It has been a bit of a strange week in the office, dictated by events outside of our normal pattern of neighbourhood policing.

Once again it shows the need within the organisation for flexibility, resolve and a huge amount of understanding from the general public in the areas that we police.

Last week officers arriving to work were made aware of the tragic and untimely death of Shevon Wilson in St George and during the early hours of the morning a full-scale investigation had been launched and was under way into the events surrounding his death.

For officers and police community support officers who arrived for duty that morning it was a case of putting any plans on hold and assisting officers at the scene.

This mainly involved enforcing street cordons so that evidence at the scene could be left for forensic examination or collected and to aid the inquiry wherever possible.

Enforcing a cordon is never an easy task as whilst news got around of the tragic events that had unfolded, there were still members of the public who felt put out by not being allowed to travel through the cordon to an area where they felt they needed to go. But with a bit of persuasion, general understanding and robust enforcement the scene was still left sterile.

The following days meant that whilst the investigation was still ongoing the local neighbourhood police teams were out in the surrounding streets offering public reassurance and in some cases dispelling the rumour mill that always stirs around such events.

It also allowed residents indirectly affected by the incident to ask questions and for officers out on the streets to gather intelligence or other potential witnesses. At the same time officers from all over the district were converging on Bristol to ensure that any planned demonstrations by the CO-MUTINY group in the Redland area were peaceful and had little impact on the public.

Again, on a daily basis, this meant officers were taken from their normal places of work and were patrolling the city centre.

These incidents show the need for the modern day police service to adapt at anytime to any given scenario.

Whilst, thankfully, murder investigations and public demonstrations are not the norm, the need to be flexible and work extended shifts is never too far around the corner.

As normality returns to the district, those officers involved in policing such events inevitably return back to their normal shifts and workloads.

But never far from our minds is the help and understanding which we inevitably get from our communities.

They may have been expecting a visit from the local bobby, or expecting a member of the beat team to attend a meeting, but they could not attend due to the need of the police service to direct our resources to other areas and events.

It has always been known to me that as a police service we police with the help and consent of the public for whom we serve and it is during times when the police service is stretched by events outside of our control that we realise how helpful and understanding these people are.

For that, as a member of the neighbourhood beat team and as a serving officer of Avon and Somerset constabulary, I offer our thanks.