Today I spent in an IRV as an operator (Incident Response Vehicle), this fine example of Met livered blue light and wailing siren beastie is basically the workhorse of the police.
IRV’s provide the majority of the initial response to a police call, (999) under the direction of the control room IRV’s are tasked incidents to respond to based not only on the location of the IRV to the incident but also mindful of the skill sets of the officers in the vehicle ensuring the best response to any incident makes best use of the skills in the police service.
As operator I was responsible for not only ensuring that any information given over our personal radios was noted for reference on route to the call, but also for the in car computer system that acknowledges the call dispatched to us and for updating that call. I will not go much more in to detail about it as its all techie and very droll but suffice to say it is information technology and enables more effective use of police time and resources. Directions and house numbers noting and keeping a keen eye out on behalf of the driver for non driving related visual items as the driver is fully focused on professional and safe yet speedy arrival at scene is another role of the operator and coupled with the reality that the operator is normally the first out of the car, after all there is little point of the driver getting out and leaving a passenger behind if the car is needed further.
During my shift we dealt with, an indecent exposure, one burglary report a shots fired firearms incident, a serious sexual assault, Three calls to alarms triggered by faults and conducted a number of vehicle checks / stop checks on the mean streets of the borough, as well as been a visible patrol in the area.
I am led to believe this was a very quite night indeed.
It’s quite clear that this level of work is done in a professional and highly motivated and meticulous manner by every body present and the team sprit is totally amazing.
Oh and the cars have heating, something I am glad of after that snowfall.
[Today’s study -The Police Act 1996]
1 comment:
You should come out to the stix. What you described is a busy night for us! We have to rely more on proactive policing... oh look, there is a dogey car with a light out...lets turn it over.
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