Circa 2011 - Little Harwood, Blackburn
‘You’re all a disgrace!’ I shout as I point my finger while spinning round to look at the members of the public surrounding the car trying to stop my colleague and I from arresting a young teenage girl who’d just spat in my colleagues face and was becoming increasingly violent towards us. A girl who was absolutely wasted, and who we had been trying to convince to let us give her a lift home.
I know I am overreacting. I know I’ve lost my cool. I know this isn’t going to help.
But I am fed up.
I’m fed up with the us versus them mentality.
I’m fed up of the public automatically thinking the police are to blame. We’re trying to help.
Present day
From time to time, we hear the phrase ‘policing by consent’ – usually wielded by a Home Secretary or senior police officer trying to convince us of the public backing and support that the police service in England and Wales has (and let’s be honest, we can often narrow that down to yet another incident involving the Met).
Every police officer in England and Wales polices by the common consent of the public. Of course, a member of the public cannot withdraw their consent so it’s not quite as simple as it may initially sound – sorry to be the bearer of bad news for any wannabe career criminals out there. Police historian Charlies Reith explained it as a policing philosophy1 ‘unique in history and throughout the world because it derived not from fear but almost exclusively from public co-operation with the police, induced by them designedly by behaviour which secures and maintains for them the approval, respect and affection of the public’.
Sounds good, right?
Much better than being terrified of the police breaking into your house and shooting you as you sleep.
I was a police officer in Lancashire between 2006 and 2015.
This is an account of my experiences and my current reflections on my time in the police service. Being completely upfront with you I was medically retired from the police force due to PTSD and anxiety, which has resulted in me not remembering pretty large chunks of it. I don’t know if that is due to past medication, therapy, or my brain thinking it still needs to protect me from trauma. I wish I could remember as it would make writing this a lot easier.
I’m hoping by starting to write it down I might be able to remember more because I know that before the bad times started, I really, really, REALLY loved my job. And I think I was good at it. Although I’m not sure how often I felt the ‘affection of the public’…
As a police officer in England I policed by consent. I also policed from a place of great privilege.
I don’t come from a broken home, we enjoyed summer holidays abroad, I did well at school (let’s gloss over sixth form college), I graduated from university with an honour’s degree in Forensic Science (before it was cool), and my dad bought me second hand Vauxhall Corsa when I graduated. I had a good start in life. I’m white. I’m middle-class. There is no denying nor shame in admitting I had a privileged upbringing.
That’s not to say it was all sunshine and rainbows - I had periods of being a sickly child that were spent in hospital and missing a lot of school, I saw family members struggle with mental health, witnessed family fall outs and I certainly didn’t get everything I asked for (I’m still waiting for a pony - never give up on your dreams!) It was an average, nice upbringing that had its own ups and downs.
I was a young middle-class girl who’d grown up in a nice village near Cambridge and had no idea about things like poverty, addiction or abuse.
Of course I knew they existed, I wasn’t a complete moron. But I really didn’t know about them first hand. And I definitely didn’t know what I was letting myself in for when I decided to join the police. I had a steep learning curve that began with me driving down the M6 to Skelmersdale police station on 24th July 2006 to begin my training.
It wouldn’t be too long before I would find myself shouting in exasperation at consenting members of the public on a regular basis.
Home Office (2012). Definition of Policing by Consent. [online] gov.uk. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/policing-by-consent/definition-of-policing-by-consent.