Moving on to custody

Hello again, Well I had some news this week that I am being posted – I have to do my stint in the custody cells. I was due to go down there about 8 years ago, did my custody course – the lot, but the beat Sgts job for Central came up and I volunteered for that. The rest is history as they say as I have been here ever since. However they are running out of Sgts for the cells – and as I have not done my bit, I have to now. It will be a shame to go, as I really enjoy my role at the moment, and how it has developed over the years. I would like to think that I have done a decent job. There are some real achievements that we have made. When I arrived we had loads of drugs problems in Albion Towers with several known dealers. We worked with residents, particularly Chris Morris and the Housing office to sort that out, and we rewarded when the Constabulary submitted our report to the Tilley Awards for problem solving policing. We introduced the vulnerable vehicle scheme to Southampton. This is where if the officers see any items on display in cars, we take full details and send a letter to the registered owner to advise them that their car could have been at risk from thieves. We have done thousands of letters, indeed my team have sent over 400 this year. We started the first Junior PCSO schemes – these have spread throughout the county now and there are several schemes sprung up in Thames Valley, Met Police, Surrey and other areas as a result of our initiative. There is DVD about the Junior PCSO scheme on YouTube. We had the first street briefing in Southampton – at Lumpy Lane. There is also the Tag rugby initiative we started last year which resulted in taking 24 kids from St Marys and Mt Pleasant schools to Twickenham for the curtain raiser before the England v Argentina game. A lot has happened.

I am on my custody course most of September, then in October it is down to the big dark hole!! I am not sure if the blog will be passed on to my replacement or whether I shall carry on – but reporting from the cells. If you have any views on that – please comment and let me know.

Work wise, things are much the same. As a result of the unfortunate case a few months ago when a lady committed suicide with her daughter after suffering long term anti social behaviour, we have a new process to identify these cases. There is a risk assessment form that we complete in respect to people who regularly complain about anti social behaviour. I am confident that my team would have identified these people anyway, and supported them. Currently we have completed 3 of the risk assessments within Northam and St Marys. We share the results with the council and other agencies to ensure there is a joint response and that the people get the right support.

As I write this blog, it’s just after 1am on a Sunday morning as I am on my nights weekend, policing the night time economy in the city centre. Remarkably, we have had no arrests so far, and it is a very busy night, particularly in the Bedford Place area. Last night we ended up with 6 prisoners, and I cannot remember the last time we got this late without a prisoner. That does not mean we have not been busy though. You may have heard of a new scheme launched in the city centre called the yellow card scheme. The idea is that anyone caught being a nuisance, rowdy, drunken behaviour can be issued a yellow card. If they get a second yellow card in 12 months, they are banned from all the venues in the city centre that are involved in the scheme. It started at the beginning of June and so far there have been over 50 yellow cards issued, although only one person has received 2. The scheme is run by the council and yellow cards can be issued by anyone in the scheme including door staff and police. Apparently it has been very successful in Brighton, so we will see what happens. We have had about 6 yellow cards so far tonight.
Well it is 5am now. The town has gone quiet and the officers are back in, writing up the evening. We ended up with just 4 prisoners. One chap for possession with intent to supply Class A drugs, a drink driver in Leisure World, a chap for breach of the peace at the Travel Inn (why won’t they just shut up and go to bed!!) and finally a drunk and disorderly in Onslow Rd. That really is amazing considering the number of people out and about tonight.

Noticeably tonight, there were lots of soldiers out, they are happy to tell you they are soldiers now. I did 21 years in the Army, while we had the troubles of Northern Ireland, and back then no-one went around saying they were in the Army – although the hair cuts gave it away a bit – as everyone else had long hair!!

Anyway, that’s about it for tonight, I shall write up my report for night time operation, then home about 6.30 when I finish. I will get a Sunday paper to read about Argentina v Germany (the England result against Germany does not look so bad now does it!), a couple glasses of red, and bed.

Cheers

Dick