On the Beat

0 Comments | Evening Post; Bristol (UK), Jul 15, 2010 | by Martin Hudd

ACOUPLE of weeks ago, while I was off duty and relaxing at home watching the latest exploits of our beloved England football team, my finely-tuned ears were alerted to the sounds of a nearby house alarm activating from somewhere in the street.

Having no desire to continue to watch the sad demise of our national football team, I promptly got up to look out my window in an attempt to see if I could locate the source of the alar m.

As this proved unsuccessful, I stuck on my shoes and went outside to take a more detailed look out into the street and I soon traced the alarm to a nearby residential property.

I walked across and took an initial look around the front of the premises before knocking on the neighbouring property’s door and asking them if they were aware of the alarm or had seen or heard anything suspicious. Once I had ascertained that nothing had been seen or heard, I clambered over the side gate and checked the rear of the address.

Once I was happy that nothing was amiss, I had a quick chat to the neighbours before returning back inside.

On sitting down, my daughter she said to me: “Dad are you ever off duty?” This got me thinking and I suppose as a police officer I am never really “off duty” OK, I have a working week and a set shift pattern like most people do, but, unlike most people, my role continues throughout and there are occasions when I will see, hear or observe things off duty that I can not ignore.

I don’t consider myself any different from most people and the reason that the courts have successful convictions are due to the fact that members of the public are willing to intervene or act as witnesses when they see a criminal activity unfold in front of them, but as a police officer there is sometimes the need to intervene and deal with the incident at the time it is happening.

I have been in the local supermarket when I have seen a known shop thief enter the store and set about concealing items on him and I have had to intervene, I am also aware of other officers doing similar things when off duty. We are, at times, also expected to act as “professional witnesses” in situations when we may be at risk if we intervene when off duty. A perfect example of this would be during a large fight, where, if I intervened and identified myself as a police officer, I could either inflame the situation or become the target of the attack – I would be better served observing and identifying the assailants when the police arrive.

So in answer to my daughter’s initial question, no, I am never really off duty and always appear to have my “police hat” on wherever I may be or whatever I am doing.