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01 Aug 2012
With all the excitement that was building around the opening
ceremony on Friday, Cheshire Police left Winsford headquarters to
start their new life - for two and a half weeks at least - in the
metropolitan city of London. Blog posts are now actively
running until 13th August on the police and Upbeat websites where the
public are being given a real taste of policing
life, both in Cheshire and from the Olympics. These
provide an insight into the many incidents that the officers are
getting involved in, including the fun elements that come with
policing such a large sporting event.
Inspector Stewart Sheer, who has been a Cheshire officer now for
25 years, gained some international experience by policing in
Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of the organised crime investigation
team. He has been deployed to the Olympic Village and Olympic Park
and reported from the Olympic Village on opening ceremony night,
"It is amazing. It was hard to believe that this was waste ground a
few years ago and now it feels like a cosmopolitan
city. There was a real buzz - talking to the athletes and
having my photo taken a thousand times - the British bobby was very
popular. As for the fireworks at the end of the night - wow! My
wife said "did you see them?" I said: "see them I felt them, that
was some display above our heads!"
The blogs also focus on those who are working extra
duties in Cheshire. This includes Neil Gitton, 39, who
works as a Specials Inspector within Cheshire and who joined the
Special Constabulary in May 2005. By day, he works as a Product
Development Manager for a food company whilst on weekends, he
polices for the rural Frodsham neighbourhood.
When asked about policing during the national effort, as
Cheshire officers are deployed to the Olympics, he comments
as an officer, we are sometimes asked to step outside of
our normal routine for various reasons. This is something
we all expect, as a full time officer or as a Special constabulary
officer. We actually like it. There are many planned operations and
tasks that will still go ahead as normal, while our regular
colleagues are away and this is possible because of the high level
of training that we have. We have been and will continue to
maintain high visibility patrols to reassure the public that there
will continue to be plenty of police officers to keep them
safe.
- Specials Inspector Neil Gitton, Cheshire
Constabulary
Neil wanted to "test the waters" before deciding upon a career
in policing and this gave him the chance to explore being a Special
alongside performing his daily job. He has the support of his
employer, if he has to be released at short notice for court and
operational reasons. The skills he has developed as a police
officer are transferred into his daily job and he expresses one of
his career highs - when his team were invited to the House of
Commons by the local MP in recognition of their policing services
in Frodsham. This was a significant occasion as it was Tony Blair′s
last Prime Minister′s Questions and Sarah′s Law was announced.
Neil remarks that anti social behaviour issues in Frodsham have
reduced considerably over the last year which is due in part to
good police engagement with the public. Brought up in Tattenhall,
Neil has a personal knowledge of living in the area. "Knowing your
community is not so much a skill, but it helps massively as people
can relate to you more easily if you are familiar with the
neighbourhood."
