Police blog: On the night shift

Blog: Keeping the people of Telford and Wrekin area safe is the main aim of the West Mercia Police Response Teams working in the borough, writes Response Inspector Paul Franks, who is based at Malinsgate Police Station.

Response teams – which are each led by an experienced inspector – work a 24/7 shift pattern to meet the needs of the public and through this blog I will, hopefully, provide a small insight into what one of these shifts is like.

I hope to share a few real life examples from my role and explain how I worked with officers on my team to ensure they fulfilled their duties properly on a recent night shift.

A normal night shift begins at 10pm with a detailed handover from the inspector who has worked the late shift.

The handover outlines any significant incidents of note that I need to manage, and included in this are any violent crime, sexual offence or hate crime incidents that are ongoing, as well as missing person enquiries and any particular community tensions I need to be aware of.

This briefing also provides me with details of any prisoners we have in custody at Malinsgate so that I can perform my duties as laid out by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. This basically means ensuring that we carry out all our work in a timely fashion - and do not run out of time – while also making sure the prisoner gets fair treatment while under arrest.

Armed with all this information - together with my sergeants – I brief all my Pcs (police constables) before they go out on patrol to deal with 'live' incidents as they occur and also ensure they are directed to the right places to provide a visible deterrent on the ground.

My role, as the name suggests, is to inspect and oversee the work of my officers. So, on this particular shift, I took the time to review all the crimes that were being investigated by my officers to ensure they were being managed effectively and that any opportunities for arrests and detections were maximised.

On this particular night the annual performance of one of my Pcs also needed to be reviewed. Therefore, as the time was available, I met with him to discuss his work over the previous 12 months in greater detail and then discussed development opportunities for his individual needs before completing a report for his personal file.

No sooner had I finished this report than I was called into custody as I needed to review a prisoner who was about to go into interview. I met with him and his solicitor and conducted that review, before then updating the custody computer system with the details.

I'm sure this all sounds really rather mundane and boring - and a lot of paperwork - but it is a necessary requirement of my role. It is important that I document my work and the work of my officers. If my officers are being active out on patrol by attending incidents and making arrests, it is inevitable that their actions will generate paperwork because without this no offenders would go to court and/or prison.

Whilst the police service nationally acknowledges the need to reduce any unnecessary paperwork or duplication of police officers' time, there will always be a requirement for written/typed reports and that part of an officer's role is as important as the role they perform at the incidents they attend.

Just on this one shift my officers attended many different incidents, each presenting a very different challenge.

For example, there were several domestic-related incidents, a three vehicle road traffic collision, a missing 15-year-old reported from a local care home and a reported fight outside a public house. None of these reports were particularly unusual but each still had to be dealt with in the right and proper way.

In addition, while I was in custody reviewing the earlier prisoner I was informed via my radio that a burglary had been reported at a local newsagents.

When my officers arrived it was evident that cigarettes had been stolen and I asked for all available patrols - including those from the motorway - to search for the offenders. I also asked officers to carry out checks of other newsagents in Telford as a preventative measure.

However, as time passed, other incidents continued to be reported so some of my officers had to be redeployed to deal with these.

Three hours after the first burglary another was reported so again, all available officers were deployed to the area of the reported crime. I am happy to report that due to the work of my officers three arrests were made.

The teamwork displayed by all concerned in responding to this incident was second to none and the co-ordination of the incident by the force control room and officers on the ground culminated in these excellent arrests. (The three men arrested have been charged with these burglaries)

All in all the events I have detailed are fairly typical of a night shift in Telford. Thankfully, serious crime remains rare in West Mercia but that's not to say that we don't treat every incident that's reported to us very seriously. We realise that to each specific victim of crime, that crime is the most important to them.

Police officers in Telford will continue to do everything they can to keep residents of the borough safe but please do remember that you can play a key role in fighting crime too.

If you ever see anything suspicious do not hesitate to report it to us on 0300 333 3000 – we'll always do our best to respond and you never know what you might help to prevent just by making a simple phone call to us to provide information.