Sgt Paul Cording, a traffic sergeant for North Yorkshire Police who lives in Harrogate, reflects on the most unusual year in his policing life, and how officers have dealt with the challenges.

The one thing that really stands out in my mind in 2020 is the start of the first lockdown when we were stopping cars on the A59 Skipton Road. At that moment I realised this was different to anything I’d ever done before.

You never know in policing what you will be faced with and have to be prepared for anything but nothing in my career led me to think I’d be stopping drivers in the middle of a pandemic and asking them to validate the purpose of their journeys.

I’m fortunate because I still have a job. I’m acutely aware many people haven’t. But the pandemic impacted my working life hugely. There was instantly a massive reduction in traffic on the roads. I remember driving between two junctions on the A1 and seeing just two HGVs — that’s on a road that usually has hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day.

The government advice on the pandemic was challenging to work out but the actual legislation did give us other avenues to stop vehicles and question journeys, rather than have to start with the usual questions about tax and insurance.

In those early days the ambiguity over how far you could travel and how long you could take your daily exercise for meant there were an awful lot of people descending on the Dales.

North Yorkshire Police has a reputation as a friendly force. This year has seen some strain on relations between the police and the public. Look at some of the large protests that have taken place nationally on issues such as covid and Black Lives Matter. There has been some unrest, but we haven’t seen any in North Yorkshire and, personally, I don’t think relations with the public have been strained here.

There has been much more community spirit this year. People seem more inclined to spend their money locally and I met more people in my street during the VE Day celebrations than I ever had before.

Fortunately this year I had Christmas Day off so I could be at home with my wife and son. I’m on the day shift on New Year’s Eve, but the days of going from pub to pub on December 31 have gone. I predict there will be a big uptake in orders for patio heaters as more people celebrate New Year at home!