Express & Star

Police boss joins the beat

A police boss swapped desk time for the beat, joining teams of officers on the ground.

Published
Chief Constable Dave Thompson

A suicide, dispute involving a teenager and pregnant and a burglary were among the call-outs West Midlands Police Chief Constable Dave Thompson attended.

And the police bosses also shared his experiences with the public, posting tweets with the hashtag 'moonlighting'.

He was joined by Deputy Chief Constable Louisa Rolfe on the shift last week.

At the end of the shift he wrote in a blog: "In some ways the patrol was unquestionably a bit of a challenge to see if we could still do it. It is a while since PC Thompson hit the streets of Manchester and PC Rolfe at Bristol.

"The big reason was to have some live experience of a shift without an officer babysitting us."

He laid out the importance of doing the paperwork along with the job.

He added: "I loved the people interaction even though a big part of the shift was actually very sad in dealing with a tragic death and delivering death messages."

He said the bureaucracy process was 'wide' in dealing with domestic related cases, and added he will to improve the management of vulnerable cases.