Cheshire’s Special Constabulary volunteer over National Specials Weekend

Cheshire’s Special Constabulary volunteered a staggering 884 hours over National Specials Weekend to help make Cheshire even safer.

National Specials Weekend is a national celebration of all those individuals who dedicate their spare time to help police their local communities and took place from Thursday 3 June to Sunday 6 June.

Specials in Crewe attended The Lighthouse Centre and helped to provide support and 48 hot meals to some of the community’s most vulnerable people.

Drugs warrants were executed in Northwich and Warrington, with the warrant in Warrington leading to a discovery of more than 330 cannabis plants. The warrants were arranged, planned and executed by the Special Constabulary.

In Runcorn and Macclesfield, two community events were held where the public could bring their dogs to get microchipped and have a health check by veterinary nurses by the local vets, who were also their volunteering their free time to support the event. The events saw 10 dogs chipped and 40 dogs receive welfare checks and was supported by local charities.

Across the county a number of special constables carried out roads policing operations, with Northwich and Warrington coming together to target anyone committing one of the Fatal 5 offences (careless driving, speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, drink/drug driving and using a mobile phone while driving) along the A49, a key route for serious and fatal collisions – multiple Traffic Offence Reports were given out across the weekend.

As well as 14 new special constables joining the policing family to kick start the celebratory weekend.

Assistant Chief Constable, Jenny Sims, said: “The commitment from the whole of the Special Constabulary over the weekend has been phenomenal and the community engagement is just wonderful to see.

“We have a fantastic Special Constabulary full of dedicated, determined and selfless individuals, and I want to express a huge thank you to all of our specials who gave up their spare time to police their local communities this weekend – really working hard to highlight the value special constables give to policing in Cheshire."

Police & Crime Commissioner for Cheshire, John Dwyer, said: "I was absolutely delighted to get involved in this year's National Specials Weekend. It was fantastic to see first-hand the difference our special constables make to their communities when I took part in the session at The Lighthouse Centre in Crewe.

"The amount of hours the specials volunteered over the weekend is incredible and I want to say a massive thank you for all the hard work and commitment that all of special officers, give to the Constabulary to help keep our communities safe."