Guernsey Police – here to keep everyone safe

‘Wish I was in that one,’ I thought, as the police car in which I was passenger got out of the way so its counterpart could nip by.

But our driver was focused on a different route and we were following a St John Emergency Service ambulance as it headed for the hospital.

It was not actually an emergency, but the ambulance had been called to pick up a man whose behaviour had caused PC Alastair Bulpitt, our driver, some concern.

PC Bulpitt has a well-known relative in the island who was heavily involved in the local scouts and that probably explained why his previous job had been running the Scout Headquarters at Rue Mainguy.

His partner on this drive was PC Tom Wright, an officer who had completed his period of being tutored and was now working alone.

His eye was on the driver’s seat, though, and he said that he planned to put in for the relevant training, which would let him take the wheel of one of the Echo cars – police vehicles in which drivers are not permitted to break the speed limit.

Emergency services personnel dislike the ‘q-word’, as they call it, but it was fair to say that the curse of having someone observing led to our four-hour patrol being rather quiet.

During the in-car conversation, PC Bulpitt mentioned how a lot of the job these days was dealing with people with mental health issues, and coincidentally our second assignment of the afternoon involved someone experiencing such an issue.

The call from JESCC directed us to a man who PC Bulpitt had dealt with before and on this occasion he had said something which had concerned a carer who had seen him earlier in the day, suggesting that he was feeling in a low mood and might end up hurting someone.

It was decided to pay the man a visit to ensure that he was no risk and on arriving at his flat, PCs Bulpitt and Wright knocked on his door.

There was no response, even after several attempts and a call through the letter box, but the door was eventually opened after JESCC staff phoned the man and told him that police officers wanted to talk to him.

He told them that he was scared to have someone knocking on his door and so had not answered.

Photographer Peter and I kept out of sight while the officers spent several minutes talking to the man, but because I’d been loaned one of the police radio handsets I was able to hear their report back to JESCC.

They decided that it would be best if he saw a psychiatrist at the PEH and this would need a ride up to the Emergency Department.

An ambulance was duly summoned and PC Wright joined the man in the back, as we followed.

PC Bulpitt had said that this job might have seen them spending a while with the man at the PEH while waiting for the psychiatrist, but fortunately a nurse on duty knew the patient and was able to ensure he stayed calm while waiting for the specialist to arrive.

That freed the two officers to head back onto the roads, at exactly the moment that JESCC called to say there’d been reports of a domestic disturbance at a property in St Martin’s.

Again, PC Bulpitt was aware of those involved, and on this occasion it took him and PC Wright into neighbouring homes to offer words of advice in order to defuse the situation which turned out to be the latest in a series of disputes between neighbours.

The case was another example of how a police officer’s job in this island is as much about dealing with people having day-to-day problems as it is arresting criminals – and all about keeping everyone safe.

Don’t miss: Part three tomorrow

n To find out more about joining the police visit gov.gg/policejobs. The deadline for applications is 9 December.