Metfriendly CEO Annette Petchey talks about her most recent ride-along with the Territorial Support Group.
I found this difficult to write, and considered not doing so, as the subject could lend itself to mawkishness or – worse – could cause pain to some readers. After deliberating, I decided that while NOT writing would be easier for me, it would be disrespectful to the Police Officers involved who did not have the option to avoid the discomfort. If what I have written upsets you, I am deeply sorry.
It has been a while since I last went out on a ride along with my old friends in U4.2 of the Task Force’s (MO7) Territorial Support Group, so I was delighted when CI James Cole invited me to join them on one of 4.2’s Commissioner’s Reserve late turns.
I was expecting the turn to be along similar lines to my previous outings with them: mobile patrols, observation, controlled interventions, all mixed with the comfortable familiarity of a close-knit team confronting potentially stressful situations. This time turned out to be different and proved to be a sobering reminder of just what we ask of UK Police Officers.
A call came in to urgently assist in the search for an at-risk missing person. The urgency meant the drive from Catford took significantly less than the hour Google Maps told me it should have taken for the three TSG buses – each with 7 officers – to reach the destination, where TSG met with several BCU units, also searching.
The man wasn’t found. While there was hope in the bus I travelled in, the circumstances of the call meant there wasn’t an expectation of finding him alive, and most anticipated finding a body. After several hours of searching a large, densely-overgrown wood in the black of night, the search was abandoned.
Metfriendly has former Police Officers on its Board of Directors. When I joined, one of them – Craig Haslam – talked to me about some of the things Officers are exposed to and my latest experience with the TSG prompted me to dig into the subject a little more.
Police Care UK quotes that an Officer is likely to see 400-600 traumatic events in their career. This compares to the World Health Organisation’s reported incidence of 70% of the world’s population experiencing a potentially traumatic event. One event. When you realise that this will be impacted by the conflict, war and natural disasters we are usually spared in the UK, the difference begins to be stark. According to the Mental Health Foundation, the figure for the UK is that 1 in 3 people will experience a traumatic event.
Most people who experience a trauma – including Officers – won’t go on to develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A few years ago, Cambridge University published some research into PTSD in UK Police Officers, citing that the incidence of PTSD is five times higher in UK Police Officers than in the general UK population. I think I am surprised that this isn’t higher given we ask Police to deal with murder, suicide, rape, child abuse, assault, serious road traffic accidents, infant deaths, terror attacks… and many more that I can’t – or don’t want to – think about.
I don’t know how I would have felt if U4.2 had found a body. On the way to the location, the possibility played on my mind, and the bus was quieter than it had been on my two previous ride alongs with them, so it may have been on the minds of the seven Officers I was with, too. I also don’t know – if I was a Police Officer – if I would become used to this kind of thing, and if I would share my experiences with my family for their support or lock it inside me to protect them.
Whether I could do this or not, someone needs to do it and I am glad to be a part of recognising and supporting those that choose to be those “someones”.
Previous ride alongs with TSG:
Annette Petchey, CEO Metfriendly
