Behind the Badge - "I look after the Stratford Police Facebook... I love making people laugh"

"I look after the Stratford Police Facebook...I love making people laugh!"

PC Calum Samson is on the Stratford Safer Neighbourhood Team, helping to keep the community safe - he also manages the ever-popular Stratford Police Facebook page.

Read his story to get an insight #BehindTheBadge:  

"I used to work in the prison service and that teaches you how to deal with people.

"But I felt like it’s often too late to help people to make a change when you’re working in prison. Policing was something I really wanted to do and as I got closer to turning 30, I just went for it.

"When you’re a patrol officer you’re going from emergency to emergency, and you can be dealing with people at their worse."

"That’s an incredibly rewarding role but I like to get out and speak to people and look at ways to fix long term problems.

"Being in the Safer Neighbourhood Team now gives me the chance to be really flexible.

"What’s great about it is that it’s helping other officers too because our residents are seeing that, even though we’re all dressed in black and white, we’re all individuals with our own things going on.

"Recently I’ve even been going out in plain clothes to catch shoplifters and drug dealers.

"I look after the Stratford Police Facebook page too. My boss laughs and rolls her eyes every time she hears that I’ve been recognised again in the street, it happens a lot these days!

"But it’s nothing special really, I’m just an idiot with a Facebook login and I love making people laugh at the same time as getting important information or advice out.

"Hopefully, my posts help people see we’re just ordinary people too, trying to help.

"It can be difficult to switch off at the end of a shift, but everyone finds their own ways of doing that. I stick the football on and that’s my switch-off routine. And I’ll maybe take a look at Facebook…"

Have you read Lily's story about why she became a PC or did you watch Linda's video about the joy of being a Police Community Support Officer (PCSO)?

Did you catch our video about “Swiss Army knife” police dog Freddie and his handler Liam or read our Head of Investigations' story on how rewarding his role is?

We’ll share more stories in the weeks to come so watch this space.

Find out more about #BehindtheBadge on our dedicated webpage.