London News:’These level of protests are becoming unsustainable for our police officers’.Former Met Officer hits out at ‘pop up demos’.

“People complain about crime solving but look at the work load these officers have week in and week out.“

A former Metropolitan Police officer has hit out at the next wave of so called ‘pop up protests’ by environmental groups stating that they are becoming unsustainable for police officers and dragging cops away from detecting crime.

The next phase of protests by anti oil protesters and youth spin off groups have once again targeted the capital, meaning officers are taken away from crime fighting and having to rush in and deal with spray painting, floor lying, road blocking tactics where the police are not informed in advance and protesters arrive with specifically no identification and relish in being arrested.

Graham Wettone served for over 30 years, based as a frontline officer and then in the Public Order Sector. Today, he fears that these ongoing unplanned protests are becoming completely unsustainable for the capital’s police force and the heavy impact they have across our BCUs.

“You have officers working across borough’s during the week and then at weekends they are deployed across London to deal with these protests. They then return to endless emails that have been left behind and have to start picking up their work once again.

“They complain about police over time but these officers are working extremely long hours. They could start the day at 8am, have to pick up their kit, get into town, then get deployed. From there they have to wait until it finishes, they clearly can’t just get up and leave. You are looking at a 12 to 14 hour day for them and then when they return to their normal duties, they have to pick everything back up.

“People complain about crime solving but look at the work load these officers have week in and week out.

“I have never known a time like this in regards to public order and these level of protests. It really is not sustainable for our police force. We are dragging cops away each week from detecting crime.”

Mr Wettone is all too familiar with how public order policing works after 30 years as a police officer in the capital.

“These protests place an increasing demand on policing. These are off shoot groups that we have seen spray painting Ministry of Defence buildings, they have no so called organisation or clearly choose not to liaise with police.That means that the police are playing catch up as they are pop up demos. The Met did their best to counteract it with a Section 14 all across London, but the judge knocked it back on a legal technicality. This level of frequency cannot be done every week.”

Mr Wettone fears that our BCUs are now suffering as a result of these endless pressures.

He continued:”These are the same cops investigating burglaries that are then called out to these demos. They are working very long shifts under very difficult circumstances. It is clear that there is a heavy impact on our borough policing.”

The former Met Police officer is also concerned about the rapidly shrinking retention level, he adds “It really is a huge worry. Officers join and do not see policing as a long term career anymore. Many join and then choose to leave after a few years due to the ongoing pressures.”

When asked if he would join the police today, Mr Wettone sighed and sadly said: “I would really love to say yes, but I’m not sure if I would. We don’t seem to see the leaders we did have when I joined. Back then senior officers were a role model to us. Policing was like a family and senior officers were almost like your dad, they cared. There was a different feel to it then. Now sadly they seem very career based.”

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