Many of us come from a period of policing when small geographical areas had their own dedicated community police officer. Everyone knew them by name and they knew everyone – the local ‘eyes and ears’ of policing and the cornerstone of ‘community intelligence’. Sadly neighborhood policing has suffered somewhat due to financial constraints, and re-organisations, making the sight of local beat ‘bobbies’ much rarer. Our little book ‘One In For D & D’ lists ‘R.B.Os’ as one of the 500 slang words, phrases and abbreviations in use in the West Midlands from the 1970s onward
– ‘Resident Beat Officer’.