“I remember my first blue lights call, and all the adrenaline pumping,” Melissa Jack smiles.
One year on, the 22-year-old talks about the first time she turned on the sirens and raced into the face of danger as if it happened yesterday.
But despite this becoming a part of her daily life, the rookie cop still feels that every call provokes that same rush as her first.
And as I join her patrolling the city centre streets, the feeling that “anything can happen” is certainly in the air.
Just last year, Melissa was working towards becoming a personal trainer, so why did she make such a radical change?
I spent the morning with PC Melissa Jack to find out, and gained an insight into how her first year on the beat in Aberdeen has been, including:
- Why she made the leap from being a personal trainer to a police officer
- Responding to bomb scares after being on the job for mere months
- And the one harrowing incident that sticks in her mind
Who is Melissa Jack?
I met Melissa and her tutor PC Kevin Olgivie on a grey, rainy morning outside Marischal College.
After a quick chat inside their Aberdeen headquarters, decorated with a “rogues gallery” of faces to look out for, we head out on patrol in the city centre.
One of Melissa’s “regulars” is already outside.
The man approaches and jokes with Melissa and our photographer, checking with a cheeky grin “are you sure you don’t want a picture of me in cuffs?”
The rookie cop chuckles, and explains to me that he is one of many regular city centre characters she comes across whilst on patrol.
We head down Schoolhill where I find out why Melissa became a police officer.
From personal bests to making arrests…
The 22-year-old, originally from the shire, was a long way away from the police force just last year.
She was studying a fitness course at college, whilst working at the David Lloyd gym in Garthdee and hoping to become a personal trainer.
“I started off as a receptionist, and worked my way up,” Melissa explains.
“But it just didn’t seem to be what I wanted from a job…”
So with Melissa looking for a career change, she went to the one role that had always been something of a hidden ambition.
“Joining the police had always been in the back of my mind as something I wanted to do, but I wasn’t ready for it when I left school,” she begins.
“But I had different jobs working with members of the public and that built my confidence up.
“At that point I thought ‘you know what? I think I’m ready to join’.”
But despite worries over her dyslexia possibly getting in the way of the admin side of the role, she pressed ahead with her leap of faith.
“And now I feel like it’s the best decision that I’ve ever made,” she smiles.
Midnight bomb scares for Aberdeen cop Melissa
As we turn on to Belmont Street, it seems to be quite a quiet morning in the city centre.
I soon learn I have committed a faux pas with this observation.
Melissa and Kevin tell me they “never say the Q word” whilst on shift in Aberdeen city centre. I hope I haven’t jinxed things.
Melissa has an example of just how quickly things can go from drab to dramatic.
The rookie cop reminisces about one shift which looked like it was going to be a quiet night… until it wasn’t.
In July, officers and the bomb squad raced to Sheddocksley in the middle of the night after reports of an explosive device being discovered in a garden.
Melissa was one of the first on the scene, just 10 months into the job, evacuating fearful residents from their homes to safety.
In the midst of the melee, she turned around and saw something heading towards her.
It was the bomb disposal robot.
“I thought ‘there’s only one thing the robot will be heading towards’,” Melissa says with an ominous tone.
The robot scooting along the street on the night in question:
She very quickly began to worry, and dashed from the contraption heading towards her.
Luckily for her, the robot was nowhere near the bomb…
And as for that bomb? It turned out to be fishing gear. Panic over.
And this anecdote epitomises what it’s like being an Aberdeen copper.
“You just don’t know what call is going to come through and what you’re going to be dealing with for that day, which I enjoy,” Melissa adds.
‘That incident really stuck in my mind’
After walking down Belmont Street and turning onto the Granite Mile, Melissa begins to tell me about the most striking call she’s faced while working in Aberdeen.
As we pass St Nicholas Kirkyard, where she’s had to deal with many a troublemaker, she explains it was a very different incident that stuck with her.
The police newcomer says: “There was a girl that was the same age as me when an incident happened to her a couple years ago.
“She had travelled over to Aberdeen for university, and something really horrible happened to her.
“This girl ended up losing her job because she was taking so much time off due to the trauma.
“She was really low and had been self-harming. When we went to her property, you could see the obvious marks on her.
“But just sitting and speaking to her, she was able to let off what had been going on.
“I got in touch with her later on to make sure that everything was okay, and she told me she had managed to get another job in a different city.
“It was lovely to see that we did make an impact on someone.”
‘Policing isn’t just about catching the bad guys’
And this incident shows the side of being an officer in Aberdeen that isn’t often publicised.
Reflecting on the tougher aspects of the job, Melissa admits: “The toughest part is dealing with really vulnerable people.
“I think it can seem that you’re just going to get the bad guys.
“But as much as you’re trying to deal with that aspect of the job, you’re also going to jobs where people are at their lowest.
“Whatever you say to these folk determines what their next step is going to be, so you really have to go down to their level, sit with them and assure that they are going to be okay.
“A lot of our job is mental health orientated, which is a shame, but that is what the job entails so it’s all about balancing it all.
“It is rewarding seeing people that you’ve maybe dealt with and seeing them a couple of weeks or months down the line, and they are doing well for themselves.”
How has Melissa found her first year in Aberdeen?
Our patrol shift is coming to an end, which was “very quiet” by Melissa’s standards.
I breathe a sigh of relief I didn’t jinx them after all, and she reflects on how her first year on the force in Aberdeen has been.
The 22-year-old beams: “I’ve genuinely loved my first year in the police, it’s totally different.
“You have a perspective of what the police is all about before you join, but there is so many different opportunities and you get the chance to go see different things.
“You have your good days, and you also have your bad days, but that’s the job.
“You’re working with people that are going through the same thing, and you’re always there for each other.
“You create bonds with people like you don’t normally do in other jobs.”
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