Q: How long have you been working in the police force?
A: I've been in the police force for coming up to 15 years March 2006. I was stationed first of all in Newtown, Powys and then in a little out station in Caersws. In 1994, I moved to Cardigan and have been here ever since!

Q : Why did you decide to become a police officer?
A : I made a decision in 1991 that I wanted to do a job that gave me a lot of variety and was equally of use to people in society. That is really the main role of the police - to help people.

Q: How many schools do you visits?
A: I visit 42 schools every term.

Q: How many people work at the station in Cardigan?
A: There are about 60 of us working in the police station because we cover 24 hours a day. We've got four different shifts and of course support staff, office staff and cleaning staff.

Q: When do you have your time off?
A: It varies. When I was working on the beat it would be any two days in a week - we would have a rota, so we'd know roughly when it would be - they could be mid-week or weekends but we didn't get many weekends off! But now as I go round the schools and they are closed on a Saturday and Sunday I'm off every weekend which is very nice.

Q: Do you have days off on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?
A: Now as I work in the schools, yes I do usually but not when you're working on the beat. That's one down side perhaps of police work - holidays, bank holidays, things like that, they mean nothing. We've got to provide cover 24 hours a day 7 days a week, but there's a lot of variety.

Q: How hard is it working as a Police Officer?
A: It's one of those jobs which you have masses and masses of variety. Some days it's quite easy, quite straight forward - it's what you're used to and you don't come across any situations that are difficult or sad, either for you or for members of the public. On other days it can be quite tragic, quite difficult - either perhaps for me, I'm out in the cold and it's wet and dark and perhaps I'm tired because I've been working nights and the shifts have changed or perhaps the situations we have to deal with are tragic. It really can vary. The variety I like, but of course you don't get the advantages sometimes there are disadvantages as well, but on the whole I really love the work.

• Part 2 of the interview...