YOU might expect most mums (or dads) with grown-up kids to start thinking about slowing down a bit by the time they reach their 60th birthday.
Not Pauline Law. She’s just signed up for another four years as a police officer with North Yorkshire Police. And on Thursday you’ll be able to watch her in a new TV documentary series as she leads a police team on a successful drugs raid on a flat in Selby. York-born Pauline is set to become one of the stars of‘Women in the Force’, which begins on the W channel on Thursday and focusses on women who work for North Yorkshire Police. Over the next few weeks we’ll twice see her taking part in drugs raids - and tackling shoplifters.
Policing, says Pauline, is the best job in the world. “You find yourself doing all sorts of things. You’re a social worker, a mental heath worker, a detective. You’re going out solving crime, looking after the community. I love the job!”
Normally based at Fulford Road in York, when the series was filmed last September she was on attachment in Selby. That drugs raid was an early-morning affair. The team had done their detective work, gathering intelligence and evidence. Then it was about the element of surprise. One officer broke down the door, another searched the premises. Pauline’s job was to make the arrest. The surprise worked, she says. “He was sitting on the toilet!”
Pauline wanted to join the police when she left school more than 40 years ago. But she’s only 5ft 2in tall, and in those days there was a height restriction. She worked in a BT customer services centre, got married, had two children, got divorced. Then, a single mum in her 40s, she decided to look for another job. The police had relaxed their height restriction by then - and she was in. She’s done 16 years as a PC now.
So, as a woman, how does she feel about the anti-police demonstrations that have swept the country in the wake of the Sarah Everard vigil and over the proposed Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill?
She won’t get drawn into the politics. “But as police officers we do what we have to,” she said. “The police are there to help people, to keep everybody safe - including protesters.”
‘Women in the Force’ is on the W Channel at 8pm on Thursday.
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