BUS workers who have become `hobby bobbies' say they want to make Greater Manchester safer for the travelling public.

The M.E.N. reported yesterday how a small band of bus company workers had been trained as special constables - public-spirited volunteers who usually give up one day a week to help the police.

Training
Six bus company staff have been given police uniforms and have all the powers of a regular officer. They have undergone training in self-defence, communication and law.
One in every five working days, they don their uniform and work as specials on the buses, sponsored by their employers. Steven Delaney, 32, from Stalybridge, who works as a ticket inspector for Stagecoach, said: "We've been working with the police at weekends. We have had a real insight into the work they do.

Cannabis
"I also work with the neighbourhood policing at Chadderton in my own time one day a week. I do the extra work because I really enjoy doing it. What this is all about is protecting the public and staff from anti-social behaviour. For instance three weeks ago on Hyde Road, just before this scheme started, we got on a bus and we could immediately smell cannabis. There was a young lad and girl upstairs. The lad immediately admitted it. One of the officers searched him and they found a BB gun and a lock-knife.

'Forensics
"We transferred passengers on to the next service, waited for forensics to arrive and collected CCTV.  It was another knife and another gun off the streets."

Full-time
Steven admitted that `hopefully one day' he would become a full-time police officer. Chief Insp Haydn Roberts would like more bus company staff to become specials.