1. In 1919, 2,000 constables in London, Birmingham and Liverpool took part in an unsuccessful national strike to prevent the formation of the Police Federation. Many officers who were sacked for striking joined the Railway Police.

2. A rookie constable has the same arrest powers as a Chief Constable or Commissioner.

3. The (armed) Civil Nuclear Constabulary police force, created in April 2005, protects the UK’s nuclear installations and substances.

4. Fourteen thousand police constables from every force in Britain were used during the G8 conference at Gleneagles, Scotland, in July 2005.

5. Special constables (a force of trained volunteers who work with and support their local police force) work for a minimum of 16 hours per month. They carry the same personal protective equipment (PPE) as their regular counterparts, including handcuffs, batons and CS or pepper spray.

6. PC George Leefe died in March 1907, after a female tramp he was ejecting from Leeds Stations poked him in the face with an umbrella, and the wound turned septic.

7. More than 35,000 people apply to join the police each year; only 5,000 are successful.

8. New police constables are sworn in by magistrates.

9. The British Police Symphony Orchestra was set up in Birmingham in October 1989 by viola player Constable Alex Roe of the West Midlands Police.

10. In April 1831, PC Bates of the Liverpool and Manchester Transport Police was fined £3 for causing an accident when he failed to change a set of points — he’d fallen asleep at his post at Newton Junction.