Essex Constabulary - Police Culture 1980's

[Roch]

There have been some recent exchanges on the forum regarding the personal but conflicting opinions of various, unnamed ex-police officers.

The content below is the opinion of an ex-officer which encompasses some opinion on the Bamber case.

Police culture
The police service in 1985 was a secret society, probably still is. Freemasonry had a major influence.
Organised on quasi-military lines, lower ranks were expected to obey orders without question.  That is the first thing that civilians don’t understand. If you were told that something happened by a senior officer, you did not question it. If you were told not to speak about something, you kept silent. If you were ordered to forget something, you forgot it. If you didn’t obey these orders you were in deep trouble. Taff Jones died. Police officers were not encouraged to be curious. If the story was that Jeremy Bamber was guilty a police officer who tried to find evidence that he was innocent would have been kicked out of the force, or worse (i.e. Taff Jones).
CID did not share information with uniformed officers and vice versa. As a probationary constable, I recall asking if I could see a murder file as I thought it would help with my education. It was refused immediately and I was warned not to enter the CID office where the enquiry was based.
CID officers didn’t share information with other CID officers.  If you were not part of the investigative team you were expected to keep your nose out of an enquiry.
While working in CID I had a sawn-off shotgun pointed at me late at night during an armed robbery.  The robber fled the scene, but I got a good look at him.  A gang were arrested the next day but none of them were the man that I had seen with the sawn-off.
Nevertheless, I was ordered by my DCI that I had to make a witness statement saying that one of the men in the gang pointed the weapon at me.  I was instructed to do so every day for weeks because I had not provided the statement. For refusing to obey that order I was put back in uniform, no longer trusted to do what was necessary to work in CID.
There were really two police forces operating under the name ‘Essex’, Southend Borough and the rest.  Southend Borough merged with Essex 1st April 1969.  The culture was very strongly that Southend was superior and everyone associated with Southend seemed to have an allegiance firstly to Southend and all associated with it and secondly to the Essex police.  This thinking was still prevalent well into the late 1980’s.
The other really strong influence was with regard to whether an officer came from a police family.  One of the first questions any new recruit was asked was “Are any of your family in the Job?”  The Force newspaper, ‘The Law’ showed pictures of all new recruits and it was always the case that former police cadets or members of the ‘family’ were identified e.g. Joe Bloggs (ex-cadet son of Basil Bloggs, Southend).  So everyone knew the situation.
Thus there was a hierarchy of importance:-
1.   Family members in the Force
2.   Ex-cadet
3.   Others
‘Others’ were treated for a long time like pathogens being attacked by white blood cells.  The family/ex-cadet staff were the white blood cells keeping the invasive pathogens at bay. It took a long time to be accepted, ten years minimum. My guess is that many officers were never really accepted if they lacked the family ties etc.
‘Others’ got the worst postings after training school.  The theory was that you didn’t serve in areas where you had lived before joining the Force but it didn’t work that way in practice.  Southend recruits were often posted directly to Southend or nearby Basildon. Being resident in Basildon I was sent as far away from home as possible, Harwich. (Which was totally unsuitable for new recruits as it was impossible to learn anything in a town where nothing much ever happened).
There was a North/South divide also. Generally speaking anywhere north of Chelmsford was rural, anywhere south of Chelmsford was urbanised.  Different types of policing existed.  The rural policing style was more laid-back. Police had to exist as part of a community, they were not forever chasing convictions. The Police developed a relationship with the local social hierarchy and turned a blind-eye to transgressions such as drink-driving among the middle/upper classes. The Golf Club and Rotarian set were afforded certain privileges.
The biggest factor was freemasonry; everything except very minor offences was judged against the criteria as to whether someone in ‘bother’ was a freemason. I am not kidding. At Harwich police station Sgt Percy Parish was the gatekeeper when it came to decisions to report or prosecute. He challenged me several times over proposed prosecutions of local people based, I assume, on social standing or membership of the freemasons. This was particularly the case of drink-driving offences where it was regarded as ‘unsporting’ to prosecute the middle-classes for one drink too many at the golf-club. Of course the favours were reciprocated; a business would offer discounts or free services to police officers.
In the urban policing centres police were more removed from local communities and less inclined to develop privileged relationships, though generally speaking it was true across the whole of Essex that the police prosecuted the working classes and found reasons to excuse the transgressions of the middle/upper classes.
Chelmsford, Basildon and Southend experienced what could be termed ‘overflow’ criminal activity from the East End of London. There were many crimes committed that had their origins in London-based gangs. Thus the kind of pressure to ‘fit-up’ suspects was more prevalent in urban areas though it happened everywhere.
Clacton and Colchester were the major towns north of Chelmsford and they had their ‘rough’ areas. Colchester experienced a lot of army-related drunkenness and fighting and Clacton was busy during the summer. CID duties involved ‘fit-ups’ just about anywhere really.
Tolleshunt D’Arcy is ‘isolated’, deep in the rural area of Maldon.  The local police would normally have been ‘elderly’ in terms of service, unambitious and not looking for any ‘action’. They would have had a relationship with the occupants of White House Farm that would have been very accommodating. The police would have regarded them as almost ‘landed gentry’ I would imagine and be prepared to overlook all but the most serious breaches of the law.
There is a lot of rivalry and animosity between different sections of a police force.  Traffic police officers are generally despised by everyone; in the 1980’s everyone treated senior officers with disdain. Very few senior staff were liked or respected. People generally did not co-operate with other branches and they defended their own interests.
In a major incident such as happened at WHF the local police, i.e. Witham would have been sure to be deeply suspicious of any outsiders drafted in, e.g. the FSU and SOCO officers, and the Witham officers would have regarded information as being ‘privileged’ and restricted to their own officers. In the context of Nevill’s call to PC West, once it was deemed important to cover up the existence of the call, information such as that would have been removed from all witness statements and records and officers would have been told not to discuss it with anyone. The idea that an officer who knew about the call would pursue the interests of justice for Jeremy and expose the truth is so naïve as to be laughable.
There are several reasons why Taff Jones would not tell the relatives or Jeremy about the call.  The main one is that there was the potential for a complaint against the police to the effect that they did not answer the call swiftly enough and as a result people died.  If Nevill tried to contact Witham police station at 03:15 and police did not arrive at WHF until 03:48 and did not recce the farm until 04:05, it could be argued that it took 50 minutes just to get there and have a look around, during which time a rescue might have been possible had they arrived earlier.
Additionally, the police wanted to divert attention away from the entire time period 03:20 to 04:00 because that is when calls were being made from WHF trying to get help. It was simply decided that Nevill’s call must never be made public to anyone and if it had not been for the release of documentation in 2011, nobody would have known.

[Jane]

As I said, on another thread, I'm perfectly certain that "The Story Of WHF" is now used, in police training, nationwide, as an example of "How Not To................." I do wonder what particular axe your source had to grind.

[lookout]

Thanks for that Roch. I can relate to a lot of what's been written because talking to a retired cop ( Insp. ) who I know,was policing in the 80's and who'd spoken of threats and bullying within the force he was in at the time ( Merseyside ) with one in particular who he'd described as a " pit-bull ".
Their work ethic was such that if you didn't " follow or fall-in " with the higher-ups whether you agreed or not,you were given a hard time.
This chap,who's still active in a police position but retired from the force,then went on to tell me some of what has been described in that page.
He firmly believes that JB is innocent,given what he knows goes on in the backgrounds of crime scenes,one of which he told me about that he'd been involved in in the late 90's.

[buddy]

I have mentioned many times of the connection of freemasonry.
Many farmers, and police officers are/were freemasons.

[Roch]

I do wonder what particular axe your source had to grind.

Perhaps their moral compass roughly points in the right direction.

[Jane]

Perhaps their moral compass roughly points in the right direction.

OR they were seeking revenge?

[Roch]

OR they were seeking revenge?

I expect you'd like to think so.  But why does everybody have to act only because of harbouring base instincts?

Personally, that isn't my take on it - as I am aware that they took an interest in the case purely by chance.

[Jane]

I expect you'd like to think so.  But why does everybody have to act only because of harbouring base instincts?

Personally, that isn't my take on it - as I am aware that they took an interest in the case purely by chance.

If this person was speaking entirely from their own experience, I wonder why that experience appears to be so very different from others' experiences. This person is making the Mafia look a preferable alternative to our police force. The same police force that is willing to put themselves at risk, as they did yesterday, to keep the public -SOME of whom MAY have been of the criminal fraternity- safe.

[Roch]

If this person was speaking entirely from their own experience, I wonder why that experience appears to be so very different from others' experiences. This person is making the Mafia look a preferable alternative to our police force. The same police force that is willing to put themselves at risk, as they did yesterday, to keep the public -SOME of whom MAY have been of the criminal fraternity- safe.

The 80's was a long time ago.  I think we can all remember how different the workplace was back then.  To some extent, it makes sense that their ranks were organised along 'quasi-military lines'.  There is nothing in these recollections that shocks me.

[Jane]

The 80's was a long time ago.  I think we can all remember how different the workplace was back then.  To some extent, it makes sense that their ranks were organised along 'quasi-military lines'.  There is nothing in these recollections that shocks me.

Yes, it was. Apart from anything else there was a sexist culture which was acceptable. I suspect there maybe still remnants of it in place, especially when females get promoted above their male counterparts. I'm also mindful that whilst certain 'ways of practice' may be seen as being acceptable whilst one is part of it, according to the circumstances of ones leaving, they become less so.

[Caroline]

Yes, it was. Apart from anything else there was a sexist culture which was acceptable. I suspect there maybe still remnants of it in place, especially when females get promoted above their male counterparts. I'm also mindful that whilst certain 'ways of practice' may be seen as being acceptable whilst one is part of it, according to the circumstances of ones leaving, they become less so.

One of my friends is a police officer - it still is sexist.