POLLY SAYS FAREWELL AFTER 39 YEARS POLICE SERVICE
| Published: 28th June 2007 19:09 |
POLICE said a fond farewell to one of their longest serving colleagues when Pauline Walker retired after nearly 40 years of service.
Polly, as she is known to friends, and who lives in Burton, joined the Staffordshire force as a cadet in 1968 and completed 30 years as a regular officer.
But the love of police work lured her back and, for the last seven and a half years, she has worked as a member of police staff in the identification suite at Burton Police Station.
Her work in the unit involved helping organise identity parades of suspects which, in the last few years, have changed dramatically.
"When I first worked in the identification suite, we still arranged traditional line-ups of suspects who stood in a row and had to be picked out by the witness," she said.
"But now, all that has changed, and we use video technology as part of the process which is a lot more efficient."
The new system is known as VIPER - Video Identification Parade Electronic Recording - which enables witnesses to study video images of a suspect in an "electronic" line up.
For most of her career as a police constable, Polly was stationed at Lichfield but also worked at Burntwood.
"In those early days, women police officers worked mainly helping female victims and children, but that all changed and today, every officer does the same job," she explained.
"In many ways I am sad to go after so many years but I know I am leaving behind a great team," said Polly who plans to retire to a new home in Wales.
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