“What started as a sad story led to us creating an amazing bond”

PC George Kindred is one of three women dog handlers in the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Dog Policing Unit, and has recently joined the unit with her dog, one year old PD Jax.

I come from a policing family, as my father was a police officer, and it was a natural thing to follow in his footsteps. I was a police cadet as a teenager and then I became a PCSO and was in the Bedford town centre team from 2007.

Investigating harassment

PC Jeevan Sahota is one of Bedfordshire Police’s Accelerated Detective Programme students. Last year he investigated a harassment case which resulted in two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment for a persistent offender.

I was given this case in March 2020, when I was assigned to the Crime Investigation Team.

At this point the victim reported that she had been receiving threatening and upsetting text messages, emails and even letters by post, for three months. There was no way to immediately link the online messages to one person as they were all sent from different phone numbers.

The messages contained demands for money and threats that a compromising video of the victim would be released to her friends and family. In fact, the video never existed, but the offender kept sending upsetting and offensive messages.

Answering your calls this Christmas

Our Force Contact Centre does not stop nor slow down for Christmas and New Year. Our staff will continue to work hard to make sure you are safe this festive time.

Inspector Gareth Coombs will be Oscar One on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, working 6am to 6pm.

“I will see my children on Christmas Eve at my mum’s house – where I still get a stocking, even at the age of 39!