When police are too afraid to act, everyone is at risk

IN January 2024, I was sent on my seventh job of the day to arrest a masked offender who had allegedly assaulted an elderly man and was fleeing the scene of another crime involving a boy of 14. Staff at a nearby McDonald's were so concerned by his behaviour they had locked their doors for safety

- Lorne Castle

I could have signed off and gone home — it was the end of an 11-hour shift — but when no one on the oncoming shift stepped up, I did what I’ve always done: I took the call. As I moved to arrest the suspect, he fought back. We went to the ground together.

Only once he was restrained did a double-ended knife fall from his waistband — the kind of weapon that explains exactly why he was so determined to fight or flee.

It wasn’t my finest hour. I panicked as his friends began to encircle me. I used language that wasn’t professional and I regret that. But in the heat of the moment I was following my instinct as a police officer to keep people safe.

There were no injuries, no public complaint, yet Dorset Police told me after nearly a decade of service that I had breached professional standards and had to leave the force because when I arrested the suspect I “failed to treat him with courtesy and respect”.

My name is now all over the media, and my family — my wife Denise and our three daughters — face an upheaval we never imagined. I can’t help but feel a target has been put on my back.