Police Officer Goes Shopping Whilst on Duty

On Wednesday the 30th of December 2020, I took my wife shopping to Mostyn Champneys retail park. Whilst I was sat in my vehicle waiting for my wife, a marked police vehicle, a BMW X5 drove in and parked in the car park by Wilko.

The officer got out of the vehicle, took his fluorescent coat off and put his own jacket on and then walked over towards Argos and joined the queue which was for click and collect. Whilst waiting in the queue, he puts his face mask on, waited his turn then collected his goods and then left going back to his vehicle, he changed coats then drove off; the time of this incident was 3:33 pm.

On Thursday the 31st of December 2020 at 11:05am, I called 101 and made a complaint regarding this officer shopping for his own personal use whilst on duty. The male I spoke to went quickly to his defence and said it could have been a police matter, I explained to him it wasn’t. I didn’t tell him I had taken photographs I asked the call handler to record my complaint and could he give me a reference, he gave me one #Y190038. I also explained to the call handler it’s not for you to investigate or to jump to conclusions, that’s up to his Sergeant.

On the 3^rd of January 2021, Sergeant Hayroyal called my mobile, she said that she was from the firearms unit in Cheshire and she was dealing with my complaint. I gave her all the background details, told her I had photos and I asked Sergeant Hayroyal “did you give the officer permission to go shopping whilst on duty?”, she said “no I never” but said we do long hours, and he would have been on a long shift and she said she wouldn’t have minded him going shopping!

I explained to her he is a public servant; he gets paid for his long shifts and the public don’t pay for his fuel to go personal shopping. Towards the end of the conversation, I asked Sgt Hayroyal why hasn’t this complaint gone to PSD, why has it come to you in Cheshire? She then said I will pass it on to the officer’s sergeant, the call was ended. To be fair she was well spoken and polite.

I received a further call on Tuesday 5th January from Sergeant Jason Diamond of the Road Policing Unit who was the officer’s Sergeant from St Asaph.

He told me he’d had the details passed to him from Sgt Hayroyal I asked Jason who gave this police officer permission to do his personal shopping whist on duty? Jason replied I did. So, the officer phones you up and asked could he go shopping in a police vehicle? Again, he replied “Yes”.

I told him I don’t believe that, you’re covering for him. He went onto say, he could have done a long shift and worked long hours. I again explained to him like I explained to Sgt Hayroyal, you get paid for your long shift.

I then said what would you think of this, all NHS staff do long shifts and have worked very hard through the pandemic, could you imagine a nurse after completing a 12-hour shift saying to their supervisor “is it ok if I just use the ambulance to go buy some lingerie for myself from the shop, I won’t be long I’ll be back in 10 minutes?” I told the Sergeant, its not acceptable is it.

He was lost for words, but he went on to say 50% of the public would agree with you and think what the officer has done is wrong and the other 50% wouldn’t be bothered about him going shopping.

I asked the Sergeant, can he give me the officers name and number, he refused to give it to me and said you’ve got my name and that is enough. I feel complaints are supposed to be dealt with professionally and not by trying to fob me off over the phone.

I then went on to say to Jason Diamond I don’t even agree with PSD (Professional Standards Department), I mean the police investigating the police.

Your comments are welcome.

The officer who went shopping will be bouncing when he reads this, he’ll probably be sitting outside my house 24/7 hoping to catch me for drink driving, something I don’t do.

Watch this funny video:

JFT96 – YNWA