'Frost and Morse haven't a clue!'

He talked to Ian Singleton about his career, including the arrest of murderers, increases in police bureaucracy, changes in society and his plans for the future...

JOHN Thompson was typically no-nonsense as he dismissed popular television programmes about the police such as Inspector Morse and Frost.

Without a second's thought, he said: "They have a couple of officers investigating a murder.

No-one ever does any paperwork, there is no bureaucracy, no-one writes anything down and everything always works out."

While that may simply seem a quick retort, his analysis of Jack Frost and Endeavour Morse's world highlights his frustrations about policing in the 21st Century.

"Policing is substantially different from when I started," he said. "There is an increased amount of bureaucracy.

"You have to assess the risk and document that, whether it is a football match or a firearms incident.

"We are in a litigious society and that affects public sector organisations.

"The job has got more difficult. In 1995, there were seven superintendents in Eastern Division, now there are two and the work has not reduced.

"There is also an expectation you will attend meetings in the evenings, so the days are quite long.

"There are a lot of staff and a lot of responsibility. If you are authorising officers being armed, there are real risks."

Mr Thompson joined the police in Rawtenstall as a 19-year-old in 1971.

"Then we had to live in police digs in the area we worked in," he said. "If you went out in the evening, you went out where you worked.

"Local camaraderie was great and with that, community involvement. Now we are trying to rebuild that.

"The level of violence in society generally is far greater now. There has been a complete change in society's attitudes.

"I will miss the people, not some of the issues around the job. There is a time to go, and having moved to a new divisional headquarters, I feel it is right now."

Mr Thompson, 51, directs operations from his office on the top floor of the £7 million Greenbank station, which was opened in January.

He chaired the team that oversaw the ultra-modern building's construction but expresses no sentiment towards it.

"It is the third new building I have moved into with the police, so I have no regrets about leaving when it has just opened," he said.

"It important to have somewhere nice to work in. The police play a really valuable role in society and its important they are rewarded for that."

Mr Thompson was not sentimental either about the pursuit of promotion. He admits he has not placed down any roots in the force because he stayed in no post for more than two years as he rose through the ranks.

But when he joined, his ambition was simple. He said: "I just wanted to make a difference. I did not have any idea of the opportunities and challenges the career could give me.

"There are lots of things I have done that I never thought would be possible.

"I have visited South America on UN duty. It seems lucky, but it was work when I was there.

"I also worked on the crime squad and as a result, I went around Europe investigating major cases."

Mr Thompson recalled vividly some of the worst crimes.

"I arrested a man from Birmingham who had murdered three students in Preston in 1987," said Mr Thompson, who lives with his wife in Goosnargh in the Ribble Valley and has two married daughters.

"It was early in the inquiry. It was a brutal, malicious and well-planned murder. It was chilling.

"Once, I had to tell a man that we had found the person who had murdered his mother, and it was his eldest son.

"She was about 83 and the oldest murder victim in the country at that time.

"I think you have to have a system of protecting yourself from what you see, that goes for all the emergency services.

"You watch a post-mortem or see a child injured and you have got to distance yourself, but nevertheless it still impacts upon you."

When Mr Thompson leaves on March 28, his deputy, David Mallaby, will take over. He believes the Eastern Division will be in safe hands.

"I have known David for a long time and we started on the same day here," he said. "He has been heavily involved in the development of the division he inherits.

"I go with some satisfaction that this year crime is down, but particularly satisfying is that burglary is down 18 per cent and that we have a good detection rate.

"The communities have not been subject to the disorder of other parts of Lancashire we saw two years ago.

"Also policing Blackburn Rovers has been well received and commented on by fans who visit."

Mr Thompson's immediate future will involve sailing and reading books by John Grisham, Wilbur Smith and Tom Clancy, before he gets another job.

And as he prepares to move on, he hopes that he has left his mark on the Eastern Division by passing on his philosophy.

"I don't know how the staff see me," he said, "but I believe that the service you give should be what you would expect for your own family and if you are giving less than that then it is not good enough."