Trainer Gerry Ellis argues that training of front-line workers and security staff has to be simple and to work with people’s instincts and simple principles rather than complex techniques. Mark Rowe visits.
It’s Sunday, July 27, 2012. Somebody famous is carrying the Olympic flame during the London Games opening ceremony. Who’s that running across the stadium, wearing a ‘Save the Squirrel’ T-shirt? (It’s the big issue of 2012.) Many staff freeze to the spot; some stewards and officials run after her. But they must have been to the Walter Wolfgang Memorial School of Physical Intervention. They try to grab her arms and take what seems like an age to pin her to the ground. The BBC patriotically turns away from the scrum of fluorescent bibs, but foreign TV doesn’t. A billion people gawp and giggle. It defines the whole event.
Gerry Ellis, Managing Director for Stand2 (Specialist Training & Development) Ltd, does not have video of that event on his laptop, but he does have footage of other uniformed police and security people in similar difficulties when they are forced to intervene physically. Take Walter Wolfgang. You recall he was the 82-year-old Labour Party activist who was turfed out of the 2005 Labour conference, for shouting back at a Jack Straw speech. If the (volunteer and hence unSIA-badged) stewards had applied some simple principles they may have avoided their five minutes of fame. They could for example have tried a more friendly approach, tried to reason with Wolfgang and made a point of managing witness perception, so that by the time the stewards took physical action, Wolfgang would have lost any sympathy delegates may have had for him.
Instead, you had the grotesque spectacle – shown around the world on TV news – of big men trying to manhandle an old man. The situation was then compounded by a nearby delegate who tried to come to Wolfgang’s aid, feeling the security men were in the wrong. Most tragi-comic of all, the stewards did not even efficiently eject Mr Wolfgang, who, far from trying to fight back, simply gave them dead weight to deal with. Mr Wolfgang unfortunately was no light weight. The bad publicity defined the whole conference. Critics jumped on the incident to accuse New Labour of control-freakery. In truth, front-line security people lacked the tools and training to deal with someone who far from being violent or aggressive resorted to often the most difficult behaviour security staff may face; the person who is being awkward!
Symbolically, on my way to visit Gerry in Lichfield – outside his home is a fine view to the cathedral – a police van with blue and red lights flashing overtakes. I lose sight of it on the A5. Gerry was medically retired from the police seven years ago and has since taught conflict management and physical intervention skills to many organisations, including the in-house security force at Canary Wharf; the 02 Arena, and for ambulance trusts. He begins: "An important point I would like to make – and I am going to prove it to you shortly – is why I have a motivation to train staff, to deal with difficult people." Gerry took his wristwatch off and I was on my guard, as you would be with a physical intervention trainer, until he said he was going to show a video. "We have the SIA training, that’s basic competency for security personnel. The only concern is all the communication [skills] in the world may not be sufficient to deal with somebody who is drunk; drugged; or otherwise mental impaired. Therefore they [staff] need additional skills."
Gerry was in Professional Security after he spoke at the 2002 SITO conference. A trend since then is the growth in mobile phone video, and headcams. If you are in law enforcement or security on a street, in a pub, shop or hotel, chances are if you have witnesses, one will video it. If police or security fail to properly control people, all those involved often end up in an untidy heap on the floor. Not only does it look bad, it could result in people being unnecessarily hurt or in some extreme cases even killed. It is important therefore that staff have a range of options for dealing with all levels of resistance, from people simply sitting down and refusing to move, to somebody in a rage trying to punch or hit those around them. The last but not least part of Gerry’s training courses is that the trainee has to explain and justify their actions – why, for example, were certain options inappropriate and the fact that other methods had been tried and failed. Could you have walked away from the incident, Did you try to talk to the person? Or his friend? Had you tried less impactive options?
We can all improve our skills and even police do not always get physical intervention right, Gerry explains. As an example he cites the recent BBC1 documentary Traffic Cops: Dicing with Death, when two Swedish sisters – who had already run in front of vehicles on the M6 were able run into fast traffic to be run over before their eyes. When one of the women who had been hit by a fast moving car attempts to get to her feet and run in front of traffic in the other carriageway, officers were unable to control her quickly or initially very effectively. Gerry says: "We have a woman who was totally deranged and out of control, placing herself and those around her in great danger. Unfortunately she was not physically restrained and not only was she able to run into the other carriageway, but also managed to hit the police officer knocking her to the floor. It is easy to be critical from a distance and we all make mistakes, but it was apparent the officers were not acting as a team, nor applying some simple principles which may have made their lives easier such as closing distance safely, use of relative positioning and smothering the woman’s resistance rather than trying to maintain control by grabbing her wrist, allowing her to wriggle and pull free from the officers.
Gerry argues that hugging, smothering and controlling movement are far more effective, witness-friendly and safer than trying to apply complex motor movements, particularly under stress. Cognitive recall in a stressful situation means that people often forget complicated techniques, usually at the moment they need them most. When using technique based on instinct staff use hard wired responses which are not only more natural but generally more effective. Indeed, in a video clip Gerry shows of healthcare training, a nurse – plainly meant to support the training – does say that ‘in a difficult situation, instinct takes over’. but the training does makes people more confident. Research by Prof Rogers (and printed in the Nursing Standard, February 14, 2007) found that 70,000 training days a year were being wasted on similar such training which simply didn’t work. Making staff more confident in techniques which don’t actually work are by any measure an accident waiting to happen. The training Gerry runs does work and has been independently evaluated by Nottinghamshire University for the department of Health Work and Organisations. It was also accredited with reducing assaults on ambulance staff by 30 per cent. His company Stand2 (www.stand2.com) runs a number of courses including: one day, conflict management and personal safety course; two-day, physical intervention course accredited by NOCN; and the five-day, training the trainers course.
To repeat a favourite quote of Gerry’s: "There is no such thing as good luck. ‘Good luck’ occurs when preparation meets opportunity prepare; your opportunity is coming."
