Officer 28
Location of interview:Twickenham
Officer's Gender:Male
Date joined Met Police:28 June 1976
Date left Met Police:22 September 2008
Rank of leaving:Inspector
Divisons served: Airport T (Staines), X (Hayes)
Specialist service:No specialities
Transcript of interview
Click on to listen to track.
(Tracks 1 – 7 empty)
Track 8: 9’25”: (Introduction to interview) Life before the Metropolitan Police Service: growing up in Bournemouth, parents jobs, sister, schooling, University and variety of jobs. Reasons for joining the Police after working in an industry. January 1st 1976 application. Selection process: Paddington Green medical examination. Discusses growing up in an ex-serviceman’s house in Bournemouth. First memory of a police officer and friends father who was a police officer. Recalls former Woman Police officer who advised him to join the Metropolitan Police Service and not Dorset. First years as a PC: training school, boxing, graduation, posting to Heathrow and first arrests. Criminality in Heathrow and arrest record.
(Tracks 9 – 10 void)
Track 11: 15’52": Early years working at Heathrow: protection duties, firearms, Notting Hill and Staines. Tout squad and tackling taxi touts. Incident in Staines involving a Hells Angel on the river possibly possessing firearms and finding a duck under his shirt. Receiving commendations: one incident of stopping a man for a broken rear light and discovering 30 stolen cheque books and cards. Promotion to Sergeant and posting to Hayes. Running a Relief on X district and suspension from driving and posting to divisional station. Record number of arrests and return to Hayes. Miners strike and overtime. Riots of West London. Plain clothes posting tackling drug smuggling. Police Federation work. First intelligence unit in the Metropolitan Police Service and the introduction of the computer. Pilot sights for computer aided dispatch rooms. Tackling a domestic incident and finding that the man had a firearm after deserting the army. Sir Kenneth Newman commendation. Discusses a successful resuscitation incident and the failure of one resuscitation attempt on a colleague. Incident of another colleague who died due to hospital negligence.
Track 12: 5’34": Terrorism and policing incidents and impact. Tackling incidents in Heathrow: Harrods bombing. Incident working with a dog handler in Southall and looking for weapons from a gang fight. Posting to Knightsbridge to tackle the bombing of Harrods December 1983. Found that the dog handler had been working at the incident and the loss of his legs and his dog. Grosvenor Square American embassy incident. IRA bombing of a friend's pub. Twickenham incident involving suspicious Irishman and discovering that they were burglars.
Track 13: 3’31": High profile arrest of rival to Holy Smoke Gang. Recalls events leading to the arrest: stabbing in Southall, escape attempt of criminal and preventing his escape by punching him. Recalls giving evidence in the Old Bailey. Tackling the racial tensions between rival gangs in Southall and the subsequent media attention. Southall riots.
Track 14: 2’38": Working with women police officers. Compares Heathrow with the misogyny in West Drayton. Problems for female probationers and prejudices against women PCs. Recalls female colleagues.
Track 15: 5’20": Working with black and ethnic minority (BME) officers. Growing up in a mixed race environment and a multicultural school. Hayes and working with an Indian probationer. Recalls an officer making 86 complaints about prejudices that were not upheld. Community policing and ethnic minorities. Institutional racism. Perceptions about the Metropolitan Police Service and race relations.
Track 16: 3’18": Social life in and away from the Metropolitan Police Service. Police sports (rugby, cricket and fencing). Implications of the enlarged geographic circumference for Metropolitan Police Service officers homes outside of London.
Track 17": 9’32": Promotion from constable to Sergeant after 4 years. Semi-acceleration programme. Working towards promotion and undertaking the exam. Birth of his first daughter and promotion to Inspector. Waiting in Brixton for promotion and then 1988 posting to Chiswick with promotion. Discusses nature of the team in Chiswick. Becoming acting Chief Inspector. Working as an intelligence manager. Posting to Twickenham borough as licensing and operations inspector. Rewriting the policing of the rugby stadium. Introducing pub watch and CCTV for late licenses. Writing the Metropolitan Police Service licensing strategy. Writing the Firearms licensing strategy. Injury and fear of medical discharge. Working with the Police Federation. Founding member of disabled staff association and work to prevent prejudice against disabled staff members.
Track 18: 7’22": Policing techniques and changes in structures: specialist units. The role of the collator. The problem of the increase in employment numbers in administrative duties and not on the streets. Impact of new legislation on policing. Police and criminal evidence Act 1984 and the subsequent enlargement of administration and writing demanded of Police officers. Changes to the Fraud Act. Influx of eastern European immigrants, Kenyan aliens, and changes in the environments and communities as a consequence.
Track 19: 1’08": Retirement and reflections about career choice in the Metropolitan Police Service.