The 31^st July 2022 actually happened, they did it. As Leah Williamson lifted that trophy in the air like Rafiki holding a young Simba the nation began a process of adaption. From being oh so close, nearly, just short – to winners.  On the morning after the night before radio programmes were awash with questions such as, “What will the legacy be?”, “How will the women’s game grow from here?”

But another pertinent question, one that perhaps has wider ramifications for English society is – what does this tell us about the difference in fans between the men’s and women’s game?

One sprightly early morning caller to a radio phone in commented that “there was no edge in Wembley Way” in the pre-match build up – seemingly a reference to the behaviour of fans at last years Men’s Euros finals. Far from wanting to dampen any celebratory mood let’s remind ourselves about the men’s Euro 2020 final held on 11^th July 2021. From around 10am on the morning of the final a London underground official said they had never seen such a level of drunkenness at an event so early on in the day. Fans prevented buses from moving by climbing on rooves, trees were ripped up and thrown into crowds as were glass bottles and cups containing urine. 47% of 7,000 ticket holders surveyed saw illegal drug taking while arriving at Wembley with many fans witnessing cocaine taking inside the ground too. One eye-witness described seeing four or five stewards being needed to hold one individual down. Another told of seeing a police officer assaulted for no apparent reason – a random punch seemingly from nowhere. People climbed traffic lights, fire works were let off, smoke bombs too, barriers were kicked down, numerous acts of vandalism were reported, children were seen cowering behind parents, unticketed fans forced their way onto the concourse and attempted to gain entry to the stadium, fence lines were knocked down, crowds tried to smash a co-op’s windows due to it running out of alcohol, disabled gates and fire exits were used to try and breach the stadium entrances, fans including those in wheelchairs were knocked over due to the push of the crowd. This is all before the game even began, not to mention the abhorrent abuse suffered by England players after the game.

Let’s contrast and fast forward one year. Footage of the crowd shows more women in attendance, more girls, more young people of primary age. Reports from fans on radio phone ins, news items and social media highlight a jubilant, supportive and friendly atmosphere both pre and post match.

The Met Police reported that in total 154 people had been arrested as part of their investigation into disorder at the Men’s 2020 Euros Tournament. 25 of those arrests came following a public appeal for information consuming a significant amount of police hours and taxpayer money . On the 31^st July 2022 there were 2 arrests, one who received a penalty notice for a public order offence and one who was released with no further action. Although not exactly comparable, on face value the difference is staggering.

So why the difference? Fingers were pointed at failures in stewarding and the police presence at Euro 2020. Promises were made to learn lessons. But neither the police or the stewards committed the violence nor the criminal acts.

Footage of the aforementioned scenes of disorder are widely available on social media. One only has to view this and look for at who were committing these acts. Sadly, written as a man, it’s men, groups of men. Mostly younger but pretty much all men.

But it was just after covid restrictions, people were blowing off steam, having a bit of fun, it had been a tough year. Let’s go with that. But then why the lack of women amongst the crowds? They were in the pandemic too. When considering this, the argument doesn’t hold water.

Should you pose the following questions to some of those involved in the acts of July 2021 such as – what if your daughter was watching you? What if your 5 year old sister was walking by, would you act the same way? – you may get some who reconsider their actions. You may also get some that say – but she wasn’t or I don’t have a daughter so it’s irrelevant to me.

When considering the above, two words come to mind – male entitlement. And at this mention, readers may turn away but I implore you to stay with it. No starker example can be seen in English society than what we have just experienced and that presents a genuine chance for change. Why did all those men feel it was ok to do those things, to completely ignore other people’s experiences? Why did everybody attending the final on Sunday choose not to do any of these things?

The football world now has an opportunity to raise the profile of the women’s game, to encourage more young girls and boys to get involved, that’s true. But talk of there now being more female role models misses the point. It is not for the women who have just lifted the trophy to be the role models we need, it is for us as a nation to take stock of what we have just seen, to recognise what the women’s game is doing right and what the men’s game has been doing wrong. And that includes fans, in fact, it specifically means the fans as we are the ones who can have the most impact on encouraging future participation in the game. What do we think is acceptable? What is ok? What do we want our game to be? Do we want our kids to be cowering behind their parents or singing, commiserating and celebrating alongside them? Now is the perfect time to interrogate ourselves and dig deep to find the roots of some of our more engrained societal issues.

Having recently (and briefly) served as a frontline police officer in the Met I have experience of the inner workings of this organisation. Having chosen to leave the organisation in Feb 2022 before it swallowed me up I am not bound by any loyalties. I hope very much to be part of the solution, that’s my intention in writing. I am not compromised in any way other than the worry that writing openly and honestly will prohibit me from gaining work within this sector in the future. But if it does, it’s not a sector I wish to be a part of. The following is a brief insight into my experience of working here and in this particular blog I will focus on the phrase “it’s a disciplined service” – something that is repeatedly trotted out by senior leadership and a phrase I view as a serious barrier to cultural progression.

I joined the Metropolitan Police in March 2021 after a lengthy two year wait. Due to not having a degree (though I do have 16 years worth of experience in community and domestic abuse work including 3 years as a Police Community Support Officer in Sussex) I was “encouraged” by the recruitment team to take the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship route as they didn’t know when another route would be available. This was a tough decision as I had done reasonably well in community work but wanted to take everything I had learned into the Met so I agreed. This route has a lower starting wage and longer probation period than somebody who has a degree in, say, musical theatre. So that’s the value that is placed on relevant experience. Even prior to starting there were warning signs but here are a couple of observations relevant to this blog.

On Day 2 we were on a Microsoft Teams call (due to the pandemic). This was an induction week, learning about the organisation and different departments. A register was taken but there were some technical issues so people didn’t answer to their names immediately. This prompted a long serving PC to say “if you don’t answer f**king smartish I’ll be arranging for your door to get smashed in by a local unit. You all need to wake up.” He was coming out of the computer audio, the kids were home as it was the holidays but….it’s a disciplined service. I raised this with a senior officer the day after to be told that he had just explained his point incorrectly and was saying it was a welfare issue and they need to be sure people are still on the call. It proved to be a regular feature of his communication style. This guy just got a promotion.

I should mention that you don’t know where you are going to be posted prior to handing in your notice at your previous job. It’s a risk – you submit your preferred areas but there aren’t guarantees . After spending many days in London infront of powerpoint presentations where you learn some legislation and the basics of policing – you begin street duties. This is on the job work where you patrol the streets with a tutor and meet certain criteria to see if you are competent. Mine happened to be in an area that was tricky to get to from my home address. But like one sergeant said “the Met is not responsible for where you live”. I could write a whole blog unpicking that waste of words as the Met knows where you live prior to joining but I will resist.

The 7am start time – which I had been informed was the start time by recruitment – turned out not to be the start time. A sergeant informed us that you had to arrive at 6:45am. You don’t get paid for this by the way. This additional 15 minutes apparently prepares you for what life will be like when you are a response officer and you need to be at work, ready to go, 15 minutes before you start, again unpaid. Without boring you, my earliest train and bus connection meant that the bus left at the exact same time as the train got in. It was more realistic and less stressful for me to get the next bus that would get me in for 6:50, ready for 7 (the time I was getting paid to start). I explained this to the sergeant via an email. I received a reply which said no, its non-negotiable – you get there at 6:45am. Consequently one morning I was sprinting up the train platform to catch the bus, turned a corner and knocked another anxious runner straight onto the floor. A moment of reflection then. Why? Why am I doing this? Why am I smacking head first into another panicky commuter? When I did get there on time, we sat, we waited and we sat some more. Often nothing happened until tutors were ready and vehicles had been sourced. The person that showed me zero flexibility with my transport issue just qualified for promotion and appeared in a congratulatory email.

Prior to joining you understand that you are signing up for an emergency service and that if there is a “policing reason” you may need to be flexible. This is often said in the same breath as explaining why you need to do something arbitrary. A policing reason could be the tram disaster, an act of terrorism, staying late due to an arrest as examples. The above example of a 6:45am start time does not qualify as this. Infact, none of the demands I experienced ever really did qualify as this. But, that’s ok, its a disciplined service.

Before this e-mail seems too personal, too gripey I want to highlight that other colleagues of mine have experienced similar circumstances. These are not isolated incidents.

Whilst still in street duties I left my kit belt in the office. I had sat all day in the office due to a lack of tutors and was just zoned out by the intensity of sitting at a computer screen all day. (The only one in the office by the way). Two days later when I returned a tutor asked the group “who left their kit belt in the office?”. After some confusion, it turned out it was me. A mistake. An honest mistake as I shared a locker with someone else and saw theirs. Of course, you need to look after your kit belt, I get that. Fast forward half an hour and I am being forced to play battleships with the squared tile ceiling to locate the belt that tutors had put in the ceiling – infront of the rest of the group. Fast forward another 5 minutes and a PC (my equivalent) who I had never seen before but had wandered in and felt it necessary to point at me and say repeatedly “go to the caretakers office and get a f**king ladder” which I refused to do. My dignity is important to me. There was no follow up from seniors about this and it was only on my last day when I raised it in a meeting that I was told it would “be addressed”. Look, readers, let me be clear – it’s a disciplined service ok? This approach to discipline is standard faire right?

On one occasion we had a shift changed with two days notice and were told it was our fault it had caught us by surprise because we hadn’t checked our rotas. This was said infront of the whiteboard which still had the original shift on! When you have two children and need to book childcare a month in advance, does this help? Still in street duties by the way. No policing reason that I could see. I believe there was a wedding that some of the team wanted to attend. I’m not sure if I’ve said but it’s a….ahhh you get the idea.

Now, that is a fraction of what I have seen in my short time in the Met. These are very specific examples that happened to me and that I can 100% own. Having spent time in the charity sector, working for local councils and even another police force I have never experienced this attitude before. IT IS NOT NORMAL. So here, we hit problem number one. For those that have spent their entire careers in this police force there is a danger that you lose track of what normal is. Every sector is different of course and as some have said – the Met is a different beast. But in a good way? There’s quite a lot of evidence now that suggests not.

Let’s address one argument in defence of this approach – it builds resilience. What’s your definition of resilience? I’ve spent 8 hours with a dead child lying beside me, been at a stabbing, sudden death, mental health break down etc. This is the job. You know that this will be the case going in. I also have years of experience behind me working with trauma. This is the resilience you need in this line of work. In your early days in the police there is no choice about what you experience. You will attend it and you will need to find a way to cope with it. There are blue light champions who are internal staff with additional training in listening and supporting their colleagues. If you experience something particularly traumatic there can be additional support put in place. It felt as though the Met had some awareness of this. What you don’t know going in is the culture – other than what you hear and read which isn’t overly positive.

What the police should be – in my humble opinion – is a professional, uniformed and emergency service. These should be the words highlighted by senior leadership – not disciplined which has no set definition and is used as a way to remind you that you need to do as your told, shout at you and not question your seniors or, as one senior said – your superiors. Let’s define those three words:

Professional – Be in on time, be courteous and respectful, honest, have integrity, diligent, hard working, caring for your colleagues and the public. All traits that are quoted in the college of policing’s very own code of ethics. It’s here, check it out if you fancy https://www.college.police.uk/ethics/code-of-ethics Standard ways of behaving appropriately.

Uniformed – Have an awareness that how you look makes an impression on some. Its not the be all and end all in my opinion, although the endless e-mails from senior management could make you think otherwise. You would turn up smartly for a banking job or if you’re a waitress so do the same in this role.

Emergency – You will see some terrible things, meet people who are lost and are a risk to others. You will save some people’s lives, others won’t make it. You will arrest some worrying individuals. You are the first port of call for people in extreme distress. Sometimes you will get off late. Sometimes, in extreme circumstances you may be called in off rest days to support colleagues in dealing with major incidents. (the latter never happened to me)

Let’s define disciplined – in a major emergency, senior leadership will take the lead and you need to follow orders, kind of like if you work in any other sector and your manager tells you you need to do something. Only in the police you shouldn’t be questioning the decisions in these specific circumstances and they may not have the time to explain their rationale. Fine.

My experience of the use of the word disciplined though, and the experience of many other officer’s is that this word is used to remind you that the police owns you. You will do as your told and they can treat you as they wish. Oh and polish your shoes and tuck in your shirt in whilst I’m lambasting you. Not resilient enough? Then leave. You will have shifts changed at short notice due to “aid requirements” meaning another unit is short staffed and you are being moved. Deal with it.

What is the knock on effect of this? Well, it starts to erode your sense that you are an individual with legitimate concerns that are worth caring about. I don’t care about your IT technical difficulties, your transport issues, the fact you have children for example. It also inhibits people to challenge hierarchy. It promotes a culture of fear of speaking out, concerned you may get shouted down or worse. For those that do speak out many are so fatigued believing that they won’t be listened to anyway so – what is the point? And, as you go up the chain are senior leadership really challenging each other? The wage is very good as you go up the ranks. When does self preservation become a factor? Why rock the boat when you have secured such a decent pension and salary?

I have also had to listen to an obsession, an OBSESSION, from new colleagues who don’t want to wear the wrong thing and get a telling off. Are white trainers ok for a officer safety days? Should I wear a tie to uni? But not ask once, ask numerous times. Why is this the overwhelming anxiety? It certainly seems to be. Surely how you interact with the public and record enquiries and actions should supersede this?

The college of policing is attempting to promote the need to use rationale, reasoning around why decisions are made and to articulate yourself clearly. One day, this will catch on and when it does there will be many positive consequences for the police. And there are infact many officers that are professional, do stand by the code of ethics, who I would want to support my family if we were affected by some tragedy. Not all, but many.

My number one tip, stop repeating the well worn line that the police is a disciplined service as a poor, infantile control mechanism. It has no definition and gets bastardised by various people. Focus on professionalism and use your own college of policing standards as a bar. If there are issues with professionalism deal with it 1:1 via development plans as appropriate. Group tellings off do not work. If they do then show me the evidence. They promote an atmosphere of “get your head down, shut up and get on with it” rather than healthy challenge and increased understanding. There is no focus on management styles or even what good management of staff looks like within the promotion process. Arrogance permeates through the force and lines such “it’s a disciplined service” allow people to feed their sense of arrogance and entitlement with no reflection or concern.

I hope that helps, I’m off to find my pasta which my partner’s hidden under the floor boards.

The blue and white police tape can be an all too common sight depending on where you live. Perhaps that is pertinent here. Maybe it becomes commonplace, too acceptable and its meaning gets lost.

As a probationary Police Constable in 2021 I was stood at many a crime scene in South London. My role was to log details of those entering and leaving, prevent any contamination, preserve the scene and engage with the numerous members of the public who would approach. Scenes of Crime Officers (SOCO) would need to examine the site looking for anything that could shed light on the incident and detectives might need to assess. Often whole lengths of street would be sectioned off preventing people from going home or running their businesses. Locard’s principle of exchange states that every contact leaves a trace and so anybody walking where a perpetrator may have walked might hinder investigative opportunities. Any hair dropped or paraphernalia discarded can significantly disrupt outcomes. Potentially, someone who has killed somebody else, or has the potential to do so, could walk free because the crime scene has been compromised.

Sadly, and I write that word in its truest genuine form, many of these cordons were for stabbings and violent incidents, some of which related to the serious injury or murder of children – those under the age of 18. I’ve clarified that as there seems to be less sympathy when you say teenager.

As an officer who has been stood at these cordons for hours on end you gain a unique insight into society. You experience a wide range of reactions from members of the public and get a snapshot of public feeling. This blog looks at what some of these reactions may tell us about the society we live in.

One of the most common questions asked is: “what’s happened?”. One might say a natural human curiosity. There are very good reasons as to why caution is used at a crime scene in answer to this. You don’t know who is asking and what they may do with detailed information. Could disclosing too much information impact on the investigative process going forward? That’s a pertinent question to ask yourself. At the same time this needs to be balanced with explaining why somebody can’t enter into their own home for hours one end. Simply saying, “I can’t discuss it,” does not feel reasonable or proportionate in many cases.

I never experienced a briefing around what to say to this question. It was pretty much down to you and what you felt was appropriate in the circumstances. You were told you need to relieve so and so at such and such crime scene at that was it. I heard colleagues use a variety of responses to the public’s curiosity:

“We can’t disclose anything incase it impacts the investigation.”

“An incident of serious violence has occurred. That’s all we can say at this time.”

“Somebody died.”

This is about as much information that is given out and it can be useful to add an acknowledgement of the disruption that’s being caused. More often than not a member of the public will be checking their phone, dishing out additional information from social media which you as a PC haven’t been told is in the public domain.

If you go so far as to disclose that a stabbing has occurred then you hear responses such as:

“God it’s getting worse. When is it going to stop?”

“How old? Is it kids again?”

“It’s just so senseless and meaningless.”

“It’s a national crisis and nobody seems to care.”

A semblance of empathy but also despondency from some who seem genuinely concerned at the continuation and increase in stabbings and the loss of life that rips far too many young people away from their families and communities. One could argue that providing this additional information is making the public feel less safe. But it is highly likely the events will be publicised and there are many ways the information can be gained. Speaking about it with minimal detail at least provides an opportunity to discuss it and offer reassurance as much as possible.

After giving a response some people will state they need to visit certain shops – if the crime scene contains them. Among the most common I was asked about were Greggs, Lidls, Poundland and McDonalds. Of course, this is dependent on where the crime scene is and in these circumstances you were talking about town centres. You would explain that those shops would not be open due to a crime being committed in the vicinity. Advice would be given about checking their phone for the nearest one which could be met with a disgruntled face, shrug of the shoulders or even an insistence that they really want to go to McDonalds. What does this tell us? That the reality of what has happened is too much to register or comprehend? Or that the disappointment of having to walk an additional 10 minutes to get that hallowed Greggs sausage roll from a different branch is a major disruption to their day and overwhelms any concern for those that might be injured? The agitation at not being able to get to the nearest Greggs was eyebrow raising on more than one occasion.

There seems to be no pattern to the demographics here. One of the most vehement reactions I encountered was from an elderly lady who I told would not be able to attend the opticians. Despite explaining several times that the opticians was within the crime scene and therefore closed she insisted that she needed to go and check for herself. She only left after another member of the public assisted in taking her away. Despite giving plenty of detail that a serious incident had occurred and evidence was currently being identified this did nothing to allay her annoyance. Had I informed her that another elderly lady had been crushed to death by a falling piano I wonder if this would have mustered a different reaction? The information about a teenager being stabbed did not seem to register. There have been similarly strong reactions for dentists and other personal appointments that could not be attended, the need to rearrange evoking an inner rage in some.

Another all too frequent experience was of people wanting to take a short cut via the crime scene instead of walking the 15 / 20 minutes in the other direction to get to their destination. Despite the tape, despite the explanations, the amount of people who argued or attempted to get under the tape was staggering, so much so that I have arrested someone at a crime scene for ignoring numerous warnings and going under the tape.

Most of the time when you’ve answered the “what’s happened?” question the follow up is, “how long will the crime scene be in place?” This is a question no PC / PCSO on any cordon can accurately answer. You will wait an interminable amount of time for someone more senior than you to make a decision often not convinced that anybody is even aware you are standing there. SOCO can be delayed due to other jobs and you just have to wait until they are ready. The frustration to businesses and tenants is understandable of course. The economic loss is significant if a crime scene is in place all day and it is expected that the business owner absorbs the costs. To that end there is an economic argument for having security or knife arches to prevent incidents happening in certain areas – although that feels as though we are displacing it and are resigned to a continual battle with knife crime rather than trying to prevent it from happening altogether. That is perhaps another blog.

There are people who have been unable to go into their own houses for hours on end, in some instances back from long night shifts and just wanting to sleep. In my experience they’ve mostly dealt with it in good grace and patience, probably too exhausted to argue. This is in complete contrast to those who struggle with being unable to pick up some meat from their usual butcher.

Where travel is disrupted (bus, tram etc) people want to know what’s happening with these services and where they can pick up the connection from. This relies on good communication between the police and the travel company in question. I need not complete that paragraph for you to get a sense of whether or not that happens all the time, every time.

Another experience worthy of note is of redirecting people using the app on your phone but being unaware of the lighting situation on the alternative route. One colleague of mine was told how unhelpful and selfish they were after re-directing someone the same way they had redirected everybody else for the past 3 / 4 hours. The member of the public said that she, as a woman didn’t feel safe walking that way where there was no lighting and that the police should be less ignorant. This was not an isolated incident and in one case, it was the kindness of another member of the public who said she would escort them via the alternative route which helped diffuse the situation.

For all of the people that become angry and irritated that someone had the audacity to be stabbed meaning they can no longer buy their groceries from the shop they intended to buy them from, there are those who are understanding, empathetic and helpful. I have met members of the public who say thankyou to us just for being there and have even been bought a hot chocolate on a particularly cold day. Some appear genuinely concerned for the victim and their families. And for all the public that interact with you there will be those that see the uniform and the tape, recognise that something untoward has occurred and will use their own initiative to come up with an alternative plan without saying a word.

Those who complain often do so loudly and vehemently and this can leave a lingering impression on those protecting the crime scenes. Unchecked you could be forgiven for thinking we are becoming a more self centred society, completely disconnected to the horrendous levels of stabbings that are blighting our country (especially the capital of England), more concerned with sausage rolls or extended journey times, impactful though the latter may be. The worry is that the longer it continues, the less we as a society view it as a national crisis the more it erodes our sense of empathy, of caring for fellow people. The inconvenience of the cordon sometimes outweighs the fact that a 14 / 15 year old boy has lost his life. But that would be to neglect those that walk on by, that do comply, that do express care and in some cases even assist the police in managing the cordon, not that they should have to. Thankyou to you, it helps more than you know.

So what does it tell us about society? That we are divided. There are the curious ones, the ones who express care and empathy and those who seem consumed by their own plans and divorced from the reality of the situation which leads to confrontation as though the police are inconveniencing them on purpose. There are those with patience and a willingness to co-operate and those who become angry, upset and occasionally obstructive. Having also stood on crime scenes in the mid 2000’s as a PCSO (Police Community Support Officer) it certainly feels as though there is less willing to work with the police overall by complying with cordons. But there are many variables here. The location, the frequency of cordons in the area, the nature of the crimes and the disruption it is causing to you personally. And ultimately, the individual. Perhaps being able to reflect on how you felt and behaved the last time you were at a cordon is a good indicator of what’s going on for you.

Reference:

Everything About the Locard’s Exchange Principle in Forensic Science