The following morning, with five minutes to spare, Jo slipped bleary-eyed into the briefing room expecting it to be standing room only. The row with Darren last night had been horrendous. How could he even contemplate writing the article? They’d have round two later but, sleep or no sleep, she had to focus now.
Between the ranks of slouching blue-overalled officers, chatting, slurping drinks and tapping at their phones, there were too many spare chairs for her liking. She checked her watch then sidled up to Bob who was running through a PowerPoint presentation on the ageing laptop.
‘It is a 7 a.m. start, isn’t it?’ she asked.
‘That’s right, ma’am.’
‘Where is everyone?’
‘This is it. Two PSUs. One from here and one from East Sussex.’
Jo looked puzzled. She’d been authorised to second a Police Support Unit – eighteen PCs, three sergeants, an inspector and a medic in each – from all three divisions.
‘What about West Sussex’s unit?’ 28
‘They’re a no-show I’m afraid. There’s some animal rights protest at one of the hunt kennels near Chichester. They’ve gone to that.’
‘Jesus. When were you told?’
‘About an hour ago. I just need to tweak a few things.’
‘Can you do all seven warrants with just this lot?’ She glanced around the room, trying not to show her anger to the officers watching them.
‘It’s tight. We need to do them all at once, otherwise word will get out and the sewers will be swimming in crack and heroin – but I’ll work something out.’
‘Righto, I’ll leave it with you.’ She took a seat in the empty front row and sent a text to her West Sussex counterpart.
Not happy that you’ve stood me up. Op Eradicate is a force priority yet your PSU had a better offer. We need to speak.
On seeing the laughing emoji she received in return, she was about to call him and ball him out but Bob called the room to order. The chatter stopped instantly and everyone was fixed on the DI standing by the screen.
‘Right. Listen in everyone. You’ll have spotted we are a little thin on the ground so we’ve had to make some choices. I think you’ve all been on an Op Eradicate arrest day before but I’ll just remind you of what it’s all about. We are going to execute seven warrants issued under the Misuse of Drugs Act, at separate locations around the city. Your sergeants have the individual arrest packs. Each of the people you’re arresting has been positively identified as having supplied class A drugs to undercover officers. They won’t be told that last point until they are interviewed, so keep that to yourself.
‘Each premises will be searched for class A drugs, paraphernalia and evidence of supply. Now, all that’s pretty standard. The difference with these operations is that once you’ve taken the prisoners to custody, Sergeant Scott and his team—’ Scotty waved to show who he was, as 29if there were anyone in Sussex Police who did not know. ‘Thank you Scotty. As I say, the Street Community Team will float around the area of each warrant to pick up any users who might be expecting to get their fix from our suspects. The team will engage with them and start the work to get them into one of the dedicated Op Eradicate drug treatment places. Scotty, anything to add?’
‘Thanks, guv,’ said Scotty from the back of the room. ‘PC Bannerjee and I’ – he waved his hand to introduce Saira to his right – ‘will be joined by a drugs worker who we’ll pick up later. If you come across anyone who looks like they might be ripe for a treatment place, then call me and we’ll come to meet them. Boss, just one thing. We usually have a back-up unit in case things get spicy. Is that the case today?’
‘That might be a stretch. Can you manage without? Call up divisional response if you need any help.’
Scotty sighed. ‘I suppose so, but it’s not ideal.’
Bob shrugged and looked to Jo. She stood and turned to face the room.
‘I’m sorry you’ve been left short. We only found out this morning and I’ll deal with that but hopefully, as we’ve done this many times before without incident, today will be no different.’ As soon as she sat down she wished she’d engaged her brain before opening her mouth.
Bob rattled through the deployments, call signs and the ever-important overtime code, then sent the units off for their specific briefings by their sergeants.
Jo waited by his side while he finished a conversation with DS Luke Spencer, charged with coordinating the interviews once the prisoners had been processed. When Luke had stepped away, Jo said, ‘I’ll try to get you some more bods but don’t hold out too much hope. I’ll make damn sure it doesn’t happen again though.’ Bob gave her a doubtful look which made her even more determined. 30
As Jo slumped into her office chair, to her surprise, Chief Superintendent Kevin Curtis picked up her call after just two rings. ‘Morning, Jo, how’s life in your little township?’
‘I’m not in the mood Kev. Where the hell were your PSU this morning?’
‘And a very good day to you too.’
‘Piss off. You were supposed to send a unit over for Op Eradicate. Where were they?’
Just then Gary Hedges walked in, red, sweaty and still in his running gear. ‘Morning,’ he mouthed. Jo just shook her head.
‘We had some hunt protestors at one of the kennels on Lord MacInnes’s estate. I had to send them there,’ said Curtis.
‘Really, a whole PSU? How many protestors are we talking about?’
‘I’m not really sure but His Lordship was kicking off to the chief, so I decided to show some strength. These things happen, Jo.’
‘That’s bollocks. In any case you should have told me. We plan these raids to the last detail and it causes mayhem if we don’t have the right numbers.’
Jo signalled to Gary to pass his mobile. Reluctantly he handed it over, then she flapped her fingers for him to unlock it.
‘You do these arrest days every other month. The world doesn’t stop for your vanity projects.’
‘If saving lives is a vanity project, I’ll take that,’ she said as she zapped a Google search on Gary’s phone. What she was looking for came up straight away.
‘Four pensioners, Kev.’
‘Eh?’
‘Three elderly women and an even older man. That’s your animal rights protestors who warranted twenty-three highly trained riot cops plus drivers. Really?’
‘I’m not sure we knew that when we deployed.’
‘That is such crap. You’ve been had over and it’s me that suffered, like always.’ 31
‘I’m not having this conversation. If you don’t like it, speak to the ACC.’ With that the call went dead.
‘For fuck’s sake,’ Jo yelled.
‘And there ends the sermon,’ said Gary with a grin plastered across his face.
‘Read the fucking room, Gary.’