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all in the day of a PCSO ...
"the psychological impact of racking it is not to be underestimated"
introduction: jimbo a member of national-PCSOs from 2004, he has seen pretty much every topic that has gone on and is a VETERAN MEMBER
national-PCSOs interview jimbo: she’s busy like I am with work, so she doesn’t have a lot of time doing hobbies
falkor: what about motorcycling, does your missus get on the back of your motorbike?
jimbo: used to, I’ve now got rid of my motorbike
falkor: you had quite a few didn’t you?
jimbo: yes falkor: Which was your best one?
jimbo: have you still got your Yamaha?
falkor: love it – some git flippin scratched it the other day
jimbo: oooooo
falkor: I actually put a crime report on – they logged it on the old system – never heard another thing – not through the post, nobody ever phoned me, that was it!
jimbo: bloody hell
falkor: can you believe it?
jimbo: sometimes we’re surprised about the way people get angry when they’re victims of crime
falkor: yeah, I’ve seen that a few times I tell ya but I’d better not say anything more on that score
jimbo: [laughing] I guess you’re still working for the job, you’re not completely retired yet are you?
falkor: no and I’m so flippin pleased at the way it’s going too
jimbo: are you doing shift work?
falkor: well let’s put it this way, the people who do the shift work - certainly civilian wise - get a huge hit for weekend working, something like £200 or £300 a month on top, so if you’ve got a job that is MON – FRI, a lot of people just don’t want to do it and supervisors can be scratching their heads finding someone because of that, if you’re going to take that kind of loss of cash, mind you like I said to you, I’m cycling to work which is a big thing for me – well what do you do fitness wise Jimbo?
jimbo: I used to do a lot of cycling as well, but my bike always gets nicked
falkor: NICKED?
jimbo: yes
falkor: how did that happen?
jimbo: I would love to go cycling
falkor: but you would put your bicycle in the police station though Jimbo?
jimbo: no it’s not there, it’s because of where I live, I don’t have a garage or anywhere I can take it and I live in an upstairs flat, so I have to chain it around the back of my flat
falkor: oh no you’re joking
jimbo: yeah I’ve had 3 of mine and 1 of my girlfriend’s bikes taken
falkor: oh no
jimbo: and it’s just not worth it and then because of where I work, it’s a bit difficult to get to where I work
falkor: oh right yeah
jimbo: and then it’s not so bad on earlies or on late turn, but night duty I just don’t feel well enough to cycle back again
falkor: ah I tell you what, I cycled back at the end of night duty quite a few times, because I was absolutely determined to do something to keep myself fit [laughing] and I can remember one time, I was so knackered going home I got to Hampton Court Railway Station from the towpath and it was like 8am in the morning, bright sunshine and I was absolutely felt like keeling over and I was about half way home and I just propped the bike up at a bench in the railway station where there was a tiny shop, all these people getting off trains, I had about ten bars of chocolate because I was so bloody hungry for some reason and a couple of cups of coffee and people were just walking past me and I thought, all I want to do is get underneath the bench and just kip
jimbo: [laughing]
falkor: and then I had to cycle down by the river – my route was through Bushy Park
jimbo: oh lovely
falkor: well they close that to traffic about 6pm, 7pm and open it again 7am in the morning, so a lot of the time I was cycling through the little pedestrian gates there and it was deserted and I tell you what, I just loved that – I absolutely loved that – so I haven’t got that at the moment, I haven’t got anything as nice as that now, but then again I was cycling one hour there and one hour back, which was probably a bit over the top to be quite honest. But you’ve got a choice - do you want to cycle to work? YES/ NO, there’s no in between is there?
jimbo: no I know there’s no half way – if you went through Bushy Park, you must have been quite friendly with the Royal Parks Police
falkor: haha that is an understatement and one of the skippers from the RPC, well it’s not the RPC now is it?
jimbo: no it’s MET but yeah I know
falkor: that’s right, but he was the first bloke at my leaving do and I was touched by that, I thought yeah he’s stuck with me through thick or thin that bloke
jimbo: what was his name?
falkor: Chris Duke
jimbo: oh I have heard his name and PC Pete is thinking of moving to Bushy Park
falkor: why not? Why not, absolutely marvellous yeah
jimbo: I’ve met quite a few of the Bushy Park staff round there
falkor: yeah I mean slowly slowly they’re getting more and more Met blokes infiltrating into it, because I think at the moment the vast majority of those blokes are still RPC aren’t they?
jimbo: Well I think the vast majority are ex-RPC who are now fully MET officers
falkor: sorry that’s what I meant yeah
jimbo: there’s no RPC officially
falkor: no
jimbo: yeah I’m looking at moving to the Parks at some point
falkor: yeah why not?
jimbo: they get to go round all of London – well Hyde Park – I can’t think of anything much nicer than spending my summer, or my winter come to that, walking through Greenwich Park or Hyde Park or St James Park
falkor: well I’ve gotta say and I don’t know whether I’m right or not – but my total impression on the manning levels for those parks, is that it’s gone in a downward spiral – by the time I’d finished with the Met, my impression of Bushy Park was that they’d decreased the personnel by about 50%, that’s what I thought
jimbo: I know it’s decreased a lot, but at the same time you look at Hyde Park. Although they get involved in lots of things outside the park, officially they only have to go to Hyde Park and on a night duty sometimes they turn out as many units as I do out of my nick
falkor: oh my god really?
jimbo: it’s privately funded so you know ….
falkor: who are privately funded?
jimbo: the parks OCU
falkor: privately funded?
jimbo: yes they’re privately funded by the Royal Parks Agency, they’re completely separate funding from the MET
falkor: oh
jimbo: although they’re all MET officers and they’ve got MET equipment, it’s all been paid for by the Royal Parks Agency
falkor: I totally forgot about that but that Hyde Park I can remember when that was MET can you?
jimbo: it wasn’t that long ago was it? In fact the main guy I’m partnering up with at work, he was based at Hyde Park
falkor: yeah because we always used to go there on aid. If there was any aid going anywhere near there, you’d end up parading at Hyde Park for your grub because on the top floor there, well the first floor, they’d put you in there for your early riser breakfast y’know, I think that’s one of the things I miss really, that early riser breakfast on aid
jimbo: [laughing] it’s one of the only times that you get fed really well isn’t it?
falkor: well they’ve got that army place up in London haven’t they ‘Buck Gate’ near to C.O, we always used to go in there for early morning aid breakfast didn’t we?
jimbo: on my borough we’ve got quite a few barracks – well not as much as Colchester or somewhere like that outside the MET, but we’ve got quite a few barracks and to be honest, I think in permanent based barracks they get on very well with police, I’ve always got on well with the army and in fact I’ve got to tell you a story about that .. I stopped a car the other day - well a few weeks ago – and there were five people up in it and 2 of us stopped ‘em and as we stopped it, we were trying to get through to do a PNC check, the MDT wasn’t working they were busy Channel 2 and as we put over the radio that we were stopping this car now we need a check now, that’s when the car pulled over and the radio check came back, “Don’t stop without Trojan assistance” and we got out of the car dealing with this, thinking “oh no here we go” and the five lads were just aggressive from the off – you get the impression sometimes, “these guys don’t want to be stopped” they don’t want to play with the police
falkor: yeah
jimbo: and I was just about to get a call in for help when suddenly they all started acting nice and I thought, “oh this is interesting” and I looked over my shoulder and we had actually stopped outside a barracks and four of the sentries had come running out, because they’d obviously sensed that something was up
falkor: wow!
jimbo: that was brilliant, it was a great feeling to have four guys with fully automatic weapons standing behind your shoulder [laughing] as you’re doing a stop
jimbo: yeah I owed them all a cup of tea after that
falkor: that is brilliant – it’s nice to have that kind of relationship I gotta say
jimbo: yeah I think in lots of garrison towns this is the kind of barracks we have where they’re permanent based there, there’s not so much friction
falkor: and what are your thoughts on Iraq Jimbo? Are you allowed to comment?
jimbo: I think I’d better be careful what I say on that
falkor: because I was only thinking, that these guys who came over to stand behind you there – they’d probably been up to Iraq and back
jimbo: lots of them have – a lot of my family and friends are in the forces
falkor: it seems like a total nightmare over there Jimbo
jimbo Monday 7th May 2007 1700 - 1724
jimbo: well people talk about it as being another Vietnam, but I think of it more as another Northern Ireland
falkor: yeah I think you’re right – I think it’s far more of a Northern Ireland than a Vietnam totally, yeah I quite agree
jimbo: it’s just going to be a political nightmare
jimbo: well do you think Labour are going to get in again? Or do you think this is going to finish them?
falkor: I think it’s gonna be close, but I was going to say to you Jimbo, what would happen if we just took our troops out of there?
jimbo: well really I think that would be unfair now
falkor: yeah but what would happen? You didn’t answer the question
falkor: what would happen? 
jimbo: I think some of the places would be worse off without us there
falkor: I think it would just be flippin civil war I think
jimbo: one of the things that we are good at is peace keeping, although we haven’t been so successful I think we’ve more successful than America and now that we’ve gone into this place, I think it would be even worse to pull out and leave ‘em to it now
falkor: I think most people think in hindsight now we’d have been better off if we’d have never taken ‘em on, but before anyone went in there, there were just so many suspicions and misgivings wasn’t there? And it’s like the old situation of, if you don’t do it you’re left thinking …. What if? It’s a bit like ummm oh no I’d better not say that … [laughing]
jimbo: [laughing]
falkor: I was gonna say it’s a bit like alihowe going for PC y’know and then
jimbo: exactly yeah
falkor: and she came back as a PCSO again, she said “If I hadn’t of gone for PC I’d still be thinking what if?”
jimbo: I agree 100% Funnily enough, my mum said that to me. It was one of the few things that she always said to all of the kids was, “It’s not the things you do in life that you regret, it’s the things you don’t do”
falkor: yeah
jimbo: and it’s so true
falkor: so where are you going next with your girlfriend then?
jimbo: ooo I think it’s going to be another trip to Finland
falkor: yeah but you’re going to all these places Jimbo where the inhabitants can’t speak English
jimbo: well my girlfriend’s Finnish
falkor: right
jimbo: and she grew up in Germany. I speak a bit of German
falkor: do you? How come?
jimbo: from learning it at school
falkor: you’ve done well
jimbo: I’ve learnt a little bit of Polish, as I used to live with some Polish guys
falkor: yeah
jimbo: and between us we kind of manage
falkor: oh right because I gotta say, that is a big thing for me not being able to understand what the hell they’re all going on about
jimbo: yeah I think it’s not so bad if you show willing. I think if you walk into a restaurant or somewhere and speak English and expect them to speak English back, then people don’t like that. If you make the effort to say what you can say, then I think people are a lot more happy to respond to you
falkor: and thinking about your road trips, did you see all that about the Gumball Rally 3000?
jimbo: yeah that’s an expensive road trip that though
falkor: did you hear what happened about it?
jimbo: it’s £28,000 to enter isn’t it?
falkor: you missed the flippin result didn’t ya?
jimbo: no, go on
falkor: they had a big crash
jimbo: did they?
falkor: and it was close onto the border with Albania – you know Albania was saying “Yeah! Come through our country!”
jimbo: oh yeah yeah
falkor: they never got across the border because there was some massive great crash – fatal accident
jimbo: oooooo
falkor: and the organisers of the Gumball Rally 3000 just said, “That’s it!” final day, half way through and it’s closed down, terrible isn’t it?
jimbo: not a surprise though is it?
falkor: no?
jimbo: I’ve seen the video. Have you ever looked at the site they’ve got for the Gumball Rally?
falkor: only seen the static stuff
jimbo: some of the videos that they’ve done, they’re doing 200 mph, they’ve got cars that will do 200mph and they do 200 mph on a normal road
falkor: oh I didn’t know that
jimbo: and I just think wow
falkor: well now you said that, I see why you’re saying it’s not a surprise, I didn’t realise that they did that
jimbo: The organisers obviously say it’s not a race and we don’t award for high speed driving but you get a lot of people on it, with a lot of money driving Lambourghinis and Ferraris and ….. they don’t call it a race but have a finish line, y’know I think they’re going to put their foot down
falkor: ah
jimbo: they’re overtaking, doing stupid speeds even through busy streets and stuff
falkor: I didn’t realise that
jimbo: when I’m on my road trips there’s no way that I can do that in a Diesel Omega [laughing]
falkor: what about America Jimbo, you going to go over there?
jimbo: yeah yeah I’m hoping to
falkor: whereabouts?
jimbo: do you remember National Traffic Enforcement Association?
falkor: oh that is SUPERB! What a GREAT site
jimbo: do you go on there?
falkor: not now but I do miss it – there’s a bloke on there called Nightshift
jimbo: yeah he’s one of the moderators
falkor: oh he’s so good, I thought he was the bloke in charge actually
jimbo: I think it’s changed a lot recently
jimbo: there’s been a lot of changes with the way it runs
falkor: but it’s not a php board that
jimbo: no it’s not
falkor: it’s a YaBB but it’s such a great site, there’s a lot of great characters on there. I remember a bloke on there who lived in a trailer park and he was like one of the “bad guys” not a bad bad guy, but a bloke who was always in trouble with other members, but he had such a cutting tone and one day he came on the site and said, “I regret to announce that my presence on this site has now become incompatible with further association,” or something like that and immediately there were replies with people suggesting a warrant had been issued for arrest
jimbo: [laughing]
falkor: but he was just so coy and made 1 further post I think, saying he couldn’t continue association with you fine people, something like that and everyone was piling in with what he must have done y’know
jimbo: [laughing]
falkor: but he was just such fun that bloke, everyone was joking about his trailer and everything y’know, because that’s what they call caravans over there and I just will never forget that bloke
jimbo: well I’ve been on there quite a lot and in fact one of the guys came over to Britain recently and I met up with him
falkor: brilliant! Really?
jimbo: yeah and I’m hoping – because I’ve been to America before – I’m hoping to go back there next summer and plan to meet with some of the guys from the site there as well
falkor: well you know PBASE?
jimbo: yeah
falkor: guess where it came from?
jimbo: no idea
falkor: National Traffic Enforcement Association
jimbo: really?
falkor: yeah because they link to PBase all the time. Ever seen the gallery of their members?
jimbo: well yeah seen them yeah
falkor: PBase!
jimbo: oh yeah of course
falkor: all on PBase and that’s where I got PBase FROM! National Traffic Enforcement Association and of course where does THAT come from? That comes from officer.com
jimbo: officer.com yeah
falkor: officer.com actually saw some fragmentation when the Sergeant in charge of it sold it off
jimbo: yeah there was a lot of bad feeling over that wasn’t there?
falkor: do you remember all that then? There was absolute outrage because what happened was, he didn’t turn round and explain it to his moderators properly, he just did it and that bloke Nighshift, was one of the top moderators on there, I think there were about 9 moderators
jimbo: it was a good site though wasn’t it
falkor: there was a LOAD of moderators on there and about 90% of the mods just turned round and said, “that’s it I’m resigning” and a lot of them did huge outgoing speeches
jimbo: [laughing]
falkor: and I got a PM from somebody, well not somebody, but several people PMing me saying go to National Traffic Enforcement Association because that’s where we’re all going! And of course I went to NTEA and there’s all the people from officer.com, that had just jumped ship!
jimbo: and they’ve all stayed there as well haven’t they? They are regular members there because they have a Restricted Access Forum on it as well
falkor: oh every forum’s got that now haven’t they? Every forum going has got that now, because I saw that thing about the Restricted Forum on NTEA and I sent a message through to whoever it was and they turned round and said, “There’s nothing I can do about it, you’ve got to contact someone else” and I thought I really can’t be shagged y’know, I really can’t be shagged
jimbo: it’s the most stringent one I’ve come across so far as well
falkor: have you got through to it?
jimbo: yeah not only do they want a work email, they also want you to give a place of work, so that they can phone up and speak to somebody to check that you do work there
falkor: I tell you what, that’s a bit OTT Jimbo
jimbo: It is, but what’s interesting is that as well as a normal restricted access thing, they’ve got a part about drug enforcement
falkor: yeah
jimbo: and that really is interesting – they’ve got quite a few advice columns in there, they talk about the different places the drugs have been hidden – different ways of looking for it
falkor: Dog the Bounty Hunter’s on there isn’t he?
jimbo: [laughing]
falkor: DOG! He’s on there!
jimbo: no no
falkor: YEAH! He flippin well is he said on his programme
jimbo: are you joking?
falkor: no no way
jimbo: go on
falkor: I thought you knew that already
jimbo: no
falkor: his missus wouldn’t go on there would she?
jimbo: what on the forums?
falkor: no she wouldn’t go on there, she said it was a waste of time
jimbo: which forum’s he on? Officer.com?
falkor: no not officer.com - have you been on that have you?
jimbo: yes
falkor: what do you think of it?
jimbo: I think that it’s fairly argumentative
falkor: crikey how do you get time Jimbo? You’ve got your road trips, you’ve got officer.com, NTEA, offduty, flippin heck I don’t understand this, you’ve got night duty as well
jimbo: I don’t have a social life that’s why
falkor: [laughing]
jimbo: that went out the window a long time ago
falkor: you are a top man
jimbo: [silence]
falkor: well I gotta say I was quite happy on officer.com, I mean how many years ago are we going back here? This must be 2003 we’re talking about here surely
jimbo: they sold up in 2002 didn’t they?
falkor: must be, because as soon as all that lot happened with them jumping ship – oh I got banned that’s right
jimbo: [laughing] banned?
falkor: because if you put up NTEA on officer.com
jimbo: yeah
falkor: anything like that, you’d just find that you couldn’t log in anymore, because you’d actually get banned while you were doing it!
jimbo: [incredulous] they actually banned you?
falkor: yeah! Oh definitely yeah – everyone tried to log back in by sending PMs but if you weren’t happy with just sending PMs, you could just start a thread on it couldn’t you? And of course it’s a bit tempting to do that and of course that would be it if you did and the thing is, if you know and you do have a suspicion that, if you’re going to do that you’ll get banned if you do that, but then you think, “oh to hell with it I’ll get banned then” [laughing]
jimbo: well I haven’t managed to get banned from national-PCSOs yet but …
falkor: oh you’re a long way off from that Jimbo, don’t worry about that [laughing]
jimbo: I’ll try and keep away from arguing. You’ve told me off a couple of times but I’ve usually deserved it so …..
falkor: yeah but who’s been banned though Jimbo? Who’s been banned?
jimbo: apart from XXXXXXXXX I can't work this out either!!!I don’t think we’ve had any proper characters banned have we?
falkor: well there’s actually a banned list that you can go to, there’s a link that you can go to. You know that “all” up at the top? You go to that page and there’s a slot on there that says “Who got banned and why?” and there’s like 4 names on there at the moment and they’re just nobody y’know
jimbo: I think the only person that we’ve ever had banned, who was a proper member was a guy who just deleted all his posts
falkor: oh I hate that - I can’t stand that, actually having said that, y’know on that NTEA, have you noticed on your own profile there’s a button that says “DELETE” or something have you seen that?
jimbo: no no go on
falkor: yeah and it’s absolutely nuts – if you go onto that site and go to your own profile – you press that button and it just strips all the profile data out from your account. One day I just got the hump with Nightshift y’know bless him, but what he kept on doing was, he kept on changing my images from images, to links to images
jimbo: lovely
falkor: he had a funny thing about that and I just got sick and tired of it, so I thought “Right DELETE!” So I went to my profile and pressed it and it just changes all your posts to guest posts, deletes the account - but your posts are still there
jimbo: but you can’t post anymore because you’re now a guest yeah
falkor: yep that’s it, so he emailed me after that saying, “I don’t know why you pressed the button but if it was by mistake, just let me know and I can sort it” and at the time I just thought it was just BullShit. I was convinced there’s nothing you could do about that – “that is unredeemable” – anyway years later, going through the old phpBB2 mods forum, I found the mod that will reverse it!!
jimbo: ahhhh
falkor: and I’ll tell you how I found out about that, y’know pcsodanielwmp who did the nemesis radio station?
jimbo: yeah
falkor: do you remember that?
jimbo: yeah what happened to that radio station?
falkor: oh he had so many technical problems and I think he had problems with his associates as well, I don’t think he was given free rein. I think he was fighting a flippin losing battle there Jimbo, anyway one day he decides that he’s going to change his email address and the problem with that is – the second you start playing around with your email address on the forums, it puts you into a suspended status because you have then got to wait for an email to come through, which is basically saying to you "prove that the email address you changed to is real" and whilst that’s going on, you’re suspended from the forums, you can’t log in anymore
jimbo: oh right
falkor: and y’know the auto delete system?
jimbo: yeah
falkor: unfortunately that system just chose that same minute to scan the membership list - found him and said “oh he’s a case 0” and deleted him from the forum and of course he sent me an email, saying he couldn’t log in anymore and all his posts were now showing “Guest.” I think he’d only whacked on about 50 posts or something, but nevertheless I thought, “What can I do?” and I then started going through the phpBB2 mod forums to find out if there was a solution and of course there was – you can reverse it all – you can pick up all those “Guest” posts and insert them onto a new account and of course this is what I didn’t realise was possible, because when this bloke “Nightshift” emailed me 2 years ago, he obviously knew about that while I didn’t and at the time he emailed me, I must admit I thought “naaahhh this is just BullShit,” so I didn’t even reply. I thought no there’s nothing he can do about it, but of course I now know there WAS! Isn’t it amazing when you find stuff like that out years later
jimbo: well it’s worth bearing in mind for the future
falkor: yeah oh yeah I’ve got that in my back pocket now, but unfortunately we’ve got a dark cloud on the horizon
jimbo: what’s that?
falkor: phpBB3
jimbo: yes?
falkor: have you heard about it?
jimbo: I saw some talk about it on one of the forums I go on
falkor: yeah that is a dark cloud mate I tell ya, not looking forward to it
jimbo: do you think it’s going to make a big difference to our site?
falkor: I think it’s going to be bad news because you know we’ve got that birthday slot down the bottom?
jimbo: yeah
falkor: that is just one example of the things that have been added to national-PCSOs forums – actually I’ve given a bad example there, because I think ‘birthdays’ has been swifted as a default feature for phpBB3 as it happens, but the trouble is that we’ve got loads of other things y’know that won’t be on board phpBB3 Jimbo and as soon as we switch over, they’ll all be gone
jimbo: so do you think that you’re going to stay with phpBB2 instead then?
falkor: well it’s a security thing y’know Jimbo and a lot of these things happen because people find a way in, do you know what I’m saying?
jimbo: and I’m guessing that you don’t have a lot of problems with that on the national-PCSOs forums at the moment
falkor: well at the moment we’re fully upgraded to as far as phpBB2 will go, but the worrying thing in the future, is that they’re going to stop doing the upgrades and then we’ll be forced to go with phpBB3
jimbo: yeah yeah
falkor: what do you think?
jimbo: I think we’re quite lucky at the moment because you don’t get a lot of spammers do you?
falkor: well you know why don’t you?
jimbo: go on
falkor: because one of the blokes on phpBB2 mods dreamt up an anti-spam software module, that allows admins to block certain words and when we were getting hit by spammers I saw members – one was Fat Bloke who were advocating banning guests from linking, but I kept on thinking ‘no it’s not necessary, what I’ll do is I’ll just block them from using certain words like Cialis’
jimbo: or Viagra or whatever
falkor: absolutely, but it didn’t matter how many flippin words that you block, all they do is that they put Viagra with a 1 instead of an i
jimbo: or a space in it
falkor: well yeah there’s unlimited permutations so Fat Bloke came in and said again “Can’t you just stop them from linking?” and at that time I thought no no, I don’t want to do that because I want genuine guests to be able to put websites, but in the end I realised, “yeah you gotta do it”
jimbo: because we’ve got a big problem on probationer.co.uk forums
falkor: right
jimbo: which I’m a moderator on as well
falkor: yeah
jimbo: in fact you’re a moderator on it as well aren’t you?
falkor: nah kipper would never let me be a moderator on there would he? I never even got asked!
jimbo: [laughing]
falkor: [laughing]
jimbo: you’ve got enough to worry about with the national-PCSOs
falkor: no he didn’t ask me to, but I didn’t mind
jimbo: yeah? But we’ve got a lot of problems with spam on there
falkor: but all he’s got to do is upload the flippin mod Jimbo
jimbo: I didn’t know that mod existed
falkor: ah I tell you what happened though Jimbo and I don’t know if this applies to kipper. What happened was when that fella Joe Belmaati brought out the mod, it worked but a lot of these prats found a way round it and to begin with it was solid, but then a month later I couldn’t understand why suddenly all these spam messages were getting through again and a few weeks later I went back to the phpBB2 mods and found that Joe Belmaati had done a 1.1.3 version, a kind of “super version”
jimbo: yeah?
falkor: so I downloaded the 1.1.3 and that was it – it wiped every spam message to the floor – I think it might be that kipper’s got that old initial release, when he needs 1.1.3 It’s like everything else, it needs upgrading
jimbo: must have a look because it does get frustrating sometimes I think, especially when you’re a new member when you come to have a look at the site and all you see is adverts for Viagra and
falkor: oh god it’s the latest bane of sites across the globe. Here, I tell you what, Dave came over to have dinner with me the other day!
jimbo: did he?
falkor: well I say the other day, I think it was a good month ago now, he came over to Epsom Police Station on his new motorbike
jimbo: oh I’m so gutted I haven’t got a motorbike anymore
falkor: well if you had the money could you get one?
jimbo: if I had the money yeah probably now, I got rid of one because I had a few accidents
falkor: did ya?
jimbo: it wasn’t my fault I got knocked off a couple of times and that kind of shakes you up. Everybody comes off a motorbike sometimes, but when it’s your own fault you think fair enough I’ll be more careful next time – when someone else knocks into you – it kind of shakes your confidence a bit and I thought I’m not sure I want to be doing this anymore
falkor: oh my god, was that the one where I saw some pictures of you in hospital ?
jimbo: no no, that was another one
falkor: [laughing]
jimbo: I’ve never so far had an accident that’s been my fault - ever
falkor: no?
jimbo: in the last 2 years I’ve had something like 5 or 6 accidents that have put me in hospital
falkor: so did you get any compensation?
jimbo: I haven’t tried claiming
falkor: are you in the AA?
jimbo: no no through my bank I’ve got a break down cover
falkor: oh right I was going to say I’m in the AA and when somebody crashed into me they just took over, legal, the whole lot and they did a wonderful job
jimbo: I never really got round to doing it. I guess I’ve always thought that I’ve spent enough time worrying about court cases as it is at work. I don’t need to do it at home as well
falkor: yeah but you wouldn’t have to though Jimbo because if you got the AA or whatever legal protection service, they do it all. They chase everything up – yeah one last question I’ve got to ask you about these S calls
jimbo: go on
falkor: you said that S calls don’t come over the radio anymore
jimbo: that’s right yeah
falkor: and that effects the SNTs because they used to love going to the S calls – they used to shout up to take ‘em didn’t they?
jimbo: I used to yes
falkor: so you’re on the response teams now – is it quite strict that S calls don’t go over the radio still?
jimbo: the only ones that are ever put over the radio ever now are the ones that are going to be upgraded to an I call – ones that they’ve graded wrongly e.g at NSY
falkor: if they don’t come over the radio, how do they get handed out?
jimbo: MDT
falkor: or someone prints ‘em out and gives ‘em out to somebody in the canteen
jimbo: yeah but you don’t get much of that now because it’s going to C3i
falkor: ah
jimbo: everything’s directed patrolling
falkor: so they pop up on some flippin response car’s MDT?
jimbo: yeah you’re driving along and it will suddenly just say “CAD INCIDENT RECEIVED” and you’ve got a CAD incident to go to
falkor: and they don’t radio you that in advance?
jimbo: no
falkor: because that was the way it was strictly supposed to work wasn’t it?
jimbo: yes it’s different for I calls, but I think it’s a shame because as I said the Safer Neighbourhood Teams used to love doing stuff like that. The PCSOs want to get involved with something different and why not do “CCTV pick ups,” why not do “Area Searches,” or even “Bail Checks.” You don’t need a warrant card in your pocket to do that and it takes pressure off response teams, you hear them on the radio – it’s good practice for PCSOs using the radio and the response teams start loving the PCSOs because they think “oh nice one, they’re taking this pile of crap that we don’t want to have to deal with”
falkor: I so agree, I know exactly what you’re talking about
jimbo: and that’s exactly what I used to do as a PCSO before they started having MDTs and that’s why I was relatively well known in my team before I moved to my response team, because they’ve seen me about standing on a crime scene, or booking CCTV in for them and you don’t get that now. I think I’m quite a “pro PCSO” PC if that makes sense
falkor: oh it makes sense
jimbo: but now I listen out for them on the radio and you never hear them on the radio and I never see them about because they’re not getting pulled in to do the same jobs
falkor: so do you have PCSOs on response teams?
jimbo: no not here
falkor: oh they are elsewhere
jimbo: I think they are in Bexley aren’t they or they were
falkor: yeah I think I remember reading that on the old MET message board
jimbo: yeah
falkor: I can’t believe that’s been closed down Jimbo I really can’t
jimbo: well I think it’s sad and the hope is that, when they closed it down 6 months ago they said they’d put it back on line again with different moderators, but so far they haven’t
falkor: they had a different version of it didn’t they? Remember those groups they set up?
jimbo: yeah the SIGs
falkor: have they got a PCSO SIG? they’ve got a Safer Neighbourhoods SIG haven’t they?
jimbo: yeah the SNT one still keeps going, the PCSO one got closed down
falkor: I mean what’s the difference between the SIG and that MET PCSO message board? What is the difference?
jimbo: you tell me
falkor: I mean they’re very similar aren’t they?
jimbo: for me they seem exactly the same but be fair, it wasn’t just antiPCs there was a lot of PCSOs reacting badly
falkor: [laughing]
jimbo: and I think it needed pruning and the decision was obviously made by someone wiser and more senior than myself, so they thought they might as well close it down while they’re at it
falkor: did you see my copy and pastes?
jimbo: yes
falkor: I’ve got loads more Jimbo!
jimbo: there were some brilliant comments on there
falkor: I’m going to print some more of those out
jimbo: and it was useful especially in the context that the S calls and the Safer Neighbourhoods people now being only allowed in one area. PCSOs are getting further and further away from all the other police officers in the Met. I think that something like that helps to bring them together again
falkor: yeah
jimbo: at the moment this is why I can’t see it continuing as it is, because PCSOs are having a really hard time in the Met, in as much as they’re so separate from the rest of the Police they really are
falkor: but they’ve got their Sgts though haven’t they?
jimbo: they have but even on Safer Neighbourhood Teams, most of them are running with an APS and one PC
falkor: ah right
jimbo: and they obviously have to do their own things – they’ve got a huge amount of crime reports to deal with
falkor: yeah
jimbo: so they just don’t see the rest of them. It used to be sector teams altogether didn’t it?
falkor: yeah
jimbo: you remember sector policing
falkor: oh definitely yeah
jimbo: and I preferred that personally and I could see why Safer Neighbourhoods came in, but now because you’ll be in your own office maybe in Council Offices somewhere, you never go in a police station, you never see another police officer. PCSOs are never heard on the radio because they’re not resulting any CADs or any calls. I just think it’s sad and it’s really bad for PCSOs, but never mind maybe it’ll all work out
falkor: well what do you think the future holds?
jimbo: I don’t think it can continue as it is – it will either be changed to a more enforcement role, or be completely got rid of and made into a more community role where you’re literally just a neighbourhood warden just working for the Police
falkor: here Jimbo in your station office where you work at the moment – who’s the station officer?
jimbo: we’ve got a civvy station officer
falkor: what do they say?
jimbo: about the PCSOs taking over?
falkor: yeah
jimbo: let’s see how can I put it, I think they all see it as losing their jobs
falkor: so it’s actually happening then?
jimbo: yeah
falkor: cor I just can’t believe it
jimbo: and lot’s of them are leaving – understandably – or looking for jobs while they’ve still got a chance
falkor: well what do you mean when you say while they’ve still got a chance Jimbo? What does that mean?
jimbo: because when it finally goes live, they will be told to go somewhere
falkor: I thought it had finally gone live now, I thought we’d passed that
jimbo: yes it was supposed to, but they’re running out of staff
falkor: running out of staff?
jimbo: yes they haven’t managed to train enough PCSOs - mind you PCSOs aren’t applying to do it, because most of the people who have applied to be PCSOs want to be out on the streets and don’t want to be employed as a Station Officer, so it’s slow running and all the Station Officers who I know, are doing their best to get out to a job that they actually want to do and of course, more and more in my borough …. Police Officers are manning up the Station Officer instead!
falkor: really?
falkor: I can’t believe that – how did it all start?
jimbo: well I think it’s about funding isn’t it?
falkor: yeah
jimbo: you worked for the Met a lot longer than me, you know how it works
falkor: it’s flippin outrageous – this means that PCSOs are going to be putting on CRISs
jimbo: this means also that they will say yes we’ve got say 4000 fully trained PCSOs out on the streets and in reality, they’ve got 3000 of them sitting in offices filling in crime reports
falkor: but the only PCSOs filling in CRISs, will be the station officer PCSOs
jimbo: yeah
falkor: nobody else?
jimbo: no
falkor: because to be able to put a CRIS on – that is a huge course isn’t it?
jimbo: it’s a big course and also I’d have thought even more than that, you need to know a lot more of the law than you do as a PCSO
falkor: yeah you’re right
jimbo: I mean my law training as a PCSO was restricted to the 4 or 5 pieces of legislation that you’re involved with as a PCSO, whereas PCs and Station Officers obviously tend to need to know a lot more
falkor: how many weeks did you get, was it 3 weeks?
jimbo: what as a PCSO?
falkor: yes
jimbo: when I joined it was 2 weeks
falkor: 2 … you’re joking!
jimbo: no
falkor: TWO? Two weeks I can’t believe it
jimbo: even I was shocked at the time
falkor: I never knew that – I thought it was 3 weeks the whole time
jimbo: no the original course was 2 weeks
falkor: and you were out!
jimbo: well luckily my borough made us do another 4 days
falkor: yeah
jimbo: but yeah
falkor: that is absolutely amazing, I didn’t know that
jimbo: when I went out on the streets I’d never even held a Metradio before because we did our training with Woolworths the £30 radios – the toy wrap ones
falkor: oh my god you’re having a laugh
jimbo: well we had to go in a room, we sat in a circle and passed the radio from one to another and we had to pretend to do vehicle checks with someone sat in the other room with another Woolworths toy radio
falkor: my god you are a true veteran you are Jimbo
jimbo: it also makes you appreciate how better trained PCSOs are now
falkor: so you’ve gone from Metradio to airwaves
jimbo: no we’re still on Metradio
falkor: you’re still on Metradio now?
jimbo: yeah we’re dual carrying – we carry the ‘airwaves’ to talk to the Boroughs round us but use ….
falkor: you’ve got Metradio AND airwaves?
jimbo: yeah
falkor: ah that’s a bit of a flippin lumber isn’t it?
jimbo: it is and quite a lot of the time I forget to take my airwaves set out with me
falkor: yeah?
jimbo: I put it in the back of the car and then get out and then realise that I haven’t got it with me because we haven’t gone live on it yet anyway
falkor: so clarify why you take out the airwaves one?
jimbo: so that we can talk to the local Boroughs surrounding us on airwaves, so that we can deal with cross border incidents
falkor: oh I understand now yeah
jimbo: and it’s also quite good for pursuit, because I keep mine on ‘Channel South’ and then if there’s a pursuit, I don’t have to use the ‘main set’ I can use my own airwaves set, so if we have to get out and started running or something, it can still be broadcast on ‘Channel South’
falkor: so you’ve got a true comparison there of a Metradio to airwaves
jimbo: yes
falkor: you are in an excellent position to decide which is best
jimbo: I really do prefer the Metradio
falkor: for what reason?
jimbo: so far we’ve had less problems with it – it drops out less often, it keeps battery life longer and we have less black spots on the Borough, but I appreciate it’s a new thing
falkor: are you on personal issue or have you got to book ‘em out every day?
jimbo: no, personal issue
falkor: oh that’s always the best isn’t it?
jimbo: it is, it is, then you can private call people
falkor: what about the old favourite Jimbo, let’s go down to the real old favourite :HANDCUFFS for PCSOs
jimbo: out
falkor: out?
jimbo: I think. It is time for what I said before 1) do they want PCSOs to do the fully enforcement role and if so, then yes they should be given the kit to do it with and 2) if you want them to do a neighbourhood warden type role, then they shouldn’t be carrying the kit because we shouldn’t be putting them into situations where they need that – if that makes sense
falkor: yeah fair enough
jimbo: what about you?
falkor: well there are occasions for instance alihowe related a situation in her interview about some woman who was intent on attacking her and there’s no doubt about it, if she’d have had handcuffs with her, she could have contained her a lot better than the way she had to lay into her and put her down on the ground without handcuffs – otherwise she could have contained her and got a unit down there to haul her off, but if you don’t have handcuffs Jimbo it does limit you doesn’t it?
jimbo: I think it limits you but if you need handcuffs, you still need a compliant person to put handcuffs on. If you’re going to be in a fighting situation, actually handcuffs aren’t the first thing you need are they?
falkor: they’re not, but you think about the times you go down to assistance calls – handcuffs are always there aren’t they?
jimbo: oh yeah yeah absolutely
falkor: yeah
jimbo: I’m still not sure – lots of times PCSOs have been misdirected. Recently a call came out to a guy inside his own house who was schizophrenic, having a Psychotic episode who’d cut his wrists and harmed himself with something sharp – they weren’t sure what and there was no unit on the Borough to attend. It was one of those typical days when everything was going off at the same time and 2 PCSOs answered up to it and the Control Room said yes to them. That’s a classic example of PCSOs trying to be helpful, but the Control Room should be saying no no no no, not a chance, no way, don’t go anywhere near that. That is exactly the kind of call where you need a PC, in fact you might even need a Firearms or TSG unit to deal with that kind of thing
falkor: absolutely
jimbo: and the PCSO called up saying, “Yeah I’ll go. I’m with my colleague, but she doesn’t have a radio yet”
falkor: WHAT HAPPENED?
jimbo: I then personally got on the radio and said, “Yeah Control can you make sure that these PCSOs DON’T go to this call” and it was left as don’t go to the call, just stay outside the address and I then came out of my refs to go and deal with it, but I can’t blame the PCSOs, because they’re not trained and they’re trying to be helpful. The Control Room should be saying, “Actually no,” so there’s no way that PCSOs should be getting involved with anything like that
falkor: you’re right but sometimes with things like that PCSOs do go to those calls and a great number of times they pull it off don’t they? I thought that’s what you were going to say, that actually they pulled it off, they did a great job, they got a pat on the back and basically those kind of incidents just fade into the background and almost get forgotten about
jimbo: exactly, until the wheel comes off they always will, but it’s putting them at unnecessary risk
falkor: oh absolutely
jimbo: it’s not a case that the PCSO are less capable people, they’re not
jimbo: