Durham Constabulary - Leading the way (Again!!)
Discussion
Excellent! Just the types of things I've been arguing we need more of!
Link: http://tinyurl.com/389ky
The image of Durham's traffic cops has been swept aside by a radical culture change that has put them at the cutting edge of frontline crime fighting.
The merger of the traffic and dog sections puts a total of 141 constables to work in the newly christened road policing unit.
Officers from the unit will be evenly deployed across the force's 12 main police stations.
"Nationally the trend has been to reduce the number of officers dedicated to road policing but Durham has done the opposite and invested heavily in equipment and personnel," said the head of the operations division Supt Andy Summerbell.
"Officers, trained to the very highest standard, are provided with a fleet that will be the envy of every road policing unit in the country.
"In return we will be asking a lot of our staff who have become an integral part of our network of 24-hour stations."
The unit has been set three main priorities - to deny criminals the use of the county's 2,500 miles of roads, to cut motoring casualties and to tackle the offending that blights community life.
While officers will continue to reinforce their existing range of specialist expertise - including accident investigation, vehicle examination, the movement of hazardous material and speeding enforcement - they will be expected to take on new responsibilities.
Within three years the number of authorised firearms officers will jump from 36 to more than 60, a move designed to provide greater on-duty cover for armed response vehicles and tactical teams.
The unit also plans to extend training to develop the ability of officers to pick out stolen vehicles and more family liaison officers are to be made available to relatives of fatal road accident victims.
Chief Inspector Paul Goundry, head of the new unit, added: "Officers will focus their efforts through the national intelligence model but, at the same time, will have ample opportunity to use their own initiative.
"We expect officers to be highly motivated, capable of self-generated work and to use their experience and skills to target criminals and educate road users."
Link: http://tinyurl.com/389ky
The image of Durham's traffic cops has been swept aside by a radical culture change that has put them at the cutting edge of frontline crime fighting.
The merger of the traffic and dog sections puts a total of 141 constables to work in the newly christened road policing unit.
Officers from the unit will be evenly deployed across the force's 12 main police stations.
"Nationally the trend has been to reduce the number of officers dedicated to road policing but Durham has done the opposite and invested heavily in equipment and personnel," said the head of the operations division Supt Andy Summerbell.
"Officers, trained to the very highest standard, are provided with a fleet that will be the envy of every road policing unit in the country.
"In return we will be asking a lot of our staff who have become an integral part of our network of 24-hour stations."
The unit has been set three main priorities - to deny criminals the use of the county's 2,500 miles of roads, to cut motoring casualties and to tackle the offending that blights community life.
While officers will continue to reinforce their existing range of specialist expertise - including accident investigation, vehicle examination, the movement of hazardous material and speeding enforcement - they will be expected to take on new responsibilities.
Within three years the number of authorised firearms officers will jump from 36 to more than 60, a move designed to provide greater on-duty cover for armed response vehicles and tactical teams.
The unit also plans to extend training to develop the ability of officers to pick out stolen vehicles and more family liaison officers are to be made available to relatives of fatal road accident victims.
Chief Inspector Paul Goundry, head of the new unit, added: "Officers will focus their efforts through the national intelligence model but, at the same time, will have ample opportunity to use their own initiative.
"We expect officers to be highly motivated, capable of self-generated work and to use their experience and skills to target criminals and educate road users."
I have little knowledge of what Durham are doing, but, in Hampshire we no longer have a Traffic Department. It is now the RPU - Road Policing Unit. This change was allegedly needed to reflect the fact that Officers do not just deal with "traffic" matters but are responsible for Policing the roads in a broader sense.
Hampshire have been fortunate in that we have not had the cuts in "RPU" Officers that other forces have, and we have one of the biggest (relative to size of force) traffic departments in the country.
It's hard to guage what Durhams new practices will mean in reality. E.g. if a firearms incident is reported, and an ARV despatched, then a Dog Unit is sent as well automatically. Dogs and firearms work closely together anyway. The dog is viewed very much as a tool and a "less lethal option" in dealing with armed suspects.
I wouldn't worry too greatly about what Durham are doing, it sounds as if they are just putting under one roof/department areas which work together anyway. This should be good for cutting down on admin. costs as well, very important in the "Best Value" service we work in.
Hampshire have been fortunate in that we have not had the cuts in "RPU" Officers that other forces have, and we have one of the biggest (relative to size of force) traffic departments in the country.
It's hard to guage what Durhams new practices will mean in reality. E.g. if a firearms incident is reported, and an ARV despatched, then a Dog Unit is sent as well automatically. Dogs and firearms work closely together anyway. The dog is viewed very much as a tool and a "less lethal option" in dealing with armed suspects.
I wouldn't worry too greatly about what Durham are doing, it sounds as if they are just putting under one roof/department areas which work together anyway. This should be good for cutting down on admin. costs as well, very important in the "Best Value" service we work in.
Don't forget that Durham is the only police force to refuse to use scameras, the Chief Constable believes that they do not help. This merger may well be reducing overheads to allow less cuts in front-line policing. I am sure we would all rather see policing by police constables and dogs rather than robots.
Er -- one of my BiB cousins is based in Durham - senior officer and ex-trafpol.
Scheme - from what he let slip - sounds good to me! More trafpols to cop us nasty 'orrible speedsters! (Oh dear - "gone" will apply for a transfer in hope of collaring more speedsters!
(Except I live across t'Pennines in Cumbria!)
Of course - Cous' is one of few cops I would trust with something more than a water pistol from "Poundland" - but he has assured me that all BiBs have had extensive training on how to use said water pistols anyway
and not to knock this practice as it has great element of surprise when catching young scrotes who do not expect this! He reckons "essential weapon" which requires "precision handling!"
He also reckons that it could come in jolly handy if he were to see deltaf on those little jaunts to scamera sites - as he might be tempted to replace the water with petrol as he is not a great fan of PC Gatso who is "after his job!" which he can do much better and more
scarily anyway.
Absolute "acid" if he cops you doing something he thinks you should not - even to his family! His fave pastime as trafpol in his "active days" -- "Lurking in a side street and appearing like a phantom behind speeders!" He could not believe he actually got paid fot it either! Nor could we! And we always made sure we did not drive on his patch - ever!
(But we can always remind him that he got fined for j-walking when he came to visit us in Switzerland that time! (He was 14 - hasten to add - and we all got into big trouble over it!)
Scheme - from what he let slip - sounds good to me! More trafpols to cop us nasty 'orrible speedsters! (Oh dear - "gone" will apply for a transfer in hope of collaring more speedsters!
(Except I live across t'Pennines in Cumbria!) Of course - Cous' is one of few cops I would trust with something more than a water pistol from "Poundland" - but he has assured me that all BiBs have had extensive training on how to use said water pistols anyway
and not to knock this practice as it has great element of surprise when catching young scrotes who do not expect this! He reckons "essential weapon" which requires "precision handling!" He also reckons that it could come in jolly handy if he were to see deltaf on those little jaunts to scamera sites - as he might be tempted to replace the water with petrol as he is not a great fan of PC Gatso who is "after his job!" which he can do much better and more
scarily anyway. Absolute "acid" if he cops you doing something he thinks you should not - even to his family! His fave pastime as trafpol in his "active days" -- "Lurking in a side street and appearing like a phantom behind speeders!" He could not believe he actually got paid fot it either! Nor could we!
And we always made sure we did not drive on his patch - ever! (But we can always remind him that he got fined for j-walking when he came to visit us in Switzerland that time! (He was 14 - hasten to add - and we all got into big trouble over it!)
Oh how i wish Hartlepool was back in County Durham like we used to be.
Instead, we are "ruled" by the shower of **** also known as Cleveland Police, where the mobile gatso is seen as an infallible god-like creature...
Fortuantely the local Hartlepool plods are on the whole a decent bunch, but the Scamera "Partnership" are pure evil.
>> Edited by monkeyhanger on Friday 16th April 19:16
Instead, we are "ruled" by the shower of **** also known as Cleveland Police, where the mobile gatso is seen as an infallible god-like creature...
Fortuantely the local Hartlepool plods are on the whole a decent bunch, but the Scamera "Partnership" are pure evil.
>> Edited by monkeyhanger on Friday 16th April 19:16
kurgis said:
Just how BIG is your family Wildcat?????
On a serious note nice to see Durham keeping people out and about on the beat, so to speak.
Huge! Am one of 4 siblings and so hubby one of 7. And the sibling cousins are similar sized "units"
I have a cousin partner on here who is keeping stumm about knowing me! - and another is revving up to join in (so "gone" will get ganged up on!
) Two are posting on Paulie's site (the Durham cop (calls himself "In Gear" and my husband the "Mad Moggie" who drives a mad moggie!), the "silks" and the other cops are on "pepipoo" doing the legal stuff, and the rest (20 or so of 'em are on posting on some foreign sites as we are all multilingual, and tormenting twazaks on the pro-scam and cycling forums!)
You meet us everywhere - but I am loudest at the moment! (And don't some of you know it!
) But it's great fun - I can do this whilst my latest designer cure-alls are "cooking" - but I nearly blew up the lab on Tuesday! (oops). It is such hard work - I have to take a break every hour or so!
(Actually - start very early to beat the traffic - by lunchtime - on the boring paper stuff - doing the analyses on my research stuff so that you all get a cure for your bad cold or worse!
)xxplod said:
I have little knowledge of what Durham are doing, but, in Hampshire we no longer have a Traffic Department. It is now the RPU - Road Policing Unit. This change was allegedly needed to reflect the fact that Officers do not just deal with "traffic" matters but are responsible for Policing the roads in a broader sense.
sounds more like hampshire constabulary needed to get rid of some excess cash so they could get more the following year......sorry,what am i thinking
. tbh on the name front 'traffic division' still sounds better to me as [ronsealmode]"it does exactly what it says on the tin"[/ronsealmode]
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