Week 8: Concept Development | Methodologies for thinking and development process
By the end of this week you should be able to:
- Distill your research into trends, competing projects and strategy, from the previous four weeks, to inspire the concept development of your project brief.
- Collaborate with peers, staff, research groups or industry professionals to seek advice and feedback on the direction of your project brief.
- Design and deliver a range of initial concept developments in response to your strategy and project goals.
Lecture Introduction
For the eighth lecture we continue to present our creative practitioner interview series, which offers insight into identifying, developing, project managing and completing an industry focused project.
This week the creative practitioners answer the following question:
– What methods and approaches do you take to aid idea generation and an in-depth project outcome?
FELD
Over the course of a project a lot of things happen, a lot of things change. He finds prototyping, laying it out and letting it ‘sit’ for a while and come back to things later with a fresh mind.
Previously, they would start a project with a very strong idea and be working too far ahead of themselves – already picturing the final outcome – forgetting about the stages in between. Instead, try different things, give yourself the freedom to see what fails and what works. Don’t avoid situations where you might make mistakes, it’s these mistakes which help you to learn, if things don’t work first time it’s not the end of the world.
“nobody dies”
Better project management can come from this, analysing why things didn’t work or what went wrong or was unexpected, the next time you try, you have this knowledge of how not to do something. If you don’t analyse why something fails you don’t learn from it.
Accept & Proceed
Every project starts with a workshop, once they get to grips with the brief they go back to the client and everyone involved and sit and spend time looking through images, doing games and tests, whatever they need to get to the bottom of what the brief is. Ultimately, a moodboard worked up with input from the client as well as the designers.
Their briefs are usually multi-levelled with lots of different targets to hit, one strong idea will usually hit all those targets. Their process is to look at a project from three different angles: from their own point of view, the client’s point of view and most importantly, the point of view of the consumer.
The consumer is the most important and usually the most overlooked in the process.
Once the workshops are complete, the results are collated and presented back to the client to see if things are going to go the right way, and, because the client has been involved in that process, things usually are. It creates a visual briefing ‘document’ rather than just a set of words and people can buy into that more more easily.
Wouter
Their ‘strategic de-brief’ is always the starting point. They use it to try and explain the ‘sweet-spot’ for the client, then add in the research and have a brainstorm with the design team. The results are put in front of the client where everyone tries to connect visuals with strategies to see what works best for them.
The next step is to take the feedback and create two concepts and, always including the client, take on the concept which best fits.
Edenspiekerman
Stijn van de Ven
Brainstorm. Without thinking too much put down everything you think of in the time given and then narrow down what you have and use those results to get the project going.
‘Write before you design’ you think you have the idea, write it down and keep explaining the idea until it makes sense.
Luke Veerman
Take things further than the client actually wants, it’s easier to scale-down an idea to fit than trying to scale it up to make something more from it. Scaling up helps with the enthusiasm by looking for a broader answer.
Experience doesn’t mean that you can think of the answer more quickly, you still have to push yourself. Something might be ‘good enough’ already, but push yourself to see how you can make it better. Exhaust all possibilities. They find that giving the same brief to more than one person brings out a better answer, those involved will feel more challenged to come up with a better answer than the others. A multi-disciplinary team working on a project together from the start get all the differences in right at the start which narrows down the stages needed to develop an idea.
Reflection
There are some great points made this week. Some give the satisfaction of knowing you agree, that you’re doing the right thing brainstorming a project, getting everything down, collecting influences and moodboards. Others have been a bit of a realisation.
The main point I’ve taken this week is the one from Stijn at Edenspiekerman: ‘Write before you design’.
Hearing this has made me realise I’ve slipped into a new process during this course. Because more stages have had to be explained and outlined for the ideas wall and for the tutorials, etc. the quick scribble and an idea in the back of the head before diving in to produce the work doesn’t work (it does sometimes) for the types of brief we have been given.
Writing it down reveals the holes still there in the idea, writing things down to explain to the wall is really explaining it to myself. Trying to figure ways to say what I’m thinking means I’m thinking things through more than usual.
Also, Luke from Edenspiekerman’s pushing something past the ‘good enough’ stage is also a nice approach to keep in the back of the mind…
Week 8: Resources
Read | Watch | Listen
Legibility -vs- Communication
Looking -vs- Seeing
Idea Generation
Recurring realisations I get from this course are: the need to look further, ‘Noticing the Ignored’ as we were advised in our first module. Also the need to see what an extra level of communication could be, to think beyond the point you’re at.
David Carson’s lecture shows us what’s there if you take the time to notice it. His found images are very much in the Carson style, but his descriptions of why he took them and what they made him think of show that next level. The best example to explain this is, I think, the garage doors: they both say the same thing, likely painted by different people but, perhaps subconsciously, the one on the right really meant it.
“which one would you park in front of…”
“Experiment, have some fun”, this frame of mind brings better ideas because at least you must be enjoying yourself – not getting bogged-down in thinking what he outcome will be.
“Ask yourself ‘would you still do it if you didn’t get paid?'” is a question for an ideal world, ask more; if being payed wasn’t as issue, would you still do it?, that’s when you get a clear choice. Being a graphic designer would be the best job if it weren’t for the client, money and clients tend to spoil most things.
“See everything fresh, as if you haven’t seen it before”
Morag Myerscough
“Colour = Moods”
“Remember to play”
Alan Fletcher: Looking Sideways
A book of very varied content: found items, images, quotes, etc., all ways to turn things into something else. Simple changes, starting with the dust-jacket printed on it’s side.
“Think in pictures, not words”
Fletcher even looks at the book layout as a whole images and not spread-by-spread. No chronological order, just on feeling to what should come next.
Be visually curious, not blinkered
Do what you weren’t taught at school
Ideas come from anywhere
Week 8: Workshop Challenge
The challenge:
Develop a broad selection of visual ideas appropriate for the project’s needs, which encourage you to push ideas above and beyond the designated strategy.
Avoid icons or illustrations – to distracting?
Colour pallet?
Screen colours alter for the questions? Inconsistent?
May lead to some illegibility? Questions posed on separate screen to submit each answer would increase screen-time. How would user ‘skip’ anything seen to take too long or revisit?
Bold, clear type easy to see on hand-held devices.
Flat colours – too abstract? Needs more information on-screen. Colours chosen to calm/as colour therapy?
Colours could help with the moods along with the time-out using to the app?
Too simplified.
Current status:
Details discussed with Ben in the tutorial this week
Three out of the four interviews completed at the time have given a good insight into what would/wouldn’t be a successful way to roll-out this project.
The bottom line from the point of view of the user is, that whatever outcome from the brief, it has to be simplified down to the absolute minimum of user interaction. All the interviewees say there is no time to stop and read, no time to follow links for information and no time to take note of anything for later referencing.
The research has lead to seeing the need for a way officers can ‘self-help’, as if they’re taking their own notes on how they’re feeling, whenever they get the chance to do so. The dreaded app is, for once, a practical answer and not a cosmetic add-on because it would pose a fixed set of questions which would only require single choice or single word answers.
Setting up the app would require a small amount of detail: their name (possible choice to stay anonymous if data is to be analysed?), shift patterns email and/or mobile number – work or home details by choice?
Interviews
Key points from the individual interviews with four police officers from West Mercia/West Midlands forces.
A more long-term project would obviously need more interviews and research than just the four referenced here so, because of the amount of time we have, I’ve chosen as wide a cross section of positions and experience as possible.
Subject 1.
Position: Immediate Response Firearms Officer
Male. Joined in 1996.
Tony Clarkson: What type of incidents do you deal with?
Subject 1: High speed driving, which means whilst concentrating on driving safely, but at a very high speed, we need to listen to and retain information being radioed through – it’s very memory heavy but firearms tend to be double crewed, one info gathering while the other is driving.
Routine jobs are armed stop and search on a vehicle for example, it’s likely you’ve come across the target before and you can predict, to a point, what’s going to happen. Other jobs with an outline plan, such as containment. First two or three crews on scene will contain the building, and let the situation settle, then plan what comes next.
The jobs you can’t plan for are the worst. We get a report of someone attacking people in the streets, we don’t know who it is, who’s being attacked, where they’re heading for, maybe it’s school finishing time, etc., and those in charge say there’s no time to wait for backup so the one who’s first on-scene needs to just go in and sort it out.
The role has expanded at a more rapid rate due to the rise in potential terrorism attacks. Traditionally, if an incident occurred everyone would head towards it: firearms, dog units, etc., and each would wait for the others before going in en-mass. Now, due to ‘lone-wolf’ or ‘active shooter’ situations, the policy is that the first to arrive on-scene go straight in.
New training routines include solo entry to a building, the scenario is that your oppo has been taken down so have to carry on on your own. You go in, marking your route as you go along with a big pen, which is now part of the kit, so that the following units can find you and back you up.
The most stressful jobs result from the ‘red button’. Radios have an alert button which an officer activates when they’re in trouble and, if the button is pressed by a colleague known to be able to handle themselves you know it’s a bad situation. Officers joining armed response units tend to have a ‘presence’ about them, with high levels of confidence and ability, if they hit the button then…
TC: How many firearms incidents have you had?
S1: 3x shootings, but no fatalities.
TC: What is the protocol after an incident?
S1: After the result the whole scene is locked down, then:
- Occupants are evacuated and statements taken
- Scene of Crime Officers (SOCO) attend, forensics begin
- Officers on secure the property entrances
- Firearms unit is taken from the scene to what is called their ‘safe place’ away from any police stations or press, etc.
- Anonymities are set up
- De-briefed for hours, over and over
- Higher ranks, federation reps and welfare arrive
- Officers are given fresh clothing, food, water, etc.
- Phone calls are made by those involved to notify family to what has happened to avoid any press reports causing stress
- Solicitors are provided
- ‘Duty statements’ are taken down
- Weeks or sometimes months later a formal interview takes place including representatives.
In the time between duty statements and the formal interview, the ‘Hierarchical Welfare’ is:
- You talk to your oppo in the car
- Units tend to have their own WhatsApp group, this is where the ‘black humour’ happens within seconds, but it relieves tensions by making light of events
- Immediate supervisor – There’s a set procedure to welfare but, in the case of the West Mercia force, if that doesn’t fit the situation then a more sensible or practical procedure is created.
- Inspector – liaises with the supervisor
- Higher ranks at HQ (‘the gaffers in the big house’) and firearms training officers are involved.
The firearms units are a close-knit group, the advice is if you have a problem it’s better to come clean and get it out in the open, not to hide it and carry on regardless. If the supervisors know you have a problem it can be assessed and managed properly. If, as a result of keeping it to yourself something goes wrong, blame can be attached.
TC: What other stresses are there?
S1: You tend to spend more time with colleagues than your family due to the 12 hour shift patterns, so a strong level of trust in relationships is needed, especially with teams of male & female officers.
You’re actively encouraged to talk through personal issues, such as divorce, financial worries, etc., and given leave to deal with it if it’s needed. A risk assessment might be necessary depending on the situation, to see if you’re still fit for duty.
TC: Is there anything you do you personally to help deal the affects of a situation?
S1: The fatals, these are the more impactive situations, more so that the firearms incidents. With firearms, there’s an element or personal danger but we have the equipment and the training to deal with it, also as a rule, the bad-guys don’t want to be shot. Fatal collisions on the other hand are far more stressful, horrible, gory and sad. Those affect me the most, more-so since having children, but you just get one with it.
One of my roles is family liaison, going to tell someone their dad, mother, brother, whoever, has died. This can sometimes be the first time a person has an interaction with the police which can add even more stress to the situation depending on how they react.
TC: Do you have a particular incident which affected you?
S1: Car-vs-HGV. A drunk driver in a collision with an HGV at night where the chassis of the lorry had gone through the car, and through the driver literally cutting him in half. We arrived on-scene and are looking around to assess what’s happened, seeing the mess on the road, etc., but when I go and look in what’s left of the car, the lower-half of the driver is still strapped into the drivers seat, that was a particularly bad one, it affected my sleep, etc., I’d close my eyes and see the scene sometimes but didn’t seek any treatment as it had passed after a few days.
TC: Do you become immune to the stresses the more you are exposed?
S1: Yes, older officers are able to deal with situations which might stress newer recruits.
When new officers see gore for the first time you can see their colour drain. You have a word with them to check they’re ok, let them settle, maybe send them back to the car to compose themselves. I always encourage them to stay as you do have to get used to it. It’s one thing which training should prepare you for, but it doesn’t. Firearms cover it by running scenarios: bomb blasts, active shooters, etc., where a scene is set with people acting in horror make up. There are fake limbs, fake blood, broken arteries, all to make the situation look as real as possible. As firearms officers we’re D13 medic trained – the equivalent to a paramedic – so we know what to do. That was introduced in response to the increasing threat of terrorist attacks.
Once every two years the whole crew go back through the training. We’re sent into a scenario without knowing what we’ll find and we have to be able to deal with it. It’s a good thing because when it happens in real life, the shock of seeing dead bodies and limbs lying around has been taken away.
This training is set for what are called a T66-Terrorist Attacks, but it also works for road traffic collisions (RTC’s). We often arrive to a scene first so we can start assessing and treating the casualties. Officers outside of the firearms unit have none of that training, just basic first-aid, and the likelihood is that due to the firearms unit being so widely spread around the area the everyday PC will be there before everybody else.
TC: What is the size of the area you cover?
S1: Hereford, Worcestershire and Shropshire, and it used to also include Warwickshire. Those are the three counties but the unit can be deployed to wherever we’re needed such as the Manchester bombing in 2017, Birmingham and the West Midlands for what’s called Mutual Aid.
The reason for such a large cover is that those areas don’t have enough armed response vehicles (ARV’s) for what they might be dealing with and so, at the very least, their role will be what they call a back-fill which is when one unit covers the role of another. This causes a concertina effect, an incident in Birmingham is dealt with by officers there, our unit takes over the Birmingham role, Dyfed-Powys fills in for us, another covers Dyfed-Powys, etc., etc.
An example of where this worked quite well is the Manchester bombing, we went to relieve the first responders. When I arrived, there was one officer standing completely vacant, he’d been on duty for around 46 hours and, at this point, he was just standing there telling me about what he’d seen. It was horrible.
TC: Have you seen colleagues deteriorate over time as they are exposed to more and more?
S1: Yes. One very recently just left the job; came in one day, threw his card on the desk and lost it with his skipper. It was a build-up of the jobs combined with a particular incident which went wrong. There was a big enquiry or hearing down at HQ and he just couldn’t deal with that. Someone saw him the other day and his personality had completely changed as a result.
TC: In cases like that, where you simply say ‘I’m done’, is there support after leaving?
S1: If you’re in the job you would be supported, others would be surprised because you get to know the people you work with and so there is an extra pressure. An officer gains ‘a reputation’ as someone who you would rather rely on above others in a situation, there is a pressure to maintain that reputation. There is an organisation called Flint House where you can go for anything at all, whether it be mental health or physical injury or you just need a break, the caveat is that it’s something you have to pay into. I’ve paid into it for 26 years and never used it, but there are others who take time there every two years.
To be direct, West Mercia Police are pretty good with the welfare, could they be better? Yes they could. Can they be better within the confines of their budget? I don’t know, I think if you were to look into that you’d find a lot of restrictions, it’s all money, ultimately. We very often joke on my unit saying: ‘forget it, everybody hand your ticket in en-mass, let’s see what happens’, the whole thing would just fold.
At the moment there are crisis talks because recruitment in the firearms unit is at an all time low, we simply don’t have enough officers and with people retiring and leaving, we’re 30 officers short just at Shrewsbury. Every day we get emails, phone calls, WhatsApp messages saying ‘can you work’, ‘can you do this’, some of the younger, single ones are happy to do it. They work three out of their four rest days. Bear in mind, this isn’t something which has suddenly happened, it’s been in decline for years, now it is critical.
There’ll be a call for an ARV but we haven’t got any.
TC: What is the impact of Social Media on moral, etc.?
S1: Nightmare.
TC: What if you’re recognised on a post on Social Media, is that something to worry about?
S1: It may become an issue if I were to go to a surveillance unit, depending on the area. I don’t think I could because I know the criminals and they know me, some on first name terms.
TC: Do any issues come from being filmed and posted?
S1: First, there’s the jokes, second you have to buy the whole team cakes. Over and above that it will be checked out, the firearms school will be notified and they will take a look at your weapon carriage, how you’re handling your weapon, ask why are you doing this and that, and if you do something wrong they will pull you up for it. You have to be aware of it but then you know what’s right and what’s wrong, you’re not going out to do something wrong. It can also work in our favour, if we are accused of doing something wrong there’s evidence against it, it’s both a benefit and a burden.
Obviously we also have body-cam’s and cameras on the helmets, etc., so gone are the days when there was a degree of the heavy-handed, but sometimes you have to use force and so long as you can justify that force then there’s no problem. It’s not a personal thing it’s just part of the job.
TC: If we were to create a public campaign raising awareness of police mental health, would you see that as a positive or a negative?
S1: A negative, it will create targeting in some situations.
TC: If it were an internal campaign, what would you connect with?
S1: It comes down to who’s got the time, basically. You get a leaflet in your tray, you never read it.
It used to be if there was a new piece of legislation which you had to learn, you would have a trainer who came in go through it all at a briefing. Quite a few years ago that was changed to an e-learning package, all computer based. So, you get the email saying new legislation for ‘x’: delete… you just don’t look at it, you don’t have the time.
If you just did a load of leaflets, they’d be binned. I think the only way to get something like this moving forward would be to go through occupational health at headquarters, I think they would have to go to every station and speak to officers at their briefings. Every day there’s a briefing about what’s gone on outside of your shift, the operations, who are your targets, where they live, etc. So whilst everyone is there, take 10 minutes to introduce occupational health, say what they’re doing and offer the chance to chat in private. Alternatively, hand out something, a card or a short leaflet there then your more guaranteed to reach the relevant people.
Subject 2.
Position: Probationary officer temporarily on the Investigation Team
Male. Joined in 2018.
Tony Clarkson: What type of incidents do you deal with?
Subject 2: As a probationary officer I’ve had different roles, from response to neighbourhood to investigation. I’m covering investigation until January 2020 which is my final section so incidents have been varied so far. I can submit a preference in January to which role I’d like to take up.
TC: Out of the roles you’ve had, which one has been the most stressful?
S2: I’m finding the current role to be the most stressful. I’ve found that if I go to incidents on the streets, to calls then I’m fine, I can deal with those. But the stresses for me are managing the workload. You can have a lot to deal with at once; files due in court, a prisoner to deal with, etc., there’s a lot to fit in.
TC: What are the main stresses?
S2: Turnaround times, expectations from others, even pressure from yourself: ‘right I’m going to do this today’, but something else comes in an that day’s plan goes out of the window. Then you have to figure out when you’re going to get the time to do what you’d planned originally and it’s due tomorrow! The next day comes, something else will come in and that’s got to take a back seat because you original thing has got to be done now.
TC: Does that sometimes mean working beyond your set number of hours?
S2: Yes, or you could give the task to someone else which isn’t good because it’s your job, but you can only do so much in the time you have.
TC: Do you have a particular incident which affected you?
S2: Not really, sometimes you think to yourself ‘what’s going to happen now’, you’ll be doing something completely random. This happened fairly recently and it’s the only thing which stands out: two of us were on a team tasked with an arrest, an email or message has come in about a robbery so we take ownership. We’re usually taking care of some paperwork so this was quite exciting. We go to arrest the offender but he’s not there, the next thing we’re called to a house fire where someone has been burnt. It’s a bit of a shock from compared to paperwork, prisoners, dealing with things in the custody block, etc., but that’s the kind of job which drives you to keep going, if I knew everyday that I was just doing paperwork I don’t think I’d be doing it.
TC: How would you prepare yourself for a situation, the house fire you mentioned, for example?
S2: We were only around the corner so we didn’t really have time to think about it much, but you have hundreds of things going through your head: what if the fire service aren’t there? What if we’re there first? What kind of building is it? Am I going to have to go into it? All things like that. It’s not a state of panic, you’re just thinking of all these different things you might need to do. If you’re going to worry about what you might see, then you just couldn’t do it. Thinking like that comes afterwards, not before.
TC: How do you deal with how you feel after an event like that?
S2: There’s jokes about things which happened, small things, like my mate trying to tie-up the scene tape and making a real mess of it, light-hearted comment on that just to lighten the mood.
TC: Is there a pressure to quickly get used to the things you see?
S2: There’s a level of expectation in being hardened to things. When you get to something you can be seen to be worrying about it, you’ve just got to get on with it. If you arrive and you’re like that and there’s other people around who were involved in it and they’re upset and can’t look, well what’s the point in you being there?
I don’t see it as a pressure, it’s just something you do. I think because I was a Special before joining that I was exposed to things when I was quite young and I think that’s why I have the outlook that I do, I just get on with it, whereas for someone completely new it is quite daunting. They’ve never seen someone harming themselves or in a car crash, it’s probably going to be quite a shock.
TC: Is there any encouragement to talk about the effect of any incidents?
S2: Officially there’s a de-brief. So if you’ve been involved in something traumatic or something gory or a big job, there’s meant to be a de-brief but I’ve never been to one. Usually you’ll have a word with your supervisor or who you crew-up with the next day but it’s usually just short: ‘Alright?’, ‘Yeah’. A subtle way of saying that now’s the time to talk about something if you need to.
TC: Is there anything you do you personally to help deal the affects of a situation?
S2: I’d say something even quite a ‘normal’ incident where you might relate to the person involved, you just can’t let your feelings get in the way. You attend domestic assaults, for example, and it would be easy to judge. You have to think to yourself that it’s potentially quite easy to be in the same situation as someone you’re dealing with, you just have to take a backward-step and think that’s just the way it is.
Sometimes if you get a call to something that sounds quite serious on the radio you do think ****. I recently went to someone who’d been shot, it came through as ‘a loud bang’ and on the way we wonder what we’re getting into, but when you arrive you just get on with it. Don’t overthink things on the way there or things could just become a shambles when you do, or if it’s not as you thought then you’ve worried yourself for no reason.
TC: Do you become more immune to the stresses the more you are exposed?
S2: Things sometimes seem to blend into one, I’ve been to shootings or stabbings and on the way back I think to myself: ‘that wasn’t very good’ but that’s it. Then the next day comes and you go to another and you think the same thing, and then another, and another – it just continues like that I think.
TC: Have you seen colleagues deteriorate over time as they are exposed to more and more?
S2: I know of one person who’s been off with PTSD, and I think in a lot of people it’s quite apparent that they’ve tried to keep things bottled up for too long rather than accepting that something hasn’t been a good job or that something has affected them and just put their head down and tried to carry on when they’d probably need to have spoken about it there and then. They tend to be the people who, when you’re with them, are always saying: the job’s this, the job’s that, the job’s rubbish, when really they’re just frustrated and they don’t feel that they’re supported but then they’ve never initiated any support.
I’ve never seen anyone affected by a single job and if they were they just wouldn’t show it, they’d make a joke about it and just try and forget it.
TC: What is the impact of Social Media on moral, etc.?
S2: I’ve never had a problem with it, if people want to film me I don’t really care because doing the job you do you are accountable so the possibility of being recorded shouldn’t make a difference to how you act. As long as you’re not doing anything wrong it isn’t an issue so it can be a good thing, it shows what you are doing is right.
TC: Do any issues come from being filmed and posted?
S2: One way it doesn’t help is that people base their opinion of the police on what they see posted on Facebook, for example, but they don’t know what’s happened beforehand, they don’t know what information you’ve had about that person so what people see on the internet about the police throwing somebody to the floor doesn’t show what might have been happening five minutes before, they’ve not heard the radio messages saying that person’s violent or whatever else, they don’t know the full circumstance. So that can be an added pressure really, whilst it’s all well and good saying I don’t care but actually you do care about what people think, you don’t want to be seen to be rough, you want to be seen to be doing a good job really.
TC: Do you know what the official procedure is in dealing with mental health issues?
S2: I’d say it’s very relaxed, there are people who you can just speak to: your supervisor, for example. You’ve also got a ‘be well’ organisation at work who are there for work related issues and there’s also a mentorship scheme so you can speak to people if you need to. There’s also a force padre or vicar, he comes around and asks how you’re doing, leaves his card in case you need to get in touch. It’s not very well publicised though, your first port-of-call would be your supervisor.
There’s noting else really, no posters saying ‘if you need to talk go to this person’ or anything like that, which I think made there should be. You look around and see all the bleak faces, people just look miserable and I think; well, if you’re that miserable why are you here? But I think that’s due to those people just not talking about it.
There’s a stigma – you’re the police, just get on with it. People forget that actually it’s just a normal person who’s probably got their own problems at home as well as dealing with someone else’s. As trivial as a domestic over a newspaper or something similar, small things like that can all add up. Going to the same, continuous stuff where nobody’s in danger, you’re just mopping up people’s social aspects and that can grate on you, that’s the biggest problem to me. You have the expectations, the files, dates and deadlines, but it’s the feeling that you’re not doing your job, you’re doing more of a social worker-type roll and it’s not good for wellbeing.
TC: If we were to create a public campaign raising awareness of police mental health, would you see that as a positive or a negative?
S2: I don’t think it would do any harm to raise awareness of this sort of thing, it might make people think a bit more maybe.
TC: If it were an internal campaign, what would you connect with?
S2: Something internally would be a good idea, within that circle of people you can put yourself in each others shoes, something you can relate to and it’s a bit closer to home than something public.
TC: Would you find an app, for example, useful for monitoring and dealing with wellbeing?
S2: Yes, I think that would be a good idea. You see a lot with the armed forces, there’s all sorts of charities, etc. but I don’t think the police know what’s-what, they’d just say there’s occupational health, do it that way but sometimes you want to deal with it away from work and work related people. I know there are some things to do with the Mind charity, some sort of independent thing called COPS, Care of Police Survivors, but that’s to deal with injuries instead of mental wellbeing. There must be something out there but I’m not aware of anything.
The police has changed now. We’re dealing with all sorts not from people dying in their homes, car crashes, shootings, stabbings, all these things happened before but now it’s seen more and more. Things are highlighted more in the media too.
It could be better, you can understand the things you see linked to the army, and I know the police is totally different but there seems to be a bit of an imbalance.
TC: What do you think could be improved?
S2: I think there should be an independent body to help rather than having to go to your supervisor. Anyone in-house could start thinking you’re going to be a let down, let the team down, that’s why people don’t come forward. Maybe a number you can text, somebody independent or a counsellor, somebody you know isn’t going to let it go any further unless you pose a threat. I think the biggest pressure you face is being deemed not fit for purpose, and the level of things you have to deal with is increasing.
Subject 3.
Position: Police Constable
Female. Joined in 2018.
Tony Clarkson: What type of incidents do you deal with?
Subject 3: 999 response and 101 calls, that’s things which aren’t emergencies but need to be dealt with face-to-face.
TC: Which part of your job to you find the most stressful?
S3: I like traffic jobs more than crimes, when it’s traffic either you’ve done it or you haven’t, you ran that red light or you didn’t run that red light, whereas with crimes there’s so many levels, possible reasons and outcomes, evidence gathering, finding cctv, etc., with traffic it’s straightforward, they’ve either done it or they haven’t.
TC: What are the main stresses?
S3: Domestics and mental health are the things I deal with the most, domestics and mental health and drugs. I work in a more widespread area so there’s not a lot of nightlife, there’s no dealing with people’s night out, clubs, things like that, so there isn’t really any public order issues like they have in Shrewsbury.
TC: Do you have a particular incident which affected you?
S3: A job recently where two young lads had beaten up an old man to the degree of GBH/assault, a completely random attack, it just makes you wonder what kind of people are out there? That one stands out but the thing which makes me question it more is, I think, the CPS, you’ve got all the evidence, etc,. this is a definite charge, we have to remand this person and keep them in but CPS go and bail him saying there needs to be further enquiries. You’re thinking: these people have just assaulted someone at random and you’re just going to let them straight back out again…
TC: How do you deal with how you feel after an event?
S3: First I speak with who also attended to get their points of view, then our sergeants and out inspector, they’re really approachable. They tell us their door’s always open, just come in and have a chat. They say during briefings that if you’re having a bad day just come and chat to one of them, they might put you on an office day by way of a break from what’s outside.
We also have a thing called PAM Assist which is a freephone number to call for confidential support, 24 hours, 365 days. It covers friends and family as well as the officer, online or over the phone and it’s free to use. There’s also the Police Federation who offer help but that’s something you sign up to and pay for. There’s also Flint house where if you get injured you can go for physiotherapy, etc., there are different schemes you pay into and that determines the treatment you can go for.
TC: Is there a pressure to quickly get used to the things you see?
S3: Personally, I put my police-head on and don’t think about what I might have to do. It’s when you leave that it all hits you. I’ve been to an RTC where I’ve been fine all the way through and sorted everything out, then afterwards I pulled over and had a bit of a cry at the side of the road. It’s when you’re on your own afterwards you have time to process, and think about it and everything hits you at once, but when you’re there you simply don’t have time to think about how it’s affecting you, you’re just thinking: I’ve got to make sure they’re alright, got to arrange recovery, this, that, the other. You have so many things to think about that you don’t think about yourself at the time.
TC: Is there any encouragement to talk about the effect of any incidents?
S3: We have three sergeants and they’re all good but one in particular, he seems to just know when something is bothering you and he’ll just take you aside and check you’re ok. Our inspector has only been with us a few months but he’s really good as well, they all seem to know when something is wrong. They’ll come over and say to get a drink and have a chat, or if there’s crime building up in your basket they’ll call you into the office and make sure you’re ok.
TC: Do you think that level is because you’re really new to it?
S3: Yes, a lot of the others have been there a while and they know how to manage their crimes, etc., whereas there’s quite a few new ones on our shift, around six or seven, so they manage us quite well. Everyone else there too, the more experienced ones help us out.
We have 10 weeks one-to-one tutoring which didn’t go well for me because I didn’t get along with my tutor, so after my 10 weeks another officer there who’d been in the Met as a detective sergeant for around 10 years and recently cam to West Mercia as a response officer so he’s really experienced, he came over and went through everything with me. Other people in the teams are really good as well, they all want to include you in things and that’s encouraging.
TC: You’re young, female and new to the job, do the more experienced officers to try and shelter you?
S3: Yes, definitely [laughs]. The officer from the Met I mentioned before told me he felt compelled to protect me more, I thought: why, I could most probably beat you up? I don’t like that, being a girl around the older, bigger men who are all off to do a big arrest, when I ask if I can join them, they’ll hesitate and say yes, as long as I stay at the back. But I don’t want to go to the back!
Another example, a few days ago the person mentioned earlier on a GBH charge handed himself in at the front counter. I walked past, noticed it was him and told him to come through. I radioed through that this man had handed himself in and the next thing, five of the male officers came bursting through the door and one started to do the arrest. I told them: ‘hold on, that’s my arrest, you just took my arrest!. I was fine, I was just telling you he was here!’. He was already in the station at that point so he wasn’t going to do anything in there!
TC: It’s the end of your shift, how do you deal with things away from work?
S3: It depends what the time is. If I go home and after the early shift everyone’s still awake so I’ll talk about it with my mum or my boyfriend. If I get home during the night, I watch something on TV to take my mind off work until the next day when I’m back in and at the briefing the inspector will remind us he’s there if anyone needs to talk, or, if there was a group of us on a job he’ll keep that group behind so we can go through things together.
TC: What is the impact of Social Media on moral, etc., do any issues come from being filmed and posted?
S3: No, I think it’s a good thing. If you’re doing everything right then there’s nothing to worry about.
TC: If we were to create a public campaign raising awareness of police mental health, would you see that as a positive or a negative?
S3: I think it would be positive, it would be good for people to realise what goes on and what we have to deal with.
TC: If it were an internal campaign, what would you connect with?
S3: Internally would be better I think. If there was information around which we could pick up and check over to see what there is to help out.
TC: Would you find an app, for example, useful for monitoring and dealing with wellbeing?
S3: Yes, I think that would be a good idea. It would have to be clear and not take too long to look at because there wouldn’t be time to do it for long. Something you can look at later perhaps or when your on your break. It would be useful on your phone because you always have that with you so when you’re not feeling great or something has happened you can just put it in, but it would have to be a quick process.
Subject 4.
Position: Police Staff: Investigation Officer
Male. Joined in 2016 (Previously Military Police).
Tony Clarkson: What type of incidents do you deal with?
Subject 4: Public Protection Unit, adult investigations. Undertakes all the roles of a police officer except for arrests.
We cover domestic abuse, domestic violence for adults but we don’t arrest suspects. A suspect is arrested, brought in and then handed over to us. We get a statement of complaint from the victim, look for any history or past convictions, check any CCTV, conduct house-to-house check for further information which might be available. We then question the arrested party and apply for a conviction.
TC: Which part of your job to you find the most stressful?
S4: Two elements: the dealing with prisoners who haven’t been processed properly, then dealing with the end results where, if we have a case which has got to go to court, we have to contact the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), contact the solicitors and produce an electronic file about the whole case. That is a major task: time consuming, very stressful.
The unit covers 24 hours. Where other units come to the end of their shift and leave, in this unit we have to stay until all the information is gathered and the CPS are happy to proceed. Delays come from lack of resources at the CPS, and our unit has to take cases to the CPS every time, whereas uniform can get charges agreed by the sergeant in some cases, that drags you right down.
Domestic violence is a very big umbrella, but now we’ve changed to what’s called the “Adult Investigation Unit”, which means we don’t just deal with domestic violence, we could be dealing with neighbour disputes, etc.
TC: What are the main stresses?
S4: Nine times out of ten, when a person is in custody we get the handover file and look how things stand: ‘statement of complaint not yet taken, the injured party (IP) is undecided’ or ‘…was a bit sleepy’ or ‘…doesn’t speak good English’.
TC: Do you have a particular incident which affected you?
S4: I went to a lady’s house and her husband had been back and he’d proper beaten her up, to the point where he potentially could have killed her. He dragged her down the stairs towards the kitchen, and that’s the danger area, if you get dragged into the kitchen that’s obviously where all the knives are. Just to see her face; her black eyes…
Hand-on-heart we do deal with a lot of people who aren’t realistically victims, they don’t want their partner in the house, they’ve had an argument, they call the police. The police turn up, they see what’s happening. Because it’s reported as domestic violence they arrest the person in question and take them away, usually in those cases that person hasn’t really done anything wrong.
On one side of it I’ve had many an incident where it’s, ‘you’ve got my phone, give me back my phone… right, I’m calling the police on the landline’, literally, no joke; and then we have to go and deal with it. Or, a person has called someone names, the new buzzwords are; Harassment, Alarm and Distress, and they use that: ‘I feel harassed, alarmed and distressed because you called me names so I’m calling the police’, so we turn up the next day and talk to the victims, asking what they’d like to do next: ‘oh, I just wanted him out of the house for the night’, and they use the police for that.
I went to a travelling community’s house, a woman there was p*ssed out of her head, she could talk to me but she was so drunk she made me stroke her imaginary leprechaun and I was trying to take a statement off her just to say that she didn’t want her husband to be prosecuted, and all the member of the family were coming out and they were all trying to say what a great guy he was, saying nothing happened, ‘ I saw it all, nothing happened’, and I’m saying: ‘I’m here to try and help her to get him out of custody, let me get on with it’. Again, that could have been awkward.
On the other side, I’ve seen ‘proper victims’ with serious injuries, etc., but I haven’t really been affected by them. I think that’s just because I try and get on with the job so you can help them in that way. The medical profession can help them with their injuries, but we can hopefully help them by making sure we get a conviction for the offence.
TC: If something was to get you, would you know who to go to to help you deal with it?
S4: Yes, but I think it’s definitely multi-layered, there’s the corporate thing where we log onto the computer and there’s the ‘message of the day’. There’s always a thing about ‘Bee Well’ which is a way of contacting someone to deal with any mental health issues. There’s somewhere in ‘Tally-Ho’ our training location or occupational health, you really have to hunt the number out if you need it though. But day to day it’s just sitting down with your sergeant and talking to them, or chatting amongst your peers.
TC: Is there any encouragement to talk about the effect of any incidents?
S4: We don’t have so many briefings as, say, the uniformed officers but I think some of the other people that work in my team, like the younger ones who potentially don’t have these experiences to fall back on, you can see it in someone if they start taking things in. I’ve done it a couple of times, I’ve spoken to my colleagues because I’ve noticed they’ve started to become more withdrawn, and you try and chat to them to see what you can get out of them.
Within the military I did a course called TRIM (Trauma Risk Incident Management), and it’s that first step, for example: you return from an incident and the TRIM person comes and speaks to you to ask how you are. It’s not straight away, it’s maybe a few week later just to give you a chance to settle back in and the it’s ‘are there any issues?’. If their demeanour changes then you know there’s something on their mind. It might might be something at home or at work, it could be the incident they’ve just visited, so I do try to speak to my colleagues if I see them getting a bit down. A couple of times I’ve spoken to my sergeant, I’ve said: ‘look, so-and-so’s a little bit down’, and that’s not normal it’s just their day-to-day depression, you know.
We’ve got a thing called ‘DocuTrack’, all our electronic files and it’s added to daily, if it starts getting to 20-25 jobs in there people start getting down because if it, so we speak to the sergeant and say that person’s getting down, a bit low. If their DocuTrack is a high and they can’t seem to get rid of any of their cases you hope the sergeant will take that on-board.
A colleague, she’s ex-military, a training officer working with our investigation team, she had a good mentor but they didn’t really fit in with each other. The mentor was quite laid-back and relaxed but I think the officer needed someone a bit more: ‘do this, do that, do the other’, and then it would get done. That would have worked better because she was getting quite overwhelmed, so I went to the sergeant on the team, who’s ex-military, RAF, himself, and said: ‘look, I’ve noticed that this officer seems to respect or gravitate more to being told to do something rather than asked “can you do it”’, it was more in her psyche really.
In the military you’re used to someone saying to get on and do it and you would, you do it, and quickly so you can relax. I suggested she swap mentors and I gave them the name of another lady who was a bit more suitable, and it worked. Sergeants can’t see everything all the time, they’re there to oversee but we’re taking all the time and we can see it in the way people talk, they start to shout or slam the phones down, etc. We all do it, when you get an idiot to deal with.
TC: If you knew you were on your way to something you knew would be unpleasant, how would you prepare for it?
S4: When I was in West Mercia we had to go and search a paedophile’s house. You get a good brief at the start and you just prepare yourself that way. Luckily, for my role, we’re not really walking into a house not knowing what’s going to be happening, like into a bar-fight, my days of that have gone. When we get told we’re going to go into search somewhere we’re going to know what we’re going to search for, why we’re there and, 9/10 times there’s nobody else there, so it’s alright.
He was there because it was 5am in the morning kicking the door in. He was with his wife – she was quite shocked – and we recovered all his computers, and we just got on with it.
They’re in shock, he was in shock that we were they but he probably knew why we were. So, for us, we get a bit more prior warning than uniformed officers might.
If you have any concerns you raise them before you go in there. You speak to the sergeant, they’re quite approachable, and you tell them a colleague needs a word, so they go off and have a chat.
We’ve got the ‘custody clock’, the 24 hours to deal with a case but we haven’t got the stress of immediate response – the ‘what am I going to run into’ scenarios – as the uniformed officers have.
TC: Do you think that the more you see, the more immune you get?
S4: Yes, you have to but certain things can trigger or affect you but you have to do it.
In the military, in Brunei, our neighbour’s daughter died and I was one of two police there. She was the same age as my daughter. We had to set up a small viewing area for the family to see her so we got sheets and flowers and clothing, but I said:’ look, I cannot dress her because I can’t have the image in my mind of dressing her as a dead person and the next day I’m dressing my daughter, she was only 18 months old. So I said I didn’t mind doing all the other things but I just can’t do that bit. The other officer was single so he said he didn’t mind, it was emotional but, you know… that wasn’t fun.
It was definitely emotional when we had all the memorials in the garrison a few weeks later. Everyone met at the play park, everyone was crying. All these roughty-toughty soldiers all blubbing, I think there’d be something wrong with you if you saw that and you weren’t affected.
TC: Have you come across a situation were a colleague is keeping things bottled up, being dragged down?
S4: I haven’t had that experience with my colleagues yet, in the civilian police, but when you walk into an office full of people there’s normally quite a lot of banter going on and you can always tell, especially if the loud people are suddenly very quiet, you know there’s something wrong. It’s either they’re overworked, they’re busy or there might be a problem. Occasionally you hear something or you know them well enough to ask them directly. The other day one of the guys, his dad died. He’s normally one of the loud individuals but his dad went ‘bumf’, dead, and that was it – he’s gone, he’s off now.
On the military side it was definitely more prevalent. I always said if anyone had a problem to come and speak to me or I would go speak to them if I thought there was something. Obviously you do it when they’re on their own, just have a quick chat, they’re always tense and wondering what it is you want to chat about but you tell the to just relax, sit down and then just say: ‘how’s it going?’. You’d get to the bottom of it, it’s normally girlfriend problems, money problems, or both together!
TC: What is the impact of Social Media, do any issues come from being filmed and posted?
S4: Pain in the arse, social media.
The general public, they see uniformed officers – there was one recently where an officer was in trouble with another force. He went to an incident and was waiting outside with another officer and he was bouncing up and down on this trampoline, they were quite junior. As they were waiting outside the back of this house he goes: ‘I can do a back flip’, the other one: ’No you can’t’, ‘yes I can’, and he went and did it, did a back flip, and a member of the public was leaning over a fence, you know, like they do, climbing up 16 feet just to get a video of it to say: ‘look at the waste of time by our police officers’. If you look at it just from seeing an officer on duty, at a scene bouncing up and down on a trampoline for three minutes and then getting off it looks quite bad but at the end of the day, was he doing any harm?
I can see the other officers having problems with social media, going to a door-knock and there are people hanging out of windows: ‘oo what’s going on?’ and video, video, video. Especially armed response, everybody loves that.
Social media is a nightmare in another way too. We get cases were people are saying: “I feel harassed’, ‘why?’, “don’t trust women, they’re all slags”, and I know it’s about me’. We asked if she’d found it herself on Facebook: ’No, no it’s been forwarded by my mum who’s sister told her after her uncle found it’, really?!
Also it’s junior officers putting stuff on social media which they shouldn’t do, you’ve got to watch it, big-time.
Rather than calling the police people are stood there filming an incident. A few years back there was a guy who jumped off a roof in Telford, I was down there going to the cinema with my son and we had to go past there and everyone had gathered around, stood there going:’yeah, yeah, he hasn’t jumped yet. Hurry up, jump!’ and all filming it on their phones. I think he did jump in the end…
TC: Do you think there’s more awareness of mental health issues these days than there used to be?
S4: The ‘Bee Well’ message that flashes up every day, with a picture of a bee, that’s about it. Leaflets just get chucked in the bin. When I was stationed in Wolverhampton so many people went off sick with stress they must have had Occupational Health on speed-dial. Obviously, they’re trying to do their bit for you but they’re stretched too. It would be interesting to see what it would be like in six months time when we’ve got our new batch or student officers coming through. If you join West Mercia police now, and West Midlands and Warwickshire, you don’t go to a specific training school set up for the police, it’s all via the universities.
Staffordshire University have taken it on for West Midlands police, you joined up now, you would – if you didn’t have a degree already – do this thing called PECG. You’d meet up in Birmingham for the first four weeks in a central location, not in a police station or the university. You’d do some coursework and then you get shipped out to a unit in uniform where you do four week blocks of work, then get a week off, then do it again with a different department.
It’s a three-year programme and we’re getting our first batch of students in that process in December. If you have a degree already, you only do a two-year programme. What they’re saying is, instead of going to university, getting into debt and then joining the police, you go into university but you’re getting paid for it, you get your degree after three years in policing. You’re doing so much hands-on police work, you won’t be in debt and your getting £22,000 per year.
TC: How would you feel about an app with which you could monitor your own welfare, showing your moods; happy, sad, indifferent, or how you felt at the start of the shift compared with at the end, and keep a track of your moods, etc.?
S4: I can imagine people might use it a lot, just at the start of the shift you’re snowed-under, hoping during your shift you can either go back to being happy or you could get worse as you’re getting more stressed because of the extra work, you want to leave on time or at least a reasonable hour and you’re stuck on the phone to CPS ’til three in the morning. We’ve had guys in the office who should have finished at 11pm and, I think the latest we had, he was in the office from that shift until 8:30 the next morning. Literally waiting for CPS to answer the phone, not for a decision, just waiting for them to answer.
You’ve got your prisoner, the custody people, and your CPS. You’re the rock between those places, it’s a nightmare. The app would be quite good, as long as the info was then sent to a department that looked at it and if need be they came out to you. It would make sense and would be a good way of collecting information, anyone who’s not interested isn’t getting requests all the time, anyone who is interested and it’s really quick would probably find it useful.
It’s like an electronic version of the TRIM isn’t it, instead of someone talking to you about an incident afterwards, you’re going ‘click’. You’re thinking right, I’m back in the office, sit down, that was a sh*t day. But then at the end of the shift you might have improved, you could have been on a downer at the start of the day but actually on a high at the end so you’ve managed your own stress. If there was something that you had at the start and the end, an app would be good and not emails, emails just wind you up. You’ve got so many emails coming in; CPS are trying to get you stuff, you’ve got this to do, that to do, someone’s come back in on bail, etc., it’s just constant, you definitely don’t need an email because that in itself could cause more stress.
There’s a thing they’re doing in the West Mids now where they’re bringing around puppies, they’ve done it twice now, I’ve seen it. I’m sure it’s something to do with, like: ‘come and stroke the puppy and that will help your stress’, and I’m like: ‘what!’. Instead of spending money on a puppy, why not put it into better IT or more officers so that we’re not so stressed. It’s a very hard day, I’ve got a really busy day but I’m going to go over for half an hour of my busy day to stroke a dog, that’s just a bag of…
Reflection
Interviewing isn’t easy, the main issue I had was keeping things on track. Thinking of more pointers to act as alternatives, so that I was gathering new information each time some of the questions crossed over, with experience I would work out a secondary set of questions to fit in as we went along to steer things in a similar direction during each session.
Recording the interviews was a better way to gather their information, I think if I’d just taken notes there would have been a lot missing.
Hearing the issues dealt with by the officers is certainly an eye-opener. What I’d imagined to be the cause of any issues, the stresses of being out on the streets, isn’t always the case. The more intense situations come across as a welcome part of their job, not quite looked forward to, but you can see that these are the incidents they joined up to deal with, these stories are the exciting parts, parts where they switch to auto-pilot and just get on with things. Sometimes these incidents hit home after the event, especially extreme cases such as the drunk-driver incident which Subject 1 talked about.
The daily frustration and stress could be linked more directly to the amount of work expected/requested to fit into a shift. The jobs which they feel they shouldn’t be dealing with – feeling more like a social worker, though this doesn’t mean a drop in standards it isn’t a good use of already limited resources. The ‘nuisance call’ which comes in daily from the same place and dealing with the repeat offenders which they knew would be back shortly after being given bail.
The interviews have also helped in terms of how things should look – each person mentioned the lack of time for anything other than their current task – the look should be clear, the questions and information need to be very concise, input must allow for minimal statements; one or two words describing incidents, etc.
Next Steps
1. Develop a set of questions to gather user data for the app prototype. I’m going to concentrate a small number at this stage, four or five, to speed up development into a better demonstration piece.
A ‘real life’ version would obviously be developed in collaboration with behaviour and welfare specialists, data analysts, etc., as well as more input from a wider dynamic from with the police service.
2. Look through the information gathered for any responses which might help develop the tone of voice for the campaign – be direct!
3. Work up visual responses and layouts for internal publicity and the app screens.
