It’s time to make a special contribution

I am and always will be a great advocate of the police.

Last weekend saw a rather large and highly entertaining game of football at Boundary Park - but what I didn’t know was that a tenth of the officers on duty in Oldham that day were Special Constables.

I didn’t think I knew any specials, but how wrong I was. I actually know three in Oldham alone — two Inspectors and Oldham’s Chief Insp, Fraser Macdonald. I caught up with them to ask why they joined.

Fraser told me: “The overwhelming reason for people joining the Special Constabulary is because they want to give something back to their community. This is a fantastic way of doing just that.”

He considers his time as a kind of National Service, he says - but on a voluntary basis. Oldham has Specials from all walks of life: a mechanic, a property guru, even one guy who is a police civilian during the day, then patrols the streets whenever he can!

We are all aware how stretched police resources are at the moment, so Specials are called on more regularly to deal with everything from social issues road accidents. Basically all the jobs of a regular officer, but all done because they want to!

GMP is now even reintroducing police cadets, to get the young people of an area interested in a career in the service. What a fabulous way forward!

The meeting left me quite humbled by the Specials’ dedication to Oldham - and also got me questioning myself how much I give.

Fraser’s response was simple: anyone with spare time each week should visit the GMP website and have a go: http://www.gmp.police.uk