Pauline Rowson's Blog - Posts Tagged "policing"
My fictional police marine unit in the DI Horton novels to meet real police marine unit at CWA Conference
My fictional detective, DI Andy Horton, is based in the Solent area and my Horton marine mystery crime novels include members of a fictional Hampshire Police Marine Unit - Sergeant Dai Elkins and PC Ripley - but I will be introducing the real police officers of the Hampshire Constabulary Marine Unit at the Crime Writers' Association (CWA) Conference in Southampton on Saturday 21 April.
The Hampshire Police Marine Unit's area of responsibility stretches from Dorset to Sussex and out to 12 miles offshore.
The Solent is the busiest waterway in Europe and one of the busiest in the world with around one million commercial and Naval shipping movements per year and in excess of 10 million pleasure craft movements per year.
Members of the Marine Unit will talk about how they provide a specialist resource to the constabulary, as well as a service to the boating community and the Hampshire public as a whole.
Their role includes counter terrorism patrols, the reduction and detection of marine crime, investigation of marine incidents and fatalities, policing large events, supporting the UK Border Agency, Coastguard, and Harbour Authorities and responsibility for countering serious and organised crime and preventing child abduction. The unit consists of one Sergeant and nine PCs, policing with three semi displacement launches.
I'm very much looking forward to their talk and no doubt will pick up plenty of ideas for future crime novels.
A Killing Coast
The Hampshire Police Marine Unit's area of responsibility stretches from Dorset to Sussex and out to 12 miles offshore.
The Solent is the busiest waterway in Europe and one of the busiest in the world with around one million commercial and Naval shipping movements per year and in excess of 10 million pleasure craft movements per year.
Members of the Marine Unit will talk about how they provide a specialist resource to the constabulary, as well as a service to the boating community and the Hampshire public as a whole.
Their role includes counter terrorism patrols, the reduction and detection of marine crime, investigation of marine incidents and fatalities, policing large events, supporting the UK Border Agency, Coastguard, and Harbour Authorities and responsibility for countering serious and organised crime and preventing child abduction. The unit consists of one Sergeant and nine PCs, policing with three semi displacement launches.
I'm very much looking forward to their talk and no doubt will pick up plenty of ideas for future crime novels.
A Killing Coast
Pauline Rowson discusses how she researches police matters and police procedure for her crime novels
I'm often asked how I research police procedures and police matters for my crime novels and while the DI Horton crime series certainly doesn't conform to policing in the real world there is an underlying reality about some of the situations and procedures.
So where do I get my research from?
From talking to real live police officers, those working on the coal face and those who have also retired and my thanks here to the officers in the CID, the Major Crime Unit and the Marine Unit of Hampshire Police.
From the Internet blogs and twitter feeds of serving police officers - a great source of a snapshot on the unofficial and real world of policing, warts and all, the gripes, heroics and the banter all make for great background
From the official websites of the police agencies, establishments and organisations, the intelligence services and the European police agencies
From my fellow members of the Crime Writers' Association, by reading articles in the CWA magazine and attending lectures
From online sources, magazines like The Investigator, websites run by specialists and organisations such as CEPOL (the European Police College)
And from newspaper articles and media feeds.
All this is combined to give me a flavour of how things work but of course they are constantly changing and I could never portray exactly how an investigation is handled or the real world of policing because then it would read like a police manual and it is after all fiction.
So where do I get my research from?
From talking to real live police officers, those working on the coal face and those who have also retired and my thanks here to the officers in the CID, the Major Crime Unit and the Marine Unit of Hampshire Police.
From the Internet blogs and twitter feeds of serving police officers - a great source of a snapshot on the unofficial and real world of policing, warts and all, the gripes, heroics and the banter all make for great background
From the official websites of the police agencies, establishments and organisations, the intelligence services and the European police agencies
From my fellow members of the Crime Writers' Association, by reading articles in the CWA magazine and attending lectures
From online sources, magazines like The Investigator, websites run by specialists and organisations such as CEPOL (the European Police College)
And from newspaper articles and media feeds.
All this is combined to give me a flavour of how things work but of course they are constantly changing and I could never portray exactly how an investigation is handled or the real world of policing because then it would read like a police manual and it is after all fiction.
