Out on patrol: A reporter's day with Dunfermline police

Police Scotland had kindly agreed to let me accompany an officer for the day, out on a ride along on Thursday, September 19. Over the course of the day, I would be able to follow the officer and see what a day in his working life entailed.

Upon my arrival at Dunfermline Police Station on Holyrood Place, I met Sergeant Fraser Simpson and Kirsti Clark from the communications team.

Getting ready to head out. (Image: David Wardle) To kick off the day I was given a tour of the station, which included the cells (I must admit, I am in no hurry to see those rooms again - the toilets alone were a grim enough deterrent), as well as the gym, the fingerprinting machine, interview rooms, and the kitchen.

I was highly surprised to discover that those spending the night at the station actually have a good range of dinners to chose from, including spaghetti and vegetable lasagne.

Over the course of the tour, I got to meet staff from several different departments, including members from the major investigations team, and got to hear all about their roles.

Sergeant Simpson, who has worked in the police for 15 years, told me how his role can make “a positive difference to folk’s lives”, but he also told me how becoming a sergeant was not his original career plan.

“Being honest it was actually a career move that I didn’t really think about too much," he says.

“I initially wanted to be a primary school teacher, however it was unfortunate that I didn’t get the grades in order to do that.

“So, I was 19 years old, I had went to college up in Aberdeen but I didn’t enjoy it, so I came home, and I was basically pushed into it by my mum who wanted me to find a sort of decent career to get myself involved in.” He told the Press.

Sergeant Fraser joined during a recruitment drive in 2009.

He added: “Looking back on it, it’s been a worthwhile and good career for me, but also something that I feel that I’m actually pretty good at it, albeit the first few years I was like a rabbit in the headlights and didn’t know what I was doing.

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“It’s something that you grow into and you get a feel for it, then realise that you can make a bit of a positive difference to folks lives.”

After just an hour in the station, things began to heat up. Police were going to be heading out to search a property in a drugs raid.

The briefing before the search took place. (Image: Newsquest) Before heading out I was allowed to sit in for part of the briefing before jumping into an unmarked car along with Sergeant Simpson and Kirsti.

Understandably, this moment was one of heightened adrenaline as we followed the several other police vehicles to the address.

There was no time to lose once the car was parked. We jumped out and bolted along the street just in time to catch a glimpse of officers banging down the front door and pouring into the house.

The search taking place. (Image: Newsquest)Once they were inside, all activity outside suddenly seemed to slow down to a crawl, as all the action was hidden behind the four walls of the now-doorless property. Eventually as police emerged it seemed to have been a successful operation.

We would later find that three people had been arrested in connection with drugs offences and cocaine with an estimated street value of around £3000 was seized.

After the adrenaline of the search had waned, and some lunch had been had, we headed out on a speed check on a busy Dunfermline road.

The speed on this particular road was 20mph, and while the majority of people were obeying the speed limit, a couple of people were stopped for a chat about their speed. It looked like a good opportunity for the police to encourage people to drive responsibly.

Of course, the highlight for me was being given the chance to use the handheld device that register’s a car’s speed as it approaches. I can confirm it is actually harder than it looks to align the red dot that appears with a car for long enough to catch their speed!

We finished off the day with some parking safety checks at Townhill Primary School. This exercise is to check that parents and carers have safely parked at schools when it is time to pick up and drop off their children.

Speaking of his job, Sergeant Simpson commented: “I’m really enjoying this period here, I was fortunate enough to be given the community sergeant’s job in February of this year, and it’s something that I’ve really thrown myself into.

“Being honest it’s not something that probably suited my career before when I joined this job if that makes sense. I have a detective background in the CID, where we would be dealing with the sort of more serious end of criminality.

“Whereas now, a lot of my time is actually taken up dealing with non-criminal, but still issues that are quite high up on people’s agenda, but it might not hit into the criminal bracket, like sort of large groups associating in various areas, or even down to things like litter and dog fouling and things like that.”

As my one day with the police showed, the beginning, middle, and end of a day can completely contrast each other, and it seems that no two days are the same for Sergeant Simpson.

He added: “I live in Kirkcaldy, and I use the 20 minutes coming into my work to plan out my day, and it never ever goes to plan.

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“It never goes the way I want it to because there’s always you come in, and there’ll be something that gets in the way of it, which you learn to live with, that doesn’t frustrate me, it’s just part of the job.”

However, when asked if he had any memorable tales to tell from his career, Sergeant Simpson did have one he wanted to tell about an investigation into a bike shop in Glenrothes.

“A load of bikes were stolen, which ruined their business over the Christmas period, so I was determined to do all I could to try and get to the bottom of it.

“Thankfully with help from other departments I was able to identify a property that we believed they were stored in, alongside a load of other stolen stuff.

"So it was a case of whipping up as many resources as I possibly could, applying for property search warrants, and we went through to Ayr and executed four property search warrants, at various addresses, and commercial businesses.

“So a lot of planning went into it, a lot of resources went into it, and we successfully managed to recover £100,000 worth of stolen property for crimes all over mostly the central belt of Scotland, so that was something I was really delighted with.

“It was a proper team effort with the guys from Fife, but also colleagues from elsewhere in Police Scotland and various sort of departments that help me out along the way.”

After my day with the police, I came away feeling I had seen some valuable community policing out in the city, and got to experience the varied and exciting day of a sergeant.