MENTAL HEALTH O


n a winter’s morning in 1986, a 16-year-old schoolboy became destined for a career in policing as his path crossed with bobby on the beat. “Something inside just went click,” says John Sutherland, recalling the moment he spotted an officer across the street.


“I was searching for adventure and


wanted to be part of something that matters,” he explained. “I can’t think of anything that matters more than policing. From that moment onwards, I never seriously considered doing anything else.” At 22, John applied to the Met and


attended the only interview he ever went for. Soon enough he was hauling his trunk of luggage through the front gates at Hendon, where he was trained for an initial two weeks and then sent out to shadow experienced officers. He was well and truly chucked into the deep end after becoming involved in a massive armed siege at the old BBC studio in Aldwych. Although, he remembers his first day on patrol at the end of his 20 weeks’ initial training being a lot more daunting. “I was with a tutor constable by a big


main road. He suddenly just turned to me and said: ‘right, now stop a car’. I think it was probably the single most terrifying


moment in my policing career and I’ve since been to murder scenes, fatal car crashes, fatal house fires, been in foot chases and was a hostage negotiator. Still, that first moment where I was asked to use my powers was a step into the complete unknown. “That was the first of a whole series


of firsts. You then you go through you first arrest, your first dead body. And all of those things you remember forever.” Fast forward to 2012, John was the borough commander for Camden. He found himself in the eye of the storm after a man, wearing what appeared to be a suicide vest and carrying a flamethrower, took several hostages at an office block on Tottenham Court Road. The world watched the potential terrorist incident unfold in the capital where the London Olympics were due to take place just a few weeks later. “We had Trojan officers, the Level


1 Firearms Teams, the bomb disposal team, Territorial Support Group, traffic officers, everyone – it was just one of those moments where you see everything that was extraordinary about policing.” says John. “They played it magnificently. I remember the suspect walking out bare chested into the street with his arms up and


all of the hostages, including a pregnant lady, were released without a scratch. It stretched us to our very limits and beyond - but it was where policing worked, and lives were saved.” During his 25 years in policing, John tried his hand at many roles - including a stint as a detective - but working in uniform continued to be where his heart was. He ended his operational career as Borough Commander for Southwark, being medically retired in 2018 when the stresses and strains of life and the job became too much. “I would say without hesitation policing is the best job in the world,” he remarks. “It’s also a heck of a job and if I learned anything in the seven years since my breakdown I would say it is impossible to do the job of a police officer for a length of time and remain untouched and unaffected by the things you see and do. Some days you’ll be stretched to your limits, so it is important to look after yourself and colleagues.” John has


gone on to deliver educational talks to officers and he wrote a successful and powerful memoir called Blue. He’s just released a new book called Crossing the Line – a frank account of the challenges facing society, seen through the eyes of a police officer. He hopes it will help the public realise how much officers do to protect society.


Reflecting on how much policing has changed, John concludes: “The job is more challenging now than it ever has been. But, at its heart, the job of a police officer is still to save lives, to find lost children and to comfort people who are broken hearted on the worst days of their lives, to protect the vulnerable, safeguard the innocent and confront the dangerous.


“Sometimes the job, as in the case of


Keith Palmer and Andrew Harper and any number of men and woman who went before them, is to pay the greatest price of them all. Those things haven’t changed in 200 years. Policing is what it always was and that’s why I am so utterly in love with it still. Never forget that every day you have the opportunity to change the world.”


SEPTEMBER 2020 | POLICE | 33


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