Bobby still on the beat after 52 years – but he’s made only five arrests!
HE fIrsT went on the beat in 1967, when the Beatles released sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Wimbledon held its last amateur tournament.
since then, special Constable richard Warren, 74, has seen nine prime ministers come and go and lived through the agony of England failing to win the World Cup again 12 times.
Yet in that time he has made only five arrests – fewer than the number of grandchildren he has.
Britain’s longest-serving officer, who works for Wiltshire Constabulary, explained that his job entailed many other duties than arresting people.
‘My main role is to help people, mainly doing rural patrols and foot patrols in Malmesbury and places like that,’ he said.
‘I try to do my best to make sure everyone stays safe. I can arrest people but I don’t go out of my way to do that. I’ve never used my baton but have withdrawn it to impose myself.’
Mr Warren, who has no plans to retire, was awarded a long service medal two years ago and added another bar to it last week. He was made an MBE for services to policing in 2016.
His most recent arrest was two years ago, when he pulled over a drink-driver with a colleague. But he added: ‘Most of the arrests were between 1985 and 2000. I arrested a group of men who were hiding in a back garden after jumping out of a taxi about 15 years ago.
‘A lot of my work in the police force doesn’t get into the news because it’s usually people who have concerns for welfare and missing persons.’
He also finds time to display his humour, once posing apparently snoozing in the road to make a joke about sleeping policemen. Mr Warren, who has three children and seven grandchildren and lives in Hullavington, described how policing had changed over the decades.
‘There are more women in the job and doing it very well. They are much smarter than men and have great intuition, so we are better off for it,’ he said.
‘Technology has changed a lot. When I was first involved in a major incident we had to set up an incident room and look for addresses using a card index.’ There are around 12,000 special constables, who work for a minimum of 16 hours a month and have the same powers as regular officers.
Mr Warren said: ‘I have never wanted to work for the force full-time because I’m a computer technician.’ He still repairs hardware for clients, as well as caring for wife Lynette, 70, who has multiple sclerosis. They have been married for 49 years.
He keeps fit by running and has completed four of the past five London Marathons. And his enthusiasm for law enforcement appears to have rubbed off on grandson Harry, 14, who volunteers as a police cadet.
JAN MOIR IS AWAY