“A role for everyone” - Traffic Cops star Jason reflects on 30 years of policing opportunities

A retiring officer who has helped pull passengers out of a burning vehicle and protected Royalty has spoken about the opportunities, challenges and rewards policing can offer.
PC Jason Potts is currently part of the Derbyshire Roads Policing Unit and can often be seen keeping the county’s roads safe on Channel 5’s ‘Traffic Cops’.
The 49-year-old joined the force at just 19, beginning as a regular police officer patrolling streets in a number of Derbyshire towns and villages. In the 30 years since, he has specialised in road crime and tackled a wide range of incidents, events and roles.
Derbyshire Constabulary is currently recruiting in a range of policing roles and as part of the force’s drive to welcome a number of new officers, PC Potts has spoken about the opportunities policing can offer and the chances to specialise after becoming an officer.
He said: “I applied for several forces when I was 18 or 19, I just wanted to do the role. I got accepted by Derbyshire and snatched their hands off. I was so fortunate that I got Derbyshire which is just such an amazing and beautiful place to work and live.
“At that stage I was a regular section police officer with the uniform, big hat, walking around the beat, interacting with people.
“We had rural cars and we had response cars, so all the emergency calls would be attended by the response car. I did that for a few years and I enjoyed that so much that the natural step for me was to go on the roads policing department.
“There’s a role for everyone. I’ve found that I’ve worked on officer teams where we would call some of our colleagues the ‘thief takers’ and you know that they will do their best to arrest somebody if they know they’ve committed an offence.
“Then, you’ll get police officers that become amazing investigators and they go on to investigate the most serious crimes - and you’ll also get people who are great with victims, and the service needs all these different characters."
Having always been fascinated with the cars and finding a niche with the roads policing incidents he encountered, Jason jumped at the chance to join the specialist unit as soon as there were job vacancies.
“I think when I joined Roads Policing as a young man there was an appetite for the road crime side of it, with the best cars, the best training. It most certainly improves your driving skills beyond anything you could imagine,” he added.
“Because of those skills, I was later able to do assist with the VIP unit and there’s a lot of pride to being given the opportunity to do that role with that type of people.
“Personally, I’ve assisted when William, Kate and Prince Charles came to Derbyshire and Leicestershire, and I’ve been very fortunate to be part of that and to see how smoothly something can happen as a result of that team.
“That’s what we all join for, to keep people safe.
“Several years ago I was working with one of my colleagues, Alex, in Derby and such a criminal was driving a vehicle. This individual decided he wasn’t going to stop and it wasn’t until the vehicle overturned that we realised his partner and very young child were in the vehicle, and the car burst into flames.
“Myself and Alex rescued them from this burning car and also managed to arrest the driver and he was sent to prison.”
Jason has recently become a familiar Derbyshire face after the team were approached by the producers of Traffic Cops, which airs on Channel 5. Recalling the experience, he says that it’s been an invaluable insight for the public into the service which keeps them safe.
“It’s quite a strange sensation to have a camera with you all the time, but as a result of being part of that, the amount of positivity it has created has kind of shocked me. We get contacted by people all over the world who watch it, that are regular people from all walks of life, saying how we make them feel safe.
“None of us are superheroes, we’re all regular people from all walks of life.
“As part of ‘Traffic Cops’ we’ve opened people’s eyes to say these are the kind of individuals we have to deal with on a daily basis.
“A lot of people have contacted me or stopped me to say ‘because I’ve watched you on the telly, I want to do that’.
“Don’t get me wrong, there will be bad bits from any walk of life, in every occupation. On the other side of that, you will get stories where a police officer has done something incredible and even colleagues, myself included, have see colleagues do things that inspired me.
“Speak to police officers. I am certain that if you see them and stop them and say ‘have you got two minutes, can I ask you a question - I’m thinking about joining, what do you think?’, they will give you an honest answer.”
“It’s a tough occupation but very rewarding, if you put your heart and soul into it you’ll get a lot back. It can be intimidating and perhaps not for the faint hearted, but there are roles for everybody.”