The first paid job I had was as a student.

I was employed during one summer vacation as a river watcher on salmon rivers in the north of Scotland. My employers were the Cape Wrath Hotel and a local landowner. The job involved walking alongside several rivers each night to deter poachers. I lived in a small wooden hut beside the River Dionard, not far from the Kyle of Durness, and patrolled a vast open expanse of heather, with just sheep to keep me company. I was 20.

This is a place where in summer months night never fully comes so that when the poachers arrived they could be spotted from a distance. I just had to get to them quickly on foot. They came by car, and my job was to note the car registrations and to warn them of prosecution if they didn’t move on. If they were prosecuted, everything they used in their crime – their fishing tackle, their vehicles, their caravans – was confiscated and sold.

Ever since I have thought this is as good a way of deterring criminals as anything. It also satisfies a deeply held belief in people that criminals shouldn’t get away so easily with their crime and some of their assets should be put back into the communities they steal from.

Although not a complete parallel, this is what I am proposing to do in the coming year.

It is possible for assets to be seized from criminals by the police and given back to communities under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA). And this is what I shall be doing from now on, using my small grants scheme to distribute the money.

In the past, this POCA money has been used exclusively for policing purposes. But now I want to make a direct link between assets seized and grants given to community groups. I think people will welcome this and the police will see it as a way of strengthening the link between them and what they do and the communities they serve.

 Children’s SARC

In a recent blog I mentioned the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) at Hackenthorpe Lodge. The centre is for those adults who are victims of serious sexual assaults, especially rape. Someone asked what happens to children, because, sadly, children are also sexually abused.

I am glad to say that we have an excellent facility that I visited last year in the Children’s Hospital, Sheffield. It is not far from the new entrance and every care has been taken to make it as welcoming as possible, given the distressing circumstances. There are pleasantly furnished rooms with toys and books for the children. But above all, it has some really dedicated and expert staff.

Both the adult and children’s SARC are commissioned through my office.

She wanted a varied career

From time to time I hear about things that police officers do which are not quite in the normal line of duty. Recently I was told about an officer in the Barnsley district who rescued a woman who had wandered by night into a large pond and was soon out of her depth and in trouble. The officer and a colleague answered the call for help. While his colleague guided him with a beam of light from a torch, the officer waded into the water and then swam to the struggling woman. He brought her safely back to the bank, probably saving her life.

I also heard about an officer who had only been in the force for a few months but found herself with a colleague in a house where a woman went into labour. The officer delivered the baby. When I congratulated and thanked her, she told me that she had joined the force because she wanted ‘a job with a bit of variety’!

We take it for granted that police officers will deliver babies and save people from drowning. This is part of our culture. Not all the world’s police forces would look at it that way.

Policing is a varied career and no day is ever the same as the next. But to all those new officers now joining I would say, just be careful what you wish for….

Oh dear…

One of our senior officers told me about a certain police force that issued a document called: ‘Getting it right first time.’ 6^th edition.

I hope you are staying safe and well.