Being a bobby is what made me a good detective
ONCE again we are subjected to an idea plucked out of thin air about the recruitment of detectives direct from university as, apparently, there is a lack of interest in the Met for serving officers to join (Mail). What nonsense! I was a recruit to the Birmingham City Police Force in the Sixties and served as a uniformed bobby for the required two years before I could apply to CID. During these two years, I was tasked with having Britain’s first university direct entrant police officer attached to me to show him the basics of beat policing. When I met this history graduate, he told me he wasn’t interested in what I had to say and that he would go through the motions of his required probationary period. Then he informed me he would be my chief constable one day. Not long after this, he disappeared, never to be heard of again in the police. To be a dedicated detective takes much more than a university education. I was proud to be a detective and was involved in many high-profile cases where my intensive and sound police training served me well.
STUART FOX, Halesowen, W. Mids.