Lorna Dennison-Wilkins's blog

What a week.

I’ve just got back from our current dive job, it’s only Thursday but it feels like the end of the week.  We’re diving in a lake for evidence relating to a serious crime, the lake isn’t very deep but it’s long and has taken a while.

The Team started diving there while I was in Dorset at an Olympics security meeting (some of us will be down there diving and on the boats to help keep the Games safe) so when I got back this week they were already in a routine.  The lake was iced up so badly that even a sledge hammer couldn’t smash through the surface and as a result things were delayed somewhat.  We take it in turns to be the dive supervisor at diving operations and Moomin was running this dive which means she has planned and run each day and doesn’t get to dive.

Usually we don’t have enough people to dive two of us at the same time as we always need someone ‘up top’ to act as standby diver but on Tuesday (my first day on the dive operation) there were seven of us, we dived two divers at once on a two diver jackstay pattern with one other person smashing the ice at the edge ahead of the divers so we didn’t get trapped under the ice.

Because of the travelling time and the fact that we have to disinfect and clean our equipment at the end of the day we have been doing longer days to get as much time in the water as possible and get the most out of the day.  We’ve been starting at 7AM and finishing about 6PM.  Carrying equipment around and diving takes it out of you so each evening by the time dinner has been cooked and eaten I’ve been pretty useless.

As a general rule we eat on the dive site and don’t stop for lunch but because of the long days and the fact that it’s just so cold we nominated a person each day to bring in hot food for the Team which we have kept warm in the dive lorry.  It’s been great, except for one day when everyone wasn’t 100% after one particular lunch (it would be unfair at this point to name the chef that day!)

Lots of people have come to speak to us while we’ve been there which has been nice, we’ve surprised and confused a few dogs as we have broken surface just as they have paused by the side of the lake and have had to explain to several little children what the concept of diving is as they have never seen it either.  People clearly struggle to work out why we would lie for up to 90 minutes on the bottom of a pond under ice with no visibility fingertip searching and come back and do it day after day.  I tell them that we are used to these things, we get by the best we can, we make it work and when I am down there I think about the victims of crimes and their families and how with the next sweep of my hand it would be wonderful to find what I am looking for.

(To see some pictures from this week click here).

Thu 16 Feb 9:18PM

Back to the fold....

I’ve just got back from two weeks of annual leave which accounts for the blog and twitter silence.  It was good to use up some of the mounting leave I have accumulated from all that overtime on the SSU and I tried skiing for the first time.  It was minus 32 when I arrived in Canada but I was still warmer out there than at some of the operations we have done on the SSU!

As soon as I arrived back in the Country I was in text contact with Moomin and Critch.   Critch had been ‘at the helm’ during my absence and had done a great job.  The Team had been searching on a major investigation in Sussex and then had been called to Kent to look for and recover the body of a missing person after an incident where two men drowned.  I got back to my office the next day to collect some kit on a quick turnaround to head to my conference and I found the place deserted except for a mattress on my office floor and a sleeping bag, the blind was still down and I knew they had all stayed on the floor of the Base the night before.  After the call out to Kent and working into the night the team had even stayed in the cells at the local army barracks, any place to lie down and rest will do when you’ve worked a 19 hour shift and have to be up again at 6am in the morning - just three and a half hours later.  Their account of the deployment reminded me of the job when we slept on the floor of the fire station (see Valuable Advice)

The conference was an excellent event.  It was at the Lancashire police HQ and only cost around £40 to go for two days including accommodation and food.  There was lots of input about dive and marine matters and a chance to speak to my colleagues about collaboration on diving, marine duties and training together.  My previous boss Jane who is one of our dive contractors came with me, she has written a blog about it which you can see here.

Today was my first chance for a proper catch up with everyone.  Then there was report writing, maintenance, cleaning and a recce of next weeks dive (which Moomin did as she’s the dive supervisor for it).  I was sorry that the Team had such little rest while I was away but I was proud to hear that they had done such excellent work in the major investigation, recovering a body inKent and also finding a phone and sim card and a weapon in other unlikely places for other investigations.

I wouldn’t expect anything else from the Team, they always do themselves, the Unit and Sussex Police proud and I couldn’t ask for more.  It’s good to be back.

Fri 3 Feb 5:28PM

A search in the night...

I was on call PolSA last night, I managed to get off duty on time and home before the worst of the rush hour. Optimistically I got into my ‘lounging’ wear early in the evening and I don’t want to make my home life sound too exciting or anything but I was sorting my paperwork for my forthcoming tax return in front of the television.  About 8pm I got a call on my mobile from the duty sergeant Darren who was based at Centenary House to tell me that a depressed vulnerable person had gone missing from Shoreham.  I got the basic circumstances and gave some advice over the phone, I knew from the information that I had been given the missing person was indeed ‘high risk’ and I would have throw on some outdoor clothes and attend the scene to give some guidance and run a search of the local area.  

I identified an area on the Downs that needed searching and I made a call to Sussex Search and Rescue who in turn called out the Lowland Search Dogs.  These volunteer groups are highly trained and regulated and are a fantastic resource in searching for missing people. I can’t speak more highly of them. In my previous blog ‘Serving Sussex’ the searchers all came out to assist me on another ‘call out’ and we found the missing man in the forest alone needing medical attention - he had been missing for three days.

I based myself in the SusSAR control vehicle with John Griffiths and we identified search areas and directed search resources so that they could be searched.  I took a short video of John in the search vehicle talking about what he does, you can see this below:

The search went on into the night and all the searchers were working hard in the darkness.  When the Lowland Search Dogs came back from a search area I managed to get a short video of Steve Ball telling us what they do:

I can’t believe the turn out of the search volunteers, there were over 20 SusSAR searchers and 3 dog teams totalling around 30 people.  SusSAR have foot and bike teams and are structured in how they work with different people holding qualifications for search controlling (like John), team leader and search technician.  In the following video you can see Johnnie Walker a long term member of SusSAR talking about what his role was:

We were still at the search site in the darkness about 3am and some of the searchers had long distances to travel home.  On a personal level and on behalf of Sussex Police I would like to say ‘Thank You’ to all of our volunteer searchers. They make large personal sacrifices with their time and money (to get to search jobs) and all of it is for the sake of others.

Both groups are charitable organisations and rely on donations to keep running.  To find out more about SusSAR click here and to find out more about the Lowland Search Dogs Sussex click here.

Fri 6 Jan 4:02PM

Happy New Year!

Back to work today for 2012.  Arf and Moomin are still off on annual leave but it was good to see the rest of the SSU turn up after the Christmas period when we were on minimum staffing (four of us is the minimum crew level).  I went mountain biking in Wales over the New Year so have bruises on bruises and an injured finger, the others seem in much better form although there may be some de-toxing to do after the excesses of the festive period!  On our return to the Base we found that a fuse had blown knocking out the lighting in the crew room and drying room so we had ‘mood lighting’ in the shape of a lamp with a 40 watt bulb until it could get sorted out.

We had a fair few jobs over the Christmas and New Year period such as a search of the beach at Seaford after some human remains were found and assisting our colleagues from the Fingerprint Unit get up to a place at height so that he could obtain some forensic evidence from a murder.  We also went with our colleagues from East Sussex to Newhaven where we executed a search warrant for drugs, searched a commercial premises and had lots of other jobs to do. 

Today I have been attending to paperwork to get things straight for the weeks ahead.  An office day for me involves answering emails from colleagues in Sussex Police or from outside agencies and processing orders for equipment that we need to make repairs and carry on being operational.  I also have to keep track of the budget, succession planning for the Unit and manage operational requests, maintenance and whatever else comes up, I have some projects on the go too and requests come in for other work from time to time.  Usually I’ll be in the middle of lots of things and then yes - you guessed it, the phone rings and I have to drop everything for a job.

I would like to think that I don’t procrastinate, that I’m just a victim of lots of things landing in my lap all at once but I do find that by the middle of the day (if I’m having a morning in the office) my browser bar on my computer has about 15 documents on it, all with things I’m in the middle of working on.  If I’m feeling particularly brutal I will right click and select the ‘tile horizontally’ option so all the windows scatter themselves all over my screen and I am confronted by just how much I have started and have to finish - usually on a time limit.

I like 2012 so far.  It’s going to be a great year.  In my usual fashion I am optimistic about the future. I know at times the whole of my working life is going to be just like that browser bar with multiple things running simultaneously and juggling furiously but that’s what life is like on the SSU and in Sussex Police and I’m ready for it. 

It’s time to get off home now so I will sign off, but not before I wish you all a very happy New Year and all the best for 2012.

Lorna

Tue 3 Jan 4:11PM

A cheery seasonal message

I did the public safety festive message in ‘Early Festive Greetings’, but let’s face it - it was a bit miserable so in this one I want to reflect over the good times I’ve had on the SSU and the hope that I have for the future.  This year has gone in a flash, It’s always so busy on our Unit with things changing from one moment to the next and before you know it another week has gone by, then another…. 

We’ve had some great jobs this year - We have found murder weapons while searching land and other areas for the Major Crime Team that have helped bring offenders to justice, we have found and seized thousands of pounds of cash that had been hidden under floorboards that has been seized under the Proceeds of Crime Act and found drugs and weapons hidden in houses. 

We have worked frequently with the Paedophile Online Investigation Team and made searches of premises on their behalf where we have seized computers, media storage and in some cases images (see Ali’s blog for more information on the great work POLIT do).  We have worked alone and with other search units to find vulnerable missing people (see ‘Serving Sussex’) and we have had the stranger jobs where we found World War 2 ordnance in the River Arun or a mannequin up a tree (see ‘Another Random SSU Day’).  

Of the seven different environments we work in (click here to find out more about these) we have done 83 open area, premises and vehicle searches since January, 66 water based searches and around 35 at height. The rest of the time we have been busy doing other duties like marine patrol, confined space searching, disaster victim recovery, maintenance and training.

It’s frustrating at times because I can’t always talk about some of the really excellent and exciting work we do but the world of social media has enabled us to have a voice that we may not otherwise have had and contact with the community and I hope through this I have shown a bit of what it’s like for us on our Unit.  I have enjoyed the interactions we have had on Twitter immensely and the feedback that people actually did read my blog. I have cherished the opportunity that I have been given to speak about what it is like to be in our world and in my working life and I thank our Chief Constable Martin Richards and the Media Team at HQ for enabling it to happen.

It feels good to be a part of my team on the SSU but also a much bigger team of the Sussex Police family and importantly part of the community.  I feel like I make a difference which gives me my job satisfaction but I know I can only do this because we all work together.  I know that this work will continue into 2012 and beyond and we will face and overcome challenges together and with this thought I look forward to the future.

I feel privileged to work on the SSU with such as brilliant team and do the type of job that I do.  As I touched upon in my blog ‘Good people’ I feel proud to serve the people of Sussex and despite the fact that we go to some incidents after something bad has happened I have never lost my faith in human nature.  Being in an unpredictable job and seeing some of the things I see makes me cherish the good things I have.  So I will be having a peaceful Christmas with my family and friends and I hope you may get the opportunity to do the same.  I thank you for your support and wish the best for all of you at Christmas and for 2012.

Yours,

Lorna

Mon 19 Dec 1:02PM

How not to cross a river by the SSU...

This is a short video taken on Thursday 15^th December at a search at Powdermill Reservoir.  As the water levels of our reservoirs is at an all time low it was an opportunity to go up and search below the waterline for evidence relating to a cold case from some years ago.  We spent a few days diving here earlier on in the year and have always had in the back of our minds the fact that the evidence is still outstanding and could have been put elsewhere in the reservoir.

We were walking back to the van and came to a river which we had to cross to get there.  We could have walked the long way round to cross it but elected to try and jump across with inevitable results - you can guess what happened next!

I spent a while after filming this wondering if I should post it or not as don’t want to give the impression that we have fun on the SSU or anything, but in the end I decided to post it for the following reasons:

We are all human and make mistakes like anybody else.  We need to laugh sometimes in the job that we do and aren’t afraid to laugh at ourselves.  Logistical issues like trying to get back to the van in water filled areas are all part of the SSU working day. 

All other members of the Unit (including myself) managed to get back to the van without getting wet.  Critch and Darran drove back to the Base in their search overalls and Darran wore my diving socks.  No members of the SSU were hurt during the filming, only their pride!

Thu 15 Dec 4:13PM

Our kit: The search van.

We have three vehicles and we spend lots of time in the search van.  Each person on the SSU has different areas of responsibility so our kit is maintained as everything gets used quite intensively.  Darran looks after the search van and everything on it; he replaces search kit as it gets used, books in repairs and servicing with the workshop and attends to any other matters.  The vehicle itself is maintained by Terry and his team at Chichester Workshops (see ‘Our relationship with Chichester Workshop’).

In the video below you can meet Darran and see some of the search kit and the inside of the search van at our Base.  This was recorded on the morning of Thursday the 8^th December but as I was about to post it on my blog we got called out on a job and went to a mannequin hanging in a tree in Wineham in Mid Sussex.  As a result of the strange mannequin job I wrote ‘Another random SSU day’.

We use the search van for all searches of houses and other premises and open areas where we don’t need to search water, confined spaces or other specialist areas.  It’s getting a bit old now and is due for replacement but we all fit inside, it never lets us down and we’re rather fond of it. 

Tue 13 Dec 3:25PM

Another random SSU day.

So there we were, at the Base, doing some statements from our search on Tuesday for the Child Protection Team and I had just recorded a short input from Darran about the search van (which he had just cleaned) for my blog when Moomin saw a job about a body up a tree in woodland in West Sussex on the resource computer.

I put comments on the serial to say that we were aware of the job and asked someone from the scene to phone me.  Meanwhile the team went to work loading up our van with ropes and other equipment we usually require for such a job out of the rope trailer as Paul had the Landrover out on an enquiry so we didn’t have it to hand.  About this time we were informed that the ‘body’ looked like it could be a mannequin which sounded pretty odd to say the least. Even if it was a mannequin it would need to be removed as it looked shocking hanging from the tree.

I helped get a long ladder and some other equipment into the van and Jonathan grabbed me a pasty from the food wagon which comes to the airport every morning as I didn’t have anything to eat.  Myself, Bret, Moomin and Jonathan set off in the search van and Critch and Paul were going to be on standby to bring the rope trailer and Landrover up as soon as available. 

We arrived at the country road in Mid Sussex and were met by a PCSO (Louisa) and her colleague who directed us up a country footpath to open land surrounded by large trees.  We could see the ‘body’ from some way off, dressed in jeans, trainers and a dark top with a hat on.  It did look bad from that distance and I could understand why people would have been upset by its presence.   On closer inspection you could see that it was indeed a mannequin complete in catalogue pose with a hand in its pocket and in fact it looked a bit comical. What a relief!

We got an extendable ladder from the van and set it safely against a tree.  Normally if there isn’t a way to do this safely with a ladder we have to climb up using ropes and harnesses and set up a pulley system to lower anything down.  It was very high and windy but we managed to safely lower the mannequin down to the ground and got it into the van.Naturally we did have a joke or two about the bizarre circumstances and when it’s hand came off Moomin was the first to say ‘Can I give you a hand’ whilst waving it around etc… etc…!  Why it was there is a mystery.  Someone’s misguided idea of a joke or something more sinister?  I’m sure the person who put it there won’t want to claim it back so in the future our new friend may be having a new lease of life at a charity shop or other establishment near you. 

What happens now? We’re back at the Base.  Darran’s van is all muddy again and we await our next call…

(For more mannequin pictures see our Flickr Page… Click here)

Thu 8 Dec 3:35PM

Early festive greetings...

I admit it.  I’m usually not so keen on the whole Christmas thing so when the shops start playing Christmas music in September I feel a bit ‘Bah Humbug’.  I like the day itself if I can spend time with my family and friends but quite often on my Unit that doesn’t happen.  Last year I was on call as the Force PolSA, I was called out at 5am on Boxing day following a Christmas day murder and that was the last I saw of home until the New Year.  The year before we dived under Ice at Tilgate lake in Crawley on Chrsitmas Eve for a weapon from a GBH, that certainly made me appreciate sitting by the fire when I finally got to it. 

The festive period usually means an increase in work for us on the SSU.  I don’t want to be the bringer of doom (again!) but it would be good if increasing awareness of what we do would help you all to remain safer and prevent us from being called out.  It’s saddening to go to incidents that could have been avoided so if one person is safer for any of the social media messages that come from us on the SSU then my work is done.

Generally we have more alcohol related water fatalities in the lead up to Christmas and New Year.  I am collecting data on such incidents and the current figures show that out of 27 accidental deaths in water in the last few years 56% were alcohol related.  That’s a lot of potentially avoidable incidents.

One year we were called to dive on New Year’s Eve to recover the body of a young man who had been walking home in a town centre by a river a few days before, he was so drunk that he just fell into the water and drowned.  In another tragic incident a year or so ago two people came out of a party and fell through a fence into the river, one drowned.  One particularly horrific incident a few days before Christmas occurred when a chap was travelling home in a car and for some reason came off the road.  The car went into the river and sank, doing the recovery of the car with the man inside was gruesome and it was saddening thinking of all the presents round the Christmas tree that would never get opened and that Christmas would never be the same for his family.

Many accidents we have been called to have occurred where the person has lived near water (for example on boats) and they don’t safely manage to get home because they are intoxicated and they fall in the water.  Then we have the revellers who drink more than they should and think it’s a great idea to go for a ‘dip’ or borrow a canoe or boat and it all goes wrong.  It always seems like a good idea at the time and most of us have been there - I’ve come out of a nightclub and gone swimming in the sea (a few years ago now!) but if I knew what I know now I wouldn’t have done it.  My rule of thumb is that alcohol and water just don’t mix unless you’re going to be drinking them out of a glass or bottle.

Sadly we also have an increase in people going missing and/or taking their own life at this time of the year, Christmas is emotive and enhances your feelings whether they be good or bad ones.  I would encourage you all to keep an eye out for friends, family or acquaintances who may not be feeling themselves.

Every time that someone asks me if I’ve been busy at work I always think that ‘No’ is the best answer for the good of the general population.  In reality I never say ‘No’ because we’re always busy and if we’re not working on specialist jobs we will be assisting our colleagues on divisions with searches of premises for crime related matters, missing people or security searches. 

This Christmas, if I could not be called out in either my capacity as a PolSA or a police diver over the festive period then I will see that as a very good sign.  I will value the time I get to spend with my family as I know not everyone is as fortunate and no one will mean it more than I when I wish you a safe and happy festive period.

Fri 25 Nov 9:55AM