You walk up the garden path, bang on the door loudly and call out "police open up now" you dont know why your bothering, there not going to be there, this is the 5th house this morning and all you've done is annoy neighbours and new home owners by waking them up.

You glance at your watch, 08:30 - nearly time for teabreak, the adrenaline has gone now, 4 no traces and this one dont look any better, you bang on the door again.

The door opens, a middle age woman opens the door, we start pushing our way past "is matthew here?", the womans just woke up, doesnt seem to contemplate whats going on "I dont know, I dont think he came home last night" we dont take any notice and start looking around as someone else flashes a warrant, we walk into a downstairs bedroom "are you matthew?" he looks familiar but your not sure, you stared at the picture most of the way but your minds blank "no I'm his brother, I'll get my ID" as he starts to walk past you.

"Oh no you dont!" hands start grabbing out, he starts running, cuffs come out but noone can get a grip of an arm, other family members appear "what you doing? get off him!" he squeezes past and into the living room, battons are drawn, help comes running in from the outside.

He gets to the stairs and runs up, your hot behind him yet you look arround, you see a hand grab your leg as your going up the stairs, the hand suddenly disapears and you see a colleague with his baton in hand having just struck the person going for you, momentarily you think how badly you could have been injured being pulled down the stairs if it wasnt for your colleague, but theres no time to evey say thank you, your at the top of the stairs now he has gone in the bedroom.

You go to follow but stop at the doorway, what if he has a weapon hidden in the room? he has the advantage now. Other officers are already at your side, CS is drawn, "matthew we're coming in, dont try anything or you'll get sprayed" we enter, the room is empty! where has he gone? thats when you notice the open window. "his done a runner! everyone out quick" what happened to the officers outside? then you remember, they are the ones who came in to help.

The radios now buzzing, you do a quick search of the garden & surrounding area, no sight of him, 20 other units are now on scene, dog units are on the way and the helicopter has taken off. You frantically start thinking where he could have gone, local unit spots him running across a railway and had to break off as they couldnt persue across the lines, your running faster than you could think was possible with all this gear, you find the railway and a crossing bridge, your across and again just as lost, he could be anywhere.

You hear dogs barking in the background, the helicoper is circling overhead, your checking every bush and hiding place but theres no sign of him. Then you hear it "suspect detained in pub carpark" you run to the pub, his on the floor cuffed, units all arround, you can relax now his been caught, 2 officers load him into a van after paramedics check him out, the last car leaves the car park and your left with 3 other officers, you start to make your way back to your van and thats the worst part, adrenaline has worn off again, tiredness has hit you and your left with a 10min walk back to your van.

Is visible policing really such a good thing?

Public reasurance is very high on todays agenda but by reasuring public are more people getting away with crime?

I was on foot patrol once, donned in the finest yellow high visibility jacket with 2 other pc's wearing similar atire. We hear an I grade call come up which happens to be down the road of someone acting suspiciously next to an cash machine so we trundle off to assist. We are about 3-400 yards away and we can see someone wearing a black & red checked shirt acting weird (cop instinct, he was just standing in such a place and way that it was obvious he wasnt waiting for anyone/anything) anyway he turns round and sees us so runs off, we're still a fair way off and his not done anything we've seen so we let him run. We get to the cash point, no sign of any modifications and nothing else of interest for us, we have a quick scout for the man in the black & red checks but no sign so we get back on foot patrol.

We're 1/2 way back to the station now and we get aproached by an elderly lady, she calls us over and tells us she had just been to the station to report her handbag being snatched earlier and just wants us to keep an eye out for the person who snatched it... yep a guy in a black and red checked shirt.

Now if we where less "noticable" could this have all ended differently? Maybe we would have got to speak to him, maybe he would have given cause for a search / arrest and maybe he was the mugger of this elderly lady.

Sure its a lot of maybes but one thing is deffinate, while we walk arround looking like we have been through a nuclear reactor anyone who has the smallest thing to hide will see us a mile off and be long gone.

Now it may be nice having police officers stand out whilst they are walking arround your neighbour hood sending all the pondlife running off but they arent there all the time (I count once a month outside my house) and I would be much more reassured if the police started wearing complete ninja gear and able to sneak up on the scum, least that way theres a chance of them being caught and having them off the street for a longer time.

Adios to Semper FI, shame to see you go your blog was definately a legend!

I've also added a few extra links to other blogs to make up for the removal of Semper FI.

Does anyone know whats happened to 200weeks? or poilce999.com in general? Have just been getting database errors for weeks now.

Why is it that people insist on "acting hard" when speaking to police? it gets you absolutely nowhere.

Swearing is obviously a big no-no and will see you issued with a PND for Section 5 in no time at all but cockyness & general stupidty wont help you either.

The last car I pulled over on the ANPR op was a simple no seat belt job, now normally last job of the day you wanna keep as simple as possible as no doubt you already have a heap of paperwork to do anyway.

I pull him over and do the usual.

Vic> So do you know why I pulled you over?
Mop> No
Vic> Your not wearing a seat belt.
Mop> So? How you gunna prove it.
Vic> erm... you just drove past about 20 different yellow jackets and I know at least 3 other PC's see you without a seatbelt.
Mop> Still dont prove nothing, go find a real criminal.
Vic> Heres your ticket, feel free to take it to court if you wanna see how I prove it.

Now the result of that senario is the driver having to cough up £30 and having to go through the trouble of producing his docs yet if he had simply done a simple "oh I'm sorry" it would more likely have ended with a simple lecture on scraping people off the road and on your way.

On a slightly unconnected note though is those MOP's who are brought up the right way and naturally polite are spooky sometimes, its amazing how many people said thank you after having their car seized.

Had a nice day today on an ANPR operation.

Was really a nice crew made up with Specials, Traffic, PCSO's, Baliffs, Imigration & DVLA.

Admitedly it is the first time I've worked with PCSO's on an operation and total respect to them all they where great. Saved us a lot of time by doing PNC checks while we would hastle driver & do our paperwork.

Was a big success with over 10 vehicles seized for either no insurance or outstanding fines. 2 arrests & a variety of tickets and bollockings issued.

Quite a bit of comedy as well like a 6' 5" person hiding in a bush and the guy in a brand new convertible having it seized for £3,000 outstanding parking fines (he must pay full ammount to get it back and now a storage charge each night he dont pay) but funniest point of the day, a fail to stop followed by the screaching of a traffic car flying out of a side street to chase then 20 people jumping on the radio screaming "your going the wrong way" ;-)

So all in all a very worthwhile day and a lot of people for a variety of backgrounds in law enforcement working together, have already put my name down for the next one.

I got a loverly email today nicely telling me that I have not completed my compulsary online training on using the forces computers.

Now I've received reminders about compulsary training before and as required of me attended. Now some I've enjoyed, some I havent, but its required so I do it without a fuss... except this one...

I have been police staff for 4 years, I use forces computers 8-9 hours a day, 5 days a week. I have access to more "secure" applications than most Special Inspectors yet am told that I must do training which tells me that I cant look at porn, spam people or download MP3's.

When I pointed out I am police staff I was simply asked "well when did you do the training as police staff?" when I joined there was no fancy online training for using a computer I got a loverly policy book which rivaled the yellow pages and a 5min intro on how to load your email.

This training is split into basic usage and policy, firstly what is the point in making a computer based training package on how to use a computer? kind of like putting the opening instructions on the inside of a box. As for the policy side personally if you dont know you shouldnt be looking at porn at work you deserve everything you should get.

I wonder what the next training package will be? How to breathe? or why it is bad to hit yourself with a batton.