OPERATION TALLA
PC Chris Wilmshurst, T/Chief Inspector Matthew Sulley and PC Sean Miller
HOW THE PPE WAR WAS WON!
S
ix Thames Valley PCs, two disused aircraft hangars and a staggering 75 million pieces of personal protective
equipment (PPE) moved to police forces across the UK and dependent territories since the start of the pandemic. Welcome to Operation TALLA. POLICE magazine spoke to
T/Chief Inspector Matt Sulley, who heads this life-saving operation on behalf of the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC), as new guidance is released through Op TALLA around PPE and minimising police officers’ exposure to COVID-19.
Speaking from Op TALLA’s base of
operations in Oxfordshire, Matt explains: “In the last year we’ve moved a massive
10 | POLICE | APRIL 2021
quantity of PPE around the country. We’ve supplied every force in the country, UK dependents overseas, Police Scotland, British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary and the Ministry of Defence. Everything comes through here and we quality check every piece against certification and test reports – all of that processing is done by the six PCs.” Amazingly, the operation was
pulled together virtually in the space of a weekend. In March 2020, as the pandemic was taking hold, the Thames Valley force was selected to spearhead the PPE procurement and roll out, due to its proximity to RAF Brize Norton and because the force had made a great start. Matt said: “I got a call on a Friday
afternoon and was asked if we could do it. I said yes, thinking it would be no more than a few lorryloads of product. I was told ‘we need it operational for Monday morning’. The hangar was used by Thames Valley Police for pursuit and firearms training, so we had to drag all the broken vehicles out and clear the space. There was no heating or running water. We had to generate power for the site, install fire alarms, cabins for welfare support and marquees to expand capacity. “We’re in the middle of an aircraft field with no connectivity so we’ve had to have a microwave link set up. All of this stuff had to happen quick sharp.” Despite none of the team having prior experience of working in a logistics
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