A night in the life of Sergeant Partridge

Hello again,

Thanks for the comments that are coming in, and thanks for the return visitors - apparently in April there were 88 visits to blog - and not all mine! If you are looking at it, please pass on to others and tell me anyting else you would like included.

A bit different this week. As I have mentioned before I have to take part in the Violent Crime Strategy (VCS) or, as it is officially called, Operation Erwood. It is policing the night time economy in the city centre, and I and five other Sergeants take it in turns, so it works out every 6 weeks work on a Friday and Saturday night. Not what I would chose to do, but someone has to do it. So I thought I would take you through a night of VCS.

I wrote this update in the early hours of Saturday morning, after I finished the first shift.

Friday night 6.30pm:
I came on duty - it’s a 12 hour duty, so I am on until 6.30am Saturday morning. There were 35 emails from my 'day job' as a Neighbourhood Sergeant, but they may have to wait until I have finished VCS weekend. I have Monday and Tuesday as rest days after working nights so it will be Wednesday when they get dealt with. We have two briefings for the VCS officers which I lead. The first one is 7.30pm. So I have to look through the duties to find how many officers I have and who they are. On Friday night I had two from the City Centre unit, one SNT officer from Northam who is my own PC Dave Houghton and one from the Polygon beat. We were joined by a Special Constable and one student officer too. They are all due to work until 3am or 4am and until midnight I also had 2 PCSOs.

7.30 pm: Briefing.

8pm: After the briefing, off they go to keep the streets safe. I let the control room know who they are, check the custody block to see how many cells are spare - there are 10 already in custody tonight, so there will be enough room for another 10. Then check how many officers for the second briefing.

9.30pm: There are 15 officers, from Central, Portswood, Shirley and Bitterne and two Special Constables. We are also joined by the lady leading the Street Pastors scheme tonight, and two ladies from the council anti-social behaviour team who have come out as observers.

10pm: Off they go - deployed.
I undate the control room, check custody again.

10.30pm: Its time for me to go out and see how many people are in town tonight. Make sure I have allocated the officers to the right areas and hot spots.

12.20am: Come in for a cup of coffee. There's not too many people out tonight, the venues say numbers are low, but are sufficient to keep the tills going and stay open. The people who are out and about seem nice and friendly. The street pastors are wandering around without a lot to do at the moment. We have just used a power that we have to disperse a person from the city centre for alcohol related anti-social behaviour. It's called Section 27 and the person can be removed for up to 48 hrs - a really good power. So someone is having an early night. One arrest so far - a man found in possession of possible cocaine.

1am: Back on the streets, all quite jovial and friendly.

1.55am: Man arrested for coming back into town after being dispersed on a Section 27.

2.40am: Man arrested for drunk and disorderly

2.41am: Man arrested for Assault. Southampton Central cells now full.

2.50am: Three more arrested for breaching Section 27 - prisoners taken to Bitterne cells.
This leaves less officers on the streets for the final closing time with officers taking statements for several assaults or escorting prisoners.

3.15am: One of the food outlets that only has a licence to 3am is still serving, so I visit and report them.

3.30am: I am back in the station to start my report and find out how many prisoners, where the prisoners are and ensure officers have the prisoner handover packs ready for the morning. Its been a busy night over in Shirley and they are keen to have their officers back.

4am: Checked with custody, all prisoners accounted for. Officers kept on duty to complete their prisoner handover packs.

5am: I start checking prisoner handover packs.

6.30am Finally I can go home now. Time for a glass or two of wine before I go to bed. My wife often spends my VCS weekend at her sisters rather than try to keep quiet all day Saturday and Sunday while I am in bed, but all my meals are prepared and in the freezer!

That's the end of Friday night, same again on Saturday!