RESPECT, dignity and politeness are things you need to be a good police officer, George Cook says. After 47 years in the Essex Special Constabulary, he should know.

Ask George – he hates being called Mr Cook – who joined the Specials in December 1963, his age and he’ll tell you he’s “32-and-a-half – twice”.

His two eldest brothers were regular officers. He was keen to follow in their footsteps, but the force’s strict entry criteria meant George’s less than 20-20 vision was a problem.

Instead, he became a voluntary police officer, serving as a Special Constable, while keeping his day job. In those days, he worked in the City, though later his day-job and his voluntary occupation moved closer – he took a civilian job with Essex Police, as Southend police station’s divisional admin manager.

Five years ago, he reached the pinnacle of his career with the Special Constabulary, becoming its Chief Office, a post from which he will officially retire in October.

In almost five decades as a Special, George has seen policing change hugely, but he feels its core values have remained unchanged.

He explained: “I always say to all the new recruits: ‘We will give you the best training and equipment, but your best weapon is your tongue. Treat people with respect, courtesy and dignity’.

“I was brought up to respect people and to have discipline.

“Ninety-five per cent of young people are as good as gold. They are lovely. Young people are struggling in the economic climate, but they are no more high-spirited than I was.

“We all have a bit of fight in us, growing up, but if parents, teachers and coppers get it right, it can be controlled.”

A vital weapon in George’s armory as a Special has always been his sense of humour.

He said: “You’ve got to have some fun and you’ve got to make people laugh.

“You have to inject some humour into things. We lead stressful lives these days, and youngsters are under such pressure – pressure in in school, pressure to smoke and pressure to take drugs or drink alcohol.

“Sometimes you can take the sting out of a situation by having some fun.”

One particular incident saw an imaginative George taking inspiration from an unusual source – movie actor Paul Newman’s character, Patrolman Murphy, in the film Fort Apache the Bronx.

Newman is confronted by a crazed knifeman. Instinctively, he turns his hat backwards, pulls a stupid face and does a crazy dance towards the astonished knifeman – allowing him safely to pluck the blade away.

George’s encounter might not have involved a weapon, but he says his actions calmed a man who was not only very angry, but very large.

He added: “I did only ever do that once. I remember thinking, if he hit me, I was going through the pavement and never coming up.

“Afterwards, he put his arm around me! As a result, he had an enormous amount of respect for the coppers, which was a good result. I’d been saved from being bloodied and beaten – and he wasn’t even arrested.”

Looking back over 47 years of changing policing methods, George believes the recent return to neighbourhood policing to be important.

He explained: “You can’t engage with the public unless you talk to them – and you can’t do that from a car.

“You need to walk and talk. That way, you gain people’s respect and then eventually, they will tell you their issues. It’s at the heart of community policing.

“We can’t police society on our own. We need the help of the media, teachers, social workers, the butcher, the baker and the rest. Society is very complex and we have different problems now to 20 years ago.”

Forty-five years ago, he says, when he served in Southend, 600 coaches of visitors would sometimes arrive in the town on a Saturday night.

He added: “People used to come from London to get boozed up and have a fight. We would arrest them, or bundle them back on the coach and send them home.

“Although we don’t get those coaches any more, the night-time economy has changed dramatically. That’s when we get most of our problems.

“The impact and contribution of the Special Constabulary on a Friday and Saturday night, across Essex and nationally, is quite considerable.”

Reflecting on the job he loves so much, George said: “Our role is to protect life and property. The public – rightly so – is far more aware of its rights and is reporting far more crime.

“What has changed is a huge increase in the number of laws and regulations. All the agencies and the Government need to do something to reduce bureaucracy, not just talk about it.

“It has a big impact on the number of officers we can put on the street.

“Once you nick someone, you’ve got to bring them in and then there’s a plethora of paperwork to be completed.”

George has already handed over the day-to-day management of the county’s Specials to Derek Hopkins, though officially, he will be Chief Officer until October.

He says just staying in the Special Constabulary for so long is one of his proudest achievements. Another is his role as founder, two years ago, of the Association of Special Constabulary Chief Officers.

He admitted: “I’m very proud of that. I was elected its first chairman, a post I will hold until I retire.

“I had to convince 43 other police forces it was a good thing to do. It’s a body which represents the interests of the Special Constabulary, and is involved in all the major decision-making.”