BRITAIN'S most under-worked policeman has an impeccable record as a
community's law enforcement officer -- 19 years without a single crime.
Roadman Archie McConnell has been a special constable since 1974 on
the Hebridean island of Colonsay -- population 102 -- where the last
recorded crime, treachery against the king, was in 1623.
His biggest investigation came two years ago when he interviewed the
crew of a yacht suspected of stealing a collection box from neighbouring
Islay.
''I went in my roadman's boiler suit, stood the lads in a line and
asked the guilty parties to own up,'' he said in an interview with Bella
magazine.
''They didn't, so I let the Oban police take over the case. I didn't
hear the result.''
The 52-year-old unpaid bobby does have a uniform -- which he last wore
on General Election day ''when I manned the polling booth to prevent
riots''.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article