Community police officer goes out on patrol on River Thames

He was one of a team of officers helping to launch a new policing scheme aimed at bringing the idea of the village bobby to streets in Oxford.

The project was launched by Oxford police in 1981 in areas covered by the Cowley division and involved cutting back panda car patrols and giving individual officers their own beat.

READ MORE: Major charity to close 150 shops over two years

Pc Cockhead was already well known on his beat in East Oxford, which included the Riverside Centre at Donnington Bridge, where he was a keen member of the rescue team.

As the Oxford Mail pointed out at the time, if people in his area got into hot water, they knew exactly the man to call.

He posed for the picture above in the rescue boat with other river enthusiasts around him – he looked very wet as if he had had a dip in the water himself!

The new community officers were given the task to get to know as many people on their beat as possible.

They also held regular ‘surgeries’ for anyone who had problems they wanted to discuss.

The idea of having community officers was new and if successful, it was intended to expand it to other areas of the city.

This was seen by many as a return to traditional policing – seeing policemen and women on the streets.

Older readers will remember Sergeant Doug Jeakings who became so well that he was dubbed ‘The Chief Constable of Carfax’.

He and his colleagues would be on hand to direct traffic if the traffic lights failed and deal with any police or other query that arose.

Before the days of mobile phones, they kept in touch with their bosses at St Aldate’s police station via a pill box outside the Midland (now HSBC) bank.