'IT'S A WRAP' - 6/25 - 'The Noble Cause'

Published in 2016 and co-written with Stephen Burrows. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01MRELU3F/

The cover photograph depicts Police Constable 118 ‘A’ Thomas Wright. His imperious pose commemorates the awarding of a certificate for bravery on the Thirteenth of February 1911.

He risked his life to protect others. In this case it was a runaway horse, and not an armed terrorist, but nevertheless his heroism encapsulated the core principle of policing – that of protecting others, their lives, their property, their society.

The principles demonstrated by PC Wright remain at its heart to the present day - it’s why policing is in truth ‘The Noble Cause’.

This is a ‘warts and all’ book about policing in the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Police officers see the worst of society, its inequalities, and injustice, and they sometimes must confront pure evil and the lowest degradations of the human state. They must face the horrors of murder, accidental death, suicide, domestic and child abuse, and sickening violence, to name just a few of the incidents described in the book.

This book tracks the course of two very different career paths in Birmingham and Walsall, one in uniform, one in the CID, until they ultimately converge.

Also included, and rarely ever described to the public, are training courses and organisational structures that lie behind the officer on the street, as well as recollections from other retired officers.

The book serves as a window into the reality of policing and its trials and humour during that period. The incidents described occurred many years ago, but the basis of policing does not change, and the observations made are as valid today as they were then.

Whether it is public-order policing, keeping a lid on the streets, working undercover, battling against drugs dealers, the reality of dealing with death and post-mortems, or the investigation of serious crimes, this book provides a unique insight into the reality of policing.

A book for the curious, the nostalgic, the academic, the historian and the researcher. Totally factual and demonstrating the reality rather than the dramatic conflations shown on TV and film.

The book also contains many stunning photographs of a Birmingham no longer in existence due to development.

The photograph of PC Wright, together with the other wonderful photographs of Birmingham City Centre, prior to modern development, were provided by Thomas Wright’s grand-daughter, Mrs. Frances Tebbutt, who is justly proud of Thomas and his service to the public.

To Frances we give our grateful thanks for permission to use them. We hope that PC Wright would have been proud to be on the cover of this book and that its content demonstrates why policing is in truth ‘The Noble Cause’.

???????????Extract One: (Stephen Burrows) ‘I was woken by the jarring sound of the telephone ringing. Not a mobile by the bed – there were no mobiles - this phone was downstairs, and it was the ‘wee’ small hours of Tuesday 10 September 1985. I was in demand.

“Handsworth’s gone up,” said the voice, “Your course is cancelled, get yourself into Acocks Green as soon as you can.”

It was just four months since I had been involved in the riot at the Birmingham City versus Leeds match, and it seemed that disorder was stalking me. The previous day I had commenced my ‘PACE’ course. This was a week–long introduction to the recently enacted Police and Criminal Evidence Act which had changed every facet of prisoner handling, interviewing and evidence collection.

In fact, it was the last ‘PACE’ course being held, and everyone bar a few older in service ‘duckers and divers’ had been trained. I was by far the youngest in service on the course, and just about to complete my two years ‘Probation’.

I recount this fact because every able-bodied person on the course formed a public order ‘serial’ for the Handsworth riot and thus I ended up in a rattling Transit van with an interesting collection of characters of some service length, wise in the ways of policing. I watched and learnt.

Once assembled, we were sent to Thornhill Road Police Station, Handsworth, where we were hurriedly fed and sat around the yard by the van awaiting orders. We must have arrived at dawn because I can remember looking through the van window as we drove past Lozells Road and seeing the smoking ruins that looked just like pictures of the Blitz.

There had been a temporary lull in the disorder and many weary colleagues, who had been on duty since the previous evening, were going off duty, to be replaced by us. Their faces and the devastation in the streets made me realise that this was the most serious and potentially dangerous incident I had ever been part of.

This sight did not dampen the spirits of my colleagues though. There was a line of vehicles, public-order vans, dog-vans, and police cars, parked to one side of the yard at Thornhill Road, with their officer contents sat on the floor between the vehicles and the station wall. We were waiting for something to happen and inevitably boredom set in and the mischief making began.

This was the unfortunate moment for the local Superintendent to decide to hold a live press interview in the back yard on the other side of the vans.

The dog vans contained their complement of large German Shepherds, in the internal cages but with the rear van doors open to allow air to the dogs. Police dogs are not normally shy and retiring and these were no exception. They had produced the usual barrage of barking but had calmed down by the time the interview was to begin.

I imagine that the superintendent thought that the backdrop of vans and officers ready to deploy would be very good on the television.

Some of us had a view of the interview but the superintendent could not see everyone sat behind the vans. As the first question was asked it was drowned out by a cacophony of barking from the dog vans. Silence fell and they tried again, but as soon as the superintendent began to speak the barking erupted once more. What bad luck!

This went on for some time until the superintendent ordered the dogs to be removed, adding some choice language that I doubt made the television.

This decision was effective, stopping the barking which had in fact been caused by officers sat behind the dog vans rocking them with their feet, upon a signal from those who had sight of the interview. Classic police humour, relieving the tension and getting a ‘bite’ from a gaffer too. A win–win!

It must have been about 10am when our wait ended. We were told that trouble had started again and into the van we climbed. I can remember the superintendent coming to the open back doors of the van and wishing us luck. I can still recall the feeling. I was going into battle.

I already knew that people had died the previous night, two brothers Kassamali Moledina, aged thirty-eight-years, and his forty-four-year-old brother Amirali, were burnt to death in the post office that they ran, after they decided to remain in the premises to protect it from the mob. Tensions were high and there were reports that many troublemakers from outside of Handsworth were travelling to ‘have a go’ at the police and maybe do a spot of incidental looting.

We were deployed to Heathfield Road, in public-order attire and had shields and what were termed ‘NATO’ helmets. There were people around, but mostly they seemed to be older locals, Asian and Black, upset and bemused by what had happened to their community - and all very clear and unanimous that it had not been done in their names.

The Asians in particular, who owned most of the business in Handsworth, were incensed and vowing to mobilise as vigilantes to protect their livelihoods. Everyone blamed a small minority of black drug-dealers and troublemakers who centred themselves around the Acapulco Café in Lozells where the trouble had started.

I was on the streets of Handsworth for a week after the riots and spoke to many locals, and not even one blamed deprivation. In fact, most of those arrested came from outside of Handsworth…’

Extract Two: (Michael Layton): ‘On Friday 2 September 1994 I had an early morning planning meeting in Birmingham with managers who ran a covert unit, to progress issues relating to ‘Operation Portdale’, and four days later had a similar meeting with NCIS, as I wanted to make use of their facilities and to work in partnership with them in developing intelligence that we hoped to obtain.

The concept of the operation, which was to be the first ‘sting’ operation of its type outside the Metropolitan Police Force area, was quite simple. We were going to buy property that had already been stolen, from criminals, and in due course identify and arrest the offenders. We already had ‘flyers’ printed, and cards advertising for TV’s, videos, mobile phones, and computers, together with a contact telephone number. Little would the criminals know that the person answering the phone would be one of three undercover police officers, who would be using a van kitted-out with technical equipment to capture all the transactions on video and audio.

In May 1994 the Metropolitan Police had completed a similar operation, resulting in the arrest of forty-two persons, and the recovery of stolen property valued at ￡125,000.

Police in Walthamstow had set up a second-hand shop and found that three-quarters of the property they purchased was stolen.

We had done some research and were satisfied that what we were proposing was legal. In May 1992 there was a stated case before the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division that we felt that we could rely on.

In the case of ‘R v Christou and Another’, which occurred in 1990, to combat a high rate of burglary and robbery in parts of North London, a shop called ‘Stardust Jewellers’ was opened in Tottenham, which purported to conduct the business of buying and selling jewellery on a commercial basis. Although unorthodox and novel in the UK it was said that similar operations had been mounted in the United States.

The shop was in fact a police undercover operation and was staffed solely by two undercover officers, using the pseudonyms ‘Gary’ and ‘Aggi’, who purported to be 'shady' jewellers willing to buy-in stolen property.

Transactions in the shop were recorded by cameras and sound recording equipment, the object of the operation being to recover stolen property for the owners, and to obtain evidence against those who had either stolen or dishonestly handled it.

Persons selling property were also requested to sign receipts which afforded the opportunity for the police to obtain fingerprints from the paper. Over a three-month period, a substantial amount of stolen property was recovered, and some thirty men charged with various offences.

Another meeting in Birmingham followed on the 14 September 1994, as we approached the start date of a job that was to prove yet another big test. Authority had been given to run the operation by the Assistant Chief Constable (Crime) Phil Thomas, and the Head of CID, Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Jenkins so yet again we were in the ‘spotlight’ and with no guarantee of success.

From the 4 October 1994 I was responsible for the day-to-day control and management, of ‘Operation Portdale’, and I was able to gain a great deal of experience in the control of undercover officers, and to use the skills developed on other major Operations such as ‘Red Card’. It was not long before the thieves started to ‘take the bait.’

In the early days we did some leaflet drops in four selected ‘hot-spot’ areas for crime in Mossley, Blakenhall Heath, Beechdale and Bloxwich. We kept a record of where the leaflets were posted but avoided the addresses of known criminals, to negate accusations of acting as ‘agent provocateurs’ by counselling, inciting, or procuring the commission of a crime. The undercover officers were encouraged to find their own targets as too much information could prove to be dangerous for them.

Their cover stories or ‘legends’ were designed to show that they were from the Leicestershire area and exporting goods to Eastern Europe. Therefore, they would not have been expected to possess much local knowledge.

On Tuesday 4 October 1994 one of the undercover officers was out on his own, in the Bloxwich area, in the van, when he came across a well-known local criminal who took him back to his house and offered to sell a satellite dish and decoder and said that he also had a Pioneer stacker system for sale, which had come from a burglary. They arranged to meet again on the following Friday.

On Friday 7 October 1994 the undercover officer purchased the satellite dish, for ￡30, and viewed the stacker system with a view to purchasing it later. At the time he was able to make a note of the serial number. During a lengthy conversation, all of which was captured on audio, the suspect went on to admit three house burglaries. Enquiries subsequently failed to identify two of the offences, but one of them related to a burglary at a house in Clayhanger in Brownhills at the end of June 1994. The householder had returned home and disturbed three burglars in a vehicle in the process of stealing a microwave. A TV and video recorder had already been taken.

One of the burglars had been detained by the householder, whilst the other two had made good their escape. He had maintained ‘the code of silence’ and gone ‘no comment’ when interviewed and subsequently charged. Clearly our man was one of those who had got away.

This was an individual who couldn’t stop talking and he went on to describe being involved in the theft of pedal cycles from the Cannock area, and criminal damage in London, whereby he alleged that he had been paid ￡150 to damage two vehicles.

At about 7.45pm on Friday 7 October 1994, the home of a widower, who lived with his three children, in Keats Road, Bloxwich was locked and secured. The following morning the owner returned home and found that the kitchen door had been forced open, and that two television sets valued at ￡700 had been stolen. One of the television sets was a twenty-one-inch Tatung colour TV bearing a serial number and with several unique identifying features.

On Tuesday 11 October 1994, during the course of purchasing a legitimate television set from a man in Bloxwich, two of the undercover officers were made aware that another man had apparently got two other TVs for sale, which were believed to have been stolen.

The officers were provided with another address in Bloxwich which they duly visited. They were then referred to yet another nearby house, in the same road, where they were shown a Tatung television set in an upstairs bedroom, which bore a serial number. The officers later offered to purchase the TV for ￡40, and eventually a price of ￡80 was agreed. In the interim the TV was moved between different addresses, and we started to develop a better understanding of their methods. When it came into police possession on the 18 October 1994, the serial number of the TV had been removed, but otherwise was identical in every respect to one of the two stolen in the burglary.

As part of their ‘cover story’, the undercover officers always tried to get a receipt signed for the cash handed over. Where possible the criminals were encouraged to sit in the front seat of the van, whilst this was completed. Taped to the dashboard in front of this seat was a postcard of a naked woman, which always attracted admiring looks and comments from ‘customers’.

What they didn’t know was that there was a ‘pin hole’ camera, behind the picture, and as ‘M.Jones’ signed his receipt we had a nice full-frontal facial picture of him.’?

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