Family Reunion by Robert F Barker

Author:Robert F Barker [Barker, Robert F]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2018-10-18T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 30

Like Warrington, Harpurhey Police Station is an old, Victorian nick, one of the few the Manchester force retains within its estate and a throwback to the Dixon of Dock Green era. Once a Divisional Headquarters, today its warren of hidden rooms and endlessly twisting corridors house a disparate array of specialist squads and Area Support, including the Neighbourhood Policing Team. Ridiculously cramped for the number of officers posted there, the inhabiting factions wage a continuing battle for office space. Of its three floors - rumoured to stretch to four in the more remote parts – the third is the most sought after. Visiting Senior Officers rarely trust themselves to wander above the second, either for fear of what they may come across, or never finding their way out again.

The Eastern Area Community Affairs Department occupies one half of the floor and consists of three offices. The unit’s complement of constables and sergeants, and the pair of job-share support staff occupy one each, whilst the Department Inspector’s desk fits snugly into what is little more than a cubby-hole at the end of the corridor. The story is it used to be the ‘upper larder’ in the days when most of the floor was given over to the Senior Officers’ Dining Room.

As he waited, Carver studied the montage of posters, pamphlets, bulletins, community newsletters and other paraphernalia that covered every inch of wall space. Printed in a range of languages and dialects, they attested to the diversity of the department’s work, though Carver thought he remembered many from his last visit, which had to be over a year ago.

One section was new. A green felt notice board bearing the legend, ‘Department Performance Monitoring’ hung behind the door. Pinned to it were a range of coloured graphs, bar-charts and league-tables. Each one corresponded to some performance measure or target, comparing data-set periods. The targets covered areas such as the number of Community Contacts made, School Visits carried out, Neighbourhood Forums attended, and a host of others. Carver shook his head at the thought that some still believed that a nebulous field such as maintaining good Police-Community relations, lent itself to the sort of Target-and-Measure nonsense that afflicted most of the service these days.

‘Hope you’re impressed,’ the officer said as she came back into the office.

Community Constable Padma ‘Bones’ Skelton was carrying two brightly coloured mugs. They were both emblazoned with a cartoon-like figure showing a badger wearing a police uniform and bearing the logo, ‘Bobby Brock says, Never Go With Strangers.’ She offered one to Carver. Taking it with a smile, he settled himself on a desk while the woman he had come to see took one of the metal-framed office chairs that looked like it may have been saved from landfill.

As she sat down, Carver noted that she had barely changed since their last meeting. As slight and slim as ever and with a burnt-coffee complexion that was somehow ageless, she could still pass for a probationer. Of Indian extraction –

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