As part of his regular blogging on Aycliffe Today, Aycliffe Neighbourhood Police Team Sergeant Mark Edwards details a day in the life of our local bobbies…
Part 1 – Briefing The Team
The team at Newton Aycliffe are split into two halves which ensures that there is a wider coverage across the week allowing us to respond to issues requiring our attention. Generally, half of the team work a day shift commencing at 8 am with the ‘back’ turn coming on from 11 am onwards. As the team Sergeant I have greater flexibility and generally I work a variation of both shifts allowing me time spent with both halves.
It must be said however that shifts can be changed at short notice subject to operational demands and matters requiring the whole team to be on duty at the same time.
My day starts – often earlier than anyone else’s on the team, with research. I am responsible for reviewing all reported crimes from the pre-ceeding 24 hours and reviewing incidents. Calls are prioritised by our Communications Department based on individual circumstances. Those requiring an immediate or priority response are on the whole allocated to Response Officers, serious crimes may have been referred to our plain clothed detectives, slow time calls may have been allocated an appointment or referred for the attention of my team.
Many jobs will have been resolved by the attending Officers and require no further intervention, some may be deemed to require follow up by the NPT, some will have been allocated an appointment time for our ‘Diary Car’ and so forth. The main areas of business for the Neighbourhood Team however are those anti-social behaviour (ASB) related calls and whether they were a ‘one off’ or matters requiring a more in depth response, volume crime, emerging trends whether they be particular crime types or ASB and quality of life issues (matters that impact upon the community).
I will prepare a briefing for the troops when they arrive on duty where – effectively, we gather round the table.
As the Officers parade on for duty they will tend to check e-mails for any messages left for them by colleagues or members of the public/partner agencies. They also do their own research (which goes hand in hand with my own) into incidents reported from their own beat areas of responsibility.
Then it’s into the briefing where we discuss those reported crimes and look for opportunities where we can assist the investigating Officers (who may be from the 24/7 Response Teams or Serious Crime Teams, priority Crime Teams etc) with enquiries, we review intelligence, and generally share our combined knowledge/awareness of all things relevant to Aycliffe at that time. Taskings are given to various Officers which are incorporated into their own daily duties.
Dependent on the nature of the crime, the NPT take over ownership of certain investigations and newly acquired ‘handover packages’ are discussed and allocated to one of the Police Constable’s on the team during the briefing. Those Officers coming on duty for late shift will go through a similar process although that briefing will include those matters that have developed over the morning as well (if any).
And from the briefing it’s down to business! For myself, it usually requires my attendance at morning management meetings but for the troops it’s time for them to hit the streets…….. To be continued
