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.

A police coronavirus checkpoint in action. Photo: Sgt Paul Cording

It was a difficult time and some police forces were criticised for being heavy-handed and flying drones in remote places. But the situation was different to anything we had previously experienced and you have to remember we were – and still are – in the middle of a pandemic and communities in the Dales have as much right to be safe as anyone else.

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!

Being a police traffic sergeant and father to a young child, Sergeant Paul Cording is used to being busy. Some nights he is the only traffic sergeant patrolling North Yorkshire’s 6,000 miles of roads.

But although the first lockdown decimated the volume of traffic on the roads, the second one has been far busier — and more challenging in some ways. He says:

“We’ve seen more high end speeding. That could be a result of less traffic on the road and people thinking they can use it as a race track.”

Sgt Cording, 49, who lives in Harrogate, said there have also been more incidents involving drink and drug drivers and more domestic incidents. But late night alcohol disturbances are down.

14,000 Twitter followers

Sgt Cording’s sometimes shocking tweets about life on the frontline have brought him a near-14,000 following,

North Yorkshire Police trust him to communicate directly with journalists and the wider public in his warm, engaging manner.

He weaves personal anecdotes, such as cannabis drivers, chasing suspected poachers and a colleague being bitten by a person with covid, with more serious messages, such as promoting the charity Brake’s road safety week.

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He says there were “some issues” within the force when he started tweeting in 2011 but increasingly the police recognise the value of officers engaging directly with the public and showing a bit of personality rather than parroting corporate lines.

“You have to be engaging otherwise there’s no point.”

A former RAF man, he works from 7am to 7pm for two consecutive days, then from 7pm to 7am for two consecutive nights then has four days off. What has been his most distressing incident?

“Being first on the scene of a fatal road traffic accident involving one of my colleagues. She was hit by a speeding drink and drug driver.”

Likes a beer

Since joining the police in 2001, Sgt Cording says there has been “huge progress” in looking after officers’ mental health by providing welfare meetings, incident briefings and trauma incident management. But some things are never forgotten.

To unwind, he spends time with his wife and three-year-old son, plays hockey, runs and “likes a beer”.

He tries to answer every direct message he receives on Twitter.

“I’ve only ever had to block two people and that’s because I didn’t want to buy any Raybans and because I’m a happily married man. Read into that what you will!”