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Ghosts In The Line Of Duty: Police / Policemen / Cops

Roasted over an open flame.
 
I've just finished reading "Credible Witness" (1) and just started reading "Credible Witness 2"; both get a thumbs-up form me.:) I was a bit sceptical about how good they would be - but actually reading about the experiences of the supernatural of veteran policemen and women was quite thought provoking.

Both are British-centric, and with a definite bias towards events that occurred in the Midlands (the author served in that area), but none the worse for that. It might (hopefully) turn into a long-running series.
 
yeah I’ve read both books big thumbs up from me.
Very good.hope there’s more coming out soon.Start a thread all you retired officers out there in Fortean land.
Haven’t you heard anything/or been told summat maximus.
And what about people/civil servants council workers etc who have seen stuff in the many buildings they own
 
Someone on here linked me to these Bedtime Stories and they are great.

This is one I watched this morning which as also unsettling. A different version of the hag:

 
Very short one.

I confess to watching some of those UK based cop shows that are a staple of Channel 5 - good bubblegum TV for when I'm doing boring stuff in the kitchen.

Anyway - I'll have to dig round the memory palace for where exactly I've seen it, but in one episode there's a short ghostly experience related by one the handier looking coppers in that series.

Toller Lane nick, in Bradford - now closed. The guy's in the toilets having a piss when he sees - in a mirror at right angles to his position - that someone is stood behind him. When he turns to look, there's no-one there.

As I say, one of the tougher looking coppers - but then, I'm not behind the door myself, and I can guarantee I'd have wet shoes after that.

It would be interesting to know if Toller Lane copshop had a reputation - I can't see anything else online.
 
Transplanted from:
Ghosts In The Line Of Duty: Firefighters / Firemen / Fire Stations
https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...uty-firefighters-firemen-fire-stations.68278/
==============


This made me think of Gene Hunt from Life on Mars. ‘Give me a memorial you sh*t’:rollingw:
FF9EABAF-1B48-4606-9AEA-17D9F247BD7C.jpeg
 
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This one is puzzling. A police man in glasses seen since the 60s. I’ve looked it up and it’s only recently they have started taking on people who need glasses. Unless you were ok if your eyesight got worse as you went up the ranks View attachment 37353
Im sure a chief inspector would have been in the ranks a while, so probably took to wearing glasses later in life, and nobodys is going to tell the chief he cant wear glasses :)
 
This one is puzzling. A police man in glasses seen since the 60s. I’ve looked it up and it’s only recently they have started taking on people who need glasses. Unless you were ok if your eyesight got worse as you went up the ranks

thoughts @maximus otter ?
 

39 Calls Involving "Paranormal Activity" Made to Police in Scotland Since 2019​

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed earlier this year with Scottish police for calls involving “paranormal activity” has returned dozens of results, according to a report issued by Police Scotland.

A few simply stated that “paranormal activity” had been reported, while others stated that the callers had claimed to experience strange lights or noises.

Even more bizarrely, one person reported “black creatures coming out of wall," and another was reportedly “haunted by ghost of child.”

1669931016269.png

https://www.singularfortean.com/new...ctivity-made-to-police-in-scotland-since-2019
 

39 Calls Involving "Paranormal Activity" Made to Police in Scotland Since 2019​

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed earlier this year with Scottish police for calls involving “paranormal activity” has returned dozens of results, according to a report issued by Police Scotland.

A few simply stated that “paranormal activity” had been reported, while others stated that the callers had claimed to experience strange lights or noises.

Even more bizarrely, one person reported “black creatures coming out of wall," and another was reportedly “haunted by ghost of child.”

View attachment 61253
https://www.singularfortean.com/new...ctivity-made-to-police-in-scotland-since-2019
A lot of paranormal investigators causing trouble.

Two interesting/worrying ones

Missing person/absconder- paranormal incident experienced.
Police information- Problem with vest, same as Police vests, wants Paranormal on it.

Paranormal police vest? Why am I getting Wellington Paranormal vibes on that one? Not even sure what it means. I’m taking it it’s the American definition of vest. But not sure why they are using that term in Scotland.
 
Paranormal police vest? Why am I getting Wellington Paranormal vibes on that one? Not even sure what it means. I’m taking it it’s the American definition of vest. But not sure why they are using that term in Scotland.

I wondered about that one ... Could it be that "vest" was used as operator shorthand for "investigation / investigator" to save space on an entry form? If so, the description might mean something like:

"Caller has problem with investigation / investigator; it's the same as (prior?) police investigation / investigator; caller wants 'Paranormal' (TV crew) brought in instead."
 
I wondered about that one ... Could it be that "vest" was used as operator shorthand for "investigation / investigator" to save space on an entry form? If so, the description might mean something like:

"Caller has problem with investigation / investigator; it's the same as (prior?) police investigation / investigator; caller wants 'Paranormal' (TV crew) brought in instead."
That would make sense.
 

39 Calls Involving "Paranormal Activity" Made to Police in Scotland Since 2019​

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed earlier this year with Scottish police for calls involving “paranormal activity” has returned dozens of results, according to a report issued by Police Scotland.

A few simply stated that “paranormal activity” had been reported, while others stated that the callers had claimed to experience strange lights or noises.

Even more bizarrely, one person reported “black creatures coming out of wall," and another was reportedly “haunted by ghost of child.”

View attachment 61253
https://www.singularfortean.com/new...ctivity-made-to-police-in-scotland-since-2019

Only 15 of those reports allege actual paranormal activity, and one of those is about receiving an email about PA in Italy. The rest are simply reports of people simply looking into, or doing house-to-house enquiries concerning, PA.

I did about three years in my Force’s control room (1998-2002) as a radio operator/call taker, and l’m damn sure that we didn’t have a unique reference code for PA. ln fact, we didn’t have a system for assigning write-off numeric codes for incidents at all, e.g. “299 = Damage-only RTA”, or “136 = Domestic dispute.” Everything was typed out “longhand.”

NOTE:

a) Scottish forces may do things differently.
b) Things have doubtless changed in the past 20 years.
c) l can’t remember if we used drop-down menus on “Command & Control 3” in order to write off incidents. l don’t recall doing it, but there must have been some way for third parties to “mine” our data in order to produce statistics for the government, etc. “Shoplifting is up 3% but criminal damage is down by 10%.”

All l can think is that the various Scottish Forces have simply trawled their computer records for uses of the word “Paranormal”. (Every record above features its use.) This would ignore a host of words which l might have typed into incident records in such cases, e.g. “ghost/ly”, “spooky”, “odd”, “supernatural”, etc.

maximus otter
 
Not especially impressed with that Scottish FOIA, other than how often so-called paranormal investigators are reported as casting a public nuisance, so maybe it has become a common defence for people engaged in nefarious nighttime activities to claim they were looking for ghosts..?

If you want reports from police officers who have experienced the paranormal then you want to read Andy Gilbert's books:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Credible-Witness-Paranormal-Police-Stories/dp/1326927728

All profits go to charity.
 
Not especially impressed with that Scottish FOIA, other than how often so-called paranormal investigators are reported as casting a public nuisance, so maybe it has become a common defence for people engaged in nefarious nighttime activities to claim they were looking for ghosts..?

If you want reports from police officers who have experienced the paranormal then you want to read Andy Gilbert's books:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Credible-Witness-Paranormal-Police-Stories/dp/1326927728

All profits go to charity.
I second this. Andy Gilbert's books are excellent - and very creepy!
 
Police information- Problem with vest, same as Police vests, wants Paranormal on it.

Paranormal police vest? Why am I getting Wellington Paranormal vibes on that one? Not even sure what it means. I’m taking it it’s the American definition of vest. But not sure why they are using that term in Scotland.

Police Scotland officers wear a distinctive yellow hi vis tactical stab vest which they use to carry their equipment on and within, which has the word POLICE displayed on it front and back like so:

6FC0BFDB-7167-428F-A187-9D547D054F72.jpeg

I took it to mean that a person or group had got in touch with the police to ask if they would be allowed to wear tactical vests similar to Police Scotland but with ‘PARANORMAL’ written on them instead of ‘POLICE’. There’s not some special meaning to the word ‘vest’ in the Scottish vernacular, it means the same here as it doesn in England, Ireland, Canada, the USA etc...


All l can think is that the various Scottish Forces have simply trawled their computer records for uses of the word “Paranormal”.
That looks to be exactly what they’ve done, a simple keyword search. For the record there has only been one police force in Scotland (the Police Service of Scotland, or ‘Police Scotland’ as they style themselves) since 2013 when the previous eight territorial forces and the Scottish Police Services Authority were all merged. It’s fair to say this didn’t go very well…
 
I took it to mean that a person or group had got in touch with the police to ask if they would be allowed to wear tactical vests similar to Police Scotland but with ‘PARANORMAL’ written on them instead of ‘POLICE’.

“Any person who, not being a constable, wears any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive shall be guilty of an offence…”

s.90 (2), Police Act 1996

maximus otter
 
Police Scotland officers wear a distinctive yellow hi vis tactical stab vest which they use to carry their equipment on and within, which has the word POLICE displayed on it front and back like so:

View attachment 61616

I took it to mean that a person or group had got in touch with the police to ask if they would be allowed to wear tactical vests similar to Police Scotland but with ‘PARANORMAL’ written on them instead of ‘POLICE’. There’s not some special meaning to the word ‘vest’ in the Scottish vernacular, it means the same here as it doesn in England, Ireland, Canada, the USA etc...



That looks to be exactly what they’ve done, a simple keyword search. For the record there has only been one police force in Scotland (the Police Service of Scotland, or ‘Police Scotland’ as they style themselves) since 2013 when the previous eight territorial forces and the Scottish Police Services Authority were all merged. It’s fair to say this didn’t go very well…
Vest isn’t the same thing in England and USA. In England it’s something you wear under your clothes to keep warm and in USA it’s a waistcoat.
 
“Any person who, not being a constable, wears any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive shall be guilty of an offence…”

s.90 (2), Police Act 1996

maximus otter

And in Scots law the offence is under section 92 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 which also brought about the previously mentioned Police Service of Scotland and abolished the territorial forces...

92 Impersonation etc.

(1) It is an offence for a person (not being a constable)—

(a) to impersonate a constable with an intent to deceive, or
(b) to do anything calculated to suggest that the person is a constable.

(2) It is an offence for a person (other than a constable) to possess any article of police uniform without the permission of the Authority.

(3) It is a defence for a person charged under subsection(2) to prove that the article—
(a) was obtained lawfully, and
(b) is in the person's possession for a lawful purpose.

(4) It is an offence for a person (other than a constable) to wear, without the prior permission of the Authority, any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives an appearance so nearly resembling that of a constable as to be calculated to deceive.

(5) A person who is guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 3 months or a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.

(6) In this section an “article of police uniform” means—
(a) any article of uniform or any distinctive badge or mark usually issued to constables, or
(b) any article having the appearance of such article, badge or mark.
 
Vest isn’t the same thing in England and USA. In England it’s something you wear under your clothes to keep warm and in USA it’s a waistcoat.
In the railway industry the orange hi vis waistcoats we all wear have been called ‘vests’ universally ever since they were introduced in the late 1960s - I tend to look at everything through a railwayman’s lens so I didn’t realise until now that the word isn’t used that way more generally. A spot of googling does suggest that the police use it in the same way though - https://www.police-supplies.co.uk/vests-harnesses/police-vests and https://www.copshopuk.com/police-duty-vests for example.

Of course in the Scots language the word for a vest is ‘simmet’
 
In the railway industry the orange hi vis waistcoats we all wear have been called ‘vests’ universally ever since they were introduced in the late 1960s - I tend to look at everything through a railwayman’s lens so I didn’t realise until now that the word isn’t used that way more generally. A spot of googling does suggest that the police use it in the same way though - https://www.police-supplies.co.uk/vests-harnesses/police-vests and https://www.copshopuk.com/police-duty-vests for example.

Of course in the Scots language the word for a vest is ‘simmet’
Well we often end up following what the Americans do. A bugbear of mine is calling British tv shows seasons.
 
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