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PC David Copperfield
PC David Copperfield is the pen name of Stuart Davidson, formerly of the Staffordshire Police, who is believed to have been the first police blogger. He later wrote a best-selling book about the British police service, Wasting Police Time, while serving as a police constable. He is now serving as a police officer in Canada.
Copperfield began blogging in 2004. He initially wrote about his passion for gardening, but he found that his references to his working life in the police attracted far more interest and so he switched to commenting on law and order issues.
In 2005 a number of his blog posts were used without his permission by the newspaper the Mail on Sunday for a three-page article. The use of the material attracted protest from fellow bloggers, and Copperfield jokingly described the journalists as "bastards". However, the article also attracted the attention of a number of publishers and agents, eventually leading to his first book.
In early 2006 Copperfield signed a book deal with Monday Books to turn his blog into a book. For its title he chose the term "wasting police time", a criminal offence under British law. Wasting Police Time was published in October 2006. It chronicles Copperfield's despair at the way policing in his town – dubbed "Newtown" but later revealed to be Burton upon Trent) – stopped functioning properly.
The blurb on the back of the book's dust jacket asks:
Ever wondered why you can't find a policeman when you need one? PC David Copperfield has the answer ... they're all inside the station, writing reports, photocopying, stapling and filing – when they're not getting caught up in the petty squabbles of the underclass. Wasting Police Time is his hilarious and shocking diary of life as a modern British bobby. It's the first book to spill the beans about the way senior police officers waste our money while fiddling the crime figures and scrambling to meet bogus Home Office targets. Copperfield's chief constable won't like it, and neither will the government. But honest taxpayers, sick of being fleeced while criminals rule our streets, will relish every word.
His writing revealed the amount of time that police were taking to deal with relatively petty crimes. He described in detail the hugely complicated paperwork process that meant, for example, that the theft of a bicycle by three boys took around 20 hours (over the course of a month or so) to clear up. This resonated with large sections of the British public – and media – , who wondered how so much more money could have been spent on the police service for apparently so little return.
The book was serialised in the Daily Mail, the sister publication of the paper that had earlier printed his material without permission, and Copperfield found himself in great demand from other newspapers and media outlets.
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PC David Copperfield
PC David Copperfield is the pen name of Stuart Davidson, formerly of the Staffordshire Police, who is believed to have been the first police blogger. He later wrote a best-selling book about the British police service, Wasting Police Time, while serving as a police constable. He is now serving as a police officer in Canada.
Copperfield began blogging in 2004. He initially wrote about his passion for gardening, but he found that his references to his working life in the police attracted far more interest and so he switched to commenting on law and order issues.
In 2005 a number of his blog posts were used without his permission by the newspaper the Mail on Sunday for a three-page article. The use of the material attracted protest from fellow bloggers, and Copperfield jokingly described the journalists as "bastards". However, the article also attracted the attention of a number of publishers and agents, eventually leading to his first book.
In early 2006 Copperfield signed a book deal with Monday Books to turn his blog into a book. For its title he chose the term "wasting police time", a criminal offence under British law. Wasting Police Time was published in October 2006. It chronicles Copperfield's despair at the way policing in his town – dubbed "Newtown" but later revealed to be Burton upon Trent) – stopped functioning properly.
The blurb on the back of the book's dust jacket asks:
Ever wondered why you can't find a policeman when you need one? PC David Copperfield has the answer ... they're all inside the station, writing reports, photocopying, stapling and filing – when they're not getting caught up in the petty squabbles of the underclass. Wasting Police Time is his hilarious and shocking diary of life as a modern British bobby. It's the first book to spill the beans about the way senior police officers waste our money while fiddling the crime figures and scrambling to meet bogus Home Office targets. Copperfield's chief constable won't like it, and neither will the government. But honest taxpayers, sick of being fleeced while criminals rule our streets, will relish every word.
His writing revealed the amount of time that police were taking to deal with relatively petty crimes. He described in detail the hugely complicated paperwork process that meant, for example, that the theft of a bicycle by three boys took around 20 hours (over the course of a month or so) to clear up. This resonated with large sections of the British public – and media – , who wondered how so much more money could have been spent on the police service for apparently so little return.
The book was serialised in the Daily Mail, the sister publication of the paper that had earlier printed his material without permission, and Copperfield found himself in great demand from other newspapers and media outlets.