The Last Linslade Bobby, Last Chapter.

Honesty
in the Police.

The Sad Bit.

 

When the police service recruit officers they obviously
try to get honest people. How ever, no one is fully transparent and
the odd one or two misfits get through. Some are sorted out during
their probation period, some are not. Those that get caught breaking
the very laws they are supposed to be enforcing are a very small
minority, but the press love to report such things. It is very
important to emphasize that it is the police themselves who catch
these people.

 

I cannot mention names for fear of being sued, a real
problem these days, but a glance at back-issues of the local paper,
the 'Leighton Buzzard Observer' will unearth the culprits. One
morning I and the rest of 'C' Section arrived for duty, (as a LBO I
was attached to the 'C' shift now, cost cutting had removed our own
sergeant,) to be met by a young officer off this section being
assisted into an unmarked police CID car and whisked off to
Dunstable. We were told he had been arrested for burglary. I found
this utterly unbelievable as I had been working with him for nearly
two years on and off. He had served in the Army as well. The story
unfolded as we carried out our own investigation which was to send
WPC Karen Dryden around to grill those in-the-know. We had been
suffering a series of town-centre burglaries of solicitors, estate
agents and the like. This did not involve me as I was the Linslade
LBO. The burglar was obviously a very fit person as they were
climbing up to windows on the first and second floors to gain entry.
Not a lot was taken from these offices other than money, cameras and
the like. Then a SOCO found some finger prints at one solicitors that
should not have been there. CID had their suspicions so had them
checked. Officers finger prints are often at crime scenes, as after
all they will have attended the scene and taken a crime report.
Double checking proved this officer had not been to this incident
'officially'. Before the results came back however, a silent alarm
was triggered (one that rings at a security company but not at the
location) and two officers raced to the scene. They got there very
quickly and in time to see a shadow jumping from a window. The
offender had heard them coming and was in a real panic to get away.
He literally fell from the window and landed badly, spraining an
ankle, but being fit he managed to out-run the officers. The next day
a certain probationer who was on a driving course at the time failed
to attend. They had phoned in to say they had a sprained ankle. Then
those finger prints came back which was the corroboration. A police
officer of Leighton Buzzard station was the town centre burglar. We
had arrived at work just as he had been arrested. He got five years
and being a copper had to be put virtually on his own in a cell all
the time. He did get beaten up twice I heard. It eventually
transpired he had been told to resign from the army as he had been
caught stealing there as well, a 'tea leaf'. His wife had known all
about this so when he got caught this time she left him.

 

After one of my three-month stints as an Acting Sergeant
for 'C' Section I was replaced by a newly promoted officer from
Ampthill. He had been a LBO there for many years. I was returned to
policing Linslade and I enjoyed it as well, acting as a Sergeant is
not a nice job, you get a few more pence a day pay but all the grief
from the public and trying to keep officers minds on their primary
job. You soon find out which officers are self-propelled crime
fighters and who are just useless uniform carriers. One day one of
the officers on 'C' Section could not make an appointment to take a
statement he desperately needed for a court file. So this Sgt
volunteered to do it for him. The Sgt went to the house concerned and
after completing the paperwork, for some unknown reason grabbed the
rather pretty woman and kissed her. This is blatant sexual abuse and
she made an official complaint. Then two more town's women spoke up
as he had done it to them. Then it transpired he had done something
similar years ago in Ampthil and had got an official warning. This
time he went to court and got four years. His wife also left him and
he had been a copper for about sixteen years by then. Both of these
foolish men lost their pensions. If you cannot trust a policeman who
can you trust. Sadly today we see quite high ranking officers getting
the sack for perverting the course of justice, the last one because
he tried to get his wife to take some driving penalty points on her
licence for his speeding conviction. But then MPs do it so why not
everyone else? Years of dedicated good work by conscientious officers
is wiped out at a stroke by their selfish, criminal actions. Everyone
remembers the nasty bits, the nice stuff is soon forgotten.

 

 

Nearing the end of Leighton Buzzard Police Station.

 

 

In the mid 1990s the police station was being slowly
reduced in its manning levels. Other than the patrol and LBO
officers, they were being moved over to Dunstable. It was the mid
1990s and cash was very hard to come by and forces were forced to
reduce costs. At one points the night shift panda cars were limited
to just 30 miles per shift. I was finding myself more and more being
used on 'section', ie being taken off LBO work and doing patrol
officer jobs. Sometimes I could not get into Linslade for a month at
a time. I had passed my Sergeants exam within two years of joining
and was twice used for three-months stints as an Acting Sgt. By 1995
the force reduced the numbers of LBOs to back up a serious lack of
panda car drivers. Linslade lost its local foot beat officer, me. WPC
Bernie White was allocated my beat but though she tried hard to
fulfill her new job, like me ended up driving a panda on patrol all
the time. The last month I was officially the Linslade LBO I only
spent a few hours on my 'beat', the rest of the time was out on
patrol duties as a 'C' section response driver.

 

Due to a drastic lack of panda car patrol officers, the
LBO system was put on hold and LBOs all put onto 'section' work
(shift work as a patrol officer). I certainly did not want to start
working shifts again. This was just as PC Taff Godsell was retiring.
He was the Schools Liaison Officer (SLO) and I took on his job. It
was probably because it was dealing with children I found it the most
rewarding police work I had ever done, but again that is another
story. The country was in yet another dip in its wealth and
government money was being carefully spent, meaning there were cuts
in most things. Due to a lack of recruiting, after four years even
the SLO jobs went and as I was into my fifties by then, I was sent to
Dunstable for my last couple of years before retiring, working on the
Crime Desk (another story in itself).

 

How ever we must not forget the officers of today who
are doing their very best to try to provide a good service to the
public. Their dedication to duty is second to none, but I do
sympathise with them over the current political pressures they have
to deal with and their non-street-wise supervisors. If the police
were left to, “ Protect life and property, and prevent and detect
crime” as the Constables oath says, life would be that much better
for all of us. ( And now in 2014 we have politically-motivated Police
Commissioners...)

 

Why did I not get promoted to a sergeant I am always
asked. Well, for one reason it would mean a move to Bedford or Luton.
I did not own my own car, my wife used hers for work, so I would have
had to buy one. The pay was just £2000 a year more, but as I also
had a full RAF pension, I would lose nearly all that as I would be up
into the next income tax band. In the end I would be worse off
financially. Working in the town you live in at a job you like is
worth far more than a few pounds extra pay. I did not want to go to
Dunstable, and cycled there and back when I did. I never did like
that police station, no soul.(Dunstable has now also closed, 2014.)

 

 

Neil Cairns.

 

 

Appendix;-

Officers and staff I knew at Leighton Police Station,
some of those I remember;-

 

PC Graham Arnold,

PS Tim Stevens,

WPC Karen Dryden,

PC Steve Wilkinson,

SOCO Pete Sowery,

PC John Matthews,

SOCO Tim Steward,

WPC Dianne Steward,

PC Willy MacIntosh,

PC Bill Drew,

PC John Bibby,

Insp Nick Banfield,

PC Ali Litchfield,

TW Fay Barrett,

PC Darren Guess,

PC Tony Bandy,

Insp Dave Biles,

Insp Dave Giles,

Insp Tony Kimble,

PC Dave Leyton,

Insp Liz Coulson,

PC Ray Wootton,

PC Dave Rawlings,

PC Ken LeMaire,

PC Neveille Johnson,

PC Martin Pennell,

EO Mrs Heather Millgate,

Ms Joan Lambert OBE CID Admin,

EO Mrs Celia Sermon,

EO Mr Mike Leech,

Barry Gazeley, vehicle maintenance,

PC Ian Dedman,

PS Chris Bull,

PS Ted Bowman,

PC Ian Farrow,

PC Jim Hoskins,

PS Jim Fergusson,

PC Julian Frost,

Insp Steve Barrett,

WPC Lyn Skinner,

EO Mary Cheyne,

PC Dave Knoakes,

PC Taff Godsell,

PC Graham Shepherd,

Diesel Dick, Barry Gazeley's predecessor,

PS Graham Shepherd,

PC Allan Clark,

PC Allan Clelland,

Ms Pauline Sprittles, cleaner,

Mrs Rhona Ellis, cleaner,

WPC Sharron Ellis,

Insp Paul Gaddesdon,

PS Bob Jack,

TW Derdrie Elliot,

PC Roger Franklyn,

PC Allan Mills,

WPC Gail Hawthorne,

PC Paul Searle,

PS Graham Caves,

SC Ben Rolt.

SC Beverly Major,

Insp Allison Macho,

WPC Birnie Callaghan, (now White),

WPC Gail Hawthorn,

PC Mark Wilkie.

 

And many others.