Caught in the middle

Last week I spoke about how officers are increasingly getting caught in the middle of public debate and are starting to become direct targets for abuse and harassment, both online and in person.

Officers are regularly becoming the anvil on which society beats out its problems, and are being accused of being both woke and fascist for the exact same actions.

This isn’t just a few one-off incidents, it is now a regular occurrence.

Just on Friday one of our officers received a torrent of online abuse for having the temerity to post a photo of herself on International Women’s Day at a firearms outreach event.

The officer put themselves out there to learn from others and hear about one of our specialist disciplines as she considered whether to apply for an attachment to one of the firearms commands. This should have been a positive moment in the officer’s career, in her own words she was “… pushing myself to do something extraordinary”.

She represents the best of the Met - being open to doing things differently, confident to try something new and willing to push herself outside her comfort zone. I’m proud she is a Metropolitan Police officer.

But instead of this being a moment of celebration, the officer instead received a stream of abuse and considerable criticism for giving something new a go. I know to her great credit, she'll be back to work this week and even more determined to be an outstanding role model.

Sadly, it is not just online where we see officers being abused. In the last 48 hours we’ve seen 12 officers injured including an officer struck on the head with a bottle and another stabbed in the hand. All for doing the job we ask of them.

In one incident last night at the end of a busy day of public order officers at a football match were confronted with violent disorder, with some having to deploy in full public order kit to ensure thousands of fans could be dispersed safely. A row of officers were met by considerable aggression from a couple of hundred fans but instead of being backed when taking action, commentators have preferred to accuse them of two-tier policing.

The reality is that policing is complex, challenging and can look messy. We expect officers to arrive on scene quickly and act with limited information based on what they see. They don’t have the benefit of being able to watch a full incident unfold before deciding what to do, they have to be decisive and act quickly. And they do so in the glare of hundreds of people ready to film their every moment.

There aren’t many professions where from the minute you arrive at an incident to the minute you leave, you are filmed and then critiqued by an army of armchair commentators. Yet this is what happens to our officers and they still come back to work the next day.

I’m proud to call them my colleagues and am in awe of their resilience to continue to turning up day and night knowing that whenever they get out of a vehicle more and more cameras are focusing on their actions. But we shouldn’t underestimate the toll this has on them and their families, and how off-putting it is to the next generation who may think ‘why would I put myself through that?’

Across the weekend we had thousands of Met officers working 24/7 in the spotlight doing the difficult job we ask of them, alongside hundreds of officers from other forces supporting our central public order operation. I am grateful to each and every one of them and I know most Londoners are as well. We are determined to support our officers and look after them as best we can, but we know there is more we can do.

No police officer should be subject to abuse, just for doing the job that the public and senior leaders ask and expect of them. We won’t accept it, and where it crosses the line into criminality we will take action.

It is right that we are accountable, and we will continue to explain ourselves in reasoned discourse and debate. But I will always stand up for my officers when they are abused or used for point scoring. 

As I do this I will keep talking to Government about how we can ensure officers are supported to act with confidence and take action, balanced with the requirement we all understand for those actions to be appropriate.