M223

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>From as early as he could remember Mark Thornton wanted to be a bobby on the beat. He had watched a lot of TV in his childhood years of the 1970s from </span><em style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Starsky and Hutch</em><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> to </span><em style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Z-Cars</em><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> </span><em style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Dickson of Dock Green</em><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> and </span><em style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Sweeney</em><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>. His dream job was to put on a big hat and walk around helping people and communities.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>It was his mam who saw the news article advertising a force's recruitment drive. In what seemed like only a matter of days he was part of that recruit selection and was soon told he was in: he was to become an officer of the law.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>These pages outline Mark's first two years' probationary period detailing some of the funnier experiences he faced and the scrapes he and his shift navigated.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(249 249 249 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Those early years helped to shape Mark's 30-year career in the police something he looks back on now with pride and a smile. He hopes the book will make you smile and realise how much things have changed in a relatively short time period.</span></p>