Roy Williams - the man who has given 51 years to keeping Staffordshire safe
The day Roy Williams first put on his Staffordshire Police uniform The Beatles topped the UK album charts with Abbey Road, and Scream And Scream Again starring Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Alfred Marks and Peter Cushing was enthralling cinema audiences.
It was January 5, 1970, and PC Roy Williams first took to the beat in the county. And 51 years and one month later he is still with the force, working with the corporate resource unit where he helps allocate funding to every daily facet of the force’s operation.
The 70-year-old spent just over 32 years as a police constable. He walked the first 18 months of his beat in Cannock, Hednesford and Rugeley and then “they like to move you around” before he leapt into corporate resourcing, and has plenty of happy memories.
During that time he has seen a lot change, and he is particularly fond of the 15 years in total he spent on horseback over two spells with the Mounted Branch, which was disbanded in 2000.
“The amount of information you used to get because people would approach you on the back of a horse. A lot of people were frightened of them and so respected them – and I include the officers in that,” he quipped. “They’d say ‘that’s a lovely animal’ and then start talking.
“One big change has been with the role of women in policing. When I first started there was a separate Police Women’s Department and they only did Mondays to Fridays either 8am-to-4pm or 9am-to-5pm. We hardly ever saw our female colleagues.
“Of course, things are totally different now – there’s a lot more equality in terms of kit and roles.”
After dismounting the horses he spent two more years as a PC before retiring in 2002 to take up a role within a new idea.
“My last two years as a PC had been with the Divisional Co-ordinating Unit (DCU) in Stafford and then I retired in April 2002. The force were setting up a mobile custody unit where they’d converted two lorries to travel around where needed and they could be utilised both in the force and on loan to other forces.
“I’d been friends with Russ Cartledge who was a custody sergeant at the time and he told me about the new role so I interviewed and got it. I was very lucky. It was very, very good and I enjoyed it. There was a lot of ‘mutual aid’ work with other forces where I got to attend festivals and things.”
