national PCSOs

falkor: hello daniel

falkor: how are ya?

falkor: how you doing?

danielswindells: not too bad thanks, a bit sleepy today trying to catch up after I've been working hard for 2 weeks

falkor: this is your first day off for a while is it?

danielswindells: well my first full day off free for myself yeah, I've been busy doing other things on my time off

falkor: what have you been doing then?

danielswindells: oh well playing football with my mates, going out with my girlfriend, stuff like that

falkor: you're living life to the full you are!

danielswindells: [laughing] well trying to

falkor: what does your girlfriend do?

danielswindells: she's an aupair actually, as I mentioned on the website, she's a croation - I met her in Starbucks in Romford one day after we were talking online and we were both going over to Romford, so we decided to meet up and things carried on from there

falkor: how long ago was that?

danielswindells: just over 3 weeks ago

falkor: you lucky chap

danielswindells: yeah still in our honeymoon stage as they say

falkor: what's the football thing then, do you play that a lot do you?

danielswindells: well I try to. I'm not particularly good, but you do what you enjoy and that's the main thing I think

falkor: and you also mentioned on the website, that you were learning to play the guitar

danielswindells: yes and I'm still in the early stages of that - I've been interested in the guitar for 6, 7 years now - I didn't get into music until late on in my young life - I thought well I've had a guitar for a long time, I might as well start trying to learn it - I'm interested mainly in rock music

falkor: so what can you play on it so far?

danielswindells: at the moment just the basics, it's hard trying to squeeze some time in, to learn these things

falkor: it's the only way to be, IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO BE

danielswindells: I'm learning to drive at the moment as well and I'm trying to find a date for my next test

falkor: you gotta do it, YOU GOTTA DO IT!

danielswindells: yeah well I'm not going to give up, I might have failed several times, but I'm not going to give up

falkor: what sort of rock music are we talking about anyway? Led Zepellin?

danielswindells: well I do like some of the old classic stuff as well, but quite a lot of the new stuff like Green Day - Queens of the Stoneage things along those lines

falkor: I've never heard of any of that

danielswindells: [laughing]

falkor: stairway to heaven?

danielswindells: yep that's not too bad, is that the sort of music you're into?

falkor: only the Rolf Harris cover version

danielswindells: yeah he did it with his wobble board

falkor: yeah I love all that

danielswindells: well "Rock and Roll" by Led Zepellin as well

falkor: wicked

danielswindells: I like to go and see these cover bands

falkor: why not?

danielswindells: some of them are quite good

falkor: I bet they are .... now have you had any CAKES lately?

danielswindells: cakes?

falkor: yeah CAKES

danielswindells: oh yeah I do like my cakes [laughing]

falkor: [laughing] you haven't said much about 'em lately - what's happening?

falkor: [laughing] you've gone quiet on that front for some reason

danielswindells: what talking about cakes?

falkor: yeah

danielswindells: well actually I was up Covent Garden yesterday with my girlfriend and they had an Irish food market, with all sorts of things, lots of free samples, it's like hogs' heaven

falkor: I bet yeah ... an IRISH one? I've never heard of an irish one, french market, german market yeah seen those, but never come across an Irish

danielswindells: well to be honest it was a bit of a put on, because a lot was english food and just because it was made in Ireland, they made a big deal out of it

falkor: did they?

danielswindells: yeah

falkor: did you buy anything?

danielswindells: yeah I bought some soda bread, a couple of different Irish cheeses

falkor: [interrupting] WAIT A MINUTE you don't like cheese!

danielswindells: oh it was for my Dad you know

falkor: oooooooooo you don't like cheese Daniel, I read that

danielswindells: yeah [laughing] but that's for my Dad, he likes his Irish food

danielswindells: and I also went and did a bit of shopping elsewhere, because y'know I like my sweets and I went into a shop in Covent Garden and got something unusual for my Dad, an edible scorpion

falkor: you got a SCORPION ?

danielswindells: yeah I've eaten all sorts of strange foods like scorpion ......

falkor: [interrupting] you can eat it?

danielswindells: [continuing] .... worms and that sort of thing

falkor: oh my god that sounds most bizarre

danielswindells: it is quite bizarre and expensive really

falkor: [puzzled] I'm not really clear on this - did you say that you bought a scorpion for your Dad?

danielswindells: yeah a scorpion, y'know when they present mosquitos in amber, things like that, well this one is edible done like a block of toffee made with orange, to make it look like amber and they basically put an edible scorpion in the middle

falkor: edible?

falkor: what's it made of then?

danielswindells: oh no it's a REAL SCORPION, they just detoxify it - place it within the middle of the toffee and you can eat it

falkor: is this for his birthday is it?

danielswindells: no this is just something that he wanted to try - my Dad's birthday isn't until November - he'll be 50 this year

falkor: just ahead of me - so what's your Dad do then?

danielswindells: oh Dad's a labourer and all sorts of things on the building site

falkor: so what did he think when you were a warehouse supervisor?

danielswindells: what did he think?

falkor: yeah was he quite happy with you doing that?

danielswindells: yeah it wasn't too bad

danielswindells: he's not against the police so to speak, but I think he's just one of these people who's just wary of them, so he was a bit funny about me joining the police as a PCSO initially

falkor: same as my Dad, yep same thing

danielswindells: yeah I mean he's coming round to the idea - I've had him trying on my hat and stuff like that

falkor: [laughing] have you?

danielswindells: yeah

falkor: [laughing]

danielswindells: I'm going on a corporate induction day tomorrow in Great Queen Street and I've been joking about trying to get him to come along as well - it should be interesting tomorrow

falkor: but why are you going?

danielswindells: sorry?

falkor: why are you going?

danielswindells: it's compulsory for all new MET employees or recruits

falkor: it's a course is it?

danielswindells: an induction day - introducing ourselves to various people - I'm not entirely clear what it is

falkor: oh this is just on your Borough is it?

danielswindells: no as far as I can make out, a lot of people on my 'Day One' and 'Day Two' and a lot of people from my training class they're going to be there as well - so that should be interesting

falkor: you're going to love that aren't you?

danielswindells: yeah a catch up and a free lunch, won't be too bad

falkor: yeah you got well used to going up to Hendon, stop off at the tube station for your breakfast

danielswindells: [laughing] yeah I've still got to do the finish up date in my diary, but I've been so busy lately

falkor: [sympathetic] you can't do everything can you?

danielswindells: no

danielswindells: the last two days that I've been at work, we had this conflict resolution course - still got two more days to go - and to be honest the person who was leading the course seemed to have an anger management problem HERSELF

falkor: [laughing] why's that?

danielswindells: [laughing] oh she just got quite snappy and there were 5 or 6 people who on several occasions FELL ASLEEP

falkor: [laughing]

danielswindells: and a few of us, unfortunately well I suppose we were a bit unprofessional, just started laughing at them and she kind of got annoyed

falkor: [laughing]

danielswindells: yeah and she was very snappy - y'know she was going through all these different things - various points about body language and my sergeant and 1 of the PCs - cause my whole safer neighbourhoods team went - when she mentioned body language, they just intentionally done things

falkor: [laughing]

danielswindells: as a woman my sergeant just sat there with her legs spread open and like folding their arms, scratching their chins ... all sorts of things - my sergeant doesn't believe in body language and she was intentionally doing things to annoy this person

falkor: [laughing] oooo I wish I'd have been there

danielswindells: and apart from myself and I probably shouldn't have done it, the rest of the team haven't told the leaders of the course what they do for a living, because if they did they might watch what they say and how they behave, I think she's getting quite annoyed the leader of the course

falkor: when you say they haven't told her what they do for a living - I don't understand that bit. Why wouldn't they know?

danielswindells: oh it's something within Newham - a company called "Conflict and Change"

falkor: oh you went in plain clothes?

danielswindells: yeah plain clothes and there's other people there, who are just doing it for themselves, there's one woman there who's doing this course because she wanted to become a life coach, there are other people there who have had problems with anger management and stuff like that and my sergeant is a member of this council and she put our team forward for this course but to be honest it's not very useful at the moment, because we've all done this kind of training before

falkor: I've heard about this 'life coach' business before y'know [scratching head]

danielswindells: yeah I'm not exactly sure what that is

falkor: yeah I have heard about somebody else being a 'life coach' before

danielswindells: what is it?

falkor: no idea!

danielswindells: well all the people there seem to be quite interesting - there's one guy there, he's had some quite serious problems - last year he had both his arms shattered and he had 3" removed out of 1 arm. Unfortunately his ex-girlfriend ... the boyfriend she was with at the time, ended up basically beating the crap out of him - stabbed him in the arms .. all sorts of things and a few months after that happened, the boyfriend murdered this bloke's ex girlfriend so of course he gets quite emotional talking about that

falkor: my god

danielswindells: he's an interesting person to talk to - some of the people have been through a lot

falkor: I think you should go back on that course again Daniel

danielswindells: oh yeah I will go back for 2 more days - as much as I make light of it (the first 2 days weren't particularly good to be honest) I've done all the training before and there's this woman who can't deliver the material very well

falkor: what's the total length of the course then?

danielswindells: 4 days two fridays and two saturdays, so the next one should be more practical

falkor: ok let's move on to some chat about the forums now - have you seen that new member ride4smilesjonny?

danielswindells: yeah I've seen the name ...

falkor: cause he's put a new thread on

danielswindells: well I've not been on for a day or two

falkor: about 'any persons' making an arrest

falkor: are you obliged to caution if you make an 'any person' arrest? he wants to know

danielswindells: well when I was on training, one of my trainers had been a PCSO for 2 years - well I asked this question as I was unsure myself and he said unless you're a PC you cannot give a caution, but I was under the impression that under the 'any person power' you were allowed to use the caution. I'm still a bit unclear on it to be honest

falkor: so if you look back on your four weeks training as a PCSO, this subject didn't actually come up generally speaking, it was only because you specifically raised this to your trainer otherwise they would never have mentioned it ?

danielswindells: that's right

danielswindells: the any person powers was an hour/ hour and a half lesson, they were just covering the arrest, the arrest powers

falkor: so they never put this over to your whole class about whether to caution on arrest at all?

danielswindells: as far as I can remember no and checking through my whites note at the time, it didn't mention the caution, the only reason that I know the caution is through a book I bought Blackstones Preparing for Police duty

falkor: [interrupting] ah you did the same as me, you went straight out and bought a book, that's exactly what I did! nice one

danielswindells: I thought if I ever needed to make an 'any person' arrest it would be best to use the caution, so I've got it written down inside one of my caps at work

falkor: so did you have any TPCSOs on your course then?

danielswindells: not on my course no, but there was a class next door to me with a TPCSO

falkor: you didn't fancy being a TPCSO yourself?

danielswindells: not really. The opportunity to work within the transport role did come up - they sent all the intakes a form asking if you would like to work within the transport role because there's a shortage, but it just didn't appeal to me

falkor: [interrupting] what DOES appeal to you?

danielswindells: well it might sound corny or cliched, but I wanted to get stuck into the community - y'know help people around there because there's a problem in the area that I've chosen to work, with unruly kids and kids dealing drugs, things like that

falkor: well you've been out on the streets for a couple of weeks now Daniel, have you got stuck into the community yet?

danielswindells: I have actually, well as much as I can - I've had a few days training here and there so it's been a bit inconsistent the time that I've spent on the street. There's this one group that's quite friendly with me and my partner, they're starting to get to know me now. We've stopped them several times so they're starting to get a bit annoyed at the same time as being friendly with us - there's this one small area on the sector that has trouble even in the few weeks that I've been there, the activity of the kids have calmed down quite a bit and the residents have noticed that and I've purposefully knocked on some doors of people that I know have had trouble and they've started talking to me

falkor: do you do a lot on your own or mostly double manned?

danielswindells: well at the moment it is double manned as I'm still getting used to the area - I haven't done a 'single' patrol yet

falkor: but when you look around on your station's ground, is there any PCSOs single patrolling?

danielswindells: there has been - there has been. The ward I work is quite a small ward within Newham.

danielswindells: they had a meeting at Chigwell Sports Club recently and one of the Ch Insps mentioned about the MET's default policy of single patrol - but my Sgt says, well she doesn't care what they say 'when it's dark we go double patrolling' if you're on bikes she wants you double patrolling and there's a few other 'types' of single patrolling as well "proximity patrolling" one on one side of the street, one on the other or walking slightly apart. There was another one which I didn't really like the sound of - you walk on the same side of the street but 10/ 20 yards apart, maybe a bit further but then it looks like you've had an argument

falkor: [laughing]

danielswindells: I didn't really like that idea too much, but at the moment I'm still trying to build up my confidence - it's quite interesting the work that I've been doing so far - next week I'm doing an event at a primary/ nursery school to connect with the parents, talk to the kids - that's my whole team

falkor: you're going down to a primary/ nursery school?

falkor: how old are the kids for that?

danielswindells: 3 - 9 and it'll be meetings with parents as well, not just with the kids - it's supposed to last for 2 days

falkor: sounds like you're really cracking on there Daniel

danielswindells: yeah sounds quite promising and there's events coming up at the local tube station as well - POLICE, Customs and Excise - Immigration, sniffer dogs - it's quite amusing how you see people walking up that station towards the sniffer dogs, see the sniffer dogs and they suddenly do a 180 degrees, walk away

falkor: and then they get stopped

danielswindells: well they get called back and stopped

falkor: of course yeah .... so ... how's the PSP going then?

in 2008, saves were made of 17 pages from national-pcsos, comprising 2006 - 2007 material GO TO MENU 17 Go to the first of 17 pages on pcsos-national, that records the acceleration of PCSOs to 16,000 personnel on the streets of England and Wales.

danielswindells: oh well I've been so busy lately I've barely touched it - I must have been one of the first people in the country to have it and I think that took all the excitement out of it - I got it about a week after it came out in America last year

falkor: so what games have you got for it?

danielswindells: burn out, street fighter,virtua tennis, twisted metal

falkor: [interrupting] TWISTED METAL ?

falkor: oh EXCELLENT I love that

danielswindells: oh the PSP version isn't particularly good to be honest - the reason I bought it first of all, was because there was only me and my friend from my other job who had a PSP but this one isn't very good

falkor: oh I didn't even know that you could get Twisted Metal on that

danielswindells: it's called 'Twisted Metal Head On' for the PSP

falkor: world tour on the playstation, do you remember in France going up the Eiffel Tower?

danielswindells: I only played it a little bit when it was on the playstation - I liked it the little bit I played on there

falkor: so what is good on the PSP then?

danielswindells: the games you mean? I like burn out because I do like racing games and I do like street fighter

danielswindells: street fighter is quite good - especially multi player y'know I do like fighting games - there are MAJOR games coming out this year

falkor: SUCH AS?

danielswindells: Spyhon Filter, more fighting games

falkor: but you can play all those on the playstation Daniel, what is the point of this PSP? why bother?

danielswindells: well it's just for the people who want to play Grand Theft Auto on the bus

falkor: [laughing]

danielswindells: stuff like that

falkor: [laughing] oh no I can see you doing that Daniel

danielswindells: yeah well I was a bit wary when I first got it, because some people didn't even know about it when I first got it in March last year - it's meant to be portable but I always played it at home or at work - rather than out on the street or on the bus - some people are just jealous - they'll take anything that's not nailed down

falkor: oh too right - anyway - you've done your time Daniel, you've done your twenty minutes, thanks very much for phoning

danielswindells: ok well you take care

falkor: been a pleasure

danielswindells: bye