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This is a new section for My Abbots magazine. Each month we will spend a morning, afternoon or day with a local business or figure to see what their day-to-day activities involve. We thought there would be no better place to start with than the people who patrol our streets, the Police Community Support Officers. PCSO’s John Diaz and Marijke Stevens-Keijzer took us out on the beat to reveal what their job involves, and tell us a bit more about their roles within the community. On arriving at the police station, PCSO’s John and Marijke gave us a brief as to what the afternoon would involve, before hitting the streets of Abbots to patrol the area. On starting a shift, John told My Abbots that the first thing the PCSO’s would do is check emails and respond to any enquires that had been made. He told My Abbots: “If the guys from the morning shift are still on we’ll get a brief as to what has been happening and do a basic change over.”
“We usually plan out the day ahead, but sometimes you can get diverted to jobs from the radio.” On walking up the High Street, it is clear that local residents welcome the presence of the local officers, stopping to talk to them and notifying them of any problems. No two days are the same according to PCSO John, who claims that one day you can be dealing with a road traffic accident, and the next giving a talk to children at a local school. My day with John and Marijke would see us tackle two projects. The first would involve trying to clamp down on mini-motorbikes, with the second involving trying to catch drivers using a mobile phone. Both these issues have been raised by local residents, and the PCSO’s will always take concerns brought to their attention very seriously. Although the PCSO’s cannot issue tickets for speeding or use of a mobile phone, they can feedback information to local police, who can issue a £60 fine and three penalty points. John told My Abbots that it’s important for residents to see the officers around, stating that feedback from locals is very good. He said: “We walk down the street and people wave at us and us by our first names.
People didn’t really know our roles, and we do get some ‘sticks and stones’ comments, but you take it and try and win them round with your way of working.” John has been doing the job three years now, and still gets the same satisfaction out of the position that he did on day one. Marijke, who is from Holland, has also done the job for a couple of years, and backs John’s statement that the positives outweigh the negatives. She told My Abbots: “I like the unexpected. It’s an outdoor job and I like the freedom you get with it. You plan your own day and you are always learning. You get some verbal abuse from males and females, but I find the compliments outstrip the criticisms.” In spending time with John and Marijke it’s clear that they are passionate about making the village a better place. They are not the type to go out issuing tickets, but instead like to talk to members of the community and figure out a way to stop them reoffending. John can only recall one incident where he had to deal with a violent member of the public and he hopes it will never happen again. He said: “There was an incident where a man was attacking a woman and when we approached him, he turned on us. We used our training to deal with the situation.” The Police offices are open from 10am until 1pm, but there is a contact number on the door that puts anyone with a query through to the controller, who can then contact the relevant PCSO. After an afternoon with both John and Marijke, it is clear that the village needs the PCSO’s, mainly due to their hard work and commitment to making Abbots a safer place. Both spoke very highly of the community and clearly enjoy the job they are doing. Patrolling the streets with the two certainly gave My Abbots an insight into how valued they are by the majority of the village, even if there is a small number which do not appreciate them.
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