Independence and driving;

Well, it happened – after 8 weeks of tutorship, Mr. Bill has been declared ‘fit for independent patrol’. However, before he is allowed to hit the mean streets of Llanffuglen, on his own, there is one more training task he must complete… driving.
This has been the part of training that Mr. Bill has most looked forward to. Three weeks of driving around, being told by expert police drivers how to make his driving better.
At the end of the three weeks, the drivers will be told if they have made the grade to be allowed to drive in a ‘response’ situation – or to you and me – with the blue lights on and the siren wailing.
They will also be given a grade to show just how good a driver they are and whether the instructors think that the officers have what it takes to eventually be allowed to become traffic cops (if they choose to do this line of police work) – but they aren’t allowed to apply for that position until they have done at least 2 years ‘on-the-beat’.
For Mr. Bill this has meant going back to basics and remembering how to drive a car using two hands on the steering wheel at the ’10 to 2’ position and making sure that no elbows rest on the armrest and when turning into streets, the push-pull technique is used, rather than just letting the steering wheel find its own way back to the 12 o’clock position.
But it’s not all bad, in fact it has been great. Learning to drive the ‘police way’ is incredibly tiring, and yet at the same time great fun.
The first part is to learn a set dialogue that must be said at the start of every journey which allows the driver to demonstrate that he has done all the pre-checks on the car and that he is aware of all the controls and that the driver knows that the passengers are all strapped in safely.
Once moving, the instructor, who is sitting in the front passenger seat, keeps a watchful eye on the driver at all times. Telling the driver how to position themselves for every situation they find themselves on the road.
Once the instructor is happy that the driver understands the police driving system – the speeds are allowed to increase. This is the fun part.
Realising that Llanffuglen Police Force has many miles of long stretches of open country roads, and those that know of Mr. Bill’s enjoyment of driving – it comes as no surprise that after a few days of training, Mr. Bill has been getting to grips – or should I say that he has been testing the grip of the car and realizing its full cornering (and braking) potential.
The cars are standard family saloon type cars with no police markings – with a couple of modifications – namely hidden at the front and back of the car are the essential pieces of equipment that make these cars stand out from the crowd – yes, that’s right – the flashing blue lights and siren.
Mr. Bill has not been trained in using these pieces of equipment yet – that doesn’t happen until the third week of the course. However, the instructors are allowed to use them, and if whilst travelling at 85mph on a dual carriageway an unsuspecting boy racer decides to come up nice and close to the rear bumper of one of the training cars – it is a delight to see just how quickly the boy racer backs off once the little blue lights are flashed a couple of times – more than likely necessitating a change of underwear for the boy racer at the next services.
The cars have three student police officers and one instructor in them and all students take it in turns to drive for about an hour and then swap over – but not before they receive feedback from each other and the instructor. It may be that the officer has braked a little too hard, or accelerated a bit too quickly from the lights, or it could just be that the student has ‘missed an overtaking opportunity’ – yes as they learn to drive faster safely they are now being told to look for opportunities to overtake – and by the end of the second week they will be marked down if they do not take an overtaking opportunity that presented itself.
So it is now into the start of the second week – Mr. Bill wishes that the weeks were longer as he can’t remember enjoying himself so much at work for ages. He will be spending some time at the skid pan this week and then maybe some night time driving as well. But I am sure that whatever this week holds in store, Mr. Bill will be up for the challenge.

(Mrs Bill has been rather busy recently so this post was ghost written - thanks Mr Bill)