GLASGOW crime writer RJ Mitchell has lots of raw material to draw on for his next novel - his own time as a probationary cop.

Mitchell says he can never forget the years he spent learning the ropes in Strathclyde's finest.

Mitchell, a former sportswriter on this paper, where readers knew him better as Bert Mitchell, suffered at the hands of older, more experienced officers.

He will also talk about his time on the force at an Aye Write! panel discussion on Wednesday.

He said: "'d studied medieval history at Glasgow University, and thought about becoming a cop.

"There was a graduate induction course with Merseyside Police and I went out with different departments down there. The rank-and-file warned me, 'Don't sign up - we've got guys who've been promoted beyond their capabilities, chief inspectors with five years' service who've never worked on the ground.'

But I decided to join the force anyway, and in July 1989 I found myself on the bottom rung in Strathclyde."

It was, he says, a complete culture shock.

His initial patch included Springburn and the station at Blackhill.

"It was a busy time - you had the Paul Ferris story, and a big local drugs problem. There were still guys around who'd gone blind because they'd drunk undistilled spirits stolen from a train back in the 1950s.

"There were a lot of good guys on my shift but there were also some ex-soldiers who'd served in Northern Ireland and didn't take kindly to a new, fresh-faced graduate.

"At break-times I wouldn't play cards with them. I preferred to read the sports pages, which didn't go down well. They said I was a 'grass for the brass'."

One of the ex-soldiers was a senior cop. Mitchell remembers that this man made his life "an absolute misery.

"One day I was on the beat with him. You were always meant to know which street you were in without needing to look at the sign. But I got one street wrong, and the next thing I knew, he was holding a flick-knife under my chin.

"'What's going to happen if I slit your throat and dump you here?'" he asked. 'You'd just be another graduate probationer who hadn't listened to a senior cop.'

That was freaky!"

Mitchell added: "One section sergeant took delight in sending me out on my own down Alexandra Parade or in Blackhill early in my probation. He wanted to see if I would get a kicking. I would confront youths causing disorder and would radio for back-up, which just drew attention to the fact that I was an inexperienced probationer out on my own.

Maybe the worst incident was when I found myself in a kangaroo court, at Springburn station. They told me that if I turned up for the Sunday night-shift, I'd have my legs broken and I'd be dumped in the Campsies. It was grim stuff."

Mitchell wanted out of the force. He wasn't enjoying the job and knew he needed another career.

His mum, however, advised him to stay, and he agreed.

In time, things got better for him. There were lots of changes in key personnel, for a start. One detective constable, a well-known plain-clothes officer, took Mitchell under his wing.

He went on to work with the force in different areas, ending up at Pitt Street HQ, then at the station in Alexandria, before leaving in 2001.

"Don't get me wrong," he adds. "There were lots of good moments in my probationary period. Funny moments, too. One Bank Holiday, myself and two other probationers turned up at Cleopatra's nightclub. It was queued out the door so we flashed our warrant cards and said we were Blackhill CID, pursuing some car thieves. We got in, but we ended up the worse for wear, and the staff eventually twigged.

"Twenty-six years later, I wonder sometimes if the bad stuff happened, but it did. In time, I got into sports journalism, and started writing crime books.

"My fourth, The Shift, is set in the 1980s, and features some of the things that happened to me.

"I've waited a long time to write a novel that would let me tap in to the experiences and, in some cases, the misery, of my being a probationer. There aren't too many crime novelists who can say that."

* RJ Mitchell is taking part in Inside Job: Police and Probation Officers Turn to Crime, Mitchell Library, April 22, 6pm.