Special report: Behind the scenes with Stratford Police as they go plain-clothed to tackle the town's issues

Officers in Stratford swapped their uniforms for jeans and hoodies before inviting over their colleagues from across the county as part of a special operation to target theft, drug possession and anti-social behaviour.

Led by Chief Inspector Steve Davies from the north of the county and Inspector Benjamin Hembry who manages neighbourhood policing in Stratford, the operation started on the morning of Tuesday, 28 November.

A press officer spent the day with the team and in this special report, we would like to give you all an insight into what happened.

 

ACT I – A raid on a road that you’d never suspect.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdqmuvx52M4

One of the first jobs of the day was to raid a flat in the town which was suspected of being involved in the supply of Class A drugs.

In other areas of the county firearms officers will sometimes come along as a precaution, depending on what intelligence there is as to potential risks. But in Stratford this is almost never needed.

Residents look on, puzzled by the sight of a police convoy pulling up on a smart, quiet street, where rows of manicured driveways and unblemished street furniture herald anything but ‘rough area’.

After a short walk up the road, officers from the Tactical Support Team get into position and cut through a front door. PCs from Stratford and Rugby then follow in behind to conduct the search. Though plenty of drugs paraphernalia is found, there were no drugs in the property.

It’s believed that word of the raid quickly spreads about town, with patrolling officers seeing suspected drugs users suddenly behaving differently. Sometimes, even the disruption a raid causes can be beneficial.

ACT II – What about the street drinkers and shoplifters?

 

Back with the town centre team - crawling along with sluggish traffic in an unmarked car, eyes constantly scanning road and pavement, an officer mentions a young relative who is thinking about joining the police.

“I don’t think anyone really knows what they’re getting into before they’re in the job,” she says.

“I’ve seen some really bad things over the years and I’ve been in some really dangerous situations.”

“I don’t expect any thanks for that from people, but there’s definitely less respect for policing than there used to be.

“It’s weird how it works. Over your career you’ll probably have to deal with threats, abuse and violence and it just rolls straight over you a lot of the time.

“But when good, decent people criticise us that can really get you down because those are the people we’re all doing this job for.

“I get that people feel frustrated. They don’t always see the results they expect and that’s obviously going to cause anger.

“Demand is high and the police are now asked to deal with offences that didn’t even exist 20 years ago. It’s things like social media, it’s opened up so many new avenues for offenders. And I don’t mean people arguing with each other, I mean really serious stuff like child exploitation.

“I get that people feel frustrated. They don’t always see the results they expect."

“Nationally as well, if people see bad headlines about another force they don’t make the distinction and think, ‘right, that was that force, not Warwickshire’, we’re all ‘the police’.

“Honestly? I’d rather deal with a 6-foot burly man with a baseball bat running at me because at least I know where I am with that.”

The car passes the Natwest bank, the subject of much attention on social media recently because the street community use it as a meeting spot and sometimes their behaviour causes fear and upset.

Three people are currently sat outside. There are no bottles of alcohol and they’re talking quietly among themselves.

Echoing what Stratford Inspector Ben Hembry had previously said to the local press, the officer says, “It’s a really difficult balance. It’s not against the law for them to be there but it can and does escalate to offences.

"We get residents and business owners at the end of their tether."

“We get residents and business owners at the end of their tether because they’re seeing people causing trouble.

“And when people see offences they’ll call it in. But because it’s not life and death it can sometimes take a while for us to get there if we’re trying to attend other jobs.

“At the end of the day we can’t have our residents being made to feel uncomfortable when they’re just trying to go about their business, but we need to remember that we can’t wave a magic wand.

“These are people with complex needs and the solution takes us working with other agencies and the community - and we’re doing that.”

The point that the street community are not simply cartoon villains, but complex people with complex needs, echoes an answer that Stratford Inspector Ben Hembry gave weeks previously in an interview with local media.

A resident had complained that they saw someone from the street community unconscious on the pavement and seemed, at least from the wording in the interview, annoyed by it.

At the time Inspector Hembry replied that people should do what they would do if they see anyone unconscious in the street – call 999 and ask for an ambulance.

He’d said: “People wouldn’t think twice about calling 999 if they saw a smartly dressed man unconscious in the street on Saturday night. Why is it any different? That’s someone’s child.”

Back in the car, there’s a crackle from the radio and it’s a report of a shoplifter. We park up and head over to the business, a large retail chain store.

“So annoying, we’d literally been in here ten minutes ago."

The suspect has gone and there’s no sign of her so a member of staff shows us through to the back room.

Two more officers are already there studying a still image of the suspect on a computer monitor.

Above: 'Anyone know who she is?' - Officers begin the investigation in the backroom of a shop. 

“Anyone know who she is?” one officer asks. The reply from all is a disappointed ‘no’.

“So annoying, we’d literally been in here ten minutes ago to say hello and check on everything,” the same officer says.

The details are taken and they’re back out on patrol, keeping a special eye out for the suspect.

Later that day it will be raised as a formal crime and the image will be circulated – first to check if any officers know who the woman is and then, potentially, it will be shared on police social media.

There are set criteria that must be met before the force is allowed to share images of suspects publicly.

The two officers then head up to Natwest to check for anti-social behaviour. No one from the street community is there.

Above: Patrolling the Natwest bank area to deter anti-social behaviour. 

One officer says, “The big problem is that if they’re hanging around there and drinking they will sometimes get into arguments with each other and it makes some people feel uncomfortable.

“That’s the main complaint we get.”

 

Act III – A cat in a pram and ‘they don’t give a sh*t’.

 

Meanwhile, over at the Summerton Way and Albany Road alleyway, two PCs (one from Leamington and one from Stratford) have been patrolling the area through the morning.

They’re almost unrecognisable in their plain clothes, and they joke that their disguise is so good some residents might think they’re up to no good themselves.

Above: Spot the Bobbies - two officers blend in as they look for suspicious activity in an area that has generated residents' complaints. 

“We were getting calls from residents to say they were seeing suspected drug dealing taking place here. It’s seen by residents as a bit of a hotspot,” one says.

They’ve been conducting stop searches for a few hours.

“We’ve not found anything this morning,” one says.

“There was a guy who admitted to having just smoked a spliff but there was no sign of it and he’d got no drugs on him.”

They begin walking out of the alleyway for a patrol around the surrounding area.

Nearing the exit onto the road, they see a smartly dressed man pushing a cat and a dog in a pram.

The cat is huge, bigger than the dog, and they’re debating whether the cat bosses the dog around.

They agree that the cat probably does, when one of their personal radios crackles into life and broadcasts a woman’s scream so shrill and loud it could be straight from a horror film.

It was first thought to be the radio malfunctioning but a quick to and fro and it’s confirmed to be a live incident.

At the first sound of the radio they were walking quickly to the car, now they’re almost running.

Within another 20 seconds an unmarked car, blue lights ablaze, crawls onto the street and then takes off, parting traffic on either side.

“Why’s it take so many of you stood there? Is there any need for that?”

Moments later it arrives on Bridge Street, and now they’re together with the two officers from the shop and the officer from the unmarked car.

A crowd of onlookers has gathered as a woman is arrested on suspicion of theft – shoplifting specifically. She’s clearly very upset and making a lot of noise.

Above: Plain clothes officers arrest the suspect as onlookers offer their opinions on how policing should be done - an increasingly common occurrence. 

Most of the crowd watch silently, but others offer their opinions on how best to detain suspects.

“Why’s it take so many of you stood there? Is there any need for that?” one remarks.

“They don’t give a sh*t,” another interjects.

They perhaps don’t understand that the sound of a woman screaming as an officer attends – thus being broadcast accidentally on their radio – is enough to get any nearby officers to rush to the scene.

They might not also understand that if someone is very upset and there is a chance they might resist arrest, it is much safer for the suspect to be carefully, precisely restrained by three or four, rather than one officer wrestling to get control.

The woman is taken off to custody and within minutes, though still upset, she has calmed down significantly.

It would appear that the crowd of onlookers staring and giving a running commentary had made things worse, and without their input, suddenly the situation has begun to settle.

 

ACT IV – Tea at the station - and how do we fix this?

 

The day is coming to an end. In total:

• Five people have been detained at the Maybird Centre after a report of shoplifting. A child in the group has been identified as the suspect.
• Two further people have been detained in the town centre following reports of shoplifting.
• A woman was arrested following the incident on Sheep Street.
• An investigation has been launched following the shoplifting incident the two officers narrowly missed.
• Five vehicles have been stopped and 10 stop searches have been conducted.
• Eight intelligence reports – which will give officers vital information – have been submitted.

Back at the station there’s a tub of Quality Street and the kettle is working flat out heating enough for an industrial quantity of tea and coffee.

The chocolate is quickly disappearing. Police officers never know what will come over the radio when they’re on a break, so they get very good at eating whatever they can very quickly for a quick burst of energy.

“We all wish it was as simple as just arresting our way out of the problem.”

The team has enjoyed the day and Sergeant Clair Price is pleased with everyone's work. 

She goes to her office to submit investigation reports and the team’s chatter goes back to the issues with the street community outside Natwest.

“We all wish it was as simple as just arresting our way out of the problem,” one says.

“But most of the time they’re effectively sitting there, drinking and talking. I know that makes some people uncomfortable but we don’t have the power to arrest people or move them on for that.”

Another says, “We’ll have people Googling legislation and telling us that an offence is being committed. But it’s usually not the case. It’s really difficult to understand the legislation without training and practical experience.

“Obviously when it gets to any offences then we can sort it that way – but we know they’re back again the next day.

“This PSPO [Public Spaces Protection Order] will help when it comes through because it means we can confiscate alcohol and take some action. That will give us the power to do some old-fashioned, common-sense policing.”

Others agree. Ultimately, the verdict is that the street community are, like all of us, very complicated – possibly more so.

It’s added that however much the officers wish the police could solve the problem in one fell swoop, examples up and down the country show that it’s not possible.

The verdict is that the solution is a long term one and involves working with other agencies and charities.

In the meantime, they face walking the tightrope of balancing the wants and rights of the street community and other residents – and catching criticism from both sides while they do it.

Tea and coffee is finished up, the chocolates are all gone and the room starts to clear. It’s now pitch-black outside, the cold is setting in and everyone heads back out to their various tasks.

Issued by: AG, Corporate Communcations.