Ben Ando - Beyond the Call of Duty

Ben Ando has been a BBC crime reporter since 2008. In a broadcast career spanning twenty-four years, he has also worked for ITN, Channel 4 and Sky News, covering numerous high-profile crime stories, including those of serial killer Levi Bellfield and mass rapist Delroy Grant. He has also covered major national and international events, such as the war in Kosovo, 9/11, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, and the death and funeral of the Princess of Wales.

Nick Kinsella is a former Detective Chief Superintendent and Assistant Director of the National Criminal Intelligence Service, who served as a police officer for thirty years, gaining a first-class law degree from Sheffield University in 1995. In 2006 he founded the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre, and, a year later, a UK-based fund to support victims of human trafficking. He now works as a trainer and specialist consultant, advising governments and other bodies around the world on policy, law and strategy to combat the trafficking of human beings. He is a recipient of the Queens Police Medal and a trustee of the United Nations Global Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking.

Beyond The Call Of Duty

Ben Ando and Nick Kinsella

Constable London

Constable & Robinson Ltd
55-56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the UK by Constable,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2013

Copyright Ben Ando, Nick Kinsella 2013

The right of Ben Ando and Nick Kinsella to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication
Data is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-4721-0832-6 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-4721-0835-7 (ebook)

Printed and bound in the UK

3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Cover design: ClarkevanMeurs Design; Cover image: Press Association

To all serving police officers throughout the United Kingdom

A small donation from the sale of this book will support the work of the Police Dependants Trust

www.pdtrust.org

CONTENTS

FOREWORD
by Sir Hugh Orde

Police officers move towards danger while others walk away. This is, quite simply, what we do.

All those who take the office of constable, whatever subsequent rank they attain, attest to a sense of duty, a commitment to serve communities, a willingness to protect life and property, to keep the peace in full knowledge of the dangers they may face. And every day, police officers up and down the country will routinely put themselves between vulnerable and innocent members of the community and those who seek to do them harm. The overwhelming majority of those interactions will end peacefully, be over in a matter of minutes and subject to little thought thereafter.

Acts of bravery do not always have happy endings, of course, and its just a fact of the job that our officers, regrettably, will sometime face tragedy in the course of their work. But the stories so vividly told here show that commitment and sense of duty, the willingness to step into harms way, the instinct to protect, are alive and well in policing.

Within the huge complexity of policing, the situations police officers and staff face range from the exceptional to the commonplace. The link between police and communities is the bedrock of our policing model. With 132,000 (and falling) police officers in England and Wales serving a population of 56 million (and rising), it can be no other way. British policing is built on the notion of the police officer as citizen in uniform, routinely unarmed and making minimal interference with citizens rights. It is only with the trust, confidence and support of our public that we are able to do the job, prevent and detect crime, and keep the public safe.

Over seven years I had the unique experience of leading the Police Service of Northern Ireland, an organisation full of people who are incredibly proud of the critical service they deliver to the people of Northern Ireland. The situation they face there is unique, but the values they live by and embody through their work are shared across the police family.

During my time there, tragically, Constable Stephen Carroll lost his life, answering an ordinary message for help from a member of the public, on 9 March 2009. Stevie was a Territorial Support Group officer engaged in community policing the night he was murdered. He was working with the local community team who were responding to an urgent call, protecting both his colleagues and the local people when he was shot.

Stephen was one of many officers who die in service, doing the job they love. Constables Fiona Bone and Nicola Hughes, and Constable Ian Dibell killed intervening to protect the public, despite being off duty are just three recent examples. I know that none of them will be forgotten by their colleagues.

There were also many acts of daily courage that illustrate commitment. I recall an officer, resolutely determined to deliver a community service in an area traditionally hostile to the police, who told me he entered a different shop on his beat every single day. His greetings were unacknowledged when he began, but over a period of years he moved to a place where everybody knew his name and gave a response.

The best policing is like this: doing things differently, taking risks, going that extra mile, using discretion all qualities that are part of the job. Failures can be for many reasons, ranging from complete incompetence through to the unexpected, unpredictable and unknowable. When we get it wrong, we should recognise the facts quickly: we should encourage and be willing to listen and learn from those who wish to engage in policing debate

But we also recognise that successful policing involves accepting risk. It requires individual officers to take responsibility for the actions they make on behalf of the public. The Service will always attract exceptional people who want to do good work and acts of extraordinary courage will remain a key part of this unique and special profession. These people should be supported, and it is right that their acts of courage are recognised and celebrated.

INTRODUCTION

The phone rang at home. Its me, Dad. Im fine but Im on my way home. Ill be there in a few minutes. Can you open the back door? Im a bit wet and need to get a shower and a dry uniform.

My son Joe, a frontline police officer in Sheffield, had left for work a little over an hour earlier. Hed been in the police for five years at that time, but, like many young people nowadays, was still living at home.

Is it blood again? I asked. Only months before his uniform had been soaked in blood when he gave essential first aid to a man whod been shot in the stomach at point blank range.

No, not this time, he said. Ill explain when I get in. Even though his mother had been married to a police officer for over thirty years she never really got used to phone calls like these. No one does. The relaxation of the evening had been shattered and replaced by anxiety until Joe walked through the garden gate.

Within an hour he was showered, changed and back at work. I learnt later about his attempt to save a drowning man another example of how police intervene on a daily basis to try to save lives. No fuss, no fanfare, just get on with the job. A job where uncommon valour is a common virtue.

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