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[Noonin]

Thought this could be a fun thing to do, so not quite sure how well I can write about things that seemed to have happened ages ago!
A bit of background!
I applied to join Thames Valley Specials in about October last year. Before then I hadn't really known much about the Specials, but I spoke to my uncle who's a reg in Avon and Somerset force and he told me to go for it!
So here I am.
Passed the paper sift stage; god I have never been so excited! I knew it wasn't the whole way there but I thought "Hey, at least it’s a start!" so I was proper chuffed
The came the PIRT Tests...I have never revised so hard for anything, I was so determined not to fail them. The force sent me a little book with mock tests in which I photocopied at work (whoops, may have used up quite a lot of paper there, thanks boss!) and it felt like I was trying the tests out every spare 5 minutes I had! So when I passed them again I was proper pleased Think I would have been so upset if I hadn't!
There were a few other people there that were a bit cocky and hadn’t practiced much, adamant that they were going to pass, and they didn't, so it proves that a little bit of geeky revision time can definitely help!
Then it seemed like ages between that and the assessment! I had my PIRT in the January and the assessment day wasn't until end of March. Then suddenly it was tomorrow and I have to say I did feel myself cacking a bit, I was assured by my uncle I would be OK but I was as nervous as anything and I had butterflies in my tummy all day! To make matters worse I took a wrong turn somewhere close to the Training Centre and ended up in a small village in the middle of no where, I really did think I was jinxed that day!
I enjoyed the Assessment Day really, was a chance to show why I thought I would make a good Special, whereas the first lot of tests was just to see whether I had enough maths and English skills!
Anyway they must have thought I would make a good Special because I'm in now woooooo hoooooo passed my medical, have had my Hep B jabs, next is the first training weekend starting May 5th! I can't wait then I'll be a Lady Special

Not too sure if I'm nervous about the Training or excited. I've been told by some people that it’s really really hard to remember everything, which is a bit worrying. But then I've heard off other people too that it’s not hard just really in depth.
I'm not looking forward to the role plays, I get really embarrassed "acting" in front of people, and I hated drama at school. But it’s weird because I could do it in real life if the situation arose, I just think it’s difficult when you are asked to ACT it rather than actually do it. Does any of that actually make any sense!? I know what I mean anyway
Heard that there is a bar there that could be a laugh.
So all in all I'm very very excited and very very nervous.
So I guess I'll write again after my first training weekend!
Bye for now

[Noonin]

Got all my info through on the training dates today, can't believe trainng is only a week away!
And was that my own little police number I saw written on the top right hand corner
Now all I have to do is find some boots.......

[Noonin]

Today's the day!
Got to be at Sully at 1900 for an introduction talk and stuff at 1930.
Have no idea what time to leave so I miss all the traffic, don't want to get there too early or too late either
The bonus is that I have been given a half day by my full time job so I can go home and pack and get everything together.
Bad thing is that this afternoon is sooooooooooooooooooo going to drag I bet.
Looking forward to getting there and seeing who else made it through too, I know of 3 people that did because we all turned up for our medicals at about the same time
Anyway, best go now it’s nearly time to go!
I'll post again on Monday, tell you all about my first weekend training!

[Noonin]

Sorry have been soooooooooooooo busy! Think they were in a mean mood when they gave us the stuff to learn for the next training weekend! Have been given booklets on Law, Race Equality and Human Rights to do by this Friday, as well as writing up a statement from my PNB. Oh the joys!

Anyway! Really enjoyed my first training weekend! The group is really nice, everyone is nice and friendly which is a bonus. I think I learnt more in a weekend than I did in my last year of school, so much to remember!
Started off on the Friday evening with a "welcome" talk by some guy (whoops, sorry, really can't remember his name !) and then it was the "getting to know you" bit, where we were paired up and had to write things down about our partner to share with the rest of the group. Quite nerving at first as I really am not keen on speaking to a large group, but it got people chatting and relaxing a bit more which was good.

I swear the breakfast the next morning was no way near as good as the "brunch" we had on the assessment day.....its bribery I tell you! still better than burnt toast which is what my usual breakfast in a hurry consists of!
They whole day was mainly our expectations, the Forces expectation, our needs and wants etc, which was really good because it got people asking questions they had felt stupid to ask the first evening, really little things like "where do I get the boots" which is obviously quite important in the long run! Really long and tiring day but well worth it. Also learnt the caution...took me a while but I have it in my head now, whether or not I'll remember it in my time of need is a different story!
You also get to know which people in your group are forever asking questions. Constantly. All the time.
Saturday night...the bar is open wooo hoo! Really good chance to unwind and have a laugh, funny how the conversation lowered within the space of about, oh, 5 minutes!? Which I hasten to add was not my fault! I didn’t say anything...guys, you all now who you are!!!!!
(Oh and Kieran...really REALLY sorry for spilling that glass off Guinness over your trousers. And the second one. I didn’t mean to honest !) All in all a good night.
Sunday saw a lot of work on writing statements, descriptions of people etc and what to include etc-always helpful. It was a pretty mellow day, think because they all knew we had been in the bar the evening before, but we left on time at 3pm which wasn’t too bad!
Really really busy weekend, I was knackered when I got home, but it was really enjoyable too.
It’s now Monday, back to training this Friday, have finished the Human Rights and Race Equality work, and have written my statement, so now it’s onto the law booklet. (I thought I had a fair grip on the English language until I read the Human Rights booklet.....confusion! )
Anyway, back to work before I get fired from my day job. I'll let you know how the next training weekend goes"

[Noonin]

Yes I know I haven’t written for ages! Been so so busy with my day job too so haven’t had the time to write up about the last couple of training weekends!
So I’ll try and write as much as I can now, if I can still remember all those weeks back

We had been given some handouts to read, one on Racial Equality in TVP and the other on Human Rights. There was another handout on Law, but it made no sense to me there was too much technical speak in it!

TRAINING WEEKEND 2
On the Friday evening when we got there, we were told that no lessons would be starting that evening and that we would just be having our fingerprints and DNA taken for elimination purposes in the future. WOOO HOOOO!
I had my finger prints and palm prints done first, it took bloody ages for the ink to come off my hands whilst everyone else’s seemed to come off really easily
Then we had to split up into two of the classrooms there and spread out as much as we could so that there would be no contamination in our swabs! You basically get 2 swabs that look like cotton buds and you have to faff about putting gloves on and opening bags in the correct order and then scrape the inside of your mouth with it, seal the bag in the right order and then you're done.
So that was basically Friday night done with, we had finished by 9pm so that was good!

On the Saturday, we learnt about Indictable/Summary Offences, and Powers of Arrest sections 24 and 24a of PACE, which basically is our powers of arrest and the requirements of arrest. That was quite in depth, think my brain froze over at some point
In the afternoon we did stop and Search and Stop and Account which was really good to learn, its all on one form now (can't remember the name, sorry! ) which makes it easier to fill out. Apparently!
Quite a busy day, but had finished by 5pm, went to McDonalds (sorry, but the sandwiches and soggy crisps from the canteen are not going to fill me up! ) and then went to the bar as soon as it opened at 7pm you can guess the rest! hehe

On Sunday we revised what we had done the previous day mainly Sections 24 and 24a, just because they are a bit long winded and can sometimes seem a bit complicated. We also did a couple hours on our powers of discretion as Police Constables. We then did about an hour on the definition of theft. We were finished by 4pm that day so at least we had a bit of our weekend left!

We thought we had got away with homework.....but about a week after that weekend, in through the post came a nice big brown envelope full of handouts.... which is basically all the stuff we did on Weekend 3 !


Then I had my uniform fitting in Bicester, which really brought it all home! Think I look a bit silly tho, and I'm definitely not sure about the WPC bowler hat.....


OFFICER SAFETY TRAINING 1
They managed to completely mess us up a bit here! We were meant to travel to Upper Heyford on both days, but they had some sort of exercise going on there on the Saturday so we had to go to Sulhamstead instead, and because we didn’t have any of our equipment, we couldn’t do baton training so we did unarmed tactics instead! Won’t go into details cos I don’t really want to spoil it for anybody else starting their training, but it is proper fun, and even a self confessed weakling like me can do the stuff they teach you! "Its all about technique" so they said!
On the Sunday it was off to Upper Heyford, where after driving around the airfield for what seemed like an hour, I FINALLY found where I was meant to be! We did our handcuff training that day with a totally mad trainer, but it was still brilliant! Took the training we had done the day before on Unarmed Tactics and applied them to using the cuffs, which was great fun! Wrists were a bit sore for a few days afterwards tho hehe

I've still got to write about Weekend 3 but I'll do that a bit later on


Oh yeah! Forgot, I'm gonna be based in........OXFORD! Woo Hoo!

[Noonin]

Again, work has been mad (but very very boring ) but I have now found few minutes to do a bit of a catch up entry!

The third training weekend was probably the best weekend so far!
On the Friday evening we all got our bags of uniform, and spent the best part of 2 hours going through and ticking off everything that we had to make sure it all fitted. There I was mooching around at the bottom of the bag to see what I could fin, when something caught my eye...something shining at me...woooo hooooo it was my badge! My very own shiny new badge with my name at the top (who else’s name would it have been! )
Then I got a bit over keen and was told to put it back in the bag because we hadn’t got to that on our lists yet party pooper.

We were then told how to iron our shirts, and that we were all expected to go and do them THIS VERY EVENING! Considering the Laundry Room only consists if 3 ironing boards, I could see this was going to be a bit of a squeeze.....
The ironing started out OK, as I do have a basic knowledge of ironing. Sometimes. But every time I went to put the creases in the correct places (I still don’t understand this point, I always thought uniforms were meant to be DE CREASED!?!?!? )
In the end I bribed one of the others with the promise of a pint the next day needless to say he took up the offer pretty sharpish!

So, the next morning. Everyone looking very smart in their uniforms (in their very ironed and neat uniforms I should say!) everyone went to breakfast, which h subsequently creased all the shirts back up when everyone sat down. Why did it all seem so pointless!?

On the Saturday we firstly had a uniform inspection. The trainer was alright about it, she was a bit strict though. Honestly if she had seen my uniform when I put it on that morning she would have been proud, it was perfect (thanks Ryan!!!)

We seemed to cover loads of stuff Saturday, warrants and summons, criminal damage, criminal attempts! But it was all really really interesting, and our trainer was brilliant too because it all seemed top stay in my brain this time, rather than seeping out at lunch time!

That evening after training it was another mad rush for the laundry room, with everyone trying to wash, tumble dry and iron their clothes all at the same time! Mike had a bit of a problem with the washing machine after using HALF A BOX of washing powder for just one shirt....."Honestly there is a shirt in there amongst all those bubbles!"
But then finally the bar was open, and because it was a nice evening we all sat outside, having a slow leisurely drink until Sharon comes along with 6 bottles of wine. The rest, as they say, is history!

Sunday was also a really good day. We covered drunken behavior of all kinds, from drunk and disorderly to drunk and incapable, and how to spot someone that may have had a little bit too much to drink! Also how to deal with them etc which again was useful! Then we spent the rest doing Breach of the Peace and sections 5, 4 and 4a of the Public Order Act. It was all really interesting stuff, and brought a lot of things we had been taught so far into perspective which was good.

We managed to finish early on the Sunday which was good, it made it seem like we had a bit of the weekend still left. It was definitely my fave weekend so far, maybe because of the topics or because everything seems to make more sense now as compared to the first weekend where everything was just confusing!

Can't wait till the next one in a month, though it’s kinda sad too because that will be the last one

Anyway, have an Officer Safety Training and First Aid in between there somewhere so plenty to update you on soon!

Love me x

[Noonin]

Wooooo!
Second Officer Safety Training was so much fun, definitely one of the best so far!
We had a recap on all the unarmed tactics we had learnt and handcuff techniques, which was good because I don’t think I could remember much from the first weekend is was too far in the past!
We also completed training on use of the baton in defensive/offensive and as a block, and the CapTor spray which were both brilliant!
For the CapTor spray we practiced with dud ones first with just water in and had to aim at pieces of paper hung on the wall…..forgot how much of a rubbish shot I am!!!
And it was also really good to see all the unarmed tactics we learned being used with the baton and the CapTor spray, everything came together a lot and made much more sense. Finally feeling a little less nervous than after the first training weekend!!
Will definitely feel much safer when I go out on duty now knowing that I have more ways to protect myself and others.

I actually felt not too bad ache wise on Monday or Tuesday, but Wednesday….OMG ! Talk about delayed reaction! Had aches in muscles I never knew existed! And still do does that make me unfit or normal? It’s not every day I prance about in a hanger with a baton you know!

Got first Aid training this Saturday, and then the weekend after that is my last training weekend and attestation then it will all be over! Gulp! Watch out Oxford!

[Noonin]

Well! Now I know how to give CPR which obviously is a bonus to all those people out there I will eventually be keeping a watchful eye over when I get out on duty!
The guy who taught us was brilliant, you know who you are!
We learnt so much, from infectious diseases and how they can be transmitted (mainly Hep B and HIV) to how to tell if someone is suffering from heat exhaustion, hyperthermia, stroke, heart attack and the signs of a diabetic having a "hypo" which is obviously really useful because a lot of symptoms for these cam look like the person has been drinking.
Also learnt how to bandage etc and to stop bleeding, also how to prioritise in the even of several casualties with different injuries basically, LOADS!
Also the new resuscitation method which changed in November last year. Its now 30 chest compressions and 2 breaths.
Our trainer told us that we have to compress the chest quite quickly, and he said the easiest way to remember it is to compress to the beat of "Nelly the elephant"...... all you have to do is imagine a group of us with our very lifelike (not!) practice doll things all mumbling Nelly the elephant whilst trying to give mouth to mouth! Very amusing, but I tell you it really does the trick!
All in all a really interesting day, feel a lot more comfortable now with the thought of having to deal with an injured party whilst out on patrol, whereas before I think I would have been a bit nervous and unsure what to do in a lot of situations. Well worth the learning me thinks!!!

[Noonin]

The training is officially over, and I am now officially a Special Constable! Scary thinking that I'm going to have to put all the training into real life situations, bet i mess up the caution and forget everything on my first duty. I can see it happening!

The weekend was quite surreal, Saturday we leanrt how to use our radios and how to work them, with the afternoon basically being a bit of a play session with a "control room" and us being sent to jobs! was really good, understood the radio codes and radio speak alot better after a couple hours of messing around plus, it didnt really matter if you maea cock up (well you kinda got laughed at. by everyone.) but at least it wasn't the whole fo your force area hearing you messed up! it was really good all kitted up in our hi vis wandering around doing vehicle checks on cars, felt like it was finally becoming a bit more real!
Part from me and my partner Billy got the last call before we finished, and had to do a PNC check on a dodgy male hanging around a kids playground (was only Ryan pretending!) and he gave me the LONGEST name ever to repeat to control phonetically....was Archibald something can't remember! but we had Michael Jagger, Gary Glitter and all sorts of rude ones I couldn't put on here....one was given to me by the police trainer in the "control room" as the owner or a car! Couldn't stop laughing for ages!

Then we had a bit of a knees up Saturday night, fancy dress! We had A superman, wonderwoman, 2x Lara Crofts, Calamity Jane, Tinkerbell, Cruella DeVill, Captain Jack Sparrow, the scary man from Scream and a Ninja Turtle (nice one Kieran, shame your costume didn'y quite fit properly!) was a really good laugh and a brilliant way to finish training. We also crashed the Dog Sections BBQ and ate all their food! (well, not so much crashed, we were invited but don't think they knew we were all in fancy dresss tho! the looks on their faces !)

Sunday was a strange day. We had a small lesson in the morning followed by lunch, and then we had a practice run through of our attestation ceremony in the hall,filing in and out properly and reading out our oaths. that only lasted half hour tho, so we had about an hour then to neaten up and get changed etc ready for people to start arriving. Me, I was so nervous I spent the majority of the time sat in the smoking area chaining. Was adamannt I would mess up!
In the end, the attestation went really smoothly, no one fluffed anyting or fell up the stage which was good! Then we all had tea and cakes in the canteen and mingled for a bit. that was the most surrel moment, dont think any of us were really with it properly after it was over.

Over all, it was a really happy day with the whole intake manageing to get thru to the attesttastion with no fallouts along the way! But it was also quite an emotional day too because we all knew we would not be back there altogether again. We have arranged a reunion tho, and we are all planning to stay in touch, the inspector was right, you really do make life long friends!
So any of you out there who are just starting out, enjoy the training and the company, its over way too fast!

First duty, really looking forqward to it this firday, 8pm til 4am !!!!!!! and thats if it all goes to plan, whcih from what I've heard it never does! Out in Oxford city centre, should be an experience!
I'll let you know how it goes.......!!

[Noonin]

I officially have the bug now!
Dealt with an assault on a taxi driver, but on the end the guy had disappeared, had to take a statement from a doorman in one of the bars after the arrest of someone who had done a runner after they found a white controlled substance on him. That took ages. But we got some nice cold drinks from the manager, bonus!

Then we got a shout over the radio, had been a bit of a marital in the street, woman had fallen over, when 2 Mop’s had tried to help pick her off the floor her partner assaulted them! Turned round a corner and there she was crying against a lamp post with a huge bump on her head and a bit of blood. When my inspector approached her she wouldn’t go near him coz she has a fear of men, is apparently well known for it. She clung to me so hard, she really didn't want to let go, I really felt for her! She asked me if I would go in the ambulance with her, so I did while they looked at her head and then we took her home because she didn’t want to go to hospital, her friend was at home to look after her.
I tell you, ambulance technicians have the patience of saints, she was so drunk she just talked absolute nonsense for a good half hour while they were trying to find out what had happened! Anyway she was fine, very thankful and a little bit sheepish!

Then, at about half 2, we were walking down towards St Aldates and 2 guys started shouting "If you all hate the coppers clap your hands" right behind us! So I gave the first one 2 section 5 Public order warnings and he shut up, but then his mate started, so I gave him a warning, but he carried on, so when I warned him I was going to give him an £80 fine and if he didn’t comply I would arrest him, he ran off down St Aldates, with me in pursuit! Haven’t run that far in about 5 years! Anyway, my inspector was calling for assistance whilst I was running after him (downhill, so much easier!) then the police van and a police car turned up and we all bundled him against a wall! He was handcuffed and I did tell him why he was under r arrest when he moaned he didn’t know what he had done!

It turns out he had been at his grandfathers funeral, and had slit his wrists couple days before, and he was crying all over the place, so we thought the best thing was for his dad to come pick him up, which he did. So although technically I made my first arrest, it’s not on paper yet!!!
Finished paperwork, signed off on the radio and went home. My hips are really bruised from the utility belt though they are all swollen! And I have blisters the size of France on both ankles but was well worth it!!!!!
Want to go out again now, shove the day job!!!!

[Noonin]

I remembered plasters and thicker socks this time, definately glad I did!!!

Another Friday night shift, don’t mind doing these though as the town gets quite busy so there are always people about doing things they shouldn’t!
It was the first time out with my tutor, and he was brilliant, taught me so much as we walked around.
A lot of the night was moving people on and telling them to keep the noise down, a few cases of having to take alcohol from foreign visitors who “didn’t notice the non-alcohol zone signs” in the city centre! One very expensive bottle of Famous Grouse down the drain….he wasn’t a happy bunny! Oh well it was his fault in the end for drinking it on a bench just under a HUGE sign! Some people!

My tutor is a real community officer, and has a lot to do with the homeless people around the city centre, so we talked a lot to them, talked about how things were going with them. One of the girls had a really small baby jack Russell puppy it was sooooooo cute. I WANT ONE!
We were called to one of the pubs in city centre at about 9pm along with a few regulars, staff had noticed the distinct smell of cannabis coming from one of the outside tables, so we went in and did a couple of people searches, didn’t find anything though, they reckon one of the guys threw it on the floor and it fell between the gaps in the paving! So at least they had a bit of a warning, the CCTV saw them holding something but as we didn’t find anything we just ha to carry on!

Wandered round a bit more, got a lovely marriage proposal from some very drunk man, whilst my tutor just stood to one side and laughed at me behind this guys back. Thanks for that! He found it really quite amusing!
Did the normal search of the public toilets at the bus station, my tutor noticed that someone was taking an extremely long time in one of the men’s cubicles so he asked him to open the door, many rustles of plastic and a flush later and the guy came out, known heroin user, so we conducted another search, had nothing on him, though he did admit to having to flush it away! First time I’ve seen a sharps pot that they carry around with them, had to be so careful when searching him in case he had any needles! But he was quite relaxed and friendly, used to being searched a lot so he was just chatting away!

Later on in the evening, did another walk round of the toilets. The main ones close at 10, but there are 3 separate toilets that are kept open; men’s, ladies and one disabled toilet that is locked at all times, and the only place you can get a key is from the bus station office, and the council give them out to disabled homeless persons so they can use the facilities. Anyway, my tutor carries a key and asks if I will go and check the disabled one, I open the door and a homeless man jumps up and screams…..I very nearly cacked myself! I now know the meaning of having your heart in your throat! He had all his worldly belongings in their, including his push bike, and when myself and my tutor told him to move himself and how he wasn’t meant to be there, he went off on one saying the police station had told him to sleep there because he had no where else to go! (Not true by the way!) He started mumbling and grumbling to himself and collecting all his things, saying he was going to make a complaint and that we had interrupted his sleep and that if he saw anyone being drunk and disorderly he was going to phone 999! We just told him to do just that and be on his way. He was a weird one he was, not all there I don’t think, just by his manner and the way he acted. Very strange!

Wandered around till about 2am, then got a call through about a guy causing trouble outside one of the bail hostels in the city centre, turned up to see him smacking the glass at the front of the building where there was a few bug nasty cracks down it. One of the co owners came out and explained that he had been evicted for being drunk (their policy is to not have anyone under the influence of any drink or drug on the premises) and he had started shouting abuse at them through the window and smashing the glass. He was all over the place and just being loud and aggressive, so my tutor nicked him for criminal damage and being drunk and disorderly, because the guy was struggling loads I got to use my handcuffs woooo hoooo!!! Got taken back to the station and had to wait a while before going up in custody, when we got there he decided he was really sorry and put his head down on the side, started crying and snotted everywhere. Lovely. He was put in a cell eventually and I had to remove his trainers, really because he was just being a tad awkward!
Went into the station, filled in all the relevant paperwork (with the help form my tutor obviously!) and finally left at about 4:30am!! Long night but much fun!

[Noonin]

Last Friday night was pretty quite in the city centre, not a lot going on, the usual tourists and exchange students hanging around outside Maccy D's and being a bit loud but that’s about it.
I think when I'm on duty I must have a huge glowing sign above my head reading "Tourist Information Point", the amount of people coming up to me to ask me for directions!
Don't get me wrong, I don’t mind helping people in this way at all, the way I see it its part of the job, but the "Excuse me officer, could you please tell me where I could get a decent steak around here?" or "Is there a nice Italian restaurant around here?" or "Where are the best places to go tonight for a bit of a laugh even if we are a bit older than most of the students?" ummmmmmm...............!

Had a few suspicious people hanging around on one of the squares outside a kebab van, generally just sat there all evening acting a bit strange. They didn't do anything strange enough for us to warrant stop searching them though which was a shame!

Had a burglar alarm go off at about 2:30am on one of the clubs, waited around for half hour for the key holder to return and sort it out!

I was at home in bed by half 3 which was nice bit of a quiet one but still enjoyed it! Hopefully be out a few times next week with my tutor and hopefully get to experience a Saturday night!

[Noonin]

Have got 3 other duties to put in this diary yet, but been so busy at my full time job I haven't had the time to update yet!
Not enjoying my job at all now, never did really like it that much to start with, but contracted in for at least another year (or until I find a better paid job and pay them off!) so really have nothing to do but try to sit it out. I enjoy policing a hell of a lot more, but I knew I would. Even though I'm not paid for it, and don't make a living from it, and I'm absolutely bloody shattered after every Saturday Night, its the thought of having to do my boring day job that gets me down!
Oh well haven't really got any choice!
Of to Rhodes this Saturday with my older sister, should be good, week in the sun....mmm loving it!
gets me away form work anyway, sure I'll miss going out on duty tho!
Anyway, I'll try to write about the other duties this week sometime, though I can't promise anything!
TTFN!

[Noonin]

Thursday Shift

There’s a place near the centre of the city that is widely known for drug deals and couples/groups doing…ahem… .things and my tutor is one of the Specials that walks around there and checks that nothing untoward is going on! So we spent a couple of hours walking around this nature reserve looking for anything out of the ordinary.
Didn’t see anything too bad that night, caught a few foreign exchange students aged 18 (we saw their ID cards!) with a huge crate of beer….managed to get it out of them that it wasn’t theirs, a guy had brought it over and had asked them to look after it for him for 10 minutes! We gave them the benefit of the doubt, never the less when we returned 15 minutes later they were gone, as was the beer. Oh well, you can’t find them all!
Met a group of students from Japan who asked us to join in their game of Frisbee…sort of a cross between football and Frisbee really, the aim was to Frisbee it into the goal, which I have since found out I am very very poor at! Really enjoy the community side of policing, they were really friendly and actually quite surprised that the police over here actually came over to talk to them and see how they were enjoying Oxford.
Continued walking around but nothing was happening, so went back and did a bit of foot patrol around the city centre until 12, then it was time to go home as my feet really couldn’t take any more!

[Noonin]

There's another shift in here someplace but I can't remember where it slots in...Whoops!
I was out on a Friday night with the reg sergeant when we were called to outside one of the bars, the door staff had denied entry to a group of girls who had no ID on them, but they had barged through the doors past them. The door staff and the manager had managed to drag them back out again but they were being abusive to everyone who was walking in! The sergeant took one of the girls aside (she could barely stand she was so drunk!) and was just warning her that they could all be fined/arrested etc for drunk and disorderly.
The next thing you know this banshee comes flying out of know where, up to the sergeant screaming at him "GET THE @#*$ OFF HER!!" and punches him in the chest! I managed to grab hold of her (finally ) after struggling with her for about 5 minutes, then the van turned up and she had to be lifted up officer on each limb to get her in she was kicking so much!
The whole time she was calling us every name under the sun and screaming at us, she even refused to sit down in the cage and stood up, meaning whenever we drove round a corner she fell over. All this went into our statements of course!

Charming young lady she was NOT!

All in a nights work!

Another shift: There is a club in Oxford that opens at 3am and is usually at its full capacity of close to 1200 so usually at about that time there are a lot of police about just to make sure everyone behaves themselves. Some people even think it’s a really clever idea to stand in the middle of the road. I tell you, with the taxi drivers around Oxford you DON'T want to be in the road! Or anywhere near it even. Lethal.
I ended up being the only police officer in the WHOLE street that noticed a group of lads fighting on the other side of the road, which I kindly pointed out to my colleagues by pointing and running across the road....they all snapped out of it pretty quick!! Four were arrested for Affray. Mine just talked absolute rubbish all the way back to the station in the back of the van, just randomly talking like drunken people do. He even asked for my phone number must have been the bright yellow jacket that did it hehe!


Saturday night (just gone)
My tutor is having some time off at the mo so I went out with a Special Sergeant usually based at Cowley. It was about 21:30, and just as we were getting out the transit to start our Night Safe bar checks a call came through about a violent male a couple of streets across. So we all got back in the van (there were 4 of us!) drove to the bar this was happening outside of and hopped out. There was the landlord of a pub a bit further down who had been homophobic ally assaulted by the male, basically because they were denied entry for being too drunk. So he was arrested for that as both the landlord and an independent witness pointed him out. Meanwhile, his female partner was screaming blue murder at everyone that walked past, so we decided to arrest for Drunk and Disorderly. But she had other ideas and decided to run off up the road! I ran after her and managed to catch her (luckily she was a bit worse for wear so I didn’t have to run very fast, or far !) She was promptly placed back on the pavement where it took me and another Special to hold her away from the other police officers. She then decided to lash out and kicked the back one of my colleague’s legs, then wrapped her legs around her middle and utility belt and wouldn't let go.......and there you have Assault Police! She was removed by force and put in the back of the transit, took 2 of us to keep her held down the whole time she was there! She went for me and tried to head butt me and called be a B.... and a wh.... and another nasty word I won't put here! That was when she was put on her front.
She struggled so much which was surprising even though she was face down and cuffed!
I have never heard a woman swear so much in my life in one short journey back to the nick! The language!! I was actually very very shocked!
Didn’t finish all the witness statements and everything until 1am! The custody sergeant was really nice though and offered to finish all the other stuff like ORCing the crime which was good, meant we could go back out!
Got home at some stupid hour though, very tired Sunday!
Back out doing St Giles Fair in Oxford tonight and Tuesday night. Oh the joys love it really!!!

[Noonin]

Oh yeah! Forgot!

In between the Affray shift and the Last Saturday night shift, I went to Rhodes for a week, was lovely!
Vey hot, nice food and lots of sunbathing on a very nice quiet beach, it was bliss! Went on a Glass bottom speed boat ride which was wicked, didn't see many different fish but got to dive off into proper deep blue water and went really fast with our legs hanging over the side. Was brilliant!

Hated the fact I had to come back to my boring mind numbing job tho its getting so much harder to get through each day now, thats how much I don't like it! And before you ask, I can't quit, as I'm contracted in til at leat November til I get my NVQ, even then I'm meant to stay for another 2 years after that, but I'd go mad if I had to so definately not staying that long. Have to see how I feel in November and whether I can get another job that pays more so I can pay off my contract ( £3000!!!)

[Noonin]

Sorry!!!! Bad day
I'm also proud to announce that I have now been signed to shift yay !
Apparently they think I've learned enough to be competant enough to go out with regulars too now, or anybody they shove me with
Hmmmmmm.....................................!

[Noonin]

Ooops really haven't written for a bit!

Did the St Giles Fair in Oxford both nights, now that was an experience! I was actually really shocked at how gobby and shirty some younger kids are with the police, as well as the St John's ambulance staff that were there! Now I'm not tarring them all with the same brush, I'm not exactly old myself, but these kids were no more than 10 or 11 years old, and the stuff that came out of their mouths it shocked me!!!!

Had a large group of lads aged about 15 (there was about 50 of them, no joke!) walking through the fair to "fight" a rival group from another of the estates....when we asked them to disperse and they didn't, a few tried to run towards the city centre, until the 2 HUGE mounted police just galloped in front of them all, and just said "MOVE!" Hehe their faces were a right picture, these "tough" lads turned to jelly after seeing this massive horse flying towards them!!!! Classic moment really was

Was meant to be working 6pm till 11pm when the fair "closed", so it got to 11 and my inspector turned around to me and said "Ah. Nice and quiet. Lets make a move then, we're all done here." (The fact that he said the unsaid Q word was a jinx in itself!!)
With that, a 00 shout went over the tanoy system, officer needs assistance so then I had to run ALLLLL the way down to the other end of the fair, seeing a massive group of teenagers all gathered around and shouting with a flash of yellow in the middle!
Managed to push our way into the middle of the group to see the officer on the floor trying his hardest to handcuff this girl who was kicking and screaming, and still trying to attack the other girl who was involved!!
One girl was going to me "He can't do that, he's a bloke and she's a girl that’s sexist that is, he can't arrest her he's a man, that’s not legal I know its not" huh!? Where did she get that from!? So I politely burst her little bubble
Then the other girl was shoved at me by the PCSO, and she was kicking and screaming so much she was promptly removed and tactically restrained
Was my first arrest on paper that was, Section 5 Public Order!
Saw her at the fair the next day though, she did NOT seem pleased to see me out again!

The second night was nice and Q (I'm banned from saying the word!) It was really good because I was the only Special, so I was paired up a regular who I had never met before, she was wicked
Did a Stop Search after a report came through from the Fair's security of people offering to sell drugs, didn't find anything though!

All in all it was a really good experience, and although I as knackered for the rest of the week, I didn't mind, was completely different to my usual weekend working Public Order! Though I do enjoy that too hehe
Doing this Friday for a couple hours....says she!

Ohhhhh and I have so met the man of my dreams......he knows who he is couldn't be happier right now!!!!
(Can hear some of you being violently sick right now!!!)

Anyway hoping Friday will go OK, hoping to go out with day shift soon, get a bit more experience!

Still loving the Specials though, wouldn't change it for the world!!

[Noonin]

Went out for another Friday night, this time only from 7pm till 12 midnight
(Didn’t fancy coming in at another stupid o clock seeing as it was an early start the next morning!)

The usual Friday night, completely Q with hardly anyone about, even in some of the more popular pubs and clubs.

Had a complaint from a couple of door staff about an abusive female who had been kicked out for being very drunk and very underage, CCTV had followed her going towards her home but wanted us to follow just in case they kicked off!
Anyway one of them was being supported by a male, whilst the other was trying her hardest to walk on her own. When we went to take their details, the lone female started getting a touch aggressive with the regular I was paired with .
Suddenly the guy came back out of the house after giving me his details and starts accusing me and the regular of being unjust and unlawful in talking to this other woman on the pavement because that meant we could arrest her if she kicked off, rather than on her doorstep which she had fallen off twice!!!!!!)
He asked for my shoulder number and a bit of paper so he could write it down, and when I said I didn't have any paper he told me to rip a page out of my PNB........!!!

He started yelling “I’m a bloody copper I know what you can and cannot do!”

Turned out the lad was a Special in another Oxfordshire town…makes you think he maybe should have chosen his company a bit more carefully; he had only met the 2 girls that night.

I won’t go into much detail as I don’t know how much I can disclose, but I really was appalled at the way he spoke to me, got in my face and accused me of all these things, him being a sworn in officer should have known better. I would never dream of speaking to any police officer like that, regular or special, Oxford or any town anywhere, specially as I am one myself.
And the stuff he came out with! He really did have some warped ideas about some of the laws around……………!
It disappointed me I guess, that he would treat another Special like that.

Edited by Noonin, 27 September 2006 - 01:49 PM.

[Noonin]

UPDATE:

Made my Inspector aware of the male I was involved with on Froday night. My inspector in turn told his superviser..................................Turns out the male wasn't a Special or a serving Police Officer with any force, tho is known to Police in his home area......the mystery deepens!!!!


Anyways I'm happy now!

[Noonin]

Wooo Hooooo!

I'm out of my teens, and into the 20's.
Kind of weird really, feel old already!!!
Doing another night shift this Friday night, feels like ages since I last did one but haven't been able to for a while. The bonus of being a Special I guess, being able to fit it around personal arrangements you can't get out of, like Birthdays
Thinking it will be another quiet night in the city centre, specially with the pants weather we have been having.
Hopefully will be going out on my first day shift soon.....oooooooh its like starting the first shift all over again, butterflys and everything!!!!!!

[Noonin]

Friday night like any other, though a little busier than usual. Not sure if this was a good or a bad thing though!
Had the usual loud mouths thinking its really fun to sing songs about the “pigs” when they’re stood right behind you. Sometimes I wish they could make up another one, just because it gets so tiresome after a while…..
We have a yellow card scheme in oxford for behaviour regarded as offensive/stupid etc but not enough for Section 5 arrest, the persons details are recorded and if they are yellow carded again that night then they are arrested. Ended up giving one out to a lovely (NOT!!) young man for offensive language and behaviour in a public place (outside McDonalds!) he was not a happy bunny! He seemed really agitated and obviously had anger issues, as he went so red in the face I thought his head was going to explode hehe !!!
Some think the scheme works, others don’t, but it helped towards my PDP as I had to fill out my first Gen 40!! Bonus!
Had another call from McDonalds later on too, walked in and saw a man in his early 40’s, leant against the counter, bit worse for wear…………..with his trousers around his ankles!! luckily he had boxers on but I must admit it was quite amusing! He managed to pull them up over his beer belly but He didn’t know where he was or why he was there, so I mentioned to him that maybe it was a good idea to go home………and then his trousers fell down again. Yuk.
This went on for about ten minutes until I managed to persuade him very very nicely that he should go home quickly before he upset too many people!!!

Ended up chasing a guy for criminal damage, we were only going to give him a warning and FPN but he ran, so we did too! Flagged down passing panda and they went after him (this guy was super quick!) caught him just about to run into the council offices. Anyway he was arrested and taken back to station, we were all stood waiting to be let up to custody in the yard when he pipes up:
“I only did it for the chase innit, I’m a ******** squaddie in the queens army we should be immune to being arrested when we are on leave, no matter what we do…fight for our country we do in Iraq and all I get is this s*** when I get back ”
Blah blah blah and so on and so on. I turned to him and said it made no difference whether he was in the army or the Royal Bloody family itself, crim dam is crim dam and that if he only did it “for the chase” then it was going to be an expensive one!
Arghhhh hate people like him.
And, unlucky for him, the custody sergeant on that night is very “I’m going to tell the RMP absolutely everything whether you are kept in or just fined” Hehehe Don’t think his commander would have been very happy Monday morning!!!
So another enjoyable one, and with some bonus amusement thrown in.
Oh and I managed to make my email and statement write up last 40 minutes so I could go home…hehe……the skill!!!

[Noonin]

Another eventful Saturday night!

I was going out in a transit van with 3 specials from a station on the other side of town. The idea was for us to respond to anything happening in the Cowley and Headington areas of Oxford and having a visible presence there for the night. And god was it busy! Slight shortage of staff in the city centre meant we spent half the night driving back and forth from the city centre and trying to help control large groups pf very drunk people. We also went to quite a few incidents:

• An elderly lady had had her bag snatched and we went around to take a statement.

• A man kicking over bollards in down one of the main roads coming out of the city centre. The description given was “White male, dark brown hair, apparently you can’t miss him” Can’t mss him!? We couldn’t even find him or the bollards…….spooky!

• Then another call from that road regarding youths “kicking and smashing the phone box” Got there, were a couple of lads there so got their details and checked them, they were all OK, and surprise surprise, the phone box was fully intact!

• House party gone wrong, with about 70 teenagers aged about 13-16 pouring out into the street! Turns out the lad who owned the house was about 22, and he had invited a couple of mates round for a few beers. But the details of the “house party” had been posted on a schools website, and the house had been crashed!! A lot of drunken teenagers and a few gobby little……….critters . We left the outside of the house just after to help control a few large groups of teenagers who had left the party upon seeing the transit and 3 cars pull up. The a call came through from one of the cars about a van they had pursued from the outside of the house party after they had tried to speak to the driver to get him to move on and he had made off. Anyway, they had caught up with him, and pulled the car over where both tried to flee but were caught, a search of them found a few small bags of drugs. Then they searched the van and found an adapted metal bar with a handle glued to it and a 9 inch knife!! It was huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge!!

They were arrested for possession of an offensive weapon! The younger brother then came around the corner and started screaming at the police to let his brother go (who I was holding onto in the middle of the transit, the other guy was in the back) and screaming at me too. Anyway, he then hit one of the other officers, so he was arrested for assault, but he had to be PAVA’ed to get him to calm down!! Owe a huge favour to one of the other officers there, when the guy next to me started screaming at me and trying to get up I had to try and push him back down, but in the position I was in it was really difficult, and the PC sort of did a flying jump over me and helped restrain him further, wish I had had a camera to film it all, was a great jump!

• Ummmmm, another job was to wait with a stolen motorbike for recovery, the 2 lads arrested had tried to make off but it hadn’t worked! (But we managed to have some chips and a coffee here, which was brilliant!)

• Went to the JR hospital to try and find a man with a head injury who had refused treatment, the staff nurse was quite concerned about him. Also there to take a statement from a lady who had been assaulted earlier in the evening, but she had discharged herself and there was no known address, so we couldn’t take that any further either!

• Loads of general public order in the city centre, group of very very drunk and confused guys from Germany, and the usual drunken antics!

Got to go home just after 3am, which was early for a night as busy as it was.
Really enjoyed the night in the transit, got to go to a different variety of jobs and people rather than the usual public order I usually experience on Friday and Saturday nights. Not saying I don’t enjoy the public order, but it was nice to try something different!!

Have my first training this Weds on Community Policing, will be something to go towards my PDP which is a bonus!
Then I’m out to play on Friday, yay!

[Noonin]

Went to a training session Weds night at Abingdon Police station, most of the Specials from Cowley and Oxford were there. The inspector (sorry cant remember his name! Brain like a sieve!) talked about Neighbourhood Policing and “N.A.T’s” – Neighbourhood Action Teams – that TVP are trying to introduce into the public area, in the hope that more people will get involved in issues in their neighbourhood. From what I understood, the whole point is to involve the public, neighbourhood watch, young people, local councillors etc to sit down and discuss the problems in their areas and how to go about rectifying them, without it tending to be the police that run these meetings. Good idea in theory, but still not 100% sure if it will work as successfully as they want to, as like one of the Specials said, it will always be the same people that volunteer for this that volunteer for everything else in the community – newsletters, parish councillors, charity fundraising etc – so you would rarely get a broad spectrum of people from that area. And how they are planning to get 13-16 years olds to stay at a public meeting like that for a couple hours I don’t know! If it works, it will be good, but if it doesn’t, it will be another plan the New Labour Government has put into place that hasn’t worked! No surprises there.

Any who, the talk only went on for about 45 minutes, add a few questions on the end about the policies and chairing these meetings, and we were done. Sorted. Which was good, as I know some training sessions go on for hours, I know of one on Mini Motorbikes that was nearly 3 hours long!!! On mini motorbikes!! Its mad I tell you!

Attempted to get on a computer and for a few of us to finish some of the test things on Diversity etc on the Intranet, but the first guy was taking so long to achieve the pass mark, (bless him! ) that I gave in and went home. Going in Saturday before my reunion meal to finish the tests off with a couple others, get it out the way and done so I don’t have to worry about it for a while!

Out on duty tonight, my tutor is back so hoping I’ll be paired up with him, not expecting a very busy night, but I won't say the Q word cos that will just jinx it all!
Then on Saturday meeting up in Oxford with all the girls who I trained with for a meal and a night out on the lash. Love it!!!

[Noonin]

Friday night was probably the most amusing yet frustrating duty I have had so far since starting the Specials. It seemed as though all the total idiots were out in force, getting in the way of us doing our job but at the same time it made for an eventful evening!

Oxford city centre is an alcohol free zone, so anyone caught drinking will get a bit of a telling off and have their alcohol confiscated (this means pouring it away in front of their faces, preferably within 10 minutes of them buying it ) I managed to confiscate alcohol off 19 people. This ranged from a couple of beer glasses to 2 bottles of wine, and a 6 pack of Carlsberg just being opened by a bunch of people trying to hide in the dark. It didn’t work, heard the cans open and I was up there like a shot! They did try to hide the cans being a carrier bag, think they thought we couldn’t see what they were doing…..!
Stopped the same guy twice, once for a bottle of WKD and next for 2 bottles of wine, we had seen him running from the off licence after we stopped him the first time, followed him, and lo and behold! He had just opened two very cheap bottle of wine and was drinking out of both at the same time !!!! He wasn’t a happy chappy when I confiscated them as well! He is a known drunk and knew full well about the alcohol free zone in the city centre, still, he didn’t like that we had taken his drink away again, and walked off into the shadows swearing like a trooper.

Some people just have to feel the need to get so rat faced that they can’t walk. Or talk, or open their eyes, or have control over their bladder. We saw a young guy on the floor in one of the main streets, when one of his “tipsy” friends came over and asked if we could call an ambulance for him. As we say all the time, there is nothing the paramedics can do apart from check him over and then leave, they refuse to pick up people who are totally off their faces, because they could be else where on more serious calls that require their help.
We came across this group 3 further times, and told them each time they must take him home or he will be in further trouble (not that custody would accept him either!) the last time we came across them, one of his friends had called the ambulance out, even though we had told him previously it was wasting the paramedic’s time. This really annoyed my inspector who I was out with, and after a few harsh words in the young man’s ear about wasting resources and the ambulances time, he soon sobered up and started to walk home!
Even though it was unusually busy, there were no fights or brawls until later that night (after I was back at the nick doing my paperwork and filling in my PNB!!)

Walking through one of the alleys between streets where known drug users tend to hang out, we came across something which at first, I couldn’t quite believe I was seeing. Right under a street lamp about 20 meters away, were a young couple, ahem, at it, in a not so lovely looking position that wasn’t very flattering to the girls, um, rear……………
They didn’t even notice us until we were right next to them, at which point the only words that came out of the guys mouth was “Oh s***” They were ultimately very publicly embarrassed and sorry, and had no idea when asked why they couldn’t possibly have waited until they got home! We both had to stifle a giggle over these two, they were obviously a bit drunk and embarrassed, but obviously not embarrassed enough to get a bit amorous under a large yellow light!
Gave them the biggest talking to they have ever had, checked their details and nothing untoward came up. Then, after about 10 minutes, after the checks and everything had been done and they had well and truly been traumatized by the warnings they got from both of us, the girl turned to me and said “Can I pull my trousers up now?”


D’oh!!!