You can’t beat a good joke

Oct 16 2007 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

By the time he joined Liverpool police full-time, the changes were beginning, which would lead to the modern force.

But Jim, 65, remembers his days as a beat bobby.

“You would check the shop doors and walk up and down the back-entries,” he says. “Sometimes I would go out on a bike. It was a great way of getting around. You could get into places off the beaten track. There were no bullet-proof vests then or these long batons. We just had a short baton which we used to keep in the pocket on the right hand side.

“To be honest, I don’t think you can police 100% effectively without there being a bobby-on-the-beat. The whole concept of traditional policing was by consent. To have the consent, you have to have the public’s co-operation and to get their co-operation you need their respect and to get the respect you need contact.

“The idea is that you work the beat and get to know everyone. I liken it to the school yard, if there was no teacher there during break-time, the children would go wild.

“If there is no police presence on the beats, then the thugs and the yobs and the louts will tend to take control of the streets.

“I think the police uniform has a sobering and a calming influence. I remember a drunk swaying all over the place up the street, but when he saw me he stood bolt upright and walked in a straight line as though he was totally sober.”

Jim believes that some of the shootings which have blighted neighbourhoods would not have happened if the old beat bobbies had been there. If they had happened, the culprits would have been caught.

“The neighbourhood policeman would be given snippets of information useful to the CID,” he says.

“The beat bobby was the eyes and the ears of the CID.”

Jim has also written a biography about Frankie Vaughan, Memories of Mr Moonlight.

* HUMOUR on the Beat, by Jim Finn, is published by Countyvise, at £5.

davidcharters@dailypost.co.uk