Today’s speaker was Ben Richardson, a retired police detective, who amused us with stories of his life in the force.
He joined Dewsbury Police as PC3 in 1963, at the age of 21, under the watchful eye of PC52 Harold Ramsden. His first sudden death occurred on his first day on the beat, when a drunken man was killed by his own overfull chamber pot falling through a sodden ceiling and striking him a mortal blow on the head!
In those days all calls to emergency services had to be answered within 4 minutes, unlike today’s average 4 days if you are lucky! To assist this response time, he was promoted to MBP (Mechanised Beat Patrol), as he was virtually the only PC around available to ride a motorbike!
His Chief Constable liked the look of him, and in 1967 he was promoted to Detective Constable, with numerous promotions following, a period during which various humerous events happened, all of which greatly amused the members.
Throughout his talk it was clear to us all that the reduction in force which has occurred over the intervening years has greatly affected the efficiency of the Service.