I work on a Georgian street near to a primary national rail station in a major city. Sat in work today and a police van stopped outside my office’s “shop window” with the blue lights flashing. Two officers jumped out and marched towards the door. I spotted them and assumed it must be some sort of firearms issue (malicious complaint, misfiled paperwork etc cycling through my mind) so jumped up to go and greet them. At the glass door a man was urinating, he was boxed in between me and the officers… old chap in one hand, huge can of strong larger in the other and surrounded by his own ****. Normally I am like a 6ft, 80kg highly wired terrier and patrol the bounds of my building on the slightest noise, litter throwing etc. I don’t know how I had missed it but it was probably in the best interests of everyone that I had. “What on earth do you think you are doing?” I bellowed at the man. He tried to apologise but the officers intervened “We’ll take it from here, what he has done is disgusting, and not acceptable.” The officers brought the man inside to interview, in front of the open plan office. Within view of then present men and women the officers grilled him. I went to the kitchen and drew a bucket of water and soap. As I returned the lead officer asked the man (I am paraphrasing as I can’t recall the technical terms etc) if he would rather accept a caution and community justice order or face prosecution, which may include indecent exposure which could lead to being added to the sex offenders’ register. Our red-faced perp went from apologetic and embarrassed to defiant “That’s ridiculous, I’ve not done anything indecent”, looking to me for support. Sadly he had misjudged my compassion and so I said loudly in front of all the staff “Well, it is quite weird that you chose to expose your genitals through this glass door in front of these men and women in the middle of the day, that is not normal behaviour is it?” I’ve never seen anyone look so mortified. He accepted the caution and justice order, after failing to plead it down. He said he would clean it up but the officers said to him, “No, you will be getting back onto the train home and sobering up”. The lead officer tried to take the bucket from me to clean the urine but I declined and quickly swooshed the mess away with a strong wave of hot, soapy water. The officers came back in to chat to us briefly and cuddle the dogs.
I had forgotten to mention that whilst my dogs are trained to sit at the entrance unmoving, with visitors coming and going past them, the excitement of the three men stood next to them in animated discussion had tempted the puppy to stand up and wander the couple of feet over to investigate. Nuzzling into the man for affection whilst he was being reprimanded for weeing where he shouldn’t have… there must have been a mutual sense of knowing between the two. I didn’t feel it was appropriate for me to interrupt the interview to retrieve my dog so left him there, in a surreal scene.
Afterwards, the officers petted the dogs and chatted to us briefly. All in it was sorted within 10 minutes and whilst only a very trivial matter, the officers had a pride in their city and civic society. I was left feeling very impressed with Merseyside Police.
I had forgotten to mention that whilst my dogs are trained to sit at the entrance unmoving, with visitors coming and going past them, the excitement of the three men stood next to them in animated discussion had tempted the puppy to stand up and wander the couple of feet over to investigate. Nuzzling into the man for affection whilst he was being reprimanded for weeing where he shouldn’t have… there must have been a mutual sense of knowing between the two. I didn’t feel it was appropriate for me to interrupt the interview to retrieve my dog so left him there, in a surreal scene.
Afterwards, the officers petted the dogs and chatted to us briefly. All in it was sorted within 10 minutes and whilst only a very trivial matter, the officers had a pride in their city and civic society. I was left feeling very impressed with Merseyside Police.
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