Avon and Somerset special constables work 50,000 hours

Special constable John Halpin has clocked up 1,600 hours since the pandemic took hold

Avon and Somerset police has praised the "extraordinary" efforts of its special constables during the pandemic.

The officers have worked more than 50,000 unpaid hours to plug staff shortfalls caused by sickness.

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Cullen said: "They've stepped in at times we've need them most, gone on the frontline and done the same job as our paid officers do."

There are 300 special constables in the force.

'Powerful weapon'

Special constable John Halpin, who has been a long-haul air steward for the past 16 years, said: "I joined up as a special three years ago. It was something I wanted to do, I wanted to try. Here we are, three years later in a pandemic.

"My day job has been furloughed so I thought why not just come and do this pretty much full time?"

He has contributed 1,600 hours since the first national lockdown in March.

Mr Halpin added: "Surprisingly there's quite a lot of similarities. The most powerful weapon we've got as police officers is the power to talk to people and on an aeroplane we talk to people all the time, all day.

"If something goes a bit wrong at 37,000ft mid-Atlantic we have to deal with that situation.

"There's no-one coming to help you so in that respect we talk to people an awful lot and it's the same in the police."

Assistant Chief Constable Cullen added: "Their contribution has been extraordinary, people have worked some extraordinary hours to support us.

"What it means is that we're really closely linked to the communities that we serve and particularly when specials come to help us at times at peak demand that's enormously helped us as paid officers."