Re: Policing in the 1970’s

They respected their parents then too.

Re: Policing in the 1970’s

I well remember seeing a police officer run to a blue police box when the light on top flashed. There was a box at the bottom of Sutton Surrey high street on the path in front of the small geen. That was when the old tram rails were still exposed. Well before trolley buses with their overhead electric pickup arms.

Seems now it is going full circle with electric buses

Re: Policing in the 1970’s

I,ve had a lot of experience, training the dogs, etc, done the driving course, I was a level 1 driver back in the day. not only did people respect the police, but they respected the public, they looked nice and smart in the white shirt and tie too. Now they look too paramilitary, I know it's more practical, but it gives some of the young cops the wrong idea, some are clearly not fit for purpose. I live on a council estate, I work for a living and have a number of qualifications, however whenever we get an incident, the young coppers who invariably arrive talk to me like shit, because I live on a council estate.
I used to thoroughly enjoy it when my mate was the local inspector, ringing him up and complaining, knowing they'd get a bollocking for what they did.
The training seems piss poor these days, do they teach them anything beyond S5 public order act, or S23 misuse of drugs act, what happened to the good old town police clauses act? that seems forgotten, in my day that was often your best friend.
I remember a few years ago, a gang of lads being a pain in the arse, young coppers would turn up then leave doing nothing, because they hadn't a clue. One night it got to the stage where I was quite ready to sort it myself, with a big stick! Anyway this young cop arrived, he was quite nice and came to talk to me, explaining that he'd love to do something, but his hands were tied, they were not breaking the law! Oh, but they are, I pointed out, and went on to quote the relevant, section, subsection and para, of the TPCA.More I suspect to humor me he locked the lads in the van and took them away, he came looking for me a few days later, "mate, I owe you a drink" he said, he then went on to tell me how, on taking them back to custody the old custody sergeant had asked why he'd nicked them, obviously expecting a charge that wouldn't stick. The young cop then told him exactly what I'd told him, section, subsection and para, apparently the old sergeant made some remark about finally meeting a young copper with a bit of knowledge, the young lad replied that he found the TPCA a wealth of useful info and couldn't understand why more people didn't read it, before rushing out to buy a copy, lol. needless to say he became a good friend of the old sergeant. lol

Re: Policing in the 1970’s

A couple of questions, when did you come out, and did you know any of the arv lads, oh and the obvious one, what station did you run out of, I believe ' the roch' was a good one not so the POW beat though, lol

Re: Policing in the 1970’s

Before it gets too deep, I’ll try and keep it light-hearted, which was the purpose of the thread.

This was not something I witnessed but it was related by a colleague. Back in the seventies some stations housed their own police dogs and conditions weren’t great so often these dogs could be caged up for hours at a time, meaning that they needed considerable exercise when time permitted.

At one particular London police station, they had a long office-lined street adjacent to the police yard and so occasionally, in the early hours when all was quiet, they’d let the dogs out for a run up and down the road.

One evening, around midnight, they decided to give the hounds their exercise and sent out a message checking that the streets were clear before opening the cages. A message came back that all was fine and these caged-up, snarling dogs were taken to the end of the street and held back, with a struggle, until officers were in place at the other end of the street, ready to turn them round and send them back.

Anyway, they finally let them go and the frenzied, drooling animals streaked off at a great pace with a-woe-betide-anyone-who-got-in-their-way approach. They were duly turned around at the far end and headed back at the same frightening speed, but they didn’t arrive back!

Further urgent investigation ascertained that the pack of dogs appeared to have stopped halfway down the road and were making a real racket. Officers from both ends of the street raced to see what had happened...

...and they found the near rabid dogs going berserk around an office car park. On top of one of the vehicles, a WPC was on all fours in terror as the dogs leapt up the sides of the car whilst her colleague... a young PC, was hanging halfway up a tree in his socks - with the snarling dogs ripping what was left of his shoes to shreds!

It appeared that someone forgot to tell the unsuspecting probationer officers to finish their town centre nightly patrol a few minutes early, or take an alternate route back!

I suspect that was the end of that particular form of exercising the police dogs!

Re: Policing in the 1970’s

I think every area had that one copper you never messed with.

Also had that one who was like one of us, funny thinking back.. we listened and mostly obeyed both too.

Re: Policing in the 1970’s

Great post...and all so true

Re: Policing in the 1970’s

And welcome from me also, Marky!

Re: Policing in the 1970’s

and welcome to OFF Marky.

Re: Policing in the 1970’s

I I remember when the dogs were just loose in the back of vans, in our area, escorts or maestro's, no wonder they were so angry when they finally got out at a job. I remember one Sunday, an assault on a young lady, I was dealing with her and the offender ran off up the road. A dog van came hurtling to the scene, from the direction the offender had run towards. I yelled to the dog man he must have passed the guy, he spun the van on the handbrake, there was a loud thud, followed by a snarl from inside the van, no prizes for guessing what the thud was, lol. I believe the dog was absolutely mental when it got out at the other end.
You can imagine the dog thinking, "look mate, something unpleasant has just happened to me, and since it was your fault something unpleasants going to happen to you", before sinking it's teeth into the offender.