SHE loves watching crime dramas on television, but when Pam Parish joined an officer on the beat for a day she found that the job is quite different.

The former teaching assistant was encouraged to apply to be a community reporter for Greater Manchester Police when her daughter saw information about it in The Bolton News.

Ms Parish has always enjoyed writing so she jumped at the challenge to write a blog about her experience, which has had more than 800 views.

The 43-year-old joined PC Rick Charlesworth in Bolton town centre to see what life is like for officers on the beat.

Ms Parish said: “It was a real eye opener to go out with the police.

“I have always been interested in what they do, and I watch all the crime programmes on television.

“But they only show the highlights and not the day to day working.”

The mother-of-three was surprised by how many social issues the police have to deal with.

She added: “There are a lot of social issues that are not really a police matter, but who else deals with them?

“We went to the report of a suicidal man at the Griffin pub. We did not know whether there was a weapon involved but he was harmless other than the fact that he was very distressed and threatening to do something to himself.

“There were problems with drunken people being a nuisance. The number of people begging also surprised me.

“When I am in town going about my business I don’t notice these things. They were politely asked to move on.”

She also went to some university drugs raids, where she said there was a strong smell of cannabis — although only a grinder was found.

Ms Parish also took a walk along Shiffnall Street, which used to be Bolton’s red light district.

She was impressed when PC Charlesworth told her about Operation Zero, and how the initiative significantly reduced the number of prostitutes working in the town.

Now, she is hoping that she would be able to go out with them again.

She added: “I would really like to go out with the police at night and see what it is like in the town centre. I think that would be interesting.”