Red face and all, you find the house.

It’s a lovely day and you are crewed with a seasoned Officer for the first couple of hours of the shift. As you are sat in the briefing room a call comes through that there has been a RTC (Road Traffic Collision) on a main road.

You and your colleague blue light it to the scene along with another unit. Two and half hours later you are still stood with the patrol car blocking the entrance so that the carnage can be cleared up. Having close to heated exchangers with drivers, one went something like this:

Driver: ‘Can I get through here kid?’
Joe 90: ‘No mate, there has been a road traffic accident, the road is blocked.’
Driver: ‘Come on, I’ve got to get to work, it’s getting late!’
Joe 90: ‘I’m sorry sir, but I’ve got my orders to keep this road vacant, please turn around and go another way.’
Driver: ‘That’s easy for you to say, you’re at work already. I pay your wages!’
Joe 90 (under breath): ‘No you don’t you idiot, I’m a Special case and I bet you dodge your taxes anyway! Plus, you most likely haven’t noticed, it’s raining and I’m getting wet. So yes, I am at work already, and I just love my job!’.

With his last remark he engages his car in reverse gear and drives off, a sweet exchange at 8 O’clock in a morning, just what you need.

Next job is an alarm call; blue lights go on, through the traffic, the feelings great every time this happens. You get there all ready to go, ready to arrest, tag and bag as it were and you find out that the Secretary has set the alarm off, great! She’s sorry, don’t worry dear that’s alright, just remember the code next time.

You go back to the station and get crewed up with another PC; he’s a probationer and seems to be at ease with himself. You are going to affect an arrest for a GBH, the PC you are with has done the entire file on his own, good lad. You turn up at the guy’s house to arrest him, but guess what? He’s not there, he’s at work. His mother, who you thought was his sister (she liked that), says he will be back after his shift has done.

You make your way back to the car and get handed a Burglary job, on a local estate. As you arrive, you notice that the street is there, no problem. But the house number seems to be a miss, the street starts at 21 and the house number is 16, interesting. After conversing with several members of the public, a shop keeper and a bill board with Scarlett Johansson on it, red face and all, you find the house.

As you and your partner are on your way back from this burglary you get a call from a colleague, he thinks the man he is with might start to get violent. You arrive at the scene and all is well, an ambulance is on its way, so no harm and no foul. You stand out in the rain waiting to direct the ambulance, no helmet, no hood and a fleece that soaks up water like a sponge, brilliant.

The last job of the shift is a burglary, you won’t go into details about this one, but to say the least it wasn’t nice. Three young lads have preyed on an old woman who can only just walk, you can’t believe why they would, how they could be so cowardly. You know they’ll never be caught and even if they were, this country’s pathetic excuse for a justice system would give them a slap on the wrist. You leave the scene having done everything you can, wishing you could do more.

On your way home you start to think about the last call you went too, it’s going to play on your mind for a bit. Could you have done more?

All in all, it was the best shift you have done, the young probationer you worked with was brilliant, and given the chance to work with him again you would, you’d jump at the chance.