I am a police officer at the weekends and a scientist during the week

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: It is a great, great honour.

I'm a police officer usually weekends, and during the week, I'll be a scientist. I work as a protein chemist; we do drug therapies for cancer.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: I am truly interested in volunteers and specials, and how they get into policing.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: I came in and thought ‘this is exciting, you mean I can be a police officer, and still not have to leave what I'm doing'. Well I never looked back since, and the kicks I get out of it, it's a fulfilment that I get out of it, it is an awesome feeling to come out of an incident and you know you've made a difference, you've protected somebody, you've prevented something, you've stopped something, you started something.

He found a firearm in the glove compartment, that worried me. Potentially I could have changed that girl's life. It is important, if possible, that we try and reflect the community we police. When you have a diverse group of people, you do have diverse ideas being generated. If you have a career, you love your career, you can still continue doing that and be a police officer, it is an awesomely fulfilling role.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Welcome to More Than The Badge, a Kent Police podcast. My name is Vinny Wagjiani, I am a Detective Inspector, and I will be your host today. Today's episode is with Niyi, a Special Sergeant here at Kent Police. Niyi has volunteered in the Special Constabulary for 25 years, whilst working full-time as a scientist. He has recently been awarded The King's Police Medal. Welcome to the podcast Niyi.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: It's great to be here.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: I was going to ask you what, you know how did your career in policing start, but, let's go to your scientist bit. I just want to find out what science you're behind.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: So, I studied as a structural biologist, which means I study protein structures,

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: okay

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: and the reason why we study protein structures is if you're trying to design drugs, you need to understand what has gone wrong with a disease so that something maybe something is binding, and you need to switch it off.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: So, almost like what the Covid guys would do?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Something like that. So, if you know what this protein looks like, this protein looks like, and you want to destroy what’s between them, you need to put a small molecule in there and that's how we design drugs.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Yeah.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: So, that is what I did for my PhD, but for, and I did a postdoctoral research position in Cambridge for a while, but currently I work as a protein chemist at a cancer design.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Cancer?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yeah, so we do cancer research. We do drug therapies for cancer. What we do is we target an area of cancer research called DNA damage repair. So, naturally, we, our bodies are meant to recognise cancer and destroy them, cancers evade those. So, we need to find a way of switching that bit on.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Ah so there is something there that can switch it on?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yes, yes. So, basically something has gone wrong or something, or the cancer has decided ‘oh I am going to evade this using this’ so what you do is you find drugs that are going to sort of in quote “sensitise” those pathways back to recognising that’s cancer.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Have you always done that, or did you do something else?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: That is what I've been doing for the past two years. So, my job is to produce purifier and produce proteins, that we use for screening for the drugs that we are trying to look for.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Ah, so, you've always been in the protein world?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yes, I've always been a biochemist, yes. [Laughing]

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: And now this as well?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yeah, yes.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: I get fascinated by it because I was a scientist, forensic archaeologist.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Oh really?

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Yeah, a dental and medical scientist, so I did a lot of dental and medical work prior to being a forensic archaeologist.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Interesting. I dabbled into forensic science before the Forensic Science Service closed down.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: At Lambeth?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yes, I used to work at Lambeth.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Did you?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yeah, I was, I worked in the DNA lab.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: No way! The number of times I've been to that lab, 'cause I used to work in the Met before.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Oh yeah, you're one of those people who has to wait in the waiting room and watch TV while you come to submit your stuff, I remember.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Actually, it's an awesome way to go into sort of the sets of questions. I am truly interested in sort of volunteers and specials and how they get into policing. So, how did your career in policing start and what inspired you to join Kent Police?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Well first I was young. Secondly, I was I was at a stage in my life when I wanted a bit of an adventure, do something a bit different. I did, I must say, I did consider volunteering in the Royal Navy Reserve, but then I was in Canterbury University. I was doing a research Masters in Biotechnology then, and then somebody just dropped, you know how people drop leaflets into the letterbox, and it was Kent Police saying you know ‘join us as a volunteer' and I've never heard about anything like that before and I went, and I remember giving that person a phone call and the person went "yeah, why don't you come have a chat with us".

Yeah, and I came in and I thought ‘this is exciting, you mean I can, you know be a police officer and still not have to leave what I'm doing’, so yeah why not, well I never looked back since [laughing].

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: So, tell us about what the Special Constabulary is, what it is, who can join and what you have found as the benefits within it?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Okay, so I don't forget I'll start with who can join. Anybody can join. Well, if you don't have a criminal record! If you are relatively fit, and you're the kind of person who has a particular mindset, you know, you love, love helping people. You're the kind of person that really enjoys helping people. If you're the kind of person who if an old woman breaks down at the side of the road you will stop and just go keep her company while she's waiting for AA or RAC, that kind of person, then the Special Constabulary is for you. You just need to have the willingness to be a blessing to the community, help people.

The Special Constabulary is basically, for instance, Kent Police we have a police force. It's just police officers that don't get paid for it. Now, I must correct something because this has been going around people say things like ‘oh it's policing on the cheap’. It's not policing on the cheap. The only thing that is free to Kent Police is our time because it's still expensive, still have to train us, still have to insure us, still have to equip us, still have to support us, just like they do for regular police officers and its basically what police officers do. So, we have the same powers of arrest and nowadays if you're a police officer, a special constable in Kent Police, you have a number of diverse roles you can go into. Nowadays you can be a dog handler, you can be RPU (Roads Policing Unit), we have police officers who are advanced trained to be on motorcycles and patrol motorways, we even have special detectives so, I mean 25 years ago when I joined, this was unheard of, but nowadays it's I think, it's an exciting time to be a special constable especially in Kent Police.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Yeah, and I guess it's that role that is now using the skills of those people who are within the community inside policing.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yeah yes.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: It's a big question here, you recently got awarded The King's Policing Medal. Tell us about the award and what it means to you.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: So, in April sometime this year I got a phone call from somebody in the Home Office saying I've been nominated for this award, and I'm in line to get it and I was quite chuffed, I must say. I was sworn to secrecy so I couldn't tell anybody, but it goes on to show just how much appreciative the people I work for are. So, as a special constable I will show up and do my best, and I've been doing this continuously for years, but I didn't realise it was been that noticed, if you see what I mean. So, it is a great, great honour, I can't describe exactly how I feel apart from the fact that I feel so honoured to be given this award.

When I joined as a special constable, I didn't do it for, I always joke that I'm not a special for the money, I'm a special for the accolade, for the recognition. I do it for King and country and for the community and the kicks I get out of it is a fulfilment that I get out of it, it is an awesome feeling to come out of an incident and you know you've made a difference, you've protected somebody, you've prevented something, you've stopped something, you started something, and that is an awesome feeling in itself, and that is what I did it for. So, to be given this award was a super addition that was unexpected but really, really seriously appreciated.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: I mean that's 25 years of policing recognition; how has your career evolved over that period and how has policing changed during that period?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Oh, funny enough I was having this discussion with somebody who used to be a special with me about 20 years ago, but he left, he left after two years, and he was surprised when I was telling him about the changes about, even the way we do things. Take for instance electronically. I remember when I joined, when you attend a crime scene, bring out a pocket notebook, you write everything down, and then you go ‘oh, I forgot to ask’ and then you get on the phone [laughing]. Things have changed now; you will be at a crime scene and just do and just basically open up a crime report at a crime scene. Things are, you know; things have changed for the better.

I suppose, there are some things that could be counted as a negative, but as a positive for us in a way. In the olden days, people who had mobile phones didn't have mobile phones, they had cameras, which means if you, one of the downsides to that is if you stop somebody at least this happens to me most of the time, stop somebody and you want to search them, for I don't know Section 23 or Pace One (stop, detain and search if the officer has reasonable grounds for suspecting that they will find stolen or prohibited items). First thing that happens people just whip out their mobile phones and start recording. Which helps in a way that you get things right, you're conscious of all the procedures at the end of the day, you're a police officer, you're representing the Special Constabulary, you're representing Kent Police. You know, you don't want to put Mr Smith into disrepute in any way so, basically you want to do it right and now we have our own body-cam and I remember somebody says to me "oh can I record?" I said, “oh I am recording, so you're free to do whatever you want”, you know, so that has changed. Attitude in policing has also changed, I remember when I joined, there was this unwritten thing, where regulars’ kind of resented specials because they saw us as taking away their overtime, but that has changed, specials are celebrated now. Years ago when you finish, when you finish on duty, you expect your, we used to, you expect your senior officer or equivalent of special sergeant to say 'thank you' to you, your special inspector, they also say 'thank you' to you, but nowadays PCs will say "oh thank you for coming, you know I don't know how you do it or why you do it, but it's great to have you here, thank you so much" and we get that all the time today so, the attitudes have also changed which is an awesome thing, so like I always say, it's a great time to be a special.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: So, you talked about how you know grateful your team or the Local Policing team, are when you turn up, I work on an LPT (Local Policing team) and my sergeants and I are always truly grateful when a special joins us for the day. The demands in policing have got higher and so, whenever there's an extra pair of hands that joins us, it makes the day so much easier, so much more enjoyable, plus I think, certainly when it comes to my police constables and my police sergeants, they get an insight of someone who's not always full-time in policing and they're doing something outside, and the conversations are slightly different and I think, personally, I think they grow as individuals when they have conversations with people that have come from the Special Constabulary. So, from me truly grateful and thank you for doing the work that you do.

Both of us are from black Asian mixed heritage backgrounds, how important is it around having a diverse workforce and what represents, I guess the communities we work?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: So, the two ways of answering that question from a hopefully a general overview and then for me, my point of view, my work on the street, when you have a group of people that are policing an area you would generally expect that the police will reflect the diversity. We might not be able to do that, because of interest in police whether you like it or not, there's still this stigma among certain people that police don't like black people, police don't like ethnic minority and all that, but it is important, it is important, if possible, that we try and reflect the community we police. So, if you're policing an area that is a particular percentage of ethnic minority, the police should reflect that, and I must say we're trying our best. I've seen the recruitment posters and I've seen the result; I think we're trying our best. Also it helps, sometimes when on patrol it could be something as simple as Section 60 (gives police the right to search people in a defined area during a specific time period when they believe serious violence will take place) out there and we need to stop a particular demographic, but the last time it happened the first thing the person said was “oh you stopped me because I'm black”, and I remember one of my colleagues actually said “uh dude, you do, you do realise that it was him that stopped you” and I was the one that did the stop, and the fact that it was a black officer, stopping black people, kind of threw that argument out of the, out of the mix which could be useful sometimes. I'm not sure that's how it's going to work all the time but in that kind of situation it could be used, and if we grow to be the kind of police force where we now know that we have this number of ethnic minority present in in our midst, I think it will help the members of the public and the community we police to and have more confidence in us.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: and I guess that's from an external perspective.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yeah.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: When we're looking at our force as a whole and who we've got in our force, how important is it to see other people like you working within the force?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: You find out that most companies out there, corporate companies out there, make, they may go out of their ways to get people from other groups in their, in their midst whether it's women, whether it's black people, Asian people, anyone, and the reason for that is when you have a diverse group of people, you do have diverse ideas being generated, and that makes you better. So for instance, if you have if you want to do something innovative you need to do something new, but the decision makers are from just one group, you're likely to have less ideas compared from a diverse group because our background is influenced by so many things, or our background influences so many things, our way of thinking, our knowledge, our perception of other people, so many things. So, that diverse group of people will influence the type of ideas you have, it will influence the type of ideas to pull from when you, when you're making decisions and when you're doing something, and people with, diverse people are more likely to be, or corporations with diverse people in the helm of control, are more likely to be more innovative, that's what research tell us [laughing].

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: And as a scientist, you know you're well aware of the sort of statistics and the research that can influence all of this. So, I served, I've served for policing for the past 22 years. I done part of my career, my first part of my career in the Met Police, I've done the middle part of my career at Surrey Police and then having transferred about two and a half years ago to Kent Police, I recognised a distinct presence of being yourself, and I guess I'm more keen around the topic, you know helping REN (Race Equality Network - a staff support network) build itself within Kent, just so that officers from the black, Asian and mixed heritage, community within policing, has a voice. Have you found yourself ever needing to contact the Race Equality Network, or have you ever done any work for them that you think has added value within the community?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: I think if I remember very well, I think I've come out for, not sure whether it was with the REN or with the Special Constabulary to man, not any that I can remember actually.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: I'll be looking to employ you on some of the…

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: We did have a, I think, was a REN conference and I was invited as a speaker once.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Oh wow!

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yeah, I was asked to come and talk about Kulbir, was the head then, and she wanted me to come and talk about unseen disabilities. Yeah, I suffer something called sickle cell anaemia, and I also have a very bad migraines and then recently I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. So, she asked me that if it's something I'm happy to talk about, that I don't have to, if I don't want to so I said “yeah sure, I'll come and talk about it” so yeah, I did, so I did come and talk so, I think that's the only time I remember that I got involved in it [laughing].

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: I mean I find great value in talking about lived experiences, not only does it become like a self-healing process within yourself, but you're able to share experiences to other people within the organisation so, it gives them a bit of understanding around the differences, and sometimes those differences aren't harmful or painful, and that you can actually get a great sort of connection within those differences

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: yeah

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: and the more, like I say the more certainly I share with people, they're open to sharing a little bit about themselves, and I think that's where certainly, I found in Kent Police where you can be yourself,

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yeah,

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: and share those experiences. You come closer together as a, as a team, as a division, and as a force.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yeah, and I think this is more important especially for, regular police officers who are ethnic minority, because you spend more time, at the job, interact with others more often, unlike us they just, our presence is really transient. That support is really, really important.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Yeah, and I've often found like when you start sharing those experiences, that you become part of a family that's beyond cover. You become part of a family that has the values of the life of service and that's the driver.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yes.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: So, you look after people regardless of their background, regardless of the fact that they may have a criminal record. We still have to go out

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: of course, yes

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: go out and support make sure that they're safe, and the whole of Kent Police is looked after.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: The most important thing is, that we learn from this as a force, so when times we get it wrong, we don't try and cover it up, we just learn and move on.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: With being a scientist, with being a Special Constabulary officer for Kent Police, and a dad, a husband, how do you manage the work life balance?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Well, that, that is easy. I'm a police officer usually weekends except for during the week sometimes when I take the week off to be a police officer and during the week, I'll be a scientist so, the switch is not usually a problem, it’s not like I do one day after you know, after the other.

The way I manage it is the way most people manage things. When you're speaking to your children, you'll be a dad, when speaking to your wife, you’ll be a husband, when you're speaking to people on the street, you'll be a police officer, but because my job, my daytime job, doesn't demand me speaking to people on the streets, it's usually a no-brainer and it's kind of be easy to do. When I'm in the scientific environment, I'm speaking to colleagues we’re discussing science, we're discussing tasks, that's also easy, but because my role as a police officer, I work for the CSU (Community Support Unit) on Town beat, I'm usually dealing with members of the public, which means the switch is not difficult at all.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: So, you're in the CSU, describe a typical shift for us.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: So, a typical shift would be, I come in and I will kit up and don the custodian hat. I know it sounds a bit old-fashioned, but I always wear it, and the reason for that is, people will stop you just to talk to you because you have the custodian on. People want to find out why you're still wearing it, people find out what's the differences, why do some people wear it or why and some people don't wear it, it's usually a conversation starter in my opinion. So, I always wear it. So, I'll go out on foot patrol and foot patrol just means just walking around Dartford Town Centre, saying ‘hello’ to people and then people will come up to me and say, and sometimes they will discuss politics, it will be sometimes issues with their neighbours, what they do, and some people will say ‘look my child is, seems to be, going out of hand what do I do?’ and a lot of the advice I end up giving in such situations, might not even be police related, it's related to the fact that I'm a father and I could advise in that, but they don't know that the only reason why they came to me is because I'm a police officer and then some people will come and speak to me about joining the police so, generally if you're a CSU officer you don a custodian hat, you look like a police officer who is really ready to talk, it has a closeness about it. I don't know it just does that, or maybe it's just a face I've got, I've got a friendly face people just come and talk to me, and then if things go wrong I get called because I have a local radio and I'll hear it there first and then go run and deal with it whether it's a shoplifter, assault or a disturbance anywhere, just go run on with it. So, a typical shift would be a whole shift, and no incident happened, no arrest nothing. That would be a typical shift. A more exciting shift would be a stop search that resulted in finding drugs or a knife or had to take somebody off the street because they got involved in an altercation and it went bad, there was an assault or whatever.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: So, 25 years of Special Constabulary work, could you share a moment that has stayed with you? It could be something you've been proud of or something that's challenged you.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Well, there's one that came to mind and it's peculiar, not because it was not so violent, but because of the result I think I might have got, that was as a result of my attending. It was a bank holiday; I came into CSU and there was a, an assault, domestic, it was 15 minutes’ walk and I said to control “I can attend”. So, I decided to jog, I made it in ten or there abouts so I got there, and the fighting had stopped. I was very concerned, because it's never happened to them before, there were no reports from this house, and I, the VIT (Violence Investigation Team) team was on, and they had two officers a DC and a PC, and they, I got some advice and they said "well there's something we can do we’ll come, however, we will want you to stay there because we're dealing with something, in case we need to arrest, so you need to stay”. So, I had to wait for two hours, but for that two hours, I had the opportunity to talk to this girl, because now mum was saying to me, "this is what she's doing, me and dad work hard, she's just out of control, she has these people she hangs out with, they're causing us trouble, she brings her trouble home" and, I sat there and I told her what, it turns out that she's hanging out with this group of people who the boyfriend she's 13, she said her boyfriend is bipolar and parents are in prison and stuff like that, so I asked her what she wants to be in the future, she said she wants to be a lawyer I said that's fine and I explain to her what associations do. I explain to her how we keep records based on associations and how we will associate her with those people. I explained to her what that association is causing her mum. I explained to her what her career options are. I told her what is likely to go wrong with her career options, based on what other people could do that could and she has never heard any of this before, and mum I just noticed she was just changing my cups of tea, she would just come in and give me another cup and then take the cold one away [laughing], because I realised I was there in a position of authority and she listened, and at the end of the day we came up with an action plan. We decided that we need to put something in place so that she doesn't go and be hanging out with those people, because maybe she had too much time on her hands, so we decided which cadets she wants to do. So, we went to army cadets and she said ‘okay, well I'll do police cadets’ so went on the internet gave her the website and, even though I almost arrested the dad, he was grateful to me, as in he, this was somebody who was shouting at me when I said to him I was going to put him, I asked him to sit down, I didn't want to cuff him in the presence of his daughter, but I asked him to sit down if he wouldn't stop shouting, and by the time I left the place, I was more like a hero and, potentially I could have changed that girl's life, because she could have at that point in time changed her associations, and those are the kind of stories that stay with me, those are kind of incidents that stay with me, and those are the kind of incidents that make you want to do this job.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: That's positive impact.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yes.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Doesn't matter how you look at it, some words resonate with individuals, and it's not what you say, it's not what you do, it's how you make someone feel, and I think, what you said made that person feel that they were listened to and that, you've, you know you've given some wisdom, that has allowed them to make healthier choices.

Now there's, we continue to talk about the 25, and it's a mammoth set of years. How do you deal with the emotional impact of the job or some parts of the job and what's the support been like for you?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: So, the way the way I see it is, I think the traumatic bit of the job, that that is actually borne mostly by regulars, and the reason for that is if you attend a very traumatic incident, a very bad domestic or very bad accident, you are expected to show up for work the following day. As a special, we don't do that, and I think it might be different for other specials but, for me, once I walk away from that incident, I have, I might not show up for another two weeks or a week and that will give me time to detoxify, and I've got a very supportive wife and sometimes I refer to her as my in-house psychologist so she will you know talk, say “talk to me” and you know get things off my chest, and for us that's, it is easier for us to deal with. We have the option of time to help us heal, and being specials we choose the time we come to work. So, sometimes if you feel you are not up to it, you can say I'm not coming for another week or I'm cancelling that duty.

I remember years ago there was an incident at a nearby reservoir, where two children drowned. I just walked in, I just started my shift and a sergeant said, "you're with me" and we had to go cordon off the place. So, I was there when the divers went in, and they brought the body of the boy out. I don't get to see dead body as often, but I was offered counselling. I mean I didn't think I was traumatised, but the fact that I was offered, somebody came up to me and said, “yeah, we notice you were on shift you've been on shift since morning, are you happy to speak to somebody if you need to?” I said “yeah, I'm fine”, “but, if you feel you need to speak to somebody would you come and speak to us?” and this was like 10, 15 years ago, so now the support is even better. Our coordinator will actually nominate you to be spoken to based on the incident you attended. Somebody will say “you need to speak to someone, are you happy to speak to someone?” so, it's that, so it’s got better over the years.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: And certainly, now where certainly Kent Police, they've got a peer-to-peer police network.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yes.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: They've got the TRIM referral (Trauma Risk Incident Management is a process put in place to support officers and staff affected by a potentially traumatic incident at work).

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yes, TRIM referral, that's what I'm talking about, yes.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: and then then you got the option of having a counselling sessions with in-house counsellors so, there's a lot of certainly things that are available for regular police offices which are also available

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: it's available for us too.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: for special constables as well. During your time are there any sort of common misconceptions that you hear about the police, and what do you say to others to overcome or address them?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: I was out on duty once and somebody said to me how, that they saw somebody arrested and a spit hood was used, and the person thought it was inhumane and disrespectful and they kind of, it was a degrading treatment, and after five minutes, and I when I explained to him the reason why, he thought okay that makes sense.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Is there a moment in your career where you thought ‘oh my God, the risk of what I've just dealt with', was so big that you realised what police officers actually do on a day-to-day basis or faced with, on a day-to-day basis?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: So, it was very indirect so, we went out and I still remember us dealing with an RTC (road traffic collision), we did the job, it was at the days of paperwork and everything was, most things were handwritten, and the following weekend I didn't come on duty, but he came on duty, and he stopped a group of people in the car, and I'm not sure whether it was a search, but he found a firearm in the glove compartment, and that worried me, even though I wasn't on duty that day, it had nothing to do with me, and it did affect the gentleman adversely for a while, that was when I thought ‘this could be difficult, because the guys’ were, apparently the guys in the car were quite cool about it. “Yeah, yeah well yeah it looks like a toy gun, yeah it is a toy gun don't worry about it” go on' “yeah just let me take it anyway” and so he took it away from them and then called Firearms, it turned out it was actually a real firearm it wasn't loaded in, but it was still worrying.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: I could imagine yeah. We're just going to have a little bit of fun here with some questions. What's your go-to snack on shift?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Well, I generally don't eat on shift however, if I'm doing a night shift, and we stop at the fuel station, I will go for a flapjack [laughter].

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: [Laughter] gives you the energy to get through the shift, it gives you the energy to get through the shift, and if you were to have a superpower, what would that superpower be?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: oh yeah, that would be, do you know, do you know this character in The X-Men called Wolverine?

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Yes, that's a good one.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yeah.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: If you had a celebrity that you would like to join you on a shift, who would that celebrity be?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: I actually thought about that one. I couldn't think about anything but maybe, Mr Smith would like to join me in Dartford on foot patrol, that would be awesome.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: As in our chief constable?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Oh yeah [laughter].

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: We can maybe have a little conversation with him and see if

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Those are the kind of heroes, I have.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Oh wow!

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Not the TV ones I'm afraid [laughing] so, my heroes have, I found in a book like this gentleman, his name escapes me now, he writes the series on Jack Reacher so those are my heroes and Wolverine and there's a lady in Star Trek called Kathryn Janeway so, unfortunately, they're not real people. So, the only real hero, well celebrity I can think of will be Mr Smith [laughing].

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Yeah, a good person to have. What one thing would you want the public to know about what specials or the role of a special?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yeah I've actually thought about this question and I've thought if everyone who doesn't have a crime, a criminal record, is relatively fit, can spare 16 hours a month, and has the heart to help, we will have more police officers than criminals, so, the point I like to make is, anybody can be a special, and it is as easy as those four points I've just made. You can spare 16 hours a month, which is basically two shifts, in a month, means you show up twice. If you are relatively fit, so even if you are not that fit, you can get the fitness, it could be easily fixed, and if you meet the eligibility and vetting criteria, yeah, you should be cleared to join, and if you if you have a heart to just, if you're the kind of person who will really feel, who will get some kicks out of going out to be the person who stopped a domestic or prevented one, or removed an aggressor or an offender from an environment. If you're the kind of person who will feel some joy that they have protected the public by I don't know, removing drugs, removing knives and stuff like that, then yes, the Special Constabulary will be the place for you and the good thing about it is, you don't have to stop what you're doing.

One of the advantages of the Special Constabulary is if you have a career, you love your career, you are, you're doing something you enjoy doing, I don't know maybe you're a teacher, you're a pilot, you're a doctor or something like that, you can still continue doing that, and be a police officer and I think this is what the Special Constabulary offers. It offers you the ability to keep your career, and still do something special.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: So, there's someone now on the, thinking as they're listening to this, and they're on the fence, should I join or should I not, what one piece of advice would you give them when they're on that cusp of thinking?

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: So, people join the Special Constabulary for so many reasons. One of those is what I just stipulated, you want to be a police officer, but you have a career you don't want to walk away from. Sometimes people join because they are thinking of being police officers, but they're not sure. They're thinking ‘I don't want to spend two years training as probationer only to find out that this is not what I want to do’. The Special Constabulary offers you that opportunity, so you be a police officer, on a part-time basis, on a voluntary basis, and you would know exactly what you're getting into. Some people become police special constables, because they want to eventually become regular police officers, and the way the training is structured now, it does offer a way in, so, if you are that kind of person who is thinking about it, come speak to us. Whether you want to be a career special which is you don't plan to be a regular, or you eventually would like to become a regular police officer, come speak to us. If you are thinking of becoming a regular police officer and you come in as a special just for a taster, you might think to yourself ‘ah no, I don't want this as a career’, but still stay as a special, so there's so many options, but either way it is an awesomely fulfilling role.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: And you talked about the diverse areas that special constables can now work, certainly within Kent.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: Yes, you can specialise. Years ago when I joined, things specials generally do would be when there's, I don't know marches in town, we'd be the ones handling traffic safety and stuff like that, and then we'd go out on duty and patrols and that's it, but now you could do so many things. I mean I think the departments you can't join are less than the ones you can join nowadays, so yeah things like firearms that makes sense. I don't know, covert surveillance for instance, that will also make sense but, many other departments are available for us and specialist roles are available for specials, which have been made open to specials now if you so wish to join.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Niyi, thank you for sharing your stories and contributing to this podcast today.

Special Sergeant Niyi Opaleye: It's been my pleasure.

Detective Inspector Vinny Wagjiani: Thank you for listening. If you have enjoyed this episode, follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook and LinkedIn where we will be posting our previews of our upcoming episodes. You can watch this episode by subscribing to our YouTube channel and find out more about the variety of opportunities available by searching Kent Police careers. See you soon.