Retiring assistant chief constable describes big changes he's seen in 30 years policing
Retiring assistant chief constable David Hartley describes the big changes he's seen in 30 years with South Yorkshire Police, including improvements in protection equipment
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00:00Criminals with guns may not be a new thing in Sheffield, but the way police are now protected from the dangers they pose has changed massively.
00:08And South Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable David Hartley, who retires this week, has never forgotten a shocking incident in 1992 which illustrates just how things have changed.
00:19How has personal protective equipment improved over the years?
00:23Well, I think it's changed to really the start point was there wasn't any really, you know, the traditional bobby would be a truncheon and some handcuffs.
00:33And now we have really everything that we can possibly offer you. I've got body armour, you know, you've got the gas, you've got the extendable baton, we've got taser, quick cuffs, you know, we continue to layer personal protective equipment.
00:48And I suppose the reference point for me as to how it was in the day was back, I think it was 1992, before body armour and any of sort of the enhanced protection came along.
01:01I remember we were on night in the city centre expecting a busy night and on a briefing we'd had a briefing around a potential sex offender who wore a long mack.
01:11And we'd been told to look out for him in the city centre and two of my colleagues see somebody of that description, pulled up alongside him on Pinston Street, wound the window down to speak to this individual.
01:22And it wasn't the person we'd briefed on by pure bad luck or good luck in terms of keeping the public safe.
01:28It happened to be somebody who was armed, they got a sawn off shotgun tied to them and tied to their wrist on a lanyard, series of knives and other things under this mack.
01:37And instantly, without any warning, shot a colleague of mine who was the acting sergeant on the shift.
01:44So looking at protective equipment, the acting sergeant was the only sergeant I've ever known who went on patrol in the dress tunic with the big stripes on the sleeves.
01:55The thing that we would go to formal events in now, he wore that operationally.
02:00And again, through a quirk of good luck, the big Motorola radio with a huge battery on it of the day, he always had that in his top left hand pocket of the tunic.
02:10And when he was shot at point blank range, that radio took the entire blast from that shotgun and remarkably didn't take his life.
02:18His colleague in the driver's seat took the ricochet off that with a shot and both of his arms were shot.
02:23But they both survived. But that was through pure luck of a tunic, which no one else did, and a massive radio.
02:30If we look and compare and contrast to today, with body armour and our armed response and the way that we manage intelligence around firearms,
02:38I'd like to think that we're no longer relying on really good luck.
02:42Now we've got inbuilt structures and processes and kit and equipment that would mean that if you face a similar instance like that,
02:50that you're not relying on a bit of good fortune where you protect yourself from a shotgun by means of a radio.
02:57David was speaking on the day he retires after 33 years with South Yorkshire Police.
03:03David, what's special about today for you?
03:05Well, this is the end of my 33 years with South Yorkshire Police, so it's both a celebration and a bit of a sad day to be leaving the organisation.
03:13When did you first start with South Yorkshire Police?
03:1621st October 1991, so 33 years ago.
03:21Do you remember your first day well?
03:23I do, I do. I started night shift in Sheffield City Centre working from West Bar Police Station.
03:29What do you remember? Was there much that happened on the day?
03:31It was arguably, in terms of my very first arrest, was possibly the most violent arrest of my entire 33 years, as the very first one.
03:40It was a chap who'd violently beaten his partner in Barker's Pool at Sheffield and upon arrest between me and my tutor constable,
03:49he was a huge fellow who was on steroids and he just picked the two of us up off the floor with his two arms,
03:55so we knew that that was going to be a lively arrest and certainly it proved to be.
03:58Was he convicted in the end?
04:00Oh he was, he was, but I think it was at least two vans that were needed to finally get him into Bridge Street Custody Office.
04:07So yeah, that was a lively start and thankfully I didn't experience violence like that so often.
04:12And how have things changed since you first started?
04:17Well I think in terms of what police officers try and do, the job is largely the same in terms of serving the public, coming between the public and harm.
04:26That's what the police will always do.
04:29In terms of the way that it's done, I suppose, and the how, that has changed dramatically.
04:35If I were to wind back to PC Hartley starting in 1991, blue shirt, no body armour, no baton, no gas, no taser, no armed support group,
04:47there was no quick cuffs.
04:49When you look at the technology supporting that, no mobile phones, no body worn video,
04:53in 1991 you went out on patrol with a truncheon, which was a small piece of wood which I don't think I ever used,
05:01other than to break windows to get into houses, and loose link cuffs.
05:07There was no other kit and equipment that we have today.
05:12So I think when you see officers now with all the full range of personal protective equipment and technology they've got,
05:18things have changed much for the better.
05:20They're very much better equipped than we were.
05:23Were there more officers in those days?
05:25Probably around the same number that we've got now.
05:29We clearly went through austerity from 2014 through to 2017 and numbers were down, but now we're seeing numbers back increasing.
05:38I think we've got officers that are now in more specialist units.
05:43So I think we've probably got slightly fewer in terms of the engine room of the force, which is response policing,
05:48but actually we've got far greater professionalism in support departments.
05:53I understand your son and daughter have both followed your footsteps in joining the force.
05:58Yeah.
06:00How do you feel about that?
06:02It was their choice. I was delighted when they did, but they were certainly not pressured into doing that.
06:07And they both appear to be having just as much fun as I did 30 years ago.
06:11They're both in response policing.
06:13They seem to be enjoying the team spirit and that sense of not knowing what you're going to next.
06:18And very much the demand of the active queue that is for response policing is a very exciting place to be.
06:26You rely on each other to keep each other safe and the communities rely on us to keep them safe.
06:32It's actually a really rewarding job.
06:34So they seem to be having fun and enjoying it.
06:36Do you have many dealings with them in the day-to-day job?
06:38No. I try and avoid that embarrassing conflict of their dad being in the same organisation.
06:46I'm pretty sure they'll be delighted when I finally leave.
06:50What do you think is better in policing than 30 years ago?
06:54I think the professionalism and the technology in terms of our ability to detect crime.
07:00I know everything that goes along in terms of the benefits of IT.
07:05If you were to look where we are now in our ability to manage crime scenes in terms of drones, technology, all of that.
07:13You couldn't even have imagined it 30 years ago.
07:16I think the traditions of the courage and common sense needed from policing to get between the public and harm still remains as it did 30 years ago.
07:27But all of the improvements around technology really is.
07:32It's so marked and so different.
07:35As I say, it was the dark ages of typewriters and no technology.
07:39Photocopying was perhaps as advanced as it goes.
07:42Now communication is so much better.
07:45Is there anything that you miss about the job in the 1990s?
07:49I miss all of that terribly because I think the most exciting time for me was the first 10 years.
07:55That was working shifts on the front line.
07:57I think that's where the camaraderie and that reliance on each other for your own safety of trying to serve.
08:05Certainly for me it was Sheffield City Centre and then moving to Rotherham in the first instance.
08:11I miss that part of the job because upon promotion and upon moving around the organisation,
08:17you do move further and further away from that response policing and being in the driver's seat at the incidents.
08:24So that's where I miss.
08:25I don't think there's a great deal around how we operated in the 1990s that I would say go back to that.
08:31To be fair, it wasn't so sophisticated.
08:34What's been your proudest moment as an officer?
08:38Pride is an interesting word because as I leave, the pride I have in the entire organisation.
08:45I know from a media point of view, you try and recognise where police officers do remarkable things and where we try and deliver.
08:52That's happening on a daily basis.
08:53I see what the force delivers each and every day.
08:57Police officers are just normal people.
08:59They're brothers, sisters, mums, dads.
09:02They're just people who decide upon this career and then do remarkable things in terms of service delivery.
09:09So my pride is one that is really in the entire organisation.
09:14In terms of incidents specific, I think it's where we deliver where there is real complexity and pressure.
09:21And from my world, that's often been around high-risk complex firearms operations where there is real jeopardy around those.
09:30Way back when I was the firearms commander in charge of the hunt for Raoul Mote up in Northumbria.
09:37So I led that as a specialist firearms commander.
09:40And that's arguably the biggest policing operation where I think we got 50% of all available armed assets in the UK operating in Northumbria.
09:48And the specialist firearms accreditation was in its infancy.
09:53It had started in 2009.
09:55I passed that course and in 2010 I was in live command of the hunt for Raoul Mote.
10:01So that one always springs to mind because of the scale and complexity with that.
10:06But within South Yorkshire equally we've had huge football matches, steel city derbies, putting lots of bad people away.
10:13Particularly those who are involved in drug dealing and armed criminality.
10:18I have a huge amount of pride but many of those instances I can't talk around directly other than the ones that have already been to court.