Angela Simpson, a police officer

Группа Learning English.
Транскрипт всего подкаста сюда не умещается. Продолжение текста здесь: [bad word] /downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/webcast/scripts/private_lives/private_lives_4.pdf

Clip Angela Simpson
When I spoke to my mother about joining the police service she was dead set against it
because of the fact that I’m female and I’m black and because of all the negative publicity that
the police had had in her era when she actually came to the country so she was totally dead set
against me joining.
Sue: In Private lives today we meet Angela Simpson. Angela is 29 years old, and she
was born and brought up in Leeds, a large city in the north of England. Angela
is a police officer, and she has special responsibility for [bad word] young people
from ethnic minorities who are interested in a career in the police service.
During the programme, we’ll hear Angela talk about where she lives, and what
she enjoys doing on a typical night in and a typical night out. She also talks
about her family, and she describes how she thinks being a police officer has
changed her over the years. First, we learn a little about Angela’s background
and her childhood in a multicultural suburb of Leeds.
Clip Angela Simpson
My parents came to England in the 1960s, early 1960s from Jamaica, and I remember living in
the Harehills area of Leeds which I really enjoyed as a child because of the fact that I distinctly
remember that on my left there were neighbours who were Irish and from there we had people
who were Sikh, Hindu, Pakistani, African-Carribbean all in this long street. I remember at
school, it was quite a multicultural environment the fact that I had friends from different
backgrounds and different walks of life and for me I have really happy childhood memories it
wasn’t until really I started working where I felt like I was in the minority.
Sue: Angela began her working life at Customs and Excise - a British government
department which is responsible for collecting duty on imported goods for
example. She had an administrative job and she was bored. When she decided
she wanted to [bad word] a police officer, her mother tried to discourage her,
fearing her daughter would face racial prejudice and ual discrimination.
Angela wasn’t put off - although the training was tough, and she says she found
it especially difficult, since she was from an ethnic minority background. After
training school, Angela became a foot patrol officer, and her day-to-day duties
included dealing with shoplifters, domestic incidents and road accidents. She
worked in a different part of Leeds from where she was brought up and she
explains why.
Clip Angela Simpson
I would never ever work in the area that I was brought up in which is Leeds in the Harehills
area because of the fact that I do know a lot of people that I went to school with, a lot of
people who have been in trouble as well and just from some of [bad word] that have been
said when I’ve been out with my friends, especially if somebody doesn’t like somebody from the police force then they’re going to say negative things about you. And I’ve got to think of
my family as well who still live in that area which is the most important thing to me regardless
of the job really so I would never, ever work in Leeds where I was brought up.
Sue: Angela is no longer a foot patrol officer “on the beat” - on duty, walking the
local area she was responsible for. She enjoys her new role as a [bad word] liaison officer, and she’s working very hard to attract young people from ethnic
minority backgrounds into the police service. However, Angela is clear that her
police work on the beat - some of it with people whose living conditions
shocked her because they were so poor - made her a more [bad word] officer and a stronger person.
...