It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark…

Assuming you’re reading this at any time after half four in the afternoon, it’s probably getting dark outside. You may be reading sat up in the Arctic Circle, in which case it’s probably dark all the time, but either way, let’s say night is a-falling.

Here in West Midlands Police, the end of British Summertime is as big an event for us as the Winter Solstice is to Pagans.

We don’t exactly break out the flaming torches and dance around stone circles but even so, we do out best to prepare our public for the rise in burglaries that can be encouraged by the darker nights.

It’s because of these dark nights that each year we run our cunningly-named ‘Darker Nights’ campaign, with the aim of informing people about the steps that we recommend to help them beat the burglar.

By checking out the Darker Nights section of our own website, you can find all the information you should need to help ensure that your home is as burglar proof as it can be.

The tips offered don’t involve setting complicated, Home Alone style traps – rather they’re simple, easy pointers such as leaving a light on when you go out, all of which make it more likely that the burglar will pass your house by when he (or she) is out on the prowl for easy targets.

The Darker Nights campaign isn’t only about burglaries though, you can also find information about dealing with trick-or-treaters and if you fancy printing off a poster or two advising would be ghouls that you’d rather not have a visit, have a look at our Darker Nights gallery on Flickr.

The good people behind the Darker Nights campaign have summarised their advice in five easy steps to which I have added a handy ‘CRIME’ acronym*.

They are as follows –

• Close your curtains – Don’t advertise your possessions to the burglars, close your curtains and don’t leave laptops, phones etc on open display
• Register your valuables – Keep a list of the serial numbers of all your valuables – take a look at www.immobilise.com where you can register items for free
• Illuminate your house – You know how in Home Alone, Kevin put the cardboard cut out of the basketball player on a model train so it looked like the house was occupied? Maybe that’s going a little far but leave a light on when you’re out so that it’s not obvious your pad is unattended – consider a timer switch too
• Make your house secure – Lock your doors and your windows, no matter how small they are
• Enable your alarm – Got a burglar alarm? Make sure you know how it works and that it’s used, if you don’t have one then consider getting one or at the very least, installing a dummy alarm box somewhere visible

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, for may have seen previous posts about crime prevention and what steps, as a front line officer, I’d recommend you consider taking to avoid becoming a victim.

It’s been a while since some of them were published so if you have a few minutes to spare, please take a butchers at the following crime prevention related posts –

• Part one and part two of my anti-burglary posts from July last year
• From April this year, a post about CCTV cameras
• Going back to July last year again, this post about registering your valuables
• This post about cold callers and why it’s important that you phone us if you’re suspicious
• And from this September, a post about backing up your computer to ensure your files aren’t lost should it be stolen

Finally, with Autumn soon to exchange the ‘seasons baton’ with Winter, temperatures will drop and Jack Frost will begin icing up up everything in sight.

As this is the case, please check out this blog from last Winter about why I’d recommend not leaving your cat unattended to defrost.

Yes, I do mean cat.

* Thanks to the dozens of people on Twitter and Facebook who helped me out with the final letter for the CRIME acronym, you are incredible and can all consider yourselves special deputies!

Look at us through the lens of a camera…

Meet The Beat – Richard Eccleston, Lloyd House, Birmingham West & Central LPU

Puppies, helicopters, men with big old sideburns wearing stove-pipe hats.

What do they all have in common? Yes, that’s right – all have featured at one point or another as part of West Midlands Police’s outrageously popular ‘Photo of the Day‘ project on Flickr.

Viewed over 800,000 times by (give or take) 1,600,000 eyes, the gallery comprises of a range of modern and historic photos illustrating the work done around the Force on a daily basis.

You may have recently seen BBC Midlands Today reporting on the success of the gallery but who are the team responsible for the project?

In this Meet The Beat interview, allow me to introduce Richard Eccleston – communications officer and inspiration behind the idea.

Richard Eccleston making a cameo for Photo of the Day

Starting off, can you tell us a little but about the role you fill at West Midlands Police?

Hi Rich, thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions for this ‘Meet The Beat’ interview. I am a Territorial Communications Officer working for the Force Corporate Communications Department. I am responsible for sharing information and policing updates across the Birmingham West and Central and Birmingham South Local Policing Units.

This role sees me actively creating and sharing pro-active press releases and news stories via several channels including our websites, Facebook, Twitter, hyperlocal blogs and community groups.

I am also responsible for creating more traditional forms of communication including resident letters and community newsletters.

How long have you worked for WMP? What had you done before joining the Force?

I have worked for the Force for almost 5 years, beginning in Sandwell and moving across to Birmingham in 2010. Before working for West Midlands Police, I was working part-time for Wolverhampton Art Gallery while finishing my studies. I also created several websites for local musicians and bands.

You manage WMP’s incredibly popular Flickr account, how did the idea come around to start using Flickr?

To cut a long story short, I conducted my own ‘Photo of the Day’ project via Facebook in 2011 to ensure I actually got some use out of my camera phone.

One thing led to another, and before I knew it my photo updates were becoming the topic of most of my conversations with friends and work colleagues. Highlights of my personal project included death defying stunts, underwater images and my nan’s famous roast dinners.

I decided to pitch my idea to the Force in December and it was agreed that Flickr would be the best way of showcasing the work undertaken by officers and police staff on a daily basis.

The Force has set upon a project to update a new photo every day for a whole year. How is that coming along? Where do the photos come from?

It is quite possibly the most exhausting project I have ever been involved with! Thankfully, due to the sheer breadth of work undertaken across the whole Force area, I have been able to keep the images fresh and different since beginning the project on 1 January 2012. We are almost 300 days into the project now and I am still taking things day by day!

The photos come from a variety of sources. The majority are taken by our fantastic photographer Graham Bedingfield. Graham is incredibly busy and works across the entire Force area snapping images from drug raids to car seizures, youth groups to police surgeries, police dogs to the Force helicopter. Graham also takes generic officer images for use on all of our websites.

We have also tapped into our archives to share older photographs which date right the way back to the early 1900s.

Another option being discussed is Crowdsourcing images from the public. Many people are bound to have old images of family members during their service in the police and we are hoping to publicise some of these sometime soon.

There are a selection of old and new photos on the Flickr account – which ones have been the most popular and do you have any particular favourites?

The most popular photographs so far seem to be police puppies, drug warrants, firearms images, police puppies, specialist pieces of equipment, historical images and, of course, police puppies!

My personal favourite is probably Day 200 – a great photograph showing almost all of our specialist policing units together. I have also made cameo appearances in three or four of the images, so of course they are some of the best!

How have the public responded to the photos? What has the feedback been like?

Feedback from the public has been incredibly positive and we have received more than 800,000 views on Flickr since the beginning of the year.

We get numerous comments every day regarding our images, especially photographs of kit and equipment that many people may not have seen before.

Can people submit photos to you, perhaps if they have historic WMP photos that they think you might be interested in?

As mentioned previously, we are looking to Crowdsource images later this year. I would advise people to follow us on Twitter or Facebook for further information about this. It would be great to share some really interesting images that may have been sitting in cupboards and drawers for decades!

Are there any plans for next year? Might you start photo of the day again or are there other plans in the pipeline?

There are a few interesting plans in the pipeline but I am taking each and every day as it comes with a project as big as this. My best answer would be to simply wait and see!

If anybody has any suggestions around what images they would like to see, please leave your comments below. Thanks!

Station to station…

Last month we held our second annual Walsall Police Station Open Day, attracting many hundreds of people to explore the cells and meet our officers without the inconvenience of having to be arrested first.

Although I couldn’t make it myself, I know that we’ve had plenty of feedback from those who did make their way down to say how enjoyable it was.

Obvious highlights included the fierce police dogs, cute police puppies and a helicopter perched on our rooftop.

I was contacted a couple of weeks ago by local photographer Steve Walker who had come along and taken some excellent snaps capturing the excitement of the day. Very kindly, Steve offered to put the pictures onto a disc and drop them in for me at the station.

If you’ve not noticed over on my Facebook ‘fan’ page, I’ve uploaded the whole set to a special gallery for your viewing pleasure.

What follows are a few of my favourites, please check out the gallery to see the rest and thanks again to Steve for taking the time to help us out.

The Open Day featured both types of police dog – the cute ones…

…and not cute.

The ‘Platoon’ – an important part of public order policing.

Our ever-popular band warming up in the gym.

Trying out one of our ‘extra large’ size police bikes.

Thanks again to Steve for letting us use his images.

Starsailor…

Bin there, done that: PC Smith’s charity bin relay for her son’s Naval Squadron was a fantastic success.

If you cast your mind back a couple of weeks, you may remember me mentioning PC Emma Smith and her charity ‘bin relay’ in aid of 857 Squadron to which her son, Jamie, is currently attached.

Well, the bin was relayed, metaphorical batons were exchanged and as the bins passed from station to station (as Bowie would say), so did the charitable spirit pass around the Walsall community.

What started off as an effort to collect a few bags of sweets here and there soon snowballed into a remarkable show of public spirit.

Not only did the bins fill, several local businesses stepped forward to help out and the cumulative result was a king’s ransom in goodies for the girls and boys of 857 Squadron who are at this very moment enduring the heat and the discomfort of the Afghan desert.

Although there are more goodies to come, highlights of the donations received include:

• Fifty four boxes full of shower gels, other toiletries, sweets, biscuits, flasks, flannels and moisturisers
• A Pure DB radio for the hanger
• Bose Speaker System to be used with said radio – Emma said it was ‘louder than a nightclub’
• One hundred shower gels for 857’s sister squadron (854 Squadron) who take over in December
• A very large box of very large t -shirts, shorts, flip flops and jogging bottoms
• Cash donation for a party at base when they get back
• A further cash donation for the Welfare Fund of £1303.74 with more cash donations still to come

Representatives from 857 Squadron travelled all the way up from RNAS Culdrose (two hundred and seventy three miles) to receive the items and got to meet with Emma and others at Walsall Police Station who had helped make the relay such a success.

Visiting the station from ‘HMS Seahawk’, as Culdrose is known, was Lt Philip Curry, AET Brett Runham, AET Michael ‘Clarky’ Clark, and from the Wolverhampton recruiting office was Chief Petty Officer David Casewell and Petty Officer Tina Mann.

A special thanks to WS1 and Vogue Nightclubs, Asda, Graham Pinches’ Couture nightclub in Stafford, the Walsall College Public Service course, Comet, Tesco, B&M, The Village Hotel, Police Mutual and of course all of the police staff at Walsall who had donated their time and effort to the bin relay.

Finally, a quick correction to the previous blog on the relay as pointed out to me by Chief Petty Officer Casewell at the presentation – they are of course sailors, not soldiers – apologies!

I keep myself to myself in the crush of the crowd…

“We’ve had some word that there is some bad red rope licorice circulating in the crowd….”. How can you stay safe at gigs?

As you may have gathered from the repeated use of song lyrics for my blog titles, I’m a little bit into my music.

Yes, arranging one note after another in such a way that you get McCartney’s ‘Frog Chorus’ moves me in a way that little else does.

It’s not only music that floats PC Stanley’s police boat though. As you may have gathered from this here blog and supporting Twitter feed, I’m a computer nerd too and so as a result, I’m pretty big fan of the old social media.

Put these two interests together and what do you have? Well, I’ll tell you. You have #gigsafe.

If you’re cool enough to be following @brumpolice, the official Twitter account of the Birmingham Central & West Local Policing Unit, you may have noticed some of their #gigsafe tweets going out ahead of artists hitting the city’s happening music scene.

The quirky tweets, incredibly popular with followers and often retweeted by the featured bands themselves, tie in sound crime prevention advice with the band’s songs to help ensure gig goers emerge from the mosh pit with roughly the same amount of blood, phones and Converse trainers that they went in with.

I’m looking to join in with the #gigsafe fun over the next few months but thought it might be a good idea to summarise some of the key safety tips on this here blog to help you neon painted live music fans get the best of your nights out.

Starting from the top then and written from the perspective of a seasoned ‘gig attending guy’ (Muse, Carling Academy, May 23rd 2001 with Cooper Temple Clause supporting – who else was there to see Matt Bellamy recklessly throw his guitar into the crowd?), here are my top tips for staying #gigsafe –

• Easy on the drink: Just because you can get ten pints for ten pounds at Blast Off doesn’t mean you should get ten pints for ten pounds. Take it easy on the old Jägerbombs and remember, not getting run over by a bus is much harder when your veins are 90% filled with Jack Daniels.
• Don’t do drugs: Offered red rope licorice in the toilets? First of all you’ve know idea what you’re putting into your body and secondly, get caught and rather than seeing Alt-J, you’re likely to end up with The Police.
• Keep you valuables hidden: Was the gig #awesome? Fine, but maybe wait until you’re safely in a taxi before tweeting it – thieves love it when people advertise what phones they’ve got when they stumble out the Academy with their ears ringing
• Plan your route home: Make sure your plan for getting home is more constructive than “I’ll just crowd surf back to Perry Barr”. You won’t. Get a taxi booked, check the train timetable or find a friend called ‘Des’ and ensure that they don’t drink and can drive you home.
• Stick to the well lit areas: We all know what happened to Bruce Wayne’s parents when they walked down a dark alleyway. Stick to the main roads and with the crowds.
• Avoid dodgy taxis: If you are going to get a taxi, you’re always better off with one that is an actual licensed taxi rather than with some shady guy who’s got a Metro and an expired MOT. The taxi should be displaying a badge as should the driver, for more info see here.
• Lost and stolen aren’t the same thing: Lost your phone whilst stage diving? There’s a big difference between ‘lost’ and ‘stolen’ so if you do find that you get home minus your mobile, think very carefully before reporting it as nicked simply to get a crime number. We have a habit of finding out the truth.
• Be nice: Don’t do that thing where you pelt Daphne and Celeste with bottles at the 2000 Reading Festival.

So there you have it, a relatively constructive guide to staying #gigsafe.

For more tips, check out our Twitter feeds and if Swedish Simon & Garfunkel/Fleet Foxes conglomerate First Aid Kit are coming to Birmingham any time soon, let me know as I’m pretty keen on seeing them.

Stay safe, hipsters!

Diamonds are forever…

Hollywood glitz? Yes, we’ll be seeking to replicate a little of that at next January’s ‘Diamond Awards’. Who will you nominate?

The Oscars. A reception of flash bulbs on the red carpet. Film stars blubbering away on stage. Rambling acceptance speeches and running mascara. Yes, I think we’ll have a bit of that.

Each and every day the officers and staff of West Midlands Police are out patrolling streets, rescuing cats from trees, saying ello’ ello’ and generally doing the very best they can for the public.

It’s not always an easy job and this is why it’s nice to receive recognition every now and again for work well done, especially when officers have gone and above and beyond the already high standards expected of them.

This is where our ‘Diamond Awards‘ come in – our very own, scaled up, version of the Oscars.

The inaugural Diamond Award ceremony will be held in January and offer both the public and employees of WMP a chance to recognise individuals and teams who have really gone all out to make a difference.

Just as with the Oscars themselves, the Diamond Awards are arranged into a variety of categories so to help recognise the wide range of different ways in which worthy contributions have been made.

The categories are as follows –

• Working In Partnership: This award will go to an individual or team who has worked tirelessly in partnership with others to solve local problems, improve service delivery or help improve confidence.
• Community Engagement: This award will go to individual or team who has demonstrated their commitment to community engagement by helping, working with and enabling local people to have more of a say in how decisions are made in their area.
• Excellence In Service Delivery: Awarded to an individual or team who provides, or has provided, a high quality professional service that has helped to increase confidence and satisfaction.
• Driving Diversity: This award will be given to an individual or team who has worked to promote equality of opportunity and/or tackled discrimination.
• Leading Change: The Leading Change award will be given to an individual or team who has embraced ‘change’, helping to improve services or processes, ultimately improving the level of service delivered.
• Creativity And Innovation: Awarded to an individual or team who has demonstrated innovative or creative ways of working.
• Inspirational Leadership: The recipient of this award will have demonstrated outstanding leadership skills, inspiring others to achieve.
• Putting The Public First: This award aims to identify an individual or team who has acted above and beyond the call of duty to put the public first.
• Team Of The Year: The team of the year award will be given to the team or department who have worked together to demonstrate the power and effectiveness of successful
  teamwork.
• Employee Of The Year: An award each for police officer, PCSO, special constable and police staff, the Employee Of The Year Award recognises outstanding service by individuals, over and above what is required as part of that person’s normal duties.
• Community ‘Thank You’ Award: Awarded to an individual or group who have worked with police, providing assistance through local initiatives such as Neighbourhood Watch, community groups etc.

So those are the categories, now for the important bit – you think you’d like to nominate someone but how can you do so? Well, there are a variety of options open to you.

Assuming you’re reading this blog on a computer (you almost certainly are although to check, look for the presence of some gigabubbles), the easiest way to make a nomination is to click on these here words and go straight to the online nomination form.

It takes only moments to fill in and and if you had started filling it in at the same time that you had started to read this sentence, you’d probably have already completed it.

If you fancy more of a challenge than the online form, you can also download a copy of the application form and then email it back to us at the address diamond_awards@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk.

A third option, if perhaps you’re going to print the form for someone who doesn’t use email, is to post it back to us addressing your letter in your best hand to: Dawn Fisher, Corporate Services Department, West Midlands Police, PO Box 52, Lloyd House, Colmore Circus Queensway, Birmingham, B4 6NQ.

If you’d like to know more about the Diamond Awards or maybe you’re Brad Pitt’s agent wanting to get a hospitality pass or two, please email us on the above address or give Dawn a call by hitting 1, then 0, and then 1 and then using the extension 7800 2649.

You’ll need to be quick as entries close on November 16th, so if there’s an individual or a team that stands out to you as really having made a difference in any of the above categories, please don’t hesitate to fill in a nomination form.

As our head honcho, Chief Constable Chris Sims, said in his recent video message on the Diamond Awards, “It only takes a few minutes to nominate, so if you know an individual, or team that deserves to be recognised – whether it be for a fantastic piece of work or for a long standing community initiative – this is your chance to show them that they are valued.”

Tell em’ what the master has done…

Making a report of domestic abuse isn’t an easy step to take, unfamiliarity with the police shouldn’t be a barrier though.

Whilst tapping away at the keyboard yesterday writing about the Justin Lee Collins case and the issue of domestic abuse, I reached a certain point in the article where I suggested that one reason domestic abuse is under-reported is because victims are unfamiliar with the police and the justice system.

No sooner had I capped the suggestion off with a full stop, I thought the following – might it be helpful to look at the likely steps taken after a report of domestic abuse is made to ourselves?

I think it would and so what follows is a brief overview of what you might expect to happen after making such a report.

It can only be a general guide as each investigation is tailored to individual circumstances and outside the West Midlands, different forces will have different procedures but still, hopefully it’ll help clarify what us police will be looking to do and why.

In the first instance we’ll be looking to gather as much evidence as we’re able. Usually this will mean taking a statement which is simply a written account of what’s been happening.

Sometimes rather than taking a statement we’ll instead sit down at a police station and conduct a video interview – the result is the same as taking a written statement but rather than ending up with an account on a page, we’ll have it on a DVD.

Alongside the evidence from the statement, we’ll look to gather as much supporting evidence as we can.

If it’s a recent incident we may look to do some house to house enquiries, check CCTV, and with the victim’s permission possibly approach friends and family to see if they can provide statements too.

If appropriate we may also look to gather any medical evidence we can, again to help build up a case and strengthen the chances of a successful prosecution.

Inquiries such as these are carried out in a sensitive manner and with both the consent and understanding of the person making the report. The officers attending will happily answer any questions – building up the case is a process designed with the victim in mind and should take place at a pace they’re comfortable with.

An important part of the role played by the attending officers in the early stages will be making a referral to our Public Protection Unit (PPU) – a team of detectives who specialise in domestic and sexual abuse investigation.

On receiving a summary of a domestic abuse report, a member of the PPU will likely contact the victim by a pre-arranged method and can offer further support, perhaps also involving partner domestic abuse agencies who too are there to help victims in anyway they can.

A particular concern of the PPU will be the safety of the victim and so they can discuss safeguarding options as appropriate including the fitting of bleep alarms, relocation and a range of other possibilities.

Once the available evidence has been gathered, officers will then look to make an arrest, although this can happen at an earlier stage if it’s thought that there’s an immediate risk.

I’ve written before about the custody procedure but can sum it up by saying that just as taking statements or gathering forensics evidence, it’s another important part of the investigation.

If necessary forensics samples can be taken, if not when the officers are ready they’ll sit down and interview the suspect to get his or her account of what is alleged to have happened. The evidence will be put to the suspect and their responses recorded on tape.

With an account obtained from the suspect, the next stage is probably going to be for the officers to consult the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) who will evaluate the available evidence and decide what is to happen with the case.

The CPS are responsible for making charging decisions in the majority of domestic abuse cases and if they feel that the evidence is strong enough, they can authorise us to charge the suspect. This means they’ll be required to attend court and answer the charge.

Once a suspect has been charged, we then have to consider whether we are going to keep the suspect in custody until the court case (to ‘remand’ them), or to bail them, releasing them from the cells under the requirement that they attend court as instructed.

Past history, risk of further incidents and the severity of the report all will affect the choice as to whether to remand or bail but should a suspect be bailed, conditions will be applied meaning that the suspect has to comply with certain rules that we’ve set.

Common bail conditions include having no contact with the victim and staying at a certain address etc. If these are breached, a suspect can expect to be promptly rearrested.

Either way the officers investigating the report will keep you updated and you should be provided with a reference that you’ll be able to phone the non-emergency number, 101, and quote should you need anything.

The first hearing will be at Magistrates’ Court and usually happens within two weeks or so of being charged. The suspect is asked to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty, if they plead guilty they will be sentenced whilst if they deny the charge the court will probably reconvene at a later point for a full trial.

Out of the whole process of making a domestic abuse report, it’s the court process that is probably the most daunting but it’s important to remember that the courts offer victims all the support they are able to so that the process is as easy as it can be.

Charities such as Victim Support will update victims throughout the case and offer trips to the courts to help people familiarise themselves. The courts themselves likewise can offer a series of ‘special measures’ to make it easier to give evidence, be it having screens in the court so that the defendant is hidden or supplying testimony over a video link.

As I stated, the above can only really be a rough guide but suggests some of the directions in which a domestic abuse report can go once it is received by ourselves.

It’s also worth a reminder that whilst it’s possible that a report will go as far as court, this isn’t a given outcome and much depends on whether the CPS believe the evidence is strong enough to give a reasonable chance of a successful prosecution.

The best advice I can give is that should you or someone you know be thinking of confronting a domestic abuse problem and are unsure about anything, ask us or one of our partner agencies as we’ll be more than happy to help.

Finding the courage to make a domestic abuse report is one of the hardest things that some people will ever have to do – hard it may be, but confusing it shouldn’t be.

You can find more information on the court process and what’s involved in giving evidence on the websites of Victim Support, the CPS and Directgov.

Isn’t it a pity how we hurt the ones that we love the most of all, the ones we shouldn’t hurt at all…

The trial of Justin Lee Collins: A timely reminder of the problem of domestic abuse (Image from BBC)

This afternoon Justin Lee Collins has been found guilty of a “campaign of abuse” against his ex-partner, Anna Larke. Over the span of six months, Collins was accused of trying to control his partner’s life, threatening her and dictating what she could and couldn’t do.

Such abuse has resulted in Collins being sentenced to one hundred and forty hours of unpaid work. A positive outcome in this case, but sadly such reports of domestic abuse are far from uncommon and across the West Midlands this week alone, many similar incidents will come to our attention.

At the same time, many more will not.

Many will go unreported, suffering will continue and in some cases one day the outcome may well prove to be fatal.

Domestic abuse isn’t something to be underestimated, nor is it something that should be allowed to continue unabated. Police forces up and down the country are ready to help victims when they come forward and as the Collins case suggests, the courts are ready to prosecute those responsible.

As someone who has attended more reports of domestic abuse than I care to think about, I think two things stand out about the matter.

Firstly, the extent of domestic abuse isn’t always apparent to the victim and in some cases not even recognised as ‘abuse’ at all.

Abuse doesn’t have to be physical – emotional blackmail, threats and verbal abuse are all counted as domestic incidents and nor does sexuality make a difference to how we treat abuse. The definition of domestic abuse is wide ranging and allows us to deal with abuse in many different forms.

Problems can start gradually – a push after a few drinks, raised voices and then maybe even an apology the morning after. Such behaviour is written off to the heat of the moment, alcohol, work stress. Thing is, it happens again. Then again.

Over the coming weeks or months, the abuse establishes itself. It may be written off by the perpetrator as accidental, or attempts made to isolate the victim so that he or she doesn’t realise how bad the abuse has become. Either way it continues.

I remember speaking to one domestic abuse victim reporting harassment after suffering in silence for months, out of curiosity I’d asked why she hadn’t reported it sooner and was told “It happened so gradually I didn’t even realise there was a problem”.

A problem there was, a serious one at that, and it goes to show how identifying domestic abuse isn’t easy, nor is it something that victims are always going to want to face up to.

Secondly, when a person realises that they’re victims of domestic abuse, the next obstacle can be speaking out against it. Be it unfamiliarity with the police, fear of the court system or simply fright of reprisals from the partner, domestic abuse is a problem frequently under-reported.

I don’t doubt that taking the significant step of approaching the police for help is a hard one to take – it takes a rare courage and a real determination to escape the trap of domestic abuse.

Us officers recognise this and will do our very best to guide victims through the process of making a report, offering all the support that we are able along the way.

Of course approaching the police isn’t the only way that abuse can be reported and should victims not feel ready to call the police, charities such as Refuge can help, be it supplying advice or simply offering someone with whom to talk about problems.

If the above has rang bells for you or someone you know, I’d encourage you to give us a call as soon as you feel ready and discuss your situation so that we can try and find a solution.

Had Anna Larke not come forward, it’s not unlikely she could still be in the situation now that she found herself in last year. She found the courage to come forward, to speak out and to break the cycle.

If her situation sounds familiar, it’s possible for you to do the same too.

You can find further contacts for domestic abuse support on this BBC website and also contacts local to the West Midlands on our own website.

The soldiering life…

Biscuits for the boys: PC Emma Smith with Walsall Police boss Chief Superintendent Dave Sturman and her charity relay bin.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you A Unit Response’s very own PC Emma Smith. A candidate for ‘nicest police officer in Walsall’, Emma is probably the happiest, rosiest, most talkative officer I know.

Now allow me to introduce Emma’s twenty year old son, Jamie Clarke, who at this very moment is sweltering away in the heat of Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, working long shifts with 857 Squadron to keep the Navy’s Sea Kings in the air.

Jamie only went out to Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago and it’s an understatement to say he’s missed by Emma, as are the rest of the lads from the squadron.

Wanting to do something in return for her son and 857 Squadron, Emma has started a ‘bin relay’ during the course of which she is sending decorated collection bins around Walsall’s police stations. Each time the bin lands it is being filled with goodies to send out to Afghanistan, for example sweets, toiletries and clothing.

Several of Walsall’s local businesses have lent their support to the relay and have been very, very generous in making donations which has really helped get the collection off to a good start.

Further donations though are always welcome and if you’d like to pitch in and say thanks to our boys then please feel free to give the Partnerships Team a call at Walsall Police Station on 0845 113 5000 or alternatively, get in touch by leaving a comment on this blog or send me a message on Twitter.

The sort of thing Emma and the boys are looking for includes biscuits, sweets, roll on deodorant and shower gel etc.

Chocolate can’t be sent as it doesn’t get on too well with the forty degree heat but if you’re thinking sweets then think Haribo as they are very popular on the front line.

Thank you in advance!