Real life police work couldn’t be further from that shown on the television series Life on Mars. John Scott reports.
Detective Sergeant Graham Sanders has neither watched the television series Life On Mars nor raced to the scene of a crime in a Cortina.
But he was a real life cop during the era covered by the award-winning BBC series and its follow up Ashes to Ashes - and is still on the case after 35 years in the force.
The 53-year old from Sedgley confesses: “The job has changed out of all recognition. If an officer I started with was picked up and dropped into one of today’s police stations he would not know where to start.”
Det Sgt Sanders who has spent his entire career around West Bromwich and Tipton with almost 28 years of it in plain clothes adds: “I am probably the last of the career detectives. There have been so many changes - some of which were for the better.”
His dedication to duty has been singled out for praise by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and won a clutch of lifetime achievement awards, but there is still no sign of him reaching the end of the road on his beat.
Det Sgt Sanders became a police cadet in 1969, joined the full-time constabulary in 1972, was a detective by the end of the decade and never returned to uniform. “I like knocking on doors and investigating crime,” he says.
“In the early days we went out in Austin 1100s and then it was Allegros.
“You were encouraged to go round the pubs, betting offices and cafes recruiting your own informants. You were paid expenses and they were paid for information.
“Nowadays if a detective finds an informant the person is immediately handed over to a specialist source handling squad. There is no ownership of informers by the detective on the ground any more and therefore they have less interest in cultivating them. That is a fundamental change.
“In the past we were left to our own devices to investigate crime. You cleared up offences with your local knowledge and local contacts.
“Now inquiries are more targeted and focussed with detectives tied to performance indicators. There are daily management meetings where tasks are set and officers react to specific crime far more quickly.”
Fears of corrupt detectives taking backhanders and “fitting up” suspects prompted major changes in the role of the plain clothes officer.
Police squads were regularly broken up to discourage detectives from serving for a long time - and being promoted - within the same specialist unit.
Det Sgt Sanders observes: “We lost a lot of experience during that upheaval. There was a complete waste of skills and abilities that set the CID back a number of years.
“In the West Bromwich and Wednesbury police areas there used to be a Detective Superintendent, two Detective Chief Inspectors and three Detective Inspectors. Now there is one DCI and one DI. The management has been completely streamlined.”
DNA genetic fingerprinting, computers, CCTV cameras have been the most significant developments in the fight against crime during his service. Now there is greater reliance on science than old-style “coppering.”
The Crown Prosecution Service has more influence on the course of court action and there are far more forms than previously.
“We spend more time filling in pieces of paper and less time coppering than when I started,” says Det Sgt Sanders.
“It takes eight hours to process a prisoner after arrest, a job that used to take three hours max.”
He has no idea how many collars he has “felt” over the years but was particularly pleased by the arrest of Paul Blackwood for the attempted rape of a 101-year-old woman who became the oldest female to give evidence in a criminal case.
The detective also spent 15 months on the inquiry into the Hillsborough soccer disaster and played an important role in the arrest of French national Cherif Doua, now serving 25 years for the West Bromwich murder of Valerie Brockelsby.
He concludes: “I take a great deal of pride from the work done today by young officers out on the streets 24-7. They have to deal with far higher levels of violence and suffer the effects of society’s loss of respect for authority.
“There is more opportunity to have a varied police career now. I have achieved all I wanted to in the job but do not want to give up yet. I have said that I will retire this year - but I have said that several times before.
“I do not know exactly when I will jack it in but I do know one thing. I would do it all again without any hesitation - so there can’t be too much wrong with the job.”
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