Are these policemen worth their pensions?

When Colonel Tim Collins gave us the benefit of his considerable law and order experience by telling us that police should be ‘ratcatchers, not social workers’, he was probably referring to the fact that on the Response and Neighbourhood teams, we spend a significant amount of our time dealing with the lost and lonely, the mentally ill and confused and the sick and injured.

Paramedics often call us to assist them when the patient has warning markers for unpredictable violence.

Here is an example of what happens when care in the community goes wrong, as if we needed another example after Kingsbury Road where four officers were stabbed. We attend these calls several times per shift. Usually we get things under control by a mixture of luck, TASER (unless you are in London) or circumstance.

Negotiating with someone like Lee Dixon before he starts to try to kill people is bread-and-butter stuff for police patrols. Trying to manage their risk after they have been released early is bread-and-butter stuff for PPU teams all over the country.

I would imagine (by their recent decimation in Ruralshire) that in Tory la la land, PPU are ‘back office’.

It’s not rat catching. Who will do this when Collins is in charge?

“Darlington scissor attacker nearly killed us”

TWO police officers told how they fought for their lives during a terrifying struggle with a mentally ill man who wanted to kill them with a sharpened scissor blade.

Paranoid schizophrenic Lee Dixon tried to stab PC John Wood and PC Carl Wood in the eyes after being stopped in a Darlington street following reports of suspicious behaviour.

The officers – who are not related – continued to try to subdue the frenzied suspect, despite being wounded.

PC Carl Wood, 26, was stabbed in the face, the back of the neck and arm, while his 40-year-old colleague suffered wounds to his arms.

Their bravery was praised yesterday by a Teesside Crown Court judge who said the community should be proud of the way they responded in the face of such terror.

Dixon, 22, was given an indefinite hospital order after pleading guilty to two counts of wounding with intent to resist lawful arrest, possession of a knife and cannabis. Psychiatrists consider that he poses a significant public threat. The policemen described last night how they feared the worst as their energy was sapped by Dixon, who appeared to have superhuman strength.

“We felt like we were fighting for our lives. There was a lot of adrenaline going through me and survival instincts kicked in,” said PC John Wood, a married father-of- two.

“But afterwards, when I tried to ring my wife and tell her what had happened, I couldn’t do it. I realised how bad it could have been.”

His colleague said: “He was just not stopping, you could tell. Although we did not want to stop, we felt like we were running out of energy.”

It took six or seven officers to subdue him, during which he shouted: “Howay lads, you know I’m paranoid.”

When finally handcuffed, he said, “I wish I’d f****** killed them”.

It emerged after yesterday’s case that the officers’ stabproof vests were punctured, but the standard-issue garments saved them from more serious injury.

Judge Briggs said: “It is a frightening example of what meets police officers entirely out of the blue and without warning – one can’t help feeling considerable admiration.

“They were met with a situation that effectively exploded out of the blue and they acted with considerable courage and determination in effecting the arrest.”

His barrister, Christopher Baker, said two psychiatrists concluded Dixon should be detained in hospital.

Northern Echo 18th January 2012

This post is dedicated to PC John Henry who died after being stabbed by paranoid schizophrenic Ikechukwu Tennyson Obih in Luton in June 2007.

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