It took policeman John Pooley only

It took policeman John Pooley only an hour or two to solve the Case of the Thorpeness Burglary. It must be said, however, that the crime was not difficult. The description, though slight, narrowed the number of persons likely to commit such a crime...to one. Pooley, of course, knows everyone in the three villages in his care, and their children. But after he had made the arrest —something he has to do more rarely than once a month—he felt troubled because he not only knew the man, but also knew that he had family problems.

John Pooley's area is a very large one by police standards, and includes the three villages of Middleton, Dunwich and Westleton, where he lives. With a total population of 1, 219, he has more than twice as many people to look after as the average policeman has. Moreover, he is attached to the Halesworth subdivision and is frequently given duties outside his home area. After 15 years as a policeman, he accepts these duties without question, but his villages are clearly where his heart and interest really lie. When he was first sent to Westleton, he lived in the police house which was both his home and the police station; when the system changed, he bought the house where he now lives with his wife, Ann, and his two daughters.

He could hardly be better qualified for the job of village policeman. Before he joined the police, he was an agricultural worker for five years and a male nurse in a mental hospital for six years. He says:“If you haven't had another job before you join the police, you tend to think nothing but police.”

Crime in the country, of course, is somewhat different from city crime. Who was ever attacked while walking along the village street in Middleton? The things which John Pooley has to watch for are people stealing tools and equipment from farm vehicles, or wood from the surrounding forests. There are natural dangers too: he is so worried about the fire risk in forests that he has turned his bedroom window into a look-out post.