Avon and Somerset Constabulary - Welcome from the new police blogger

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Welcome from the new police blogger
Richard Corrigan (1352) 27th April 2009 3:20 PM

A warm welcome to the Internet site, and to me as the new force blogger.

Let me tell you a bit about myself. I am Richard Corrigan, aged 37 and married with two young children.

I have been a police officer for 18 years and am currently the Chief Inspector for Bath and North East Somerset. This basically means that I do the same job as the previous blogger, Andy Bennett, by heading up the uniformed officers on the district. I am resposible for all things operational including response policing, Safer Stronger Neighbourhoods and Community Safety.

I have been a uniformed officer for the majority of my service and have worked in Bristol, South Gloucestershire as well as Bath and North East Somerset.

My aim for the blog is to continue the good work of Andy. I would like to give you an internal perspective of policing and the concerns, frustrations and successes that are part of my weekly life.

I also want to keep it personal. Policing can be a subject that divides opinion and I fully appreciate this. I will give the story from my perspective and I know that often you will not agree with me. That is the reason why policing is so interesting and challenging.

I will keep this introduction brief. I aim to contribute to this blog regularly and keep it interesting and relevant for you the reader.

I am sure you will tell me if I do not!

DISCLAIMER: The opinion expressed by others commenting on the blog is not necessarily the opinion of Avon and Somerset Constabulary.

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Comments

29th April 2009 12:38 PM | Jack

Richard, Rich or Mr Corrigan (which do you prefer?!)
Welcome and thank you for the introduction.
There is little doubt that neighbourhood policing works, and I'm sure you'll agree as a Police Officer and member of the public that the force has already established excellent ties with many of its communities, gathered lots of new intelligence and successfully acted upon this to the benefit of those demanding change.
One thing that strikes me, as a member of the public also, is the tremendous amount of demand placed on the Police service to sort out everything thrown at it. I am aware you now get called about anything from a dead badger causing a queue of traffic, assisting ambulance crews because they are not trained in self defence / forcing an entry / restraint techniques. I also gather that a high demand is placed on you by Social Services / carers who, because of government policy, are required to report the children in their care as missing.
With the introduction of SouthWestOne and various amalgamations between Councils, do you foresee much of the "non-Police" related calls being dealt with externally or filtered out, for want of a better term? How can you, as CI Ops, ensure that your colleagues, particularly response Officers, are satisfactorily resourced, able to deal promptly with calls received, and most importantly, are able to deal with "proper" Policing issues?
Regards.

1st May 2009 10:38 AM | Andy Bennett

Richard,

Good luck with the new blog. I am really glad you are continuing with this opportunity to raise and discuss issues outside of the usual media channels. I will read with interest.

cheers and best of luck, Andy Bennett

7th May 2009 5:22 PM | pat

Very refreshing to have a senior officer blogging like this. please keep it up

10th May 2009 4:38 PM | AnalogueAndy

Welcome and thank you for carrying on where Andy left off. It'll certainly be interesting to compare and contrast the issues in B&NES (my home patch) with Andy's South Bristol.

27th May 2009 8:26 AM | Anonymous

I'm rather disappointed that no response has been posted to the questions put forward by Jack (above). I would be very interested to read it as and when you get round to writing it.

8th June 2009 8:57 AM | Richard Corrigan

Thanks for the comment. I actually try and comment on the points in the next feature. The community safety accreditation scheme is one area where we can equip other partners with powers to do complete their job more effectively and free police time. I also made mention of the review that I carried out which ensures that we do get the right numbers on the frontline to respond to calls from the public. Hope this helps