Hit the streets with the police taskforce (From Croydon Guardian)

Hit the streets with the police taskforce

5:20pm Sunday 27th July 2008 in

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Tensions in South Norbury police station were understandably high. Following the attack on two police officers by more than 30 youngsters in the town centre, senior officers had intelligence that retaliation by the criminal gang Don’t Say Nothing was expected at the weekend.

Earlier that day, top brass had issued a section 60 order allowing officers stop and search anyone for weapons in the borough that fitted a gang profile.

I was here to spend a shift with the proactive police unit called the Uniform Tasking Unit (UTU) but known at the nick as the Taskforce.

This unit specialises in “in-your-face” policing. As unit skipper Sergeant Matt Davis explained: “We are out on the ground all the time. We are tackling priority crime like robbery and burglaries.

We get to pick what we do. While the rest of the patrol cars are busy with 999 calls, we can be hunting down suspects, searching gang members, stopping cars and getting in the faces of known criminals.

“This is our job all the time and we are made up of experienced officers who don’t mind doing the unsociable hours.”

No-nonsense

Operating from a cramped office with barely enough room for the five man and one woman team, the UTU is targeting knife crime tonight.

They are a tough, no-nonsense unit. The motto “Pull a knife, we put you in Mayday. That’s the UTU way” written on the office noticeboard sums up the team’s attitude to their prey.

“We want people to know if you carry a knife, you will be stopped and searched,” Sgt Davis said. “We can’t afford any more knife crime.”

The police van is loaded with all the equipment the taskforce may need including an enforcer, a lethal looking piece of steel used for bashing in doors, crowbars and evidence bags and the bible – a handwritten journal containing addresses and modus operandi of some of the taskforce’s target criminals. This team needs to be prepared for anything.

Sgt Davis said: “If we arrest somebody carrying drugs we have the power to put their door through and search their house as well before any extra evidence disappears. Ordinary patrols don’t have the time for that. We do.”

Within minutes of leaving the station, our blue lights are on and we pull over a grey VW Golf.

Searches

Two men and the car are searched. One does not look pleased at being confronted by six officers.

Sgt Davis said: “It sometimes seems over the top but better we do it than a two man patrol which could be in trouble if four people get out of the car. We can deal with any vehicle because we have the manpower.”

Unit veteran Pat added: “We make a decision based on the appearance of the cars. Blacked out windows, small fast cars are typically driven by the sort of people we want to pull over. We treat them well and most of the time they are as good as gold with no hard feelings.”

The two men, both black, are allowed to carry on their journey.

Another call comes through. A man with a knife is trying to harm himself. Everyone leaps back into the van and the blues and twos are switched on. We are 15 minutes into the shift.

The incident is quickly dealt with.

“He was suicidal and waving a knife about,” said Sgt Davis. “He is mentally ill and once the knives are out of harm’s way, paramedics can treat him.”

Disturbance

The next call is to a disturbance at East Croydon station. Three girls this time bullying another. We race to the scene and our team of six, two British Transport officers and a couple of station security guards are descending on to platform three. It is a head-turning sight. The girls, two Asian, one white, are searched but appear to have done nothing wrong.

“We often get accused of over-reaction to incidents but we all respond to calls because we don’t know what we will find,” Sgt Davis said: “Sometimes it is nothing and this is when you get complaints about the numbers used to talk to one person.”

On the way out one of the team recognises a drug addict, burglar who is searched.

“Nothing more than a bag of Skittles,” said the Taskforce’s other Matt, affectionately known as Plank. “It’s a sad story he used to be a company director before he started using drugs then he started stealing to fund his habit and lost everything. He says he is clean now.”

Shaun’s phone rings out with the recognisable theme from TV’s The Sweeney. “The text tone is ‘You’re nicked’,” he smiles.

A quick patrol of the town centre and we stop another young, black male. He vents his frustration at being searched by three officers.

Pat said: “The only way to stop the problem of knife crime is to stop people every day. People who are carrying knives know they are likely to get searched so they stop carrying them. We know it is going to upset people but if you want less murders and stabbings it’s the only way.

“I can see the frustration but if you are doing nothing wrong why resent it.”

The young man is carrying nothing and we continue our tour.

Stabbing

The van is silent as every officer strains to hear the chatter over the radio. What appears to be a pub brawl is taking place in Purley involving baseball bats and chairs. The sirens wail as we shoot through town at breath-taking speeds as driver Fay swerves around the traffic.

As the first officers arrive at the scene it is clear we are dealing with a much more serious incident.

A man has been stabbed in the face and neck with a knife outside a pizza shop. Two men, believed to be the attackers, have been arrested.

As our van arrives, the scale of the police response is both awesome and rapid. A dog unit is called as the weapon cannot be found.

“There was a fight, two males set upon another and stabbed him the neck with either a bottle or a knife, we don’t know which yet,” Sgt Davis said.

The man’s injuries are not life threatening, I am told, and we set off as another report of a knife incident comes in.

It’s 9.30pm and, unknown to us, this call will take the rest of the night to deal with.

Eight hooded youths have robbed and assaulted a group of children, trying to take cash and mobile phones using an eight inch knife as a persuader. One of the girls is driven around in our van in the hope of spotting her attackers.

Worringly, some of the robbers are known to the girl and her friends. They attend the same local school and are aged between 13 and 15 years old.

Reputation

“A lot of these kids use the robberies to build up a reputation at school. They know they are going to get caught but it gives them respect on the street.”

Raj, another member of the team, patiently and methodically goes through the 15-year-old girl’s statement. She is distressed and sometimes confused at the chain of events, but, after an hour of questions, Raj has compiled a list of the eight suspects – four are partially named and four unknown.

Using police databases and their own knowledge of the street, the team has a few solid suspects and it is time to knock on some doors. This is clearly the part all the officers’ relish. There is fierce competition to feel the first collar. Pat has nicked three suspects or “bodies” this week. Matt the Plank has none.

We are after a junior member of Croydon street gang Shine My Nine (SMN). He and his brother are known to the police as drug dealers and street robbers. Indeed the last time this unit went to get them, his brother was seen stashing cocaine under the window sill.

Cuffed

His mum is rudely awoken at 1.30am and the lad, who looks no more than 10, wearing his hair in corn rows and a baseball cap is cuffed and resignedly dumped into the back of a van by Plank.

The second suspect, who lives in a children’s home, doesn’t fit the bill, however. Although he is also a convicted street robber with the same unusual first name as our suspect, he was tucked up in bed too soon after the mugging to be the right man, or, at 15 years old, boy.

The Taskforce decides to call it a night. As we are leaving another two cars scream to a halt blue lights flashing.

They are searching for a former prisoner who has been seen with a loaded double barrelled shotgun threatening to kill his mum and father-in-law.

“It was a quiet night,” said Sgt Davis.

Tomorrow the Taskforce are back on duty. Some in plain clothes looking for gang members in Croydon town centre, others on football duty as Fulham host Celtic.

Matt the Plank summed up the team’s ethos: “It’s a very popular unit and is hard to get on. If you are passionate about proactive policing its the only place to be.”