Inayah Ali, one of our Undergraduate Policing students interviewed Mark Gore, Visiting Lecturer for Policing about how the police deal with critical incidents.
Read the transcript below.
Inayah
“What’s the difference between a critical and a major incident?”
Mark
“This is quite interesting question because there is a real difference between a critical incident and a major incident and if you spoke to a number of people and ask them what they thought would be a critical incident and the type of example the critical incident, they will probably come up with the major instance that we would consider to match the bombing of Manchester and Grenfell fires, but actually a critical incident is something that impacts on policing every day.
"So, if you look at the definition, the definition is any instance where the effectiveness of police response is likely to have a significant impact on the confidence of the victim, the family and ordered community. So, these are the types of calls that happen every day. We can in, you know, police forces across the country and in my previous role as a as a police officer, have to identify these types of incidents. So as an example, you know I did a lot of work in Barnet which has got a high level of Jewish communities and you know there will be an incident there that would take place. There may be some anti-Semitic attacks. And that would have huge ramifications for the way we police, not just in that community in Barnet but across the country.”
Inayah
“Do you think that we should move from a reactive approach and more practical approach regarding critical incidents?”
Mark
“Interesting reactive to proactive. I think generally the police service should be far more proactive and I think we're struggling a little bit with that because of the reduction of resource and the fact that on the resource is to provide that proactive response, that uniform response in communities, the neighbourhood teams that are working with communities building them up. That trust in my experience, you know if you wanted to be in terrorism, you need to get your intelligence from that neighbourhood level. So, if we're not proactively putting people out there, we're not going to have that success. I think we do need to be more proactive in terms of major incident. It's very difficult because major incidents. you can be proactive in the sense that we prepare people, retrain them. As a police officer, you won't automatically command a major incident unless you had that kind of training and experience.”
Inayah
“In terms of your personal experiences within the force, how does this influence teaching?”
Mark
“That’s an excellent question. I think this probably goes to the heart of why I think this University is such a great choice for anyone who's considering embarking on a career in policing or in the law; the fact that the University brings together both academics but also people with professional and practical experience.
"I think what I bring here is so many experiences over my 30 years and I wish that I'd known some of things I teach it on this degree course when I was actually a police officer because I think it would have helped me in my career. I think for anyone who is considering a career in the police force should undertake this this degree course. It really does prepare you for a career in the police service, not just for now but the future. Hopefully we are preparing our future leaders.”
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