. During this week the team carried out drugs raids, arrested a total of 18 "bail bandits" and others who were wanted. A key part of the week of action was the work of the Fire Service, Plymouth City Council Dog Wardens, Local Councillors, the Harbour Centre drugs workers and many others

The week is not about purporting to solve long standing problems there and then, but it is about building better relationships between all the agencies in a given area and between those agencies and local groups.

Young people from Sir John Hunt designed community safety posters as part of the event. Here is a link about it.

Then down to meet the head of Plymouth's probation service. Our two agencies work closely together on a whole range of projects dealing with preventing, enforcing and rehabilitating. We are particularly involved in targetting our most persistent and prolific offenders, managing the risk posed by sex offenders and using the work of people sentanced to community penalties. We also work together as part of the bigger Plymouth Local Strategic Partnership which brings together all the main agencies of the City to collaborate for the good of all.

2pm, to the Headquaters of Plymouth Community Partnerships (PCP) for their AGM. I gave a brief presentation on the the links between the police, the Local Strategic Partnership and the voluntary and community sectors. PCP provides the infrastucture for many smaller community groups. The theme of my presentation was that while the police make a difference in fairly short term enforcement, it is the community itself that keeps the city safe. All the many social and voluntary groups build a sense of confidence and integration which is so important to us all. Afterwards I was given a good grilling by those present!

3pm I was going to go to the launch of the refubishment of a gym in Devonport. PCSO Jan Cross has obtained £8k to refurbish the gym. He and a team of local youths were refurbishing the premises PCSO Cross has also obtained £8k to develop a local boxing club. PCSO Cross is an ex-member of the naval field gun crew and is using his experience and physical abilities to help local young people.

We have taken a strong stance against anti social behaviour, we are now demonstrating long term approaches to "pro social behaviour", activity that helps to build effective communities and support local youth.

In the end I had to get involved in planning for some covert activity elsewhere on some other major cases, so couldn't get to this event. I am really impressed with the ingenuity and commitment that is being shown by so many of our staff.

At 5pm, I was picked by by PC Al Roberts and we went down together to the Lipson Community College for the unveiling of the new football kits for a football training scheme. This scheme, set up by another of our PCSO's Chris Kinski, enables young adults to test out their football skills and participate in an accredited training scheme.

The Lord Mayor designate, Brian Vincent was on the sidelines showing his support for the scheme which was set up in August by four of the city’s Police Community Support Officers (PSCOs). The PCSOs run the scheme along with Lipson Community College’s sports co-ordinator Chris Ayres and his staff. The training sessions take place at Lipson Community College each Friday from 5pm – 6.30pm at Lipson Community College. The sessions are free to all 12 to 16 year old who live within Efford, Lipson or Laira.

PCSO Chris Kinski started this scheme in August, since then he has seen a great deal of interest from young people within the community. This is a really great initiative, which gives young people in the area something to do which they really seem to enjoy. Each week he is getting more and more young people attending. He is now getting on average 25 – 35 attendees. Last night the team were wearing their new kits for the first time, which had been sponsored by Hobby’s Sports.

6pm back to base and a brief meeting with Superintendant John Green, agreeing our plans for the next couple of days.

6.30pm, I met up with Andy Greenwood from the Western Mornig News. Andy is researching the challenges caused by young people and drink. He came out with us last night to watch how we manage a busy Friday evening.

7.00pm with Andy down to the City’s CCTV control centre. The team here are excellent, their hundreds of cameras keeping an eye out for us all. Unlike other centres of this nature, that have a coordination role as well. They have radios covering the main police channels, the cabwatch scheme and the pub/club network and the Plymouth Against Retail Crimeradios of local shops. Using the cameras and radios, they can make sure the work of these agencies comes together. Here is some detail about their work, but it has grown since this article

8.00pm Operation Talon briefing. This is our main city centre public safety plan. We had about 40 minutes briefing including local criminals of note and all the various powers our staff now have, including "directions to leave" "penalty notices for disorder", as well as the good old power of arrest. I was very impressed by the "firm but fair" approach adopted. The officers at the briefing had a good grasp not only of the importance of preserving order in the city centre but also the names and identities of those who may be out and about looking for trouble or who were vulnerable.

I ended the evening with a quick patrol through Mutley Plain, taking a look at one of the locations that is being considered for the "cumulative impact" licensing policy. (Footnote: I used to work in KFC in Mutley Plain in the mid 70's cutting up chilled chicken with a bandsaw; never did discover the secret recipe!)

After Mutley Plain, back to Crownhill, finished and home.

A long day, but a real priviledge. I met officers, police staff, PCSO's, and partner agencies and individual agencies throughout the day. We do have an excellent team serving the City. I am off for the weekend and happy that the right people are keeping us safe.

Ashes to Ashes

I joined the police in 1980 and worked in south London. I joined the CID in 1982. I just watched the excellent documentary "Ashes to Ashes" on BBC1, set in my old patch, in my old days!

I thought the stories had the ring of truth to them (apart from the time travel!) and now I know why. I just saw the names of John Blake and Keith Gausden on the credits as police advisors. I worked with them both in the early 80's in Lambeth. I will watch the remaining episodes with even more interest!

In honour of the old days, I post here this article which recently appeared in Police Review magasine:


JANE'S POLICE REVIEW COMMUNITY - FEBRUARY 08, 2008

This week with Ch Supt Jim Webster

Early in 1981, I had just finished my street duties course at the Met and was about to start my first night duty shift. Around 9 pm, I saw a man walking towards me at Lambeth Bridge, London. I was sure I had seen his face before but, being my first day on duty, I was equally sure I could not have known him.

I stopped the man, having decided I would search him, having no real idea of the powers to do either. He gave me his name, which meant nothing to me, and, of course, he had nothing incriminating on him. Still, with a rush of youthful enthusiasm, I told him I was going to arrest him as I thought he was wanted. I called the station and asked them to check the wanted posters. It turned out he was wanted by the Flying Squad for armed robbery, aggravated burglary and going equipped. It was an eventful first day.

About a year later, I met the same man in the cells at Horseferry Magistrates' Court. When I asked him why he did not just walk away or punch me on the nose, he told me he knew he would eventually be arrested by the Flying Squad and that when he was, he could expect a rough ride and a long stay in police cells before re-entering the prison system. He knew that being arrested late at night on a weekday, would mean he could be charged that night and into court and prison the following day. He was clear I did not know what I was doing, which meant there would be no 'putting words into his mouth'. Also, he said that as an 'old lag' he knew it would be the end of his criminal career and he could see it was the start of my policing career and did not want it to get off to a bad start!

Ch Supt Jim Webster is BCU commander in Plymouth, for Devon and Cornwall Constabulary.

Excellent Plymouth Video

This video, Plymouth "City of Enterprise" was prepared by Plymouth City Council for the recent City Development Corporation event. It is linked here by the kind permission of PCC. It gives a great view of the city. It is easy for the police to see the city through the filter of crime, this is a good reminder to us of how much is going on here.

The video is a bit slow on my machine, it seems to need a fair bit of bandwidth.