{"id":1699,"date":"2025-12-18T09:21:43","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T09:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/?p=1699"},"modified":"2025-12-18T09:21:43","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T09:21:43","slug":"community-at-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/community-at-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Community at Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our final UWE Bristol Policing blog for 2025 is proudly written by PC 999 Elf, who enjoyed the experience so much last year, he was desperate to repeat it this year. PC Elf would like to help our readers find their inner Christmas spirit at what can be a challenging time of year for many people, including police officers, staff and all those who care for them, as well as the people in the communities they serve.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hello everyone! It\u2019s great to be back out in public again after 11 months confined to a back-office role (i.e. the office drawer!). I\u2019m really keen to get back out in the community and see what\u2019s been going on this past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right, before getting back on active duty, I had to undergo my annual fitness test. Being a part of the Elf Constabulary has its quirks, I have to say. Not only do I have to pass the bleep test, but I also have to wrap an awkward-shaped present in less than 30 seconds. And my annual PDR includes being measured on whether my \u2018elf on the shelf\u2019 initiatives are improving children\u2019s behaviour in the runup to Christmas, as well as a presentation about how to take an evidence-based approach to which mince pie is the best, which is very messy \ud83d\ude0a. But it\u2019s all in day\u2019s work for me! Just have to make sure I don\u2019t sample too many of those mince pies so that I can still finish the bleep test!<\/p>\n\n\n

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Speaking of bleep tests, police recruitment and education in the Avon and Somerset area has really stepped up a gear in 2025. While recruitment is slightly down nationally, round these parts 10 cohorts on various police constable entry routes have joined Avon and Somerset. Of course they receive their police education at UWE, and this really shows how important collaboration and community are to achieving success. Working together produces something special. The collaboration has been so successful that a new 10-year-contract between UWE and Avon & Somerset Police was signed this year, helping to ensure that the area continues to produce such a high-quality policing workforce. Policing students at UWE really go above and beyond. One policing student even participated in Project Zulu, helping to deliver lessons about safeguarding in schools to pupils in South Africa. With this kind of drive, those policing students are going to need all the chocolate and mince pies they can lay their hands on this Christmas!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Community, whether home or abroad, is a key Christmas theme and something which policing has embraced. 2025 saw the launch of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee in England and Wales. UWE is supporting this with the development of a special Neighbourhood route for degree holder police recruits. But it starts closer to home, with all of us and our local communities, both at home and at work. Policing @ UWE is incredibly proud that the policing team was recently Highly Commended by UWE\u2019s Vice Chancellor for the commitment they\u2019ve displayed to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Recognising everyone\u2019s value and contribution is essential to social cohesion and healthy teams, including in the police. On the Elf squad, we have long known this \u2013 Christmas is a time when all mythical creatures must work together to get things done and ensure Santa is able to get his presents delivered across the world. Here I am with some of my fellow Christmas colleagues, the Gonks, who are responsible for protecting your homes (and letting Santa in if you don\u2019t have a chimney).<\/p>\n\n\n

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We\u2019ve all got our role to play to make sure Christmas runs smoothly and our communities remain as safe and happy as possible during this period. Spare a thought for the delivery drivers out there. Apparently Royal Mail delivered 188 million parcels over the Christmas period last year! That\u2019s still not a patch on Santa, though, who delivers more than 500 million parcels in one night! (Siegel, 2021). This is why he needs those mince pies and cookies \u2013 it takes a lot of magical energy to keep that pace going. Anyway, coming back to teamwork, he couldn\u2019t do it if it wasn\u2019t for his army of elves and other magical creatures with their special skills, all working together in the background. It\u2019s what you humans call multi-agency working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, Christmas isn\u2019t always full of cheer for everyone. This year Bristol reported the highest number of homeless people in the South West. The Charity Shelter report 4390 people in the city will be experiencing Christmas on the streets (Shepard, 2025). For others, the cost-of-living crisis is overwhelming, but help is on its way. Operation Community Hamper CIO has been putting together wonderful food hampers with help from UWE and some amazing volunteers, including one of our own, Senior Lecturer Dom McVeigh and his wonderful family.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Everyone can contribute something to make Christmas better. A small act of kindness can have as much of an impact on an individual as a big, bold corporate gesture.  A hot drink or sausage roll for someone who is homeless can mean so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is always a busy time for the emergency services, Avon and Somerset Police launched their annual Christmas drink and drug driving campaign earlier this month, making 62 arrests in the first week (Avon and Somerset, 2025). That\u2019s on top of all the crimes they are investigating as normal, making for a busy workload. Some of the incidents my human colleagues deal with can be traumatic and we ask you to spare a thought for these unsung heroes just doing their daily jobs. Please, don\u2019t drink\/drug drive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here on the Elf squad, we\u2019re trying to do our bit too. We might be famous for our sense of mischief and fun, but we\u2019re also hard workers (we have to be to get all those presents ready for Santa). Me and some of my colleagues have been applying for different roles to help out, from squad van driver to motorcycle team and even the mounted (reindeer) division\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n

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Well, things to do, elves to see\u2026but from us to you, our serving police officers (and elves) and all Blue light services, we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and safe New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PC 999 Elf \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Ably assisted and authored by Associate Directors Sarah Williams and Anne Eason).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Avon and Somerset Police (2025) News of fatal collisions is not a Christmas message we want to deliver | Avon and Somerset Police<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motor Transport (2025) Christmas parcel deliveries boost Royal Mail revenue ahead of \u00a33.6bn sale to Czech billionaire | Motor Transport<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shepard, G. (2025) Bristol records highest homeless rate in South West, Bristol Live Bristol records highest homeless rate in South West | Bristol Live<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Siegel, E. (2021) This is How Santa Claus Can Deliver Presents to the Entire World in One Night. Forbes <\/em>[online] 10 December. Available online at: This Is How Santa Claus Can Deliver Presents To The Entire World In One Night<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial Team<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Paul Williamson (Editor-in-Chief); Claudia McCready (Lecturer); Claire Bowers (Senior Lecturer); Eve Smietanko (Joint Programme Leader & Senior Lecturer) and Ian Lowe (Senior Lecturer).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our final UWE Bristol Policing blog for 2025 is proudly written by PC 999 Elf, who enjoyed the experience so much last year, he was desperate to repeat it this year. PC Elf would like to help our readers find their inner Christmas spirit at what can be a challenging time of year for many … Continue reading “Community at Christmas”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":1706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":79,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,147],"tags":[10,92,159,3,5],"class_list":["post-1699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policing","category-policing-policing","tag-avon-somerset-police","tag-christmas","tag-drink-and-drug-driving","tag-policing","tag-uwe-bristol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1699"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1711,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1699\/revisions\/1711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/policing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}