Police, I-phone, Action

A few years ago, during the witching hours, I was standing outside a city club with a couple of Royal Navel Provost and some doormen. The doorman I was chatting with was no stereotype. He was bright, articulate, patient and trying to earn living doing what he did well. Our small-talk was suddenly interrupted as he and his colleagues ran into the club. As usual you never quite know what they are going to bring out. Peering through the flashing lights and sweaty body’s, into the club, I saw a man swinging his arms wildly, and shouting drunken threats to everyone and no-one. I knew that once he was dragged outside he would be coming with me. Cameras were just beginning to become popular on mobile phones then, and I saw for the first time phones being flipped out around me as revellers hoped to catch the action. There was no time to worry about it; “this guys gonna be a handful” I thought. The navy police, my doorman friend, and myself, instinctive from years of experience, each grabbed a limb and safety pulled the man to the floor. I gave him the obligatory commands to “calm down” but they were lost in the techno-beats of club anthems, and the shouts from my prisoner. He was about six-foot-five tall with a muscular build, lying on his front but refusing to bring his hands around his back so I could apply the handcuffs. His adrenaline and angry strength conspired against all our best efforts to force his hands around. Realising his left hand was closest I open-palm stuck the muscle-mass in his left shoulder, careful not to injure him, but forceful enough to break the strength in his arm and get the first hand cuffed. My navy college grabbed a right hand and began trying to drag it around too, but he was having the same problem. I started to hit the arm muscle attached to the hand to break the strength, and it loosened. As I started to cuff it my doorman friend shouted, “that’s my arm, that’s my arm!” and started to laugh. The comedy was not lost on us and we all descended into laughter whilst still trying to detain the male. I grabbed the prisoners real right hand and by now he had tired. He was safely cuffed and booked into custody. Later I checked the CCTV in case it was needed for evidence. It showed a single male being jumped on by the four of us, pinned down, and me repeatedly hitting him in, what appeared from the grainy image and an arm blocking the cameras view, to be his face. We all then laugh heartily. It could have been filmed by the Libyan police during a crackdown, but this was me, and it was England. At that moment I realised the danger of the public filming us without the full context being shown on video. I knew that whilst a court trial with all the facts would find in my favour, I wasn't so confident that I would survive a trial by Youtube.

Police Complaints

I want a robust police complaints system so that I can have confidence that I serve a just and honourable organisation. I want a victim to feel secure that I won't drop an investigation because of a bribe from a suspect. If I arrest a member of someone’s family, it's important for me that they know I won't beat their loved one up on the way to the station. Moreover, I don't mind being asked to justify why I sprayed someone with my CS, or kicked a door in, or searched a pedestrian. I don't want to turn a blind eye if a colleague gives a prisoner a kicking around the corner, or doesn't book in all the stolen property but keeps some back for themselves. I did not join that kind of organisation, and whilst there are a few bad apples, because of our internal and independent checks & balances, they are very rare indeed.

I regularly hear two accusations levelled at police: Firstly, the public have no confidence in the police complaints system because they do not see officers prosecuted when the news reports violent footage. Secondly, the complaints against officers are up so officer behaviour must be getting worse.

Lets deal with the first one: The reality is that serious complaints (especially those that hit the news) are investigated as thoroughly as normal criminal ones I.e. objectively, and evidence based. Now I won't comment on any particular case but, I believe, unlike some journalists in The Guardian or The Indy, that police officers should be considered innocent until proven guilty just like anyone else. Trial by media, bloggers, or the twitterarti, simply will not do in a democracy.

The second accusation, that complaints are up, suggests that contrary to the first accusation, public confidence must also be high or they would not bother complaining. This indeed was the case not so long ago. What most people do not realise however is that many officers are terrified of the complaints system as it is so badly abused by malicious complainers. Too often I have witnessed officers grey with worry because someone has made a malicious complaint (usually of a violent or sexual nature). Officers are regularly suspended and even arrested on these basis and it causes health problems and damages entire families because of the stress. Remember we deal with some pretty hostile people every day who are happy to abuse these system.

The answer to both of these accusations is the same. Don't just count the number of complaints and prosecutions, but check the quality of the complaints being received when judging how the police manage their complaints system.

“Pre-crime” Arrests

I don't want to get drawn into commenting on operational decisions made during public protest events such as March for the Alternative, or the Royal Wedding, as I was not there. However I have heard many complaints about police arresting protesters before they had even committed an offence. The offence they most refer to is Breach Of The Peace. Allusions have been made to the movie Minority Report where Tom Cruise is a sort of time-cop who travels back in time to just before an offence is about to take place, and detains the would-be offender. They are then charged with the offence they were about to commit. The difference which is missed by those who make this allusion, is that with Breach Of The Peace, no-one is charged with the offence they were potentially about to commit. In fact they are often not charged with anything but simply released once the threat of the offence taking place has passed. But the criticisms do not stop there. Some are suggesting that the very power to arrest for “pre-crime” offences is undemocratic. The logic being; “if I’ve not done anything wrong, then what right do you have to detain me?” Let me try to explain why I think that this logic is flawed.

Not so long ago I was deployed to an incident where I child had called 999 informing us that “daddy is hitting mummy.” We “blue-lighted” it to the address where the suspect had left the scene and the mother and her daughter were beside themselves with fear. The child’s mum had no visible injuries, and was clear that she had not been assaulted. Her and her husband had simply had a drunken row. She was however scared that her husband might hit her if we left. The child said that she did not see what happened as she was in bed, she just heard scary shouting and banging. Now, you can't arrest two people for having a noisy row, however we could not leave it there and needed to find the male. After about twenty minutes of looking by torchlight, a cigarette lit up in the field behind the house and a very drunk male staggered out. He was extremely aggressive, making angry accusations against his wife, threatening us, and calling the child a liar. Clearly we could not leave him at the address as he constituted a threat to his wife. We tried to calm him down but it did not work. We told him he had to leave but he refused. We tried to help him find somewhere to go, but he said he wasn't going anywhere. We warned him he would be arrested, his reply? “Arrest me then.” So we did although he still put up a fight. Had he committed a crime? No. Was he threat to his family? – you bet! So he had to come into custody to prevent a crime (a Breach Of The Peace) from taking place.

My point is that so called “pre-crime” arrests are not signs of an undemocratic society. On the contrary, the public not only demand that police investigate and detect crime, but they demand that we prevent it from happening in the first place. No one wants to be a victim before the police step in. A functioning democracy protects people, it doesn't simply pick up the pieces after they have been harmed.

The same is true for protests. Communities do not want shops smashed, fires burning, and roads blockaded. So if police receive viable intelligence that members of a protest are about to engage in unlawful activity, then we are forced to be proactive. This might mean searches, or even arrests. Some will complain that they are lawful and peaceful protesters so the police are wrong to stop them. But if they are part of a larger group, some of whom we have reason to believe are about to engage in public disorder, then how do we know who the suspects are? I appreciate that this is not entirely fair, and it doesn't always go according to plan, but the police are not mind readers and the alternative is allowing public disorder to take place. The people to blame then are not the police, but those people committed to unlawful methods of protest and violence who we need to stop. It is their activity that spoil an otherwise peaceful & lawful protest for everyone else.

Conspiracy Theory’s

The wonderful thing about social media, is not simply the ability for the individual citizen to

publicise their own content, but for individuals from different backgrounds to connect. Whilst I have found some protesters I have interacted with on Twitter and the blogger-sphere thought provoking and challenging, too many are peddling conspiracy theory’s about the police that would make Donald Trump blush. And its not just random protesters, often it is respected journalists. I have heard complaints such people being arrested for filming police officers on their I-phones which is impossible as there is no offence for this. I have been told that police have been ordered to take political prisoners which is nonsense. Some are comparing the 'boys-in-blue' to the SS, or the police repelling Arab protesters in the Middle East which is crazy in a democratic society with accountable institutions. I have even read protester bloggers referring to themselves as “prisoners of conscience” because they were arrested for unlawfully flash-mobbing a department store. I always thought such labels were given in honour by groups such as Amnesty to activists imprisoned by dangerous regimes. It is not a label one gives oneself for being detained in the UK under twenty four hours, and with the Human Rights Act protecting every minute of their stay. Sure custody is not the Ritz, its smelly, it's boring, and the food is terrible, but the way some protesters describe it, it sounds like they had been detained in Guantanamo Bay. These embellished stories may glamorises the bloggers who write them, and reinforce the anger of their readership, but the reality is that UK custody suites never offer protesters the pseudo-brutal experiences they hope for. Sorry folks, we're just the organisation you need us to be!

Your police service believes in protest too

I want the police to be accountable, I did not join to beat people up, or prevent people from speaking truth-to-power. And I do not know any officer who did. Nor have I ever been briefed to commit an unlawful arrest or a political one. There is a lot to protest about today with a savaged economy, a huge active war machine, and an environment being destroyed. I support the right protest. In 2008 I marched with 25,000 of my colleges in London because the then Home secretary lied about cutting our pay. I believe that we were an example of how to protest. We caught massive media attention, not one officer committed an offence, there was plenty of cups of tea but no kettles required, and our point was well made. All I ask then of protesters is not to re-enforce the anti-police narrative simply because you read a negative blog-post, or saw a dodgy looking Youtube clip. And before you get involved in a protest which you know might end up messy, consider what the police might be forced to do before you attend because of the actions of a minority of other protesters.