Specials Weekend will highlight Warwickshire’s volunteers

The Specials Weekend will run until Sunday, seeing volunteers out highlighting the work they do and getting to grips with residents’ issues - as well as hoping to attract new recruits.

Special constables are volunteers who work alongside police officers, drawing on their own skills and experiences to give something back the communities they serve.

They have the same powers as paid officers, with a similar uniform and powers to make arrests. Volunteers have to give a minimum of just four hours each week.

Inspector Dave Watts joined Warwickshire Police’s Special Constabulary to “do something considerably outside his comfort zone”, and said the experience was like no other.

“Being a special is like no other role I can think of,” he said.

“There are moments of great tension, times when you are just enjoying yourself being with the public and times when it can be fairly quiet.

“However that is what it is like being a police officer.

“Whatever happens or doesn’t happen, however the shift has gone, the satisfaction you get every time you go home is knowing that you have helped someone.

“And there aren’t many jobs you can do where you can say that. I cannot think of a better, more rewarding way to spend your time as a volunteer.”

For more information on getting involved as a Special, click here

Or follow the beat on Twitter at #SpecialsWeekend