23 Mar Jason Colmer Final project- My time with Sergeant Harry Tangye
This piece is on the struggles and traumatising events that Firearms Police deal with and are confronted with on a daily basis. I spoke to Sergeant Harry Tangye, and was lucky enough to accompany him on a shift to shed some light on the daily occurrences and how these officers cope. I hoped to raise awareness of their endurance and challenges overcome by Firearms officers, and reveal some disturbing memories that demonstrate the value of these officers to our community.
You see things from a different perspective when you are in the Police. Imagine driving down a long country road in the summer sunshine, windows down and enjoying the scenery. Then you pass a big Oak Tree with the sun breaking through the leaves. To anyone else, this is bliss. To me? This gorgeous tree was actually the scene of a horrific car crash leading to the fatality of a baby. So do I think of happy thoughts or do I just remember the convoy of flashing blue lights as far as you could see? And the large blanket on the rain-soaked tarmac covering the smallest child?”
My time with Sergeant Harry Tangye was genuinely mind-altering. A Firearms and Pursuit Commander who works VIP Protection. A few years ago, he was called to London to work on the protection and movement of then-President, Barrack Obama.
The Sergeant is a seasoned veteran of force, with over 28 years’ experience. He started as a ‘special constable’ which is a volunteer role for young hopefuls. He is also a Firearms tactics advisor, meaning “If there is a situation regarding a weapon and the course of action is unclear, those officers need someone who has swallowed a manual if you will, just to ensure we are well within our boundaries and aren’t going to take a wrong step
I found it hard to comprehend the gravity of what goes on in these officer’s daily lives, and so I began to meticulously pick apart the daily struggles and traumatizing past of the Sergeant in the hopes of hearing some humbling stories and raising awareness on the daily struggles they must overcome.
We discussed the reputation of the Police as well as the mistreatment and abuse they endure at the hands of the media, the public and also the vast majority of criminals on a daily basis. Our conversation flowed through a multitude of topics, ranging from our personal social lives, to the political stance of our country, all the while prowling down Exeter’s high street looking for any trouble. Wearing a reflective jacket brazing the familiar pattern along with ‘POLICE’ in block writing across the back, I sat up in the passenger seat of a marked X5 pursuit car and began to unravel the hectic and traumatizing life of an armed police officer.
Prior to turning my camera on, we were preparing in the Firearms unit, a separate outhouse in the grounds of Middlemoor Police Headquarters. Surrounded by men all easily breaching 6 ft in height and in good physical condition. It was quite intimidating watching them gear up with heavy weapons and ammunition, clicking various other equipment into their Kevlar bullet proof vests along with various grenades.
Sgt. Tangye advised me not to film this process for confidentiality reasons. Sgt. Tangye explained the reasoning behind the anonymity; “In this unit, we don’t tend to deal with the average criminal, you know thief’s and what not, we usually tend to have to deal with more dangerous and unpredictable criminals, such as drug networks and gang violence. So in many aspects, I’m a rare breed” he laughed. “with my platform on social media I’ve given up on anonymity and therefore I’m willing to have my face out there, whereas these guys prefer to keep their identity secret, you know, just in case some bad guy happens to find out who they are and their family etc”.
Frankly I was in awe. I’d never seen a real life machine gun, although I’m an experienced veteran on video games. I stood there, Tangye has collected his guns and is discharging them into the a specially designed ‘sandbag hole’. Meanwhile I’m just staring, I’d never seen so many guns. It certainly through some light on the fact that, however nice these men were, they were willing and prepared to use the full extent of this armory if necessary. They even joked about a new Taser that is being deployed soon, and casually chatted whilst loading magazines full of ammunition. With that, we headed for the cars and prepared for my first taste of a shift with the firearms unit.
For relevance, it is necessary to divulge in to the past. A week before I was scheduled for the ride along, a young man, in his early 20’s, in my town was killed in a Road Traffic Collision (RTC). As we walked out to the row of police cars, Sgt. Tangye said to another officer “where have you been?” jokingly. The officer was cleaning his boots with a hose pipe and brush outside the unit. He replied “just cleaning them after that fatality last week”. I soon realised who he was talking about, and asked him about the scene. It was strange, I don’t know the young man personally but he was considered a mutual friend. Too close for home.
I asked about the incident and the scene, I was hesistant to inform the officer about the young mans condition. I began to tell him that the day before, the young mans life support was turned off and he continued breathing on his own without life support for 9 hours, which gave everyone hope. However, the hope was short lived as he passed away later that same day. The officer had not known the condition of the young man; however, they knew from the scene itself that it would be a fatality. I have included this information not only because of its shocking nature, but because it was the very first time, within 10 minutes of being in police presence, that I experienced first-hand how numb these officers have become. It wasn’t particularly horrifying watching him scrape dried blood and hair from the underside of his boots, however this is largely due to the fact that as he did so, he maintained a joking conversation with the Sergeant who was escorting me.
To me, it was horrifying. This young man, who remains on the boot of this police officer, is being cleaned up and forgotten about with nothing more than light conversation.
Radio crackling with reports of a nearby RTC. The car engine was roaring through the bonnet, the blue lights creating a sequence of disorientating flashes which were intermittently revealing the brake lights of cars we were flying past. The situation was constantly evolving around me, the radio was bursting into life every two seconds with reports from other emergencies, the sirens often intervening when the lights are insufficient with the traffic. Hitting speeds almost triple the speed limit in residential areas, we ploughed through traffic lights, roundabouts, even speed bumps were no challenge for the Sergeant. At one point, I even felt car sick, however the whole time the Sergeant maintained a calm and collected persona, even looking comfortable dodging and weaving traffic at those speeds.
Arriving, the scene was busy. Two ambulances and 3 police cars, including our BMW X5. Surrounded by flashing sirens, which are alarming disorientating for the in-experienced eye. Imagine everything around you lighting up like a constant crack of overbearing lightning. Constantly. I think its something you have to get used to! The Sergeant asked me to wait in the car whilst he assessed the scene, I don’t think he wanted to risk me seeing something horrific. We were parked straddling the pavement on a busy street, the cars involved were opposite, with a constant and controlled flow of traffic in between. I looked up at the houses next to me, and saw a young family. Obviously if this is going on right on your doorstep you are going to want to have a peak, or in other words ‘rubbernecking’. Wearing the reflective ‘POLICE’ jacket, I caught eyes with the mother. She smiled and waved, as did her young boy. I smiled back and waved, and the boy jumped and looked up at his mum. For some reason, that gave me a sense of satisfactory approval in the mist of all the drama unfolding.
I started to ponder and my mind began to wonder. I must have looked like a Police Officer, I was wearing the jacket and that’s all they could see. There was no way for them to know that I was a young student frankly nervous as hell, with an officer I’d never met and admittedly my first time in a Police car. For some reason I thought, well I expected, a negative response from the family. I didn’t expect the mother to smile and wave, I guess I expected her to be annoyed and asking what the hell is going on outside her house. I guess with so much controversy surrounding the police and their popularity within communities under immense pressure, I thought we would be very unwelcome. Upon leaving the scene with no casualties and minor injuries, I chose to ask the Sergeant about the relationship they maintain with the community. I used London as an example. I explained the gang mentality and code of silence when it comes to the law, I asked if he commonly received abuse or disrespect and was surprised to hear his response.
He told me of the significance of maintaining that trust with the public, and explained the role of a police officer as a civil servant. “With certain individuals you can commonly expect disrespect and abuse, however if they happened to get robbed or assaulted, we often find those same individuals call on us for help” He said. I asked him what the general opinion of Police is in this constituency, which admittedly is not London or any other massive population density, however it is the largest constituency covered by one force. Sgt. Tangye reminded me that Police are civil servants, meaning their first and foremost duty is to the public. “We fail as a Police Force if we lose touch with our community”. Something that seems to have become an apparent problem in larger cities such as London.
He admitted in his first few years, he was so young that he found himself lying to people in order to gain respect. He explained “Say you attend a domestic violence call, a 50-year-old couple who are having a hard time with bills, how can I advise them when I have no experience myself. How can a Twenty-one-year-old give him advice on his marriage? So yeah, in my younger years, when necessary in order to gain authenticity, I would say I was married and in a long term relationship.”
We carried on driving through Exeter City Centre, it was a Friday night and was very busy. Wearing my ‘POLICE’ high-visibility jacket, sat up in the passenger seat of a Police car, I decided to lap up the attention from the other side. We drove up a busy high street, and everyone heads turned. Whenever we drove past a crowd of drinkers, they all turned and looked. Its not like in London, where there’s a police car flying past every minute. It’s a large city governed by a sparse section of a massive force, and people notice you! At one point, I even felt empowered. A car drove past appearing to have a flat tyre, I mentioned it just as I would if my friend was sat beside me, and the Sgt decided to double check. We flashed the blues and twos and after a 50 yard ‘car chase’ we were stationary alongside this car. To my disappointment, the tyres were low-profile and so thinner than average, and also…fully inflated.
The radio started reporting a suicidal male within a couple miles of our location. The blues were on and we were hitting speeds in excess of 150mph in absolutely no time at all. It was, in all honesty, exhilarating. I regretted wearing my brand new trainers that night, because before long I was scouring through boggy undergrowth with an infrared heat-seeking camera. It took us over an hour a half to eventually find him. I was slowly getting bored or driving in a loop, we were flying up and down the M5 between two junctions and every now and then hopping into some undergrowth or in the bushes next to the M5 and wait for us to find him.” Another Twenty or Thirty minutes passed by with no sign of the man apart from constant threats of suicide to the operator.
During this time, I quizzed the sergeant on this type of situation and even questioned whether sometimes they just call off the search and treat it as a hoax. He replied “Often we do get annoyed, if they want help we are there to do that, but wasting our time could crucial to someone else who needs it.” I asked if he had any experience when a search is suspended to which he said, “There was a case a few years back a young man was in a similar situation as tonight, and the search was suspended which did end up with the young man jumping from a bridge. I think its imperative me do all we can due to the worst case scenario.” After a lengthy search, which I admit even I got bored of, we had located the male.
Sat on the side of the road watching this mentally unstable male stumble in and out of lane one. My mind started to wonder. I’d never seen anything like this before, what if he ran in front of traffic? What if he assaulted the Sergeant and I was left alone with this violent and unpredictable man? Whilst all these thoughts are flying through my mind, the man had been detained single handedly and held beside my window. I wanted to look at him, but I didn’t want his attention to turn to me or provoke him in any way. The M5 had been closed and the endless queue of cars began to grow impatient. Luckily, within minutes another unit had arrived to take the man away, but he did say something before he got in the car. He said to the Sergeant “Ill be back out in 3 hours haha” to which the Sergeant replied: “I know you will”.
Driving somewhat aimlessly around Exeter city Centre, I asked the Sergeant why the man would be free within hours. He said “The system doesn’t work. He has never had a family, never had any relatives and suffered a head injury at work rendering him unable to work. Prison wont help him; he is too far gone. He has given up.” I agreed, feeling somewhat sorry for this man. It is clear that Tangye feels the system could be improved. It is common to think that criminals often get away free or spend a humorous amount of time serving their punishment and are openly arrogant about this fact. I do not blame the Sergeant for his dismay, criminals are becoming ever bolder knowing that they will likely spend the minimum amount of time serving their sentences.
From Donald Trump and politics to close family and friends, we covered a multitude of topics. Off-record, the Sergeant displayed characteristics of any other member of the public, speaking fluently about his political views and what not, like any modern day person should be able to. However, when my camera was on, you could sense that the Sergeant was ever-conscious about political correctness and so was treading carefully with his answers. I understand due to the public eye and the ever-present willingness of the media to shed a bad light on the Police, maintaining a professional manner is vital to these officers.
It is then that I chose to ask about his family. He told me how his wife originally found it hard to cope with the dynamic of being with a Firearms officer.
“She is very matter of fact about things, there’s been some rocky moments over my 27 years’ career”. However, maintained that his wife was incredibly supportive and has comforted him in regards to traumatizing cases. Some events are, quite honestly, too graphic to detail. We got talking about his route into the police, and how you can be a student officer, however mentioned that it doesn’t prepare you for some scenes. He was on a shift, mentoring a student officer and his first ever shift. It was a motorcycle accident, with an evident immediate fatality. “I approached the body twisted up on the side of the hard shoulder. The bike was non-existent to be honest, and the first challenge was to identify this man and his next of kin. I approached the body and grabbed his arm and leg. They were dead-weight and full of fluid. I rolled him onto his back and began searching his pockets. I took his wallet, the remains of his phone, and searched for any identification. His helmet was off, revealing an untouched face with the eyes still open.”
The sergeant recalled the crash, and said at such high speeds, there was no chance of survival, although it wasn’t uncommon for the face to look perfectly intact due to helmets. “I look around and the student officer I was mentoring was in shock. He was just stood there, staring. I guess he had never seen anything like that before, the blood, the destruction. I don’t think he was expecting me to be pulling this body around and searching the pockets. I remember the first death I ever saw, I sat with them whilst they died. It traumatized me, but you must distance yourself from your work. You must keep a balance, you can’t emotionally invest in it too much, but at the same time you still have to realize that it is someone’s father or someone’s daughter and sympathize.”
Over my short time with Sgt. Tangye, I gained a huge understanding in the roles they play. For a firearms commander, life isn’t all traffic stops and affrays. Usually, these officers deal with high-end criminals, multi-gang drug rings and armed and dangerous individuals. At any moment, one of these officers could receive a call that could lead to either taking a life or risking their own life. This, I now understand, is a mindset that is necessary in order to complete their job.
In todays world, with the global ever-present threat of terrorism growing, it is only logical that more and more officers in the Police force are trained in firearms and are licensed to carry them. I met Sergeant Harry Tangye, a veteran of the Devon and Cornwall police force of 28 years. It becomes how ready and willing these officers are, especially with an eye full of their weapons locker.
3:45pm
I arrived at Middlemoor Police Headquarters at 3:45pm on the 12th January. Ten minutes later, Sergeant Tangye arrives and in a police X5, and drives me round the back to the Armed Response unit. There, I watch on as other Armed officers gear up for the 4pm-2am shift. Unable to film due to identity protection, I watch on as the men collect their individual weapons. A Glock 17 9mm Pistols, a (rather large) shotgun, a G36 Carbine rifle and tasers, along with a range of different ammunition and stun/flash grenades. When I asked about the other officer’s reluctance to reveal their identity, the Sergeant informed me ‘As you can imagine, we aren’t dealing with petty theft etc, we usually deal with quite nasty, violent and sometimes armed individuals’. For this reason, the identities of other armed officers are usually kept quite secretly, in other words to protect them from any repercussions they might get if certain individuals knew their identity. After sitting through an inter-force briefing, we were ready to hit the road.
4:15pm
Within minutes, we were called to the hospital. Parking in the ambulance bay for A&E, the Sergeant spoke to two ambulance paramedics about an earlier event, involving a baby; Serving as a very early reminder that these emergency service crews experience horrors on a daily basis. A couple minutes later we were stood speaking to crew of the air ambulance. They told us how there had just been a fatality, a surfer in North Devon. They flew him to Exeter Hospital but he unfortunately passed away. The surfer was just 16. To me, these sorts of conversations were unheard of. It almost sounded like something out of a movie, the trauma and death witnessed so regularly by these people, they seem to have become numb to it. The conversation topic soon turned to Tangye’s days off as of recent and jokingly we walked back to the car. After we had left the hospital, I had some time to ask the Sergeant some questions about his personal stories, and with over Twenty years’ experience, some were quite shocking. The Sergeant detailed one story, which I’m sure ill always remember. It involved a Six-Year old boy, who was struck in a horrific way by a People-carrier. Heartbreaking events are part of the Sergeants daily life as an ARV commander, however after so many years he admits he has distanced himself from the reality of what he sometimes witnesses.
4:37pm
The radio crackles into life with reports of a nearby RTC (Road Traffic Collision). My first experience of flying through busy city streets in a roaring BMW X5 with a boot full of grenades and various different guns, was as exciting a you can probably imagine. With cars clearing the road for you and a highly trained pursuit driver at the wheel, we were able to assume a more than reasonable speed. However, I must confess. I am not used to hitting speed bumps and taking sharp city street corners at such speed, nor dodging traffic, and therefore for a small but significant part of that drive, I did feel extremely car sick.
’50 people are injured on British Roads every day’
4:45pm
Shortly after arriving at the scene, we left. The car crash had happened on a busy street, with traffic becoming an issue for the emergency services. The ambulance was already on scene and treating the one injured. Other officers were collecting statements from witnesses and other passengers in the cars involved. Luckily, the incident was minor and only resulted in minor injuries.
‘In 2017, fatalities on the road decreased by 5% compared with the previous year’
4:56pm
Driving along, we discussed other matters such as his family and how they support his line of work. I asked him if he turns to his loved ones for comfort after seeing certain horrific scenes or experiencing something drastic, but he assured me ‘they don’t really ask questions, they know what kind of things go on but they never really ask’. Yet he did mention how whenever he doubts his self, which he admitted was common for police officers in their line of work, he often turns to the support of his Wife. For me, hearing him discuss his family did just remind me of my own, and thus reminded me that these Armed police officers, regardless of the trauma and devastation, really are just like us. Maybe a little bigger, with Kevlar Vests, and extremely heavily armed.
5:10pm
We were still discussing traumatic events the Sergeant had witnessed and overcome. Some of them will be covered in my video, however its truly shocking to hear the state of affairs these officers must go through. Be it a stabbing or murder, or car collision involving a child, these officers are put through it all. The Sergeant recounted a day he took a trainee officer out with him on shift. They responded to a road fatality involving a motorcyclist. The man was DOA (Dead on Arrival) and it was down to the Sgt to find out who he was and his next of kin. The Sergeant recalled approaching the body, rolling him over and searching his pockets for identification and other clues as to his identity. As the Sergeant has had 28 years’ experience in dealing with such scenes and distancing himself from them, he thought little of rolling over a dead body and searching the pockets. However, his trainee officer did not cope with the situation as well. The sergeant recalled looking up at the trainee, who was frozen with shock at what he was witnessing. The Sergeant told me that with time comes experience, however not much can ever mentally prepare you for some situations. Again, a sobering reminder of the trauma and destruction they encounter on a daily basis.
‘motorcyclist’s in the UK are between 38 and 40 times more likely to die in an accident on the road than standard car drivers’
5:23pm
Suddenly our conversation was cut short by the Sergeant quickly responding to a 999 call. A man in his mid-Twenties, is on his way to a nearby M5 motorway bridge to commit suicide. Within seconds the blue lights were on and we were hitting speeds approaching 140mph down the M5. At that speed, combined with the flashing blue effect of the sirens, the road becomes fairly disorientating, especially with the consistent challenge of avoiding other motorists.
It is common for Police Pursuit cars to achieve over 150mph on motorways in the likelihood of a severe event.
5:15pm
We approached the services and took a narrow road round the corner, once there, we turned down a boggy muddy lane and made it to the bottom. All the while the Sergeant is receiving updates through his radio. Using a £4000 infrared telescope, we searched the nearby fields looking for any sources of heat. He let me use it, could even see rabbits in the next feel over. The man had now crossed a field nearby and reached the hard shoulder of the M5.
The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands and the South West. It runs from Junction 8 of the M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon.
7:38pm
We had driven back and forth from junction 27 and junction 28 for almost an hour searching for the suicidal male. The individual was on the phone to police, giving them updates on where he was and what he was going to do. This information was then consistently relayed to the Sergeant. Soon we doubted whether he was actually on the M5 at all and maybe leading us on a goose chase, however numerous calls to police from passing motorists revealed he was in fact wandering around on the hard shoulder close to traffic.
8:47pm
After lopping around once more, we finally came across the suicidal male. He was wandering dangerously close to the outside lane, taunting the Sergeant. After some coercing and negotiating, the Sergeant finally lured the man to the Police car and safely offloaded the male to another unit. However, whilst waiting for another unit, the Sgt was in control of the male on the near side of the police car- right next to my passenger side window. The male. At one point, became inquisitive as to who I was and what I was doing in the passenger seat of the police car. At one point, the male head-butted the window of the police car, and was immediately restrained by the Sgt. At no point did I feel at all intimidated or scared for my safety as the Sgt was in complete control at all times.
9:06pm
Driving through Exeter City Centre, we were chatting extremely casually and the mood became a lot more comfortable. Without a call for a short while, we began patrolling the streets in the car. A cyclist pulled alongside us at a red light, wearing no helmet and without lights on his bike. The man looked rugged, not homeless but a bit rough perhaps. Tangye laughed a bit, and as we pulled off from the lights, he undid my passenger window. Driving level with the cyclist, he leaned over “What have I told you about wearing a helmet? Come on!” he laughed and shook his head. The Cyclist laughed and carried on riding. I asked is he was known to police, to which he replied “Yes haha. This guy, you’ll see him sat around the high street most days off his head. He has a drug problem, and lives in a hostel nearby. There isn’t much we can do for people like that, we can do the best we can to keep them from drugs and what-not, but without their cooperation there’s little that can be done.” He also mentioned how he has told this man to get a helmet, admitting that, with absolutely no hope the best he can do is at least try and keep him safe on the roads.
‘In 2016, 18,477 cyclists were injured in reported road accidents, including 3,499 who were killed or seriously injured’
9:23pm
Shortly after, we made another traffic stop. A cyclist was tearing down the hill towards us with no lights on, going at some speed. We stopped in the middle of the road with the blue lights on, and Tangye signaled him to stop. Amusingly for us, (and we did both laugh) as the cyclist dismounted the bike, he caught his foot and fell. Begging the Sergeant to joke “Had a few drinks have we?” The man was sober, all-be-it a bit clumsy. Tangye warned him “there are many drink drivers out and about at night on weekends, they wont see you coming till its too late. You can pick up some lights and reflexives for cheap, come on”. The man nodded and muttered something and was on his way. However, what happened next was a bit of a shock.
Just as we were about to pull off after talking to the cyclist, a car behind burped their horn. The utter shock of another car burping its horn at a police car for holding traffic was enough for Tangye to jump out. He approached the window of a young woman and asked “are you in a rush?” She could barely speak English; however, was somewhat apologetic from what I could make out. Tangye jumped back in shaking his head “I can’t believe she just did that”. He even laughed, admitting he has never had someone burp their horn at him during a traffic stop. I found it quite funny too if I’m honest. After a stern chat for the driver, we continued on.
10:43pm
After a few minor traffic stops, we began to make our way back to the Firearms Unit at Middlemoor Headquarters. At this point, we were comfortably maintaining a constant flow of conversation, I had grown confident in my position and was regrettable about leaving it. We spoke for Fifteen minutes at the Unit, and took some photos proudly modeling my shiny ‘POLICE’ jacket.
11:15pm
The drive home was long enough for me to reflect a bit on what I had witnessed and really think about what actually went on. Its hard to believe such things happen on a daily basis, I thought about if things had gone another way. What if the suicidal male had jumped in front of a car right there Ten yards from me? How would I deal with that? As I was leaving, Tangye was hopping back into the Police car. He had a received a call regarding a break in, which resulted in a Eighty-Three year old woman dying of shock. These hourly challenges that await these officers is hard to comprehend, yet the recognition they deserve is far from established in the wider public eye.
For statistics:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-use-of-firearms-statistics-england-and-wales-april-2015-to-march-2016
By JASON COLMER
