Youth Crime Reduction Co-ordinator
There’s little unusual about seeing a bobby on the beat in your local village. Little Downham during the 1960s was no exception. However, Dave Glover was no ordinary copper. At the tender age of four, he could regularly be seen patrolling the main street in a sergeant’s outfit.
“I’d always wanted to be a policeman,” Dave mused, shortly before retiring from the force in May 2008.
During his time with the Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Dave’s had ample opportunity to wear real police uniforms, though he’s tended to favour civilian clothes during his most recent posting as the force’s youth crime reduction co-ordinator.
Dave’s 30-year career has encompassed at least 10 different roles, based in numerous locations throughout the county. There’s rarely been a dull moment.
Over the three decades, Dave’s received two Chief Constable’s commendations for bravery and outstanding police work. In 2007 the sergeant was nominated for a Cambridgeshire Justice Award, largely recognising his role in changing the way kids can be punished in children’s homes.
But everyday duties that haven’t made the headlines have been just as rewarding for Dave. Particularly his educational role in Cambridgeshire’s schools and colleges as youth crime reduction co-ordinator.
After retiring from the police, Dave plans to continue working with schools, using interactive tools to stamp out bullying and cut crime.
Then (1987, to be precise)...
...And (almost) now... Dave receiving his Cambridgeshire Justice Award from
Cambridgeshire Criminal Justice Board chair Julie Spence in 2007.
A very physical education
After leaving Soham Grammar School (now known as Soham Village College) at the age of 16 in 1976, Dave joined Cambridgeshire Constabulary as a cadet, unaware that his cohort would be the scheme’s last.
His physical training instructor was none other than Geoff Capes, the most capped British male athlete ever, renowned for being the country’s former shot put champion and twice winning the World’s Strongest Man title.
At his peak, Capes, now a budgerigar breeder, weighed 23 stone.
Dave says: “He was the world’s strongest man and he used to call me muscles.”
Getting into the spirit
Dave and his fellow cadets got into the spirit of underage boozing shortly after starting at the police. This didn’t fit in with cadet rules – and the young trainees soon landed themselves in trouble.
Dave says: “We got a lecture on our first day not to go to licensed premises. On the second day we walked along the country lanes to Grafham Water and got drunk.”
Based in Brampton, the cadets were regulars at a local nightclub – but their naughty night-time forays were soon put to an end.
Dave says: “We all came back one night just as Mr Capes was doing a hostel inspection. He said to my friend, Lee Gillett: ‘Have you been drinking?’ He said: ‘Yes, Mr Capes, I’ve been drinking lime. I must admit though, it did have a bit of lager in it.’ So we all got six months’ extra duties on reception.”
Ironically on the night in question, Dave had limited his liquid intake to glasses of milk, due to an upset stomach.
“All I’d had was milk – but I was there. I used to be there a lot.”
After finishing his cadetship at the age of 18-and-a-half, Dave completed a 10-week course at Eynsham Hall Police Training Centre in Oxfordshire, together with Steve Tilsley and Dave Summers, also retiring from the Cambridgeshire force this year.
Dave’s stay at the old stately home was surreal: he shared the old nursery with four other trainees and a wallpaper border of Victorian rocking horses.
Liver, sprouts and getting caught out
Dave’s first posting was to St Ives Police Station in 1978. As a young, single cop, he boarded with a family at Hilton village for the first six months.
He recalls: “I had to pay half of my wages – 74 quid a month – towards rent. I lived with a nice family with three kids. I remember being fed on liver and sprouts a lot.”
As a bobby on the beat, Dave had to patrol St Ives town centre three times during each shift. Part of his duties involved checking places of public entertainment, including the old cinema.
Dave says: “The usherette was a bit sweet on me although I didn’t realise it at the time. I always used to get a Coke and a packet of peanuts.”
The rookie cop soon realised that if he timed it correctly, over three nights, he could watch an entire film. However, he was caught out when his boss, the late Inspector Norman Pipe, called to check up on him.
“Not wanting to get caught in the cinema, I said I was on the other side of the street. I came out the front of the cinema – and there was the inspector on patrol. He said: ‘That’s what I like to see Dave, checking your places of public entertainment.’ I just said: ‘Yes sir’.”
Toilet humour
After a couple of years, Dave joined the special patrol group as a plain clothes detective.
He recalls: “Even though I don’t smoke I felt it necessary in true Life On Mars style to buy a pipe and smoke Balkan Sobranie tobacco – which was disgusting. I also had a Mexican moustache.”
He remembers arresting a man who’d been inside a St Neots toilet for three-and-a-half hours, trying to solicit sex.
“I got into the next cubicle, looked over and said: ‘Come out.’ He said: ‘I don’t want you.’ I said: ‘I don’t want you but you’re under arrest.’ I had to climb over the top of the cubicle to get him out. I gave him a caution.”
Breakdown service
In 1981 Dave returned to uniformed policing as a constable based in St Neots.
The town’s market square can be a good place for getting a bargain – but Dave got more than he bargained for while helping out a motorist by the name of Kathy, whose car had broken down.
“She asked me to keep an eye on her car overnight. I rang her up the next day and asked her out. We were married within 12 months.”
After marrying in 1982, the couple, who last year celebrated their 25-year wedding anniversary, moved to St Ives.
Between 1985 and 1989, Dave was the village bobby for Bluntisham, Earith, Colne and Needingworth, a job he “loved”. His beat included three schools, and it was while teaching youngsters about stranger danger and cycle safety that Dave first became interested in education.
“I realised how responsive children were.”
While his sons David, Bryn and Robbie were growing up, the father-of-three became a Parent Teacher Association chair before being appointed a school governor of what is now the Abbey School at Ramsey.
Dave saw a different side to issues involving young people while based as a temporary detective constable doing child protection work attached to the family unit in Huntingdon, from 1990 to 1991.
Plane crashes
Twice within as many years, Dave was the first officer on the scene following a plane crash.
The first was in 1987, while the policeman was sitting in the Bluntisham office. Dave recalls being alerted to the unfolding drama by a frantic knock on the door.
“It was an elderly farmer. He pointed at the sky at an A10 tank buster and said: ‘There were two of them’. I looked towards Over and saw smoke rising.”
Dave made his way to nearby Over Fen, where the fighter bomber was firing machine gun rounds into the ground. He watched the unhurt American pilot pick up his parachute before being choppered away.
“After two or three minutes all I could hear was sirens.”
Two years later, while Dave was the acting sergeant at St Ives, he got a spooky sense of déja vu when he was called to another crash involving an RAF plane. This time, those on board weren’t so lucky.
The Canberra reconnaissance aircraft had crashed onto the A141 near Wyton, narrowly missing road traffic. All three pilots died.
Armed stand-off
Dave got his first Chief Constable’s commendation in 1991, following a stand-off with an armed robber.
He recalls pursuing the crook and his accomplices (he was on his own.) in an unmarked car to Grafham Water, where the man tried to escape.
“We ended up cornering him in a cul-de-sac. He reversed at full speed and rammed into us. We drove on with the front of our car hanging off to the A1 where I got a lift in a police car.”
Dave and his fellow officers followed the bandits to Northamptonshire. Meanwhile the robber was waving a gun out of the window of his getaway car. Following a stand-off on the A14 near Corby, the crook was arrested. He was subsequently jailed for 12 years.
New challenges
Shortly after, Dave was promoted to sergeant and stationed at Ely until 1997, when he was transferred to St Ives. One of his highlights was organising the crowd control for the town’s Millennium celebrations.
“There were 10,000 people at the square in St Ives in the Millennium.”
Soon enough it was time for another role change – this time as a control room sergeant at the police headquarters in Hinchingbrooke, dealing with firearms incidents and major traffic collisions.
In 2004 Dave became Cambridgeshire’s youth crime reduction co-ordinator, a role he held until his retirement. Part of his job involved engaging school students in a bid to cut crime and stamp out bullying.
“It has become my life,” the sergeant simply says.
However, when Dave took up the post, he didn’t realise that he’d be making significant changes to other people’s lives. In 2005 he was approached by the Youth Offending Service to carry out research into the use of incarceration at a number of children’s homes.
He says: “What I found was that several children had gone from having no criminal convictions at all to being charged and imprisoned in a few cases for relatively minor offences.”
Dave took his concerns to the Commission for Social Care Inspectorate, which polices children’s homes, and spoke at a meeting of care home operators. The report was also taken to the National Magistrates’ Association.
It resulted in a change to Crown Prosecution Service guidelines, regarding the treatment of children in care accused of committing crime. It also led to tighter scrutiny of how children in care are disciplined.
Dave’s research, together with his tireless work with schools, earned him his second Chief Constable’s commendation in early 2007. The same year, he was nominated for the prestigious Justice Awards, recognising his contributions to youth justice.
E-ngage
Three years ago Dave was invited to a demonstration of the interactive teaching programme, E-ngage. That session was about to change his life.
“I was so impressed with its interactivity that I started to use it as an engagement tool within police schools liaison.”
Dave talks about E-ngage on Japanese television.
Since then E-ngage has won numerous awards, scooping the Global Junior Challenge twice and being shortlisted for the Stockholm Challenge. Dave’s made numerous television appearances, including ones showing his work with Peterborough schools during Inside Justice Week 2006.
Late last year Dave’s work with Cambridgeshire schools during anti-bullying week was featured on Japanese news.
E-ngage has gone from strength to strength over recent years. It’s now being used in Australia to teach youngsters about internet safety.
Since leaving the police on May 3, Dave’s been working fulltime as a director of E-ngage. He may have officially retired but he’s not about to take a rest anytime soon.