The British police don’t always get it right, but when it comes to riots the public should be grateful to every officer who holds a shield, writes the bestselling author and former policeman, RR Haywood
Before becoming a full-time author, I was a police officer for more than 20 years In that time, I was part of my force’s riot squad. They’re not actually called ‘riot squads’, by the way; the 43 police services in England and Wales all have different names for them. Regardless, they’re each tasked with pretty much the same thing: to maintain law and order in many of the most unlawful and disorderly places imaginable. Our team policed football matches, assisted in prison riots, and went through the door first in drug busts. We were also sent to festivals, protests, and anywhere else where large numbers of people had or were likely to gather in one place.
For the most part, officers receive a full briefing in advance and will know what is expected of them. But riots are different. They come out of nowhere fast. It’s easy to sit back and say we all saw it coming, but the reality is that senior officers are juggling many things at once while strapped for cash and often unable to pay overtime to cover all the things they are needed to do.
So when flash riots erupt, like those seen across the UK this summer, finding sufficient numbers of officers to attend each one – and fast – isn’t easy. In my case, we were formed into ‘serials’, or small squads. Those serials were rarely made up of people I’d trained with. For the most part, they consisted of whoever reported for duty first. The serials would then get kitted-up, jump into a van, and drive into hell on earth, often without the foggiest idea what caused the riot or the havoc that’s about to greet you.
With no clue about what’s going on, standing on the frontline can feel like forever. You start thinking you’ve been abandoned or forgotten. Then you’ll get a sudden order to draw back if the bosses see the threat is becoming too great. Or it might be because they want the crowd to be drawn on so they can be marshalled, or ‘kettled’, into a specific area. Or to draw them away from a vulnerable location or building.
It’s a memorable experience, let me tell you. You can’t hear anything other than an angry roar. You certainly can’t hear your radio. You can only just about see who is on your immediate left and right, and of course, the baying mob in front of you. Your visor mists up and you’re normally pouring with sweat from wearing fire-retardant coveralls and heavy kit. You get dehydrated and your limbs often tremble from the adrenalin pumping into your body.
Then, when you finally finish duty, which might be eighteen hours later, you get home to see all the armchair ‘experts’ on TV and social media explaining how the police got it wrong. The officers who policed the UK riots this summer will know exactly how this feels. Most police forces don’t have full-time public order officers, so many of them would have been normal rank and file cops who volunteered for extra training in the hope to earn overtime.
Most Western European countries routinely use rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to control rioters. Others use live ammunition. Our officers do not. Instead, British police officers stand there and absorb the damage. The purpose of this is simple: to give the angry mob something to target and to vent their rage against.
Imagine for a moment the carnage that would occur if the police were not there to absorb that anger and vitriol. Imagine how much worse the summer riots would have been.
The police don’t get things right all of the time, and should always be open to and expect scrutiny. But I’d say we owe a debt of gratitude to every officer who wades into the fray to protect the public. If the armchair experts think otherwise, I’d invite them to spend a single hour on the frontlines themselves.
RR Haywood is one of the world’s bestselling fiction authors, known globally for his zombie and science-fiction series of books. His work, much of which was self-published, has sold millions of copies around the world, making him one of Britain’s most successful ever self-published novelists in these genres. As an Amazon “All-Star” author, RR Haywood’s books have consistently featured in the retailer’s top 100 sales chart since 2017. He has had 30 Kindle Bestsellers and is a Washington Post, Wall St Journal, Amazon & Audible bestselling author. His books Fiction Land and DELIO were nominated for the best audio book at The British Book Awards and won the Discover Sci-Fi Best New Book 2023 respectively. His latest novel, GASLIT, is a dark noir thriller about an ex-policeman manipulated into a murder plot.
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