Inspector swaps uniform for vintage cars

Police Inspector 549 Richard Woodcock has retired from the Warwickshire Police Service and said he is now looking forward to pursuing his love of vintage cars and even write an autobiography of his experiences.

Richard joined the Force in 1982, just after the Falklands war and has since served all over the county including Kenilworth, Warwick and Leamington, plus secondments to the Force Control Room at Leek Wootton and the Ryton Police Training College.

Speaking about his time, he said his career in Kenilworth had been a “fantastically rewarding” one with many highs and only very few lows.

“The police service has been good to me, though the job has changed beyond all recognition,” he said.

“It inevitably reflects a constantly changing society, and I want to record and value that for posterity.

“I’d also like to thank all those that helped make it so memorable for me.”

He said the most challenging experience of the past three decades was working in the control room where he was making life and death decisions every day.

Richard spend most of the past ten years as a sector commander’ for Kenilworth and Warwick where he enjoyed freedom to work with the communities and gain their support and trust.

And he said working in the town was “one of the best policing jobs in England”.

To celebrate his time on the force, Richard hosted a retirement celebration at Woodcote House - the former Warwickshire force headquarters where he as joined by over 100 friends, relatives and colleagues.

The event included a display of vintage and veteran motor vehicles, a passion of Richard’s which he now hopes to spend more time pursuing.

Other hobbies the former policeman hopes to indulge in with his free time include charitable ventures, running the Warwickshire Police History Society and writing an autobiography detailing his 30 years of service and the social history era of policing.