IT’S A FAIR COP!
Police on fairground patrol bunk off for dodgems session
POLICE at a cash-strapped force found time to ride the dodgems at a funfair. No fewer than 21 uniformed officers were filmed having a laugh when they were supposed to be on patrol.
Among them was £80,000-a-year chief superintendent Darren Downs, who later posted online about the ‘fantastic afternoon at the fair’. It cost at least £40,000 in wages to dispatch 40 officers each day to the nine-day Hull Fair. They made just four arrests for minor offences.
The photos are particularly embarrassing because the Humberside force has complained it has too few officers.
‘They should be out catching crooks – that’s what they are paid for,’ said Mike Cowell, a 36-year-old mugging victim.
Phil Walters said: ‘Humberside Police, is this what we’re paying you for?
‘ They spend five minutes messing around, but all it takes is seconds for a terrorist to blow himself up.’
Andy McDyer, the force’s acting deputy chief constable, defended the officers’ antics on Saturday.
‘On the final day of the 2017 Hull Fair our officers, who were policing the event, took a five-minute break to have some fun and engage with the fairground organisers by taking to the dodgems,’ he said.
‘Our officers, PCSOs and volunteer special constables worked long, hard hours during the event, some working nine consecutive ten-hour shifts and they were able to enjoy a ride before the fair leaves Hull for another year. ‘We have received overwhelming posi- tive feedback both from visitors to the fair and those following us on social media. Throughout the week-long event, I spent a few hours each day walking around Hull Fair and I saw so many smiling faces, it was tremendous.’
Hull’s fair is one of the largest in Europe and dates back around 700 years.