Sussex police chase Sussex police in CCTV caper
THE junior CCTV camera operator for Sussex Police has spotted someone “acting suspiciously” in the area. An undercover officer is detailed to investigate. There has been a spate of burglaries in the area. Has CCTV picked up the culprit?
It’s unlikely. The shadowy figure on CCTV is the undercover detective. He “chased himself round the streets” for 20 minutes.
Police magazine, which is published by the Police Federation, reports the caper.
An anonymous officer, believed to be the PC’s sergeant, tells the magazine:
“An officer who joined a team in Sussex as a new probationary officer was soon very keen to do any plain-clothes operations and be as proactive as possible. He would be waiting at the end of his shift hoping to be unleashed for a further couple of hours of plain-clothes duties. On one such occasion in a little market town in Sussex which has suffered a spate of town centre shop break-ins, officers were on plain-clothed foot patrol when a report was received of a suspect male in one of the side roads.”
“The CCTV operator soon had the suspect on camera and everywhere he saw the male the keen PC was on his heels – radioing in to say he was in the same street…Every time the man darted in to another side alleyway, the PC was turning immediately into the same alleyway, but every time the CCTV operator asked what he could see there was no trace. [A sergeant arrives.] With the sergeant’s sides aching from laughter he pointed out to the PC that the operator had been watching him unaware that he was a pain-clothes officer – thus the PC had been chasing himself round the streets.”
Such are the facts…
Posted: 8th, February 2012 | In: Strange But True Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
