A personal perspective on safety: using what’s around me to keep myself safe.
Date 12 April 2023
Throughout her years as a police officer, Lorna has exposed herself to some significant risks and taken decisions over her safety and that of others. This is her story.
Throughout my years as a police officer, I’ve exposed myself to some significant risks and taken decisions over my safety and that of others. These haven’t always been the right ones, but they’ve got me to where I am today.
This blog is about two of the experiences I’ve had and how they taught me to use what’s around me to keep myself safe.
Experience: domestic in a top floor flat.
One night early in my policing career, I was crewed with a Special Constable. I was the most experienced by a long way, but I still had plenty to learn. We were sent to a domestic in a third floor flat between a male and a female.
As we parked up, the Special said to me, “shall we get the shield out the boot?” and I replied, “Nah, we’ll be fine.”
As we approached the flat, a chair came out of a third-floor window. This wasn’t an opening window and was now completely smashed. As the chair hit the ground, I looked at my colleague, but we continued towards the flats. As we were going upstairs to the third floor, a female was running down. On seeing us she said, “he’s going absolutely nuts, he’s smashing up the whole flat.”
Not heeding either warning I carried on, followed by my colleague and came to the small landing, which led to two front doors. There wasn’t a lot of room to move and the door I needed was on the right.
Banging on the flat door I stepped back, but only one step as there was no room to go any further. My colleague was to my right in the doorway leading back to the stairs and I had my back to the window opposite the door. Anticipating trouble, I’d drawn my baton for protection.
When the door opened, I was faced with a male, about my height, but bigger built. I couldn’t take my eyes off the baseball bat in his right hand, which was drawn back over his right shoulder, ready to hit something – me.
Having already drawn my baton, our body positions were similar. As we stood like this, time seemed to stop. I had no doubt his intention was to hit the person on the other side of the door and, in the pause, I shouted at him to drop his weapon. We briefly had eye contact before he stepped back and slammed the door in my face. That was one of those ‘whoops’ moments.
I was with an inexperienced colleague and I’d ignored the warning signs and not taken the appropriate kit. To top it all, I’d cornered myself close to the front door, with no option to back off. These mistakes nearly cost me a beating with a baseball bat.
To this day, I think the only thing that saved me that day was that I’m female – the man opened the door and I wasn’t what he was expecting to see.
I got it wrong, and it could have cost me, but by reflecting and learning from this, I haven’t put myself in harm’s way so willingly again. It’s a basic lesson of policing – knock the door, then take at least three steps back. I recall this mistake every time I knock a door and I’m sure my colleague does too. By using this mistake as a learning tool, I’ve taken something positive from what was a scary experience.
Incident: being alone in a town centre late at night.
This is about a time when I chose to put myself in this situation and was comfortable that I’d mitigated the risk. Response officers are required to be fully fit for duty and if this isn’t the case, we’re diverted into another role where this can be managed better – you never know what situations response officers are going to be sent to, so they need to be ready for anything.
Following an injury off duty, I was on restricted duties for several months, so I was deployed to the CCTV control room in the town centre where I acted as the liaison officer between the police and the CCTV operators, reviewing and downloading footage to support prosecutions. I did this role for about four months before I returned to my normal duties.
A month or so later I was out, off duty, in the town centre with a group of friends. We were already in a venue, but I wanted to meet another person who was on the other side of town. None of my friends wanted to leave so I decided to go alone, despite the fact I didn’t know this other person very well.
In the police we often talk about how our ‘normals’ are distorted. For example, we deal with a lot of offences that occur in town centres as part of the late night economy. For us this is normal, but for people who aren’t police officers, they probably see the police out in vans or on foot, maybe even see the police arrest someone, but for the majority of people, they will experience many nights out without considering becoming a victim of any offences.
My normal was different. My normal was that every Friday and Saturday night, several offences occurred in the town centre – from fights and assaults, to sexual offences and thefts. Yet with this as my normal, I still chose to take myself away from the safety of my group and go off on my own.
I did this because I felt confident in my environment – I knew where all the CCTV cameras were and the police officers who I might see walking around, as well as a lot of the door staff from all the shifts I’d worked in the town centre.
I came out of the venue with confidence and was happy I wasn’t going to be subjected to anything untoward. I also had a secret weapon – I had contacts in the CCTV control room. I called them and told them where I was and my plans and asked them to keep an eye on me. This added to my confidence and as I walked about that night, I didn’t see myself as vulnerable or a soft target.
I met up with the other person and we chatted in the street. They wondered why I’d left my friends, so I explained that I had other people looking out for me. They didn’t believe me, so I turned to one of the cameras and said “are you watching me?” to which the camera operator understood and the camera went up and down as if it was nodding.
I didn’t have any issues that night.
I apply this tactic a lot – I’m a firm believer in confidence and control as a way of avoiding issues. If I’m getting into a taxi alone, I’ll sit in the front, chatting away with the driver, so I can control the conversation and see where we’re going. This won’t work for everyone, but I’ve found it works for me.
Statistically, odds are good that people won’t be a victim of anything, but as my ‘normals’ are distorted, I like to do whatever I can to increase my chances of not being a victim. I walk in well-lit areas, being aware of my surroundings, updating people I’m with as to where I am if we get separated, and identifying where I think the risk may come from and avoiding those people.
However sometimes none of this is possible and I end up putting myself in vulnerable situations. In those times, I just do what I can to try and keep myself safe. Sometimes I don’t manage to achieve very much, but on these occasions, I rely on the fact that with staying safe, the odds are in my favour.
Sergeant Lorna Clarke is a police officer with nearly 20 years’ experience with Cambridgeshire Police and Northants Police. She now leads a small team of on-campus police offers dedicated to the safety of the University of Northampton.