This week I am on nights, so spent the day trying to sleep. All I can say is thank god it isn't hot. Have you ever tried sleeping during the day, when it is 30 plus degrees outside, so you have to have the window open to attempt to get a breeze, when the kids are on school holidays??? No......does not work, let me tell you. Normally, on the day of your first night shift, you try to sleep in, or if that fails, try to catch a few hours in the afternoon or evening. Well, yesterday I woke up at 8.30am, tried and failed to sleep in the afternoon and tried to sleep in the evening, and managed 40 minutes. Not good, as I figured that by the time I got home this morning, I would have been awake for nearly 24 hours.........argh, really not good, especially when you consider the 20 minute motorway journey I have home. I did have visions of ending up in a ditch on the side of the motorway having fallen asleep at the wheel, but at the special request of the traffic unit who dropped in last night, who had just been to a fatal on the motorway where someone had gone off the road, I managed to stay awake. Actually, I felt surprisingly awake at 7am, but by 7.30am I was fast asleep.
Night shifts can be a tadge on the boring side. The three we do over the weekend tend to be a bit more lively, it's amazing the fun you can have with the drunks who seem to believe that actually the sole reason for the existence of the police to to run them home when they miss the last bus, drink their bus / taxi fare or aren't allowed in a taxi or on a bus because they are too drunk. Ok, the police due have a duty of care if you are drunk and incapable - ie can't look after yourself, but what tends to happen then is you spend the night in one of our nice warm rooms (also known as cells) and have the possibility of a caution or reprimand or worse to go with it.......not a free taxi ride home!! Oh, and you still have to get yourself home in the morning when you sober up.
However, the four nights we do Monday to Thursday are generally a little quieter. For example last night I had the lady who came in and demanded help. When I asked her what was wrong she told me she needed sectioning as she knew too much!!! Sigh, care in the community DOES NOT WORK PEOPLE. All that happens is the health professionals who have many years of training to deal with it, don't deal with it, and the police who don't have many years of training, do deal with it. For example, I am considered trained to deal with people with mental health issues coz I have read the relevant chapter in the book! Anyway, I suggested to this lady that she go see her GP in the morning, as she did not appear in immediate danger and to my relief she then decided she was going to be strong and deal with it herself. You do always have the moment of doubt........what if she leaves here and does something awful to herself, or someone else, but we are limited in what we can do, and we just have to judge if there is an immediate risk.
The only other people I saw (other than officers that is) was the inevitable taxi dispute. Drunk lads get in a taxi with two girls they claim not to know, that the taxi driver claims they do know. Drunk lads have £2.50 in total and apparently tell the girls they don't have any money, so the girls that they reckon they don't know, say they will pay the majority of the fare. Girls get out first and give lads a handful of loads of change, which when the boys count out is about 80p! Taxi fare is nearly £10 in total, which drunk lads can't pay, but they agreed to come to the police station with the taxi driver as they thought they were in the right!! Oh, the arrogance of youth, especially drunk youth. So, after we established that technically this was not a police matter as it is a civil dispute, and that by getting in the taxi, the drunks lads had entered into a contract with the taxi driver........ie he provides ride home, they pay money; I suggest to the lads that 1. they must be pretty silly to believe that the 'large' handful of change (80p) was going to be the girls share of the taxi fare and 2. as the girls share was £5, they still did not have enough money to pay the rest of the fare.
Of course, the lads then claim that they had no more money, bank accounts at £0 and no possibility of getting any more cash. The taxi driver agreed that the lads could pay him at a later date and so they all exchanged details and off they went, though the lads did seem to think that the taxi driver should take them again, for free!!! But was that the end of it..................no! About ten minutes later the lads were back saying they had a problem.......and guess what that was? Correct, no way of getting home, so could I sort something out. No problem lads, you can walk. Well that suggestion went down like a lead balloon.............but it's five miles and it is raining. Bollocks was it five miles, about three at most........and guess what lads, you are going to get wet. Then I get the comment 'So this is how the law works is it?' Yes lads, the police service are here to deal with crime, not provide a taxi service for those who had decided to drink all their money. More satisfied customers..........I await the complaint.
Well, one down, three to go..................more surfing the internet then!
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