SPECIAL Constable Simon Richardson has been manning “COVID cars” of late, responding to complaints about breaches of coronavirus legislation.

But in the course of a career with Devon and Cornwall Police spanning 16 years, he says helping people who are suffering from poor mental health is a recurring theme.

SC Richardson is a career special who does not plan to join the regular force.

“So much of our work revolves around helping people with mental health issues who are feeling suicidal and are unable to get help from the right agencies at the time when they need them most,” he said.

“Often it will be a 999 to the police to deal with the ‘here and now’ situation.

“Recently my crew mate and I found someone who had drunk petrol, doused their car in petrol and was about to light matches when we arrived to give her that assistance.

“We’ve pulled people off bridges when we’ve seen them climb over.

“We’ve found people taking shelter under a blanket that felt they couldn’t go home because they had lost their job and didn’t know how to tell their families.

“Most recently, myself and two other colleagues pulled a female out of a river.

“For my team in Cullompton we are fortunate to have a fantastic neighbourhood policing team who will be liaising with me all the time. They will give us information so that we have a purpose and can direct our efforts when we start our shift, before it develops into responding or backing up on 999 calls.

“The whole policing team has made us feel welcomed. Our uniform is exactly the same as the regular police officers and so it’s virtually impossible to tell the difference.

“For us career specials who have no intention of joining the police because we couldn’t afford the pay cut, we still treat our policing as a second job. After 16 years I still have much more to give and do yet.

“The most bizarre thing is doing a shift where something amazing has happened or where you have had an impact on someone’s life and then the next day you are in your “mortgage paying job”.

“None of your colleagues has the faintest idea that the previous night you may have done CPR, caught a drunk driver or dealt with a domestic violence job.

“It’s fair to say that we couldn’t do this job without the support of our partners, who are looking after the children, doing the bedtime routine and also listening to us talk when we’ve been to a difficult job.”