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I've done twenty-three years with Thames Valley Police in Oxfordshire. I moved down here on retirement, wanted something to do.
I already worked for a charity called Freewheelers Blood Bikes, which is a charity that takes blood all over the country,
and I wanted something else a bit local so ... one of the PCSOs from this local area approached me and said would I be interested, and I said yes.
I think what attracted me is the fact that I want to pursue a career in the police service.
Well the role that I'm doing now is like a front desk duty officer really. The members of the public come in and ask various questions
so hopefully with my experience as a police officer, I can put them in the right direction, I can give them the right advice.
As I work in a garden centre I deal with customers a lot and I think that as I deal with their enquiries I can bring that to the police pod and help different people with their problems.
Because they come in for a various amount of things, it can be for crime reduction, it can be to report a crime, it could even be to give us something anonymously, like drugs or whatever,
so hopefully I can then steer them in the right direction, make them feel at ease, and hopefully the job is achieved then.
An example of this would be when an elderly lady came in to me last week.
She didn't want to leave her house unattended as she was going away, so I gave her a light bulb and a timer so that she could pretend that someone was in,
so she felt safer and satisfied then.
Well it seems obviously that volunteers are quite essential in a lot of walks of life now, sadly that's the way it is,
but if they've got the right experiences, and they can bring these experiences to the police, I think it's very important
because this particular role here is that people can come in and ask questions without having to go to the police station,
they might feel intimidated to go to a police station, so they can call in here while they're shopping, they can come in.
Well the volunteers that we have working with us here in Highbridge really play a big part in our community. They're local community people, they work in the community in which they live.
we're able to utilise their skills and local knowledge to an advantage.
It helps us get really into the community, making a more localised policing approach. This is really really beneficial.
I think the community then can build up trust and relationships with the police and the volunteers.
The police station can be quite daunting for members of the public to go down and give intelligence,
so if they come here it's a safe environment and they can share their information with us.
I like doing voluntary work, so this was an ideal for me that I ... keep me in a bit of a loop with the police,
because when you actually retire from the police it seems as though your legs are cut off and you're totally sort of alienated from it,
but this is nice because it keeps me in the loop.
I think I get self-satisfaction out of it and insight to the police service, which will help me as I wish to pursue a career in the police.
It also allows me to do what I like doing, dealing with the public,
problem solving and stuff like that, and I get a lot out of it really, it's a buzz.