Am I allowed to say black sheep?? Im sure one of the PC Crew will correct me with this weeks appropriate phrase!
Before I joined the specials, I had no clue what it was all about. Infact, I had never even heard of a Special Constable!
Then once I commenced training, I got the usual comments from people who had little idea:
But you cant arrest people!
So is it like a citizens arrest?
Do you get a gun?
Dont the regulars look down on you?
The last point was the one which worried me, how wrong I was though.
I have only ever had one "bad" experience with a regular officer. Well, two actually.
The first was when I was crewed up with a regular officer and we were looking for some, (MoP's, believe it or not!) Burgulars! We had the copperchopper up above and we were on foot searching a field. Another regular comes up and begins barking orders at me. He then notices my collar number (showing I am a special - have to look twice as we dont have the SC & Crown etc). On seeing this he stopped talking, turned to my regular collegue, and said exactly what he had said to me, to her.
We were both shocked at this.
"Oh ignore him, he is just a dinosoar"
Never seen him since though, nor have I let it get me down!
The second one wasnt really anything major, and more aimed at me being "lazy" than anything!
I started duty at 09:00 and I was sat in the office after having just booked in a prisoner, enjoying a cup of tea waiting for another officer to bring me some store CCTV to book in. Obviously there was nothing I could do at this point other than enjoy my cuppa! Took 2 hours to book in the prisoner (shockingly poor!) which brought me to 1700 (oh the joy)
In walks the inspector:
Insp "What are you doing?"
ESP "Huh?" (I thought it was pretty obvious to be honest)
Insp "Why are you sat about doing nothing?"
ESP "I am waiting for another officer to bring CCTV to me from the town centre"
Insp "Well I dont want you sat about doing nothing"
ESP "What should I do then??
Insp "Not sit around" *she then walked off*
A regular then made the comment of "Your lucky mate, she's not your inspector, wish I had Inspector ***** too!" (Probably Inspector Gadget! My Inspector, not the one in question!!)
Perhaps she just wanted me to juggle some MG forms - Moscow Circus meets Scroatsville Police type stuff. Who Knows!
As I have said several months back, I have loads of support from regular officers, and always give my time to assist them back in any way I can.
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10 comments:
I will tell you about a truly shocking example of this that happened at our nick only recently.
On of the senior ranks contacted a special who had not worked for sometime, I think it was by letter but may have been by telephone.
Something along the lines of being very disappointed with the amount of hours this SPC had done of late.
The reason he/she had not been on duty was that he/she had serious cancer.
Maybe a welfare check should have been the right course of action.
I take my hat off to officers like you who go do it for nothing, keep up the good work.
Like any other officer there are good and not so good.
We have some outstanding ones and some that turn up a few times, don't get into the regulars, and don't turn up again. Shame really as a good special is every inch as good as any regular I have ever met, and better than some.
Keep up the good work and roll on the day they actually pay you sopmething for doing it.
I had my worst bit of treatment just the other weekend. Not from any of the people I usually work with. But an acting up Sgt from another area. No briefing, she sat in her office and positively looked confused at me and another special being there.
Her words - "Oh I didn't know you were here. Well we're ok for numbers. We've got double ups for everyone"
It's not as if another two pairs of hands on a Friday night go amiss. It wasn't just us tho... even the regs were bitching about her.
PTPM - what did you do once she said that?
Extraspecial
I stood there dumbstuck, mouth opened wide. About 10 seconds passed, then she had the bright idea of splitting one of the pairs up!
Obviously she'll go far... I fully expect her to climb the ranks ;)
PTPM
Too be honest, we have a special on our team who is worth his wait in gold. Id have him backing me up over some of my regular colleagues.
Even more crap removed!
My worst experiance nearly caused me to resign, I had been on quite a few duties with response teams and was doing well, got teamed up with a "dinosaur" one night but things went well, we got a lot done and not a single hitch all night. Get a phone call from the special inspector the next night saying he had been given feedback that I did bugger all and dont want me working on response anymore. Dont know what was worse what the PC said or the inspector not even asking what happened.
anon @ 10:02,
Sadly, "specials managment" dont seem to interested in the other side to the story. Found out this many times. Glad you didnt pack it in though
That's a bad experience my freind. She might have just been confused. There are no courses for acting sergeants. They probably did not think through what they were saying to you. And yes, Specials do do a great job. Extra numbers can make a visible difference.
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