Force Commandant of Cambridgeshire Special Constabulary Phil Hill

As Force Commandant of Cambridgeshire Special Constabulary Phil Hill commands a team of around 190 Special Constables, Section Officers. Assistant Divisional Commandants and Divisional Commandants based throughout the county.

Phil was appointed as a Special Constable in March 1979 serving in Cambridge City Sub-Division. He was then promoted to Section Officer at Girton in 1985. By 1988 he became Sub-Divisional Commandant. He gained Divisional Commandant status in the early nineties. Working as a Facilities Manager he already has the grounding to manage and guide his staff. Phil believes strongly in fully integrating the Specials with the Regular Officers hence increasing the support the Specials can provide.

'This is an exiting and challenging time for the Special Constabulary in Cambridgeshire. We have just appointed an excellent full time professional team, which will support the Special Constabulary in Policy, Training and Recruitment. This will allow the Specials to get out and support the regular force in achieving its objectives of both the Local and National policing plans. I look forward to moving the Special Constabulary into partnerships with outside agencies, particularly with employers of Special Constables'.

Phil has other posts of responsibility including; Director of the Cambridgeshire Football Association Ltd, National Contributory League Referee Delegate/ Assessor, Member of the CFA Disciplinary Committee, Chairman of the CFA Referee's Committee and Chairman of the Rules Revision Committee.

Phil would like to see the recruitment and retention of staff develop further and increase the number of Specials Constables throughout Cambridgeshire.

He believes The Special Constabulary is an important link between the community and the Police which results in another of the challenges of attempting to enhance this relationship so we can support the regular force in helping the public and catching criminals.

If you think you could rise to the challenge of the Special Constabulary and your between 18 and 55 years old call the recruitment hotline on 0845 456 456 4 for more information.

Special Constable Profiles

Clare Foster

Clare Foster, who lives in a Cambridgeshire village, is a divisional recruitment officer for the Special Constabulary in Cambridge. A nursery nurse when she first joined the Specials six years ago, Clare is now a student nurse at Addenbrooke's Hospital. Throughout this time, she has kept up her commitment to the Specials, although has had to reduce her time to cope with other demands such as the course work and placements which form part of her nurse training. 'One of the good things about the Specials is their flexibility about the time you can put in,' she comments. 'They want to keep your commitment so are prepared to let you choose your hours.'

At present, Clare's recruitment role takes up five or six evenings a month, and she also goes 'on the beat' with the regulars every other weekend, to keep in touch with the 'practical' side of the job. Attached to a specific team, Clare can find herself doing everything the regulars are called on to do: attending scenes of burglaries and domestic violence, for example, or coping with drinking incidents in the city's pubs - always a problem at weekends.

Clare was first attracted to the Specials after she left her voluntary work as an Air Cadet instructor to move to Cambridge when her husband joined the force. 'The work gives me a great sense of enjoyment - it's exciting and different. In my case, it also helps me understand the stresses of my husband's job. 'Before I joined the Specials, I thought I understood the hardship some sectors of society, such as the homeless, have to face through my work as a nurse, but this has really opened my eyes to the wider picture. 'Being part of the Specials gives me another way of helping people, which is very rewarding. It complements the nursing - you see people's problems from different angles.' Clare is currently appealing for sponsorship to go to Africa for a month, as part of her nurse training.

Daniel Ng

Daniel is a post-graduate student and has been a Special Constable for just over one year now. He does about 70 hours duty per month on average, mainly on general patrol duties, either in a patrol vehicle, or sometimes on foot, in the company of a regular officer. Most of his hours are served at weekends, on shifts running from early or late evening through to the early hours of the morning.

Predictably, this means that he is involved a lot in public order incidents - often alcohol related. His first arrest was of a drunk and disorderly man. 'The regular officer told me to go and arrest this chap who'd been causing some bother,' Daniel describes. 'When I went to arrest him he saw that I was a Special. "If I were to be arrested," he said, "I'd rather it was by a regular officer." A lot of people think that Specials can't arrest them. He didn't have any choice though - I arrested him all the same.'

Less humorous incidents occur, however. As part of his duties with the general response unit, Daniel was called out to find a man was unconscious on the pavement, being tended by paramedics. It was thought he'd simply collapsed, perhaps with a heart attack, but on questioning witnesses it appeared there had been a fight earlier. The man died before reaching hospital. Daniel doesn't find his commitment to the Specials intrudes on his private life. In fact, it gives him plenty to talk about, he says.

Michael Bell

Michael works in the motor trade and has been a Special for around 13 years in total. A former soldier, he joined up after leaving the forces and kept it up for over ten years. 'I left for a couple of years, largely because I wanted to spend more time with my children,' said Michael. 'I was putting in a lot of hours then.

After a while though I really missed it, and two and a half years ago I decided to get involved again, though not as much as before.' Nowadays Michael averages about 30 hours a month. Michael's experience makes him an ideal trainer. When he rejoined he realised that the training programme for new recruits had not been updated for a while, so he set about revising it. 'What we try to give people now is less of "a little knowledge of a lot of things" and more useful

Specials have to be able to see round situations, ask the right questions, communicate with people and gain their trust.' In his time he's had some tricky situations to deal with, such as the time when he and one other officer had to try to detain 14 people under arrest until a van arrived to take them in. 'It's funny the things that happen sometimes though,' continued Michael. 'I was once at a barbecue when this big bloke (I'm 5 foot 7 inches) who I recognised came up to me - I'd arrested him for drunken driving about a year ago. "Oh oh'" I thought. "You arrested me didn't you," he said. "Best thing that ever happened to me. Knocked some sense into me."

Another man who was arrested in the same incident later came back to us and joined up as a Special, and an excellent officer he is too.' Quite a tribute to the positive influence a Special can have. 'It's a great leveller, police work. When you're at a traffic accident and a child has been killed, for example. It's good to be able to help people in situations like that. It's certainly not about snitching on people or anything like that.'

Steve Jones

Steve is a warehouse operative at Ciba Agriculture's Whittlesford site. Steve joined the Cambridgeshire Specials five years ago, and is now a section officer, in charge of two teams, or 'reliefs' as they are known - a total of 13 men and women.

It is his job to assign duties and, most importantly, to ensure that the regular police get the cover they need, especially for emergencies. As well as his supervisory role, Steve also makes sure he keeps in touch with the 'on the street' side of the job. A good proportion of the 60 or 70 hours a month which he gives to the Specials are spent out on patrol with regular officers, attending incidents ranging from burglaries to traffic accidents.

'Basically we're front line police officers - it's changed over the last five years or so to give Specials a greater role, and now we do all that the regulars do.' Steve also gets involved in 'special operations', for instance, checking bikes and advising their owners as part of a safer cycling campaign; or going on plain clothes patrol in the city.
The latter entails noting anything which might assist crime prevention, and reporting quickly and accurately those incidents which need uniformed officers to attend, such as a fight breaking out. 'We're trained and encouraged to be observant all the time - this is really the name of the game,' says Steve. He first heard about the Specials from a colleague at work, thought it sounded interesting and after finding out more decided to join: 'It's a different and rewarding way to contribute to community life. 'In particular, it's good to get letters from the public, as we do, thanking us for being helpful and understanding.

It's also very rewarding being totally accepted by the regulars - we all work as a team, and everyone's treated the same. 'It can be strenuous and demanding sometimes, so you've got to be committed - it's a real police job.'