Retiring sergeant says goodbye, with a final heartfelt plea to drivers

Jan 23 2009 by Jenny Wood, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

A FAMILIAR face from the highways and byways of the Big County has bowed out after nearly 37 years service to the people of Perth and Kinross.

Sergeant Ronnie Forbes has hung up his uniform and police badge for a final time to return to civilian life almost four decades after television programmes in his childhood inspired him to join the force.

“I had always wanted to be a police officer. It must have been the influence of Dixon of Dock Green, Z Cars and Softly, Softly,” said Ronnie.

“In June 1972 I left Perth High School with four ‘O’ Levels, the desired number required to join as a police cadet.

“And on June 16 I was picked up from my parents’ house in Bankfoot by Sergeant David Laurie. He was in a marked police car and I recall my mum saying ‘what will the neighbours think’,” he laughed.

“I was taken to Pitlochry where I was marched into an office and stood to attention on a little piece of carpet, while the Inspector, Joe Duthie, gave me a lecture on what he expected of me.

“I left his office wondering if I had done the right thing,” admitted Ronnie.

One of the young cadet’s first jobs was to help with a serious crash on the old A9 between Dunkeld and Bankfoot.

“Off we went in the Ford Cortina Mark 3 patrol car. Round about Kindallachan the car came to a halt. Our driver Sandy Campbell got out, lifted the bonnet and discovered that the accelerator cable had burst at the pedal.

“He yanked it out of its housing and wrapped a stick around the cable, fed it through the passenger’s window and gave it to Eric Drummond, instructing him to keep pulling the cable,” Ronnie recalled.

But the brutal reality of policing the county’s roads soon struck the young police cadet.

“Unfortunately on our arrival at that accident it soon became clear that it was a two-car collision resulting in some of the occupants of both cars being killed.

“As a 16-year-old boy I was physically sick at the side of the road. But I never forgot how the cops, who were there at the scene, helped me that day.

“In a bizarre kind of way I think that was the start of me wanting to join the traffic police,” Ronnie admitted.

After a posting on the beat in Aberfeldy and then back to Pitlochry, on November 22, 1974, Ronnie was offered the position as a probationary constable with Perth and Kinross.

“I was given the shoulder number of Constable 176. It was a bit like walking in dead man’s shoes.

“You went to headquarters at Ardchoille to be fitted with the uniform of whoever had left or retired. If their uniform fitted you then that was that,” he explained.

In 1975 Ronnie was stationed to Kinross and remembers an amusing incident on his patch.

“I recall one day we got a call about a gang of poachers at a river in Dunning Glen. Of course when we arrived they saw us and took off, some into woods and others up a hill.

“The cop that I was with started shouting ‘stay still or I’ll let the dog go’, which surprised me as we didn’t have a dog.

“But he started barking and was doing a great impersonation of one. I couldn’t believe it but the gang of four who ran up the hill stopped dead in their tracks and pleaded with us not to let the dog go and they would come back down the hill.

“They were gutted to find there was no dog and at being fooled so easily,” remembered Ronnie.

“While we were escorting them back to our police car one of them kicked out at a stone lying at the side of the road. It left his boot and went sailing into a culvert at the side of the road, when all of a sudden there was a scream of pain.

“The stone had connected with one of his pals who had been hiding at the side of the road.

“Needless to say it was a good result for the police but not for the poachers,” he laughed.

In April 1979 Ronnie transferred to the traffic department where he would become a familiar face to many across the Big County.

“Based in Perth I worked with a whole host of cops who were very good at their job. I have lost count of the number of serious and fatal accidents that occurred during this period but, like other guys, I became battle hardened,” he admitted

He became a motorcycle officer and spent a lot of time escorting abnormal loads down the A9 and M90 and winding through Glenfarg while the motorway was being built, and recalled one bizarre incident where a lorry driver required assistance after becoming stuck inside his own trailer.

In November 2004 Ronnie was promoted to sergeant.

But last month he decided to bow out of police service.

“I will miss it, but in now retiring I will be able to spend more time with folk who are close to me,” he explained.

Looking back on over 36 years’ service, Ronnie has met the rich and famous but his best times have been with those he worked alongside.

“I am probably biased but I think that the residents of Perth and Kinross have a great bunch of police officers looking after them,” he said.

“Also working for the community within the Perth and Kinross area, dealing with members of the public from all walks of life and the agency partnerships throughout the years were among the best bits.

“But the worst bits, as a traffic cop, it has to be serious and fatal accidents. The impact that these have on everyone cannot be measured,” he said.

Stepping out of his uniform for the final time, it is Ronnie’s wish that drivers take their responsibilities behind the wheel more seriously.

“I have worked on old and new roads and still people are killed or seriously injured.

“People then and now speak about killer roads. Improvements have been made to the roads but in my opinion it’s drivers and their attitudes we need to improve,” he said.

“It’s been over 30 years since the introduction of breathalysers but people still get behind the wheel of a car after drinking.

“No matter what law is introduced – be it seat-belts, mobile phones, or whatever – some of the motoring public don’t heed the laws,” Ronnie finished with regret, some of the tragic calls for help he’s had to respond to over the years still vivid in his memory.