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Hello I'm Rob Beckley, I'm the Deputy Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Constabulary.
Policing is a hugely varied and interesting job and I'm sure many of you have wondered exactly what do we do?
Well, we're committed to answering that question and giving you an insight into our work
and we want to do more than just tell you about our activities, we'd like to show you what we do.
That's why we're inviting you to join us on a Ride Along Scheme.
This is an initiative which enables you to experience first hand our work here at Avon and Somerset Constabulary.
Now you might be interested in learning about how our Call Centre operates, or meeting your Neighbourhood Team
or going out with Response Officers.
We've had many people take up the offer but we're looking to broaden that much further,
and the Ride Along experience can last anything from just a couple of hours to a whole shift.
So keep watching to find out more about the Ride Along Scheme and how you can get involved.
We're in Easton, in Bristol and this is a part of our area that we cover, very very busy area.
They're calling us now. Go ahead.
RADIO: "Can you attend (deleted)" ... just getting a job at the moment ... (RADIO) cause we've had a call from one of the neighbours complaining that his brother (deleted), he basically refused to answer any further questions and hung up"
RADIO: "The call taker's recalled and again he's not really giving any details but just to say that his brother (deleted). Are you able to go and find out what's going on?"
Yeah, we're en route now. I take it it's grade 1, yeah?
RADIO: "(Inaudible) I would say it's probably a 2."
Yeah we're gonna go as a Grade 1, want to see what's going on there. Try and stop any further damage. Making our way".
Ok we're responding now to a job, we've just been given a job, and basically we've lost contact with the informant now, so we've actually upped it to a response,
because we don't know what's going on there, and we don't want any violence to continue that has done already.
So we're going to try as safely as we can to get there as quickly as possible.
(POLICE SIREN SOUNDING)
So this is our daily thing, basically we drive around our area to see what's going on. There's someone following us by the looks of it.
Got another unit responding as well, with us, to back up, we generally do that, we back each other up,
to make sure that it's all safe at the location, then the other unit will go available again.
This is quite exciting, we do like responding, we never know what's going to be there until we get there, we don't know what to expect.
We do cover quite a large area, and that's sometimes a problem, we can be at one end of town, and we've got to respond to the other side of town
and it does take a while sometime which, you know, a lot of them say, "Why does it take you so long to get here?", they don't realise sometimes that we're quite far away.
But you know we do make sure that we will get there as soon as we can, safely, but yeah it's a massive area.
An attempt abduction of a child is a serious sort of job, whenever they come in, which is quite rare, although at the moment we seem to be having a little spurt, we're having a few of these attempts
and we've been given details of a possible vehicle involved, so at the moment we're going to make towards the area, go direct to where the child and the mother is apparently
but also look for the possible car that may have been involved, the one we've been given. It's in the St Werburghs area so it's a little way
and it's through possibly heavy traffic, we'll get there as quick as we can and see what we've got.
We've to listen to our radio, wait for any updates, descriptions, vehicles, anything like that.
as we get closer we'll be looking round for the offender that's been described
but our main concern really is the victim, child, for their welfare.
There's been a call received, we spoke to a female, who's been, basically, walked down this lane, she's reporting that a male has grabbed hold of her,
but she's managed to get away, she's run to a family member's house
so what we've done is we've spoken to her and got a description
She's pointed out, she's actually named this lane, so what we've done, we've got as many officers as possible to cover the area
and at the moment we're looking for the suspect.
We've requested a helicopter because it's such a massive area, you know, we can't possibly search through the undergrowth, so many trees and stuff like that
so, you know, at the moment we're still searching, so - the helicopter, it's brilliant, so once we've got the helicopter up, fingers crossed we'll find somebody.
(SOUND OF HELICOPTER)
I personally think it's a really good opportunity for anybody, anyone is invited to apply
and I just think that for anyone's that's actually interested in joining the police, it's a good opportunity for them to actually come out with us,
see what we do, see what's expected of police officers. Then you'll know if you like it or not.
Also, you know, members of the public - you know, a lot of people don't actually know what we do, and I get asked every day really, you know, why don't you do this, what do you actually do,
and I think that if you do wonder, then come out with us for a few hours and see for yourself what we do, cause it is a demanding job, and we do try to please everybody,
unfortunately we can't always do that, but I just think there's a good opportunity for anyone to get involved in.
There's a lot of jobs that the public, a lot of the public, never ever see that we do, and for them to come out with us, just for a couple of hours, a morning, an afternoon, see the job that we're doing, yes it's good.
I think it also shows that you know - a lot of people - it shows that we've got nothing to hide, we're quite happy for people to see what we do day to day.
Sometimes we go to a lot of difficult jobs, but we're very happy for somebody to come along with us, to see how we deal with things.
If you're interested in what you've just seen and would like to take part in the Ride Along Scheme, have a look at our website where we've got a section devoted to the scheme.
It provides you with information and guidance about how to apply.
We've found that those who take part in the scheme greatly enjoy the experience and learn a lot about policing.
We hope we've given you an idea in this short clip about the Ride Along Scheme
and we hope that if you take part you find it a really insightful and rewarding experience.