Welcome.
You’re reading my first post on this blog. This is where I explain who I am, what I do, and why i’m writing about it.
I’m a Special Constable with a county Police Force in England. As a Special Constable, I give a minimum of 16 hours a month to work as a voluntary Police Officer. Normally this is closer to 40 hours a month for me. I have a normal “civvie” job aswell, and the Special Constabulary is designed to fit in around this. As a Special I have an identical uniform to a full-time Officer, identical equipment, and identical powers – on and off duty. Some may confuse “Special Constable” with “PCSO”, please don’t. A Police Community Support Officer is a full-time, paid, member of Police Staff with very limited powers, a very different uniform, and a totally different role. If PCSO’s are the eyes and ears of the extended police family, Specials are the mouth.
I’m writing this blog for a few reasons, mainly; to highlight not every Special is an overtime stealer, good-for-nothing doofus, paperwork nightmare, or general idiot; and to highlight the insane world of policing in England today: the paperwork-driven, detection-obsessed, immensely critical farce that is to be a copper. But there are some good times.
I hope to do this by posts dedicated to certain aspects of the bureaucracy, posts about incidents i’ve attended that have been stupid to deal with, and incidents i’ve found particularly key to being a Police Officer (to highlight that we still do try to be great coppers, but we’re held back).
If you read the likes of Inspector Gadget or Coppersblog (or any other of the great blogs on my sidebar), you’ll have heard some of the rants i’ll make before. Hopefully looking on them from the perspective of a part-timer will add a new spin on things that makes it engaging and entertaining to read. Mostly I hope people learn something!
So thanks for stopping by, enjoy your stay.
