Special's 25 years on patrol for no pay

The 56-year-old, who juggles his police commitments with his work as a maintenance engineer, signed up as a special constable in 1983, enrolling at Dudley police station. After a weekend of training he was ready for his first patrol and he has not looked back.

Now Mr Franklin has been named the borough's Officer of the Year after coming up with a pioneering scheme to comfort victims of anti-social behaviour and race hate crime.

He says he still enjoys the work and has no plans to give up his second calling.

"I'm not retired yet," he said. "I like doing it because it's a way of helping people, and at the same time it's an education.

"You meet all sorts of people, particularly youngsters and I have a lot of time for them. They get a bad name but I've always found if you treat them with respect, they give it back."

The grandfather-of-one, of Oakham, Dudley says he has seen "all sorts" of things and remembers tackling four burglars at Castle High School about 15 years ago.

"We got the four of them, the tools they used and recovered the stuff they were trying to take. That was a good night's work," he said.

In a typical week, Mr Franklin will do one four-hour shift on the beat on top of his normal day, working 8am to 5pm before heading out with helmet and handcuffs from 6pm to 10pm.

But he has been known to put in double time for the volunteer force.

Mr Franklin worked the Dudley North patrol for 22 years before moving to the Halesowen beat almost four years ago.