I was employed as a custody assistant by a security company
called Really Secure Ltd in their custodial services division with the sole
purpose of manning the “Custody Bus” on behalf of Frumpshire County
Constabulary.
The “Custody Bus” is in fact a Mobile Police Station
which in simple terms is a Police station on wheels.
Basically, it’s a 7.5 ton long wheel base truck that
was previously used as a 14 cell prisoner transport vehicle now converted into
a Mobile Police station.
The “Bus” comprises a galley area, two interview
rooms, the Sergeant’s office or bridge, four cells and a toilet.
You entered the “Bus” by a door just behind the cab
on the passenger side of the vehicle and immediately on your left as you step
inside was the galley which had a hot water heater for making hot drinks, a
microwave for heating prisoners’ meals, a sink with cupboard beneath for
storage and a fridge for keeping the staffs sandwiches cool.
Straight ahead and to the left was the small
interview room equipment for full tape interview and would seat three but
normally it was used for finger printing and for the officers to write up their
notes.
The seats had hinged tops and doubled up as storage
lockers much like on a caravan.
Turning 90 degrees you would now be facing the rear
of the vehicle looking down a short corridor.
Behind you in the corner was the property cupboard
and on your left was a fold down seat, where the prisoner sat, on your right
was the Sgt's Bridge which was kitted out with the usual office equipment as
well as satellite communication and CCTV monitors covering all the common
areas.
Halfway down the corridor on your right was the
larger interview room also equipped for full tape interviews and seating four
people.
Going to the end of the corridor and turning right
took you into another which led to the back of the vehicle and an exit door.
On your right were three cells, very basic the
prisoner could only sit on the fitted chair and do nothing else on the left was
another cell and the toilet.
The toilet was fairly unremarkable and is again
borrowed from the world of caravanning with a toilet and a folding wash basin,
if you needed to sit down it was best to be facing the direction you required
when entering as there was no room to turn round once you were in, also there
was no handle on the inside, so you needed someone outside to let you out when
you were done.
Now all this sounds quite well thought out and, in
some areas, quite hi-tech and sophisticated well nothing could be further from
the truth.
Though much of the design was indeed well conceived
there was still much of the finished article that just didn’t pass muster.
Ill-fitting doors, leaky roof, damp under the floor
covering, the locks didn’t lock, the lights didn’t light, the heaters didn’t
heat and because the electrics were so inadequate you always needed to switch
one thing off before switching something else on.
It was a sweatbox in the summer and an icebox in
winter.
Frumpshire county constabulary had two prisoner
transports converted and in truth after 12 months use you couldn’t make one
good one out of the two.
All that being said it was a very useful and
effective tool when used in the right situation and location.
There are limitations to its use though as they can’t
take drunks or fighters or drink drivers.
The “Bus” in order to be able to take on prisoners
had to be manned by a Custody Sergeant and in addition was crewed by either two
or three Custody Assistants depending on how much money “Really Secure” wanted
to squeeze out of the Police.
Sgt Dick Lupus was the man who headed to project
from conception up to and including the abortion it became. He bore a striking
resemblance to Capt Mainwaring from Dads Army without any of his humor.
He was a miserable man to work with and the only
thing to his credit was he kept himself in his little office most of the time
and would say less than a dozen words to us in a ten-hour shift.
But if a female member of the public came within ten
yards of the vehicle, he was outside like he’d been shot from a gun.
If it was one man or one of the long procession of
eccentrics and nutters that came knocking at the door he stayed in his little
cupboard.
They nutters weren’t of the dangerous variety just a
little odd for example on one occasion when were working on “B Division” a man
knocked on the door and said “is this a museum”? and walked away.
That was fairly typical then an hour later he came back
and said, “In the
land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.”
As time went on, we saw less and less of Capt
Mainwaring as he was already eyeing his next promotion as he clambered up the
greasy pole.
Our regular Sgt was Tom Young and he was a top man who
none of us could find fault with.
We had a few other Sgts that would be on board for
specific operations or holiday cover but more often than not it was Tom.
The “Really Secure” staff comprised of a pool of six
Custody Assistants three designated on each vehicle, A & B and a Custody
Supervisor.
Our base of operations was at Tipping Down, where
the County police had their vehicle depot for maintenance and repairs, and we
had the use of one corner of the yard.
There was space for the two wagons, and we had a
little shed where the drinks, stationary, etc were stored.
We worked a 4 on 4 off system so when one crew was
working the other one was on rest days.
The Custody Supervisor was Terry McGuire a little
man, ex army, with two years experience of custody and a squeaky voice like
Alan Ball.
I still don’t quite understand how it was he got
promoted to Supervisor because he wasn’t equipped for the task.
He had no administration skills whatsoever he had no
idea how to speak to people he would change a rest day to a deployment without
consulting the individual first and His computer skills left a lot to be
desired he would email out the Rota’s to staff and forget to attach the Rota.
On one occasion we had to drop one of the vehicles
to the police HQ for the day so that the police cadets could have use of it as
part of there training.
So, we arranged to meet at the yard that morning and
I followed Terry in my car to the HQ and wait for him to park the wagon then I
drove him back to the yard to his car. We then make arrangement for the
collection of the bus that afternoon.
“I will meet you here at five o’clock unless I hear
from you” I said “ok” he squeaked back.
Have heard nothing from him all day I duly drove
back to the yard, with two of my sons on board because they wanted to see where
I worked, I drove into the yard and made my way over to our corner and I said
“the truck on the left is the one I was working on yesterday and the other one
id the one we dropped at HQ this morning”
Then it struck me that it should still be at HQ.
I picked up my mobile and dialled his number “hello”
he squeaked “Hi Terry its Harry here. I’m sitting in the yard looking at the
wagon that’s supposed to be at HQ” I said gruffly, there was a pause “He, He,
He, sorry about that I forgot to call you”.
I would like to say that it was an isolated example
of his incompetence, but it was not.
Countless times he was supposed to meet us at deployments,
but he didn’t turn up.
He was also crap at disciplining people because he
never did it because he had no bottle and on the one and only occasion that he
was ordered by his boss he Disciplined the wrong person and got shouted at, and
when you shouted at him which I admit I did more than once he just stood there
staring at his feet shuffling uneasily like a naughty schoolboy.
Then there was his sense of direction, he didn’t
have one, he was always getting lost even when he was going somewhere, he’d
been countless times before he was so back, he almost needed a Sat Nav to get
from one end of the bus to the other.
The really funny thing about him was the way he
responded to women.
when we were on traffic operation we were very often
deployed in layby’s and very often we would have members of the public coming
up to us with queries, mainly for directions but not always and if it was a man,
he adopted his “we have more important things to do than listen to you” stance
but if it was a female of childbearing age he was al over them like a rash.
It was really funny if they wanted directions
because he could find his arse with both hands and he had to come and ask us
which just made him look silly.
When WPC Karen Winters brought a prisoner to the bus,
he positioned himself in the doorway of the small interview room directly
behind her and playing
pocket pinball with a very red face and if the prisoner was a man he acted all
tough and talked down to them like they were shit but if it was a girl every
other word was please and thank you and he rubbed his gloved hands together
like Uriah Heep.
The crew on “Custody Bus” “A” comprised of Gary who
was on the upper reaches of middle age as was known to one and all as “Bogger”
because of his tendency to hang around ladies toilets which was what got him
chucked out the RAF.
Graham was a young man who had only recently left
the army, where he was a driver, when he joined “Really Secure”.
His nick name was “pie man” because he ate
everything in sight, he was always eating, pies, crisps, the prisoner’s meals
anything he could get his hands on.
He would stand next to you while you were eating
just in case you left something.
I always thought he was asked to leave the army because
they couldn’t afford to feed him.
The last man, who’s age was somewhere in between the
other two, was Steve.
We called him “Mimi” because he was so keen, he
volunteered for everything. “Me sir, Pick me sir”.
He was also a fully paid up, card carrying, happy clappy, Cardigan wearing Christian
who wanted to counsel everyone and to give them comfort and his qualifications
for this good work being that he’d been an M.O.D. cook for twenty years.
Quite
how he thought twenty years of lobbing pie, chips and peas across the counter
at ungrateful recipients qualified him for his good works I don’t know, I never
quite grasped his logic.
So, he was always left to look after the prisoners
needs, physical and spiritual, while the others played cards.
He thought he was doing something really worth while
and helping people less fortunate than himself, they just thought he was a
twat.
On “Bus” “B” was Ray totally laid back, liked a
laugh, liked his football and liked women, the latter so much so he married
five of them.
Next was Kenny nicknamed “Morse” because of his
occasional stuttering, he only did it when he was either nervous or he was in
close proximity to WPC Winters. Then finally myself, Bob, 6ft 4”, 18 stones,
mild mannered, middle aged, and married known simply as “Big Fella”.
We stayed mainly on our designated vehicle but there
was some crossover for sickness, holiday cover or swapped shifts.
Also, on larger operations both vehicles were
deployed and parked back to back to double capacity and double crews.
Our shift always began at the yard where we would
prep the vehicle this involved filling the water tank, emptying the toilet,
emptying bins, sweeping out, mopping out, restocking drinks stationary etc and
the normal vehicle inspection, light oil and so on.
Then we would head off to the deployment wherever
that might be we very rarely knew until the day where we were going.
Once we arrive at the location, we fired up the on-board
generator, deployed the satellite, wound down the stabilizer legs and then made
the drinks.
Then we just waited. We did crosswords, sodukus,
read, listened to the radio, played cards, or dosed off.
Oh, and dealt with the local eccentrics, when on “C
division” turf we had a retired assistant chief constable from the met who now
spent his days walking the dog and annoying people. He obviously spent some
time on the net because he always had some pearl of wisdom He would walk
briskly up to his unsuspecting victim and say something like “A theory is better than an explanation” or
“All great discoveries are made by mistake” or “Nobody notices when things go
right” then he would march briskly off again.
Such was the exiting world of mobile custody.
I had to cover on the “A” vehicle for a few days and
we were sitting, Gary and I, at the roadside one afternoon in a layby close to
the M25 it was a really hot day and I said “god you can really smell the piss
from those bushes today”
Gary didn’t say anything he just carried on reading
his paper, so I went back to my crossword.
Ten minutes later Gary said, “do you want a drink?”
“Coffee please” I replied, and he got out the cab.
Then I realized I couldn’t smell the piss anymore.
Ray and I were driving through Dowdyford one morning
approaching a particularly ill designed roundabout when we heard a siren as we
turned onto the roundabout, we caught site of a paramedic car on the nearside,
Ray slowed down in order that it could pass us and it duly did so Ray
accelerated towards our exit when the car turned across the front of us heading
for the exit on our right so we hit it broadside.
The fact that a Collision occurred between a police
vehicle and an ambulance attracted another six vehicles from the emergency
services.
Which tied us up for about an hour and a half then
we had to get the vehicle lights replaced which took another two hours which
meant we were only on deployment for three hours that day.
We were used on a wide range of deployments such as
events where large crowds were expected such as horse race meetings, football
matches and open air concerts.
The football was a bit of a drag but racing and the
concerts were ok especially if it was a nice day because there was always something
nice to look at if you get my meaning.
We also supported the drug search team who used
passive and active dogs in the cues inside and outside nightclubs this was not
a good deployment as we didn’t finish until 3am and there was always an endless
stream of drunks going by and we took bets on how many times we would be mooned
by some drunken slapper.
We worked with the drug dogs at prisons and
detention centers and we also worked with the team that served warrants at the
crack of dawn.
But Mobile custody was typically used as part of the
ANPR team and 9 out of 10 deployments were with them, ANPR stands for Automatic
Number Plate Recognition.
The team consisted of the ANPR van equipped with
four cameras and an operator, one Vauxhall Vectra police car and four or five
police motorbikes.
The van would be parked on either a central
reservation of a dual carriage way or at the side of an “A” road with a camera
aimed at each carriageway covering the traffic in both directions.
The bikes and car would be positioned at either end
of the designated stretch of road as stoppers.
If a vehicle went passed the van the camera would
read the number plate and simultaneously check that number on various
databases.
If the car had no tax, no insurance, no registered
owner, had been used in a crime, or was linked to a crime an alarm sounded, a
different alarm depending on the seriousness of the offence, and one f the
stoppers would pull the vehicle over.
Then if the driver or a passenger had committed an
arrestable offence they were taken to the “Custody Bus”.
All though many of our deployments were in layby's
not all of our locations were bleak or baron there were some nice ones as well.
One in particular was by at what was known locally
as the pleasure gardens which was by the river in the car park of a café, the
site was popular with dog walkers and there was a very well equipped play area
for parents to bring the kids and they had the café for drinks and ice creams.
There was also a proper toilet block which meant we
didn’t need to struggle with the one on board and we could get a hot meal in
the café.
Until the day disaster struck.
I had taken a day's leave and returned to duty on
what was the second consecutive day at the pleasure gardens to find we could no
longer safely use the café.
This was nothing to do with public safety the
building was not unsafe nor was it a public health hazard, the reason was that
one of the ANPR team had foolishly the night before arrested the café owner for
driving while disqualified.
We could now not safely purchase a burger or
sandwich just in case there might be an addition ingredient in the relish.
When
the prisoner or detained person arrived at Mobile Custody they were seated in
front of the Sgt while the arresting officer,
who stands on the prisoner’s right between them and the exit, relates the
circumstances of the alleged offence and subsequent arrest.
Once
that has been done the prisoner gives
his name which is checked on PNC (Police National Computer).
The PNC check gave invaluable information such as
patterns of behavior whether they could be violent of suicidal or just
troublemakers.
If there is any doubt that the prisoner is giving
false details, he is taken directly to a static Custody center where they can
be “live scanned”.
Live scan is a system where the prisoner places
his/her hand on the glass screen where it is scanned and compared to the fingerprint
data base which in seconds gives the prisoners true identity.
Normally the threat of live scan is sufficient for
the prisoner to co-operate and give the correct details.
Once all the details have been taken and the Sgt is
satisfied that a crime has been committed, he says to the prisoner “I am
authorizing your detention for the purposes of gathering evidence by
questioning about the alleged offence”
Then the prisoner emptied his pockets and was
searched by the custody assistant who stands on the prisoners left wearing ill
fitting blue latex gloves.
On a midget like Terry McGuire they reached halfway
up his forearms like Marigold kitchen gloves but on me because I have hands
like shovels they didn’t reach my wrists and the fingers only reached my
knuckles it looked like I had webbed fingers.
If it was a female prisoner, they have to be
searched by a WPC and there was always a female officer available.
Once all the property had been taken from the
prisoner including all jewelry and their belt it was all placed in a property
bag, sealed and locked in the property cupboard.
Then they were taken to a cell and offered
refreshments.
Then after five or ten minutes the prisoner was
taken from the cell to an interview room and interview on tape by the arresting
officer.
After interview they were returned to a cell while
the investigation continued, all the time they were in the cell they were
constantly monitored to see that all was well.
When all the checks had been made the prisoner was
taken from his cell and had their photo taken at the end of the corridor
complete with a hand written card containing there name, date of birth, date of
arrest and custody number.
Then to the smaller interview room for
fingerprinting and DNA sample unless they had been arrested before and were DNA
confirmed.
Fingerprinting in the little I.V. room wasn’t easy
at the best of times but was virtually impossible in your prisoner was
uncooperative.
One day the PNC check revealed that they prisoner
had a history of playing up and didn’t like having his prints taken.
“There’s a warning about this one” Sgt Young said.
“What for Serge?” I asked
“Doesn’t like being printed” he replied
Terry piped up “No problem I’ll do him I know how to
handle troublemakers”
He set up the fingerprinting kit in readiness and
squeaked out an order to fetch the prisoner.
I duly retrieved the prisoner and motioned him up
the corridor.
“This should be fun” he whispered to me and winked.
He had obviously overheard Terry bragging about how
he could handle him.
He walked up the corridor and entered the little
room and Terry followed him in and closed the door.
I filled Tom Young in on what the prisoner had said,
and he made sure everyone on the team who was not otherwise engaged reported to
the “bus”.
I could tell by the look on his face he wasn’t
expecting trouble.
There were six of us crammed on the bus, me, Tom
Young, Ray, Karen and Kenny, when the door opened, and the prisoner walked out
smiling.
“Take him back to his cell” he said squeakily.
I did as I was asked and walked back up the corridor
to find Terry explaining to the assembled group.
“I told you I knew how to take care of troublemakers
you just have to show them whose boss”
He then proudly turned on his heels and stepped back
into the little room and saw the back of his pristine white shirt had ten or
more large black handprints and written in 4” high letters across the yolk of
his shirt was the word TWAT.
We were all biting our lips not to laugh and then
Karen let out a snigger and Terry turned round.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing” Tom said “Nothing at all” as we all rushed
to get off the bus so we could fall about laughing.
One day we were working ANPR on the Dowdyford bypass
when one of the stoppers had a “make off”.
What happened was the bike pulled over a suspected
disqualified driver and as soon as the officer dismounted and took off his
helmet the car made off it later turned out the driver was wanted on warrant as
well.
A pursuit followed and the rest of the team set up a
trap to use the stinger but because you have to have an inspector or above to
approve deployment of the stinger by the time permission came through the
driver had already passed the trap.
Then he took a wrong turn and came past the custody
bus doing 60 in a 30 but the road we were on dead ended at the abattoir.
The driver decanted the vehicle and ran into the
abattoir and was soon detained but not before he went headfirst into a pile of
cow shit.
There was some delay before we got to see him as
none of the area cars wanted to take him because of the smell and what was
dripping off him.
When he eventually arrived at Mobile Custody I was out
side waiting when the van pulled up and the first sight I got of him was from
the back and all I could see was a white t-shirt and blue jeans then he turned
around and he was covered from head to toe in shit and straw.
We didn’t keep him on board for long we set a new
record for booking and processing that day 18 minutes from the time he set foot
on board to when he was transferred to court.
Mind you the smell he brought with him lingered for
days.
Ray was driving and I was on the phone getting
direction for the deployment that day when Ray’s phone started ringing.
He had a hands-free earpiece in but the wire got
caught in his seat belt and the ear piece fell out so he unplugged it and put
the phone to his ear.
Just then a disgruntled member of the public overtook
us and then dropped back only to appear again along side us this time aiming
his camera phone at Ray then speeding off.
When we arrived at the deployment we set up and Sgt
Young fired up his PC.
Ten minutes later Tom Young stepped off the vehicle
and came over to us.
“Consider yourself bollocked Raymond” he said
“Why what have I done?” Ray asked
“A public-spirited member of public emailed a photo
of you driving while using your mobile to the Chief Constable” Tom explained.
“Bastard” Ray responded.
I worked with a good bunch of people, police and
civvies and met a lot of others on various ops and there were some complete
bastards as well In fact The police officers I worked with were the same mix of
saints, sinners, happy go luckies, manic depressives, faithful spouses,
womanizers, Hetro,s, homo,s, single’s, divorsees, crumpet hounds and letches as
in every other walk of life.
I met WPC Anna Cooper on an op in “K division” and
she was a really nice girl and looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth
then I found out her nick name was Anaglypta because you could always have her
against the wall.
PC Dick Scholes said that when he was living in the
section house, he only ever had sex with a WPC if he was too tired to wank.
The first time I met him he was holding court over a
mixed group of Police of all rank’s superintendent and below and civilians, I
later found out he called his sessions with an audience “Tales from a hairy chimp” for reasons best
no to someone other than me because he didn’t have a hair on his head.
Anyway,
when I first met him he was just
coming to the end of a joke.
“Because
your brother wanted a mountain bike” and as
I found to be the usual outcome his audience fell about crying with laughter.
We did have some good laughs on that job and when we
had a lot of customers it was quite interesting work.
The downside was you could easily go three 10 hour
shifts in a row without even the sniff of a prisoner and ten hours can seem
like an eternity when you’re sat on the roadside even on a bright summer day
it’s even longer on a cold dark winter’s night.
There are only so many sudoku’s you can do and only
so many books you can read before your thoughts turn to new horizons.
