Police Whistleblower: "I Quit to Share the Truth"

31:18They could stand up and say, no, we're not doing this. A lot of them didn't for one reason or another. I understand some people have families. Some people need that income. But essentially, to some extent, they are a little bit part of why this is perpetuated upon them because they haven't done enough. Maybe some of my colleagues won't like that, but I think that's the case. You need to stand your ground. It was crazy. It was insane. You can't continue like that. You know the struggle you have been through to get an Alice in Wonderland degree again. I mean, why? Why you need to go through that struggle, taking so much away from your time, you know, years that will never come back.

32:00And I think it's up to them. They need to make a stand. In everyday policing as well, I am a big believer that if you're a frontline police officer, you should look after yourself. Instead of finishing the shift and saying, oh, you know, guys, let's go to the pub. That's absolutely fine. you socialize but sometimes you need to say you know guys let's go to the gym uh you can't have five or six officers jumping on a on a on a just a regular male who is a little bit more volatile in order for you to detain him you know you need two three officers maximum to be able to do that we already struggle with numbers we need to expand on standards but standards no matter what you give me, Francis, you can give me the best training in the world.

32:48If I don't want to do it myself, it will go nowhere. It starts with an individual.

32:53Francis Foster:But that also comes to recruitment, Dimitar, because, I mean, look, this is just when I walk around London, but I've noticed the standard of police officers, the way they conduct themselves, the way they dress, and also the shape that they're in. I mean, they don't look like they'd be able to arrest anybody, to be brutally honest. and they don't necessarily look very professional. Of course, not all police officers. There are a lot of police officers that do. But even in the 40 or so years that I've lived in this city, I've seen a marked decline in standards. I agree with you, yes. You know, I'm not a religious person, but there are a few things in the Bible which are actually quite correct.

33:36You know, open rebuke is better than secret love. I wholeheartedly agree with you. So, again, I don't think some of my ex-colleagues understand the incredibly important nature of the objective reality, physical reality of frontline policing. I'm here to speak only about frontline policing. You have to be most definitely, in my opinion, above average when it comes to an average fitness test. what an average male can do or a female some of uh one of the fittest police officers i've ever worked with was a female she was always downstairs with uh with me in the gym she was incredible but i don't know what is stopping them i think i have a theory what is stopping them a very good friend of mine who is still in the police he's there i mean a few decades now told me that a lot of people come and when they see the horrible circumstances of what policing means, they become very, very cynical.

34:46Not only their approach in work, but in their personal lives. And I think he's actually correct. It takes a lot of effort to go to the gym. It takes a lot of effort to be immaculate every single day. And in my opinion, being a police officer, holding that incredibly important role in london it is the demanding position and if you're not ready to reach that level perhaps perhaps you can go home you can speak to someone in work and say to them you know buddy i i don't think i'm i'm the best version of myself uh uh let me let me get let me get some help what can i do you know uh i'm always giving people the benefit of the doubt I'll never say, you know, that job is not for you.

35:34No, no, no, never. I want to help you out, buddy, but you need to do it on your own. And like you said, yes, I quite often go to central London and, you know, I walk past by people and when there's a police car and suddenly a few officers looking like you just described them come out, I can just hear the public. Oh my God, look at them. I mean, it's actually quite dangerous because one gentleman was walking and he saw these officers having a coffee and he said they look like a caricature in uniforms. And it's not only you. It's quite of a situation. And that situation can only be addressed within the individuals to begin with.

36:23However, the institution is quite difficult to inspire them to be that best version of themselves.

36:33Francis Foster:But surely, Dimitar, this comes from the top. It's the people at the top who set the standards of any organization. Because if you don't set the standards at the top, then look, there's some people like yourself who are self-motivated, who are really passionate, but there are other people who are just there because it's a job. And if you let standards slip, then it's going to affect everything and everyone. To me, this is a crisis of leadership, isn't it? The people who watch this show have generally done more thinking about how governments operate the most, but there's a difference between understanding the problem and having actually built insulation against it.

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38:32And let's speak about leadership indeed. I think I don't want to offend anyone in the senior leadership of the Metropolitan Police. there's some lovely lovely extraordinary great people there but in general i think they have reached a level of astonishingly being capable of self-deception and i call that the magic excel document. We need 10 people to go to that place and we need 20 people to go to, you know, that protest, you know, let's see how we can manage the numbers. It's all about numbers. But the quality of offices, it's through the window. It's all about numbers. And I always thought to myself, these people in these positions of so much power and decision making, they should know better than anyone else.

39:33It's not only about numbers. A football team has 11 players. If you take Ronaldo and put me in, it'd still be 11 players. But the performance will deteriorate massively. I don't think to myself can they not see the bigger picture? And unfortunately, I think which is very, very sinister, I think maybe some of them do. But the next promotion, the next promotion is very well paid you have a lot of power if you are chief inspector and above working for the metropolitan police it's a it is a it is a nice place to be i think some of them understand that uh and i would like to say that quite a few of them understand that quite well but why nothing is done i think it's because the politics are so um complex on that level So I think the police needs rebuilding from scratch.

40:38Not today, tomorrow, before it's too late. It has to be solely based on the Pelian principles. And that's that. That's that. Nothing else. Nothing more. Which are what? Well, for example, treat everyone equally. I mean, treat everyone equally. Honesty, integrity, the rule of law, be impartial. That's very, very important. I think impartiality has gone a little bit downhill because officers like this document I saw in this document, I told you I saw in one of the trainings, you know, saying that treating everyone equally can lead to unequal outcome. In equal outcome, yes. Impartiality is very, very, very important.

41:36Very important. Just work according to the law. Bring courtesy back. Bring discretion back. I think officers have been taking a lot of discretion away from them. And that's a big problem. I think you should exercise more discretion, of course, based on your impartial approach. If someone steals a sandwich because someone has nothing to eat, of course, you're going to give them that discretion and you're going to treat them differently if someone just steals a sandwich because they can't be bothered, you know, to pay. In that sense, I understand, yes, maybe your treatment according to the particular circumstances might be different, but discretion has gone, you know, discretion is over.

42:27And I have been through situations like that, which discretion, I thought to myself, could be implemented, but it wasn't. And I don't know why.

42:35Francis Foster:And this thing about equal treatment leads to unequal outcomes. You're hinting at something that's been a huge discussion in Britain, which is what people talk about as two-tier policing. Yes. And what they're talking about is a mixture of things. It's not just about racial disparities and things like that, but it's the way that protesters against lockdown were treated versus BLM protesters and other things of that nature, where the public see that similar behavior results in very different treatment. And then we hear from people like you about guidance. We hear from other people about guidance around the treatment of different racial groups.

43:17Francis Foster:We see cases like the Henry Novak case, for example, where police officers arrive at a scene and immediately are effectively misled by the races of the people involved as to who's the perpetrator, who's the victim. And overall, a lot of people now have this picture that the police have been trained effectively at this point not to treat people equally. Is this true? Is this an exaggeration? What are your thoughts on it?

43:47When in one of the lectures in university, I think it was just a little bit after BLM around that time, 2022, I think, 2024, well, I'm not very, very sure. I don't really remember. The very same lecture that said, you know, guys don't shoot the messenger. Ask a question from all of us. guys, what do you think about Black Lives Matter? And a very lovely, very good-hearted girl in our class just said, well, all lives matter.

44:23And I swear to God, Constantine, that's exactly what she said. Ooh, can you say that? And I'm thinking, can you not see the goodness in this, in this, you know, young woman's voice? It was, it was crazy. It was quite of a thing. who can you say that uh and that who can you say that makes you think am i right to say that that all lives matter which is a perfectly reasonable thing to say am i right am i maybe maybe i'm wrong maybe i need to find within myself where maybe i have some type of a bias maybe something that i don't understand it makes young officers question themselves you know when a perfectly reasonable statement like, all lives matter, it's absolutely fine.

45:12Of course, black lives matter, all lives matter, any lives matter. That was quite a thing to say.

45:21Francis Foster:Were you ever asked about, you know, what are your internal biases and things like this? Thank you. I am going to say something now. They were very, very clever with this. They gave us a white piece of paper. Okay. And they say, guys, this is anonymous. You don't have to write your name just write down if you think you ever had some privileges and uh i took that piece of paper and i wrote that i'm bulgarian my ancestors were four and a half century under the ottoman empire some of the savageries have been well documented from journalists from france to russia and the united states i have no privileges and i gave it to them.

46:06I don't know what happened with that piece of paper, but it was the most bizarre thing that I've ever encountered in my life.

46:13Francis Foster:What do you think was the point of that exercise? Did you get a sense of what they're trying to achieve by the conversation about BLM, by the conversation about privilege? What is it that they wanted you to learn? I think this is my opinion, I might be wrong, but I think giving someone this piece of paper and asking that question is solely reading the room to what extent some of the people here might think they might have some privileges. And if someone has put a privilege or something like that, we need to address it. We need to train them. Maybe we need to train people that haven't put that they have any privileges.

46:54Maybe they cannot see it, that you have a privilege and you can't recognize it. That's what I think. I think it's way more sinister than that. Without speaking in depth of what exactly you mean someone has a privilege. I mean, this is a conversation that we can have here for hours on end. It's quite extraordinary to introduce that out of the blue on a white piece of paper and just give it to frontline police officers who need to go back to the street and, you know, tackle criminals, you know, and wrestle with them on the floor. What privileges are you talking about? Jesus Christ. It's so extraordinary.

47:33Francis Foster:I guess what I'm getting at, trying to understand, not getting at, I'm trying to understand is what the truth is about the idea that police officers have been trained now for some years to treat different people differently. Is this something that you see or saw, whether on the front line or in your training or anything? And I'm open to the possibility that maybe it's exaggerated or maybe it's not true, but I'm really trying to understand what your perspective is on it. Well, this document was obviously introduced to some police forces. The question which was introduced to us, that definitely was in Augusta, the Metropolitan Police.

48:12I think when you introduce fundamentally such incredibly difficult topics without very much explaining them, you're putting a seed of questioning. The person starts questioning themselves. Do everything I know and do actually might be biased? it's confusing them if you suspect let's say for the sake of argument that someone may be biased or have some inclination towards treating different people differently maybe people that look like him just for the sake of argument you may have a training i mean the training is already there the the police fundamentals i i like i said they're already there transparency honestly in honesty you know impartiality you don't need to make these young people questioning themselves all the time because eventually they will be confused and eventually when you confuse sometimes in a situation which requires your immediate professional attention as in the case of may he rest in peace this young man henry novak may lead to uh tragic outcomes and um that thing with i don't think so mate makes my blood boil to begin with nobody should ever speak to a member of the public regardless of the circumstances even if you're a suspect even if i know you're the bad guy hey mate don't approach people like that eventually maybe you get to know someone and speaking to them for five, ten minutes, maybe then you can, you know, slide it in.

50:03Hey, thank you, mate. Thank you very much. But in the beginning, as I said, you represent the office of a constable. You need to be immaculate, in my opinion, of speaking to these people. I always approach even the suspects, even the suspects, you know, hey, tomorrow is a better day. I'm not here only because of them, of the person that called me. I'm here because of you as well. Let me see. How can I help you out? I never approach anyone. Hey, mate, listen to me, mate. That's extraordinary. I've seen that. It only escalates things. And in the case of Henry Novak, why they haven't given, why they didn't attend to him medically, it's seriously beyond me.

50:50fundamentally the most important thing of policing is preserve life even if i know this guy's a victim you know this guy he's the perpetrator you know i just i just saw him shooting that fellow over there but that fellow is being attended already and in the process of me detaining him i knock him out so badly that he doesn't want to come back to you know to to to life you need to immediately attend to him no matter what you have done if there's so if there's deranged men on the street stabbing people and in the process of you detaining him you shot him in the leg or you shot him in the chest you know immediately you need to attend to them as well you need to preserve their life by all means necessary they should have stripped him and i'm sorry to say naked immediately and see if he's bleeding not just roll him over and put him in handcuffs.

51:42This is, you know, I can't watch this video. I watched it a few times and I can't anymore because it makes me truly, truly, truly, truly sad. Truly sad for this 18-year-old young man. It's just the most egregious thing I've ever seen in my life.

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53:08Francis Foster:Go to wildalaskan.com slash trig for$35 off your first box of premium wild caught seafood. That's wildalaskan.com slash trig for$35 off your first order. Thanks to Wild Alaskan Company for sponsoring this episode. And I think a large part of the problem, Dimitar, is if you wanted to be a firearms officer. Yes, indeed. And I think a lot of people don't want to be firearms officers anymore because they go, well, if I do my duty and I shoot someone who is posing either a threat to me or a threat to the public or both, I'm the one who's going to get arrested here. Yes, Francis, absolutely. I don't think like that.

53:54I don't care. And I don't care in a way of, I understand that things bigger than me. I truly believe that justice for all, it's bigger than the preservation of my own life, even sometimes maybe my own freedom. I wanted to join AmResponse knowing this might be the case, but I am prepared to face the consequences. And I was ready to face the consequences because I knew deep down inside of me, I will be so well prepared, so well prepared. I will train myself every single day, not only in my physical ability to do something, my tactics, my firearm tactics, my communications, even if it's only in my head, my knowledge of the legislations.

54:46So if that time comes one day, I will face it as a man who believes has reached that level of professionalism. And whatever may happen after that, I don't care because they're bigger things than me. I can't just say to myself, oh, you know something, I don't want to do this. You know, I just want to have a family and you know, maybe someone else can do it. No, no, no, no, no. Francis, it's necessary. Someone has to do it. And I was prepared to do it.

55:14Francis Foster:But I understand that, Dimitar. But there are people who are going, look, if I do my duty and I'm going to get punished for it, then why would I do that job? Well, look at the Chris Caber case. Yes. Look at the... I mean, you're the guy who wanted to be a firearms officer. I'm not. Francis isn't. But this is a situation where someone who's committed firearms offences is using his car to try and ram police officers. An armed police officer shoots him and there's a big there's a big media hoopla about this and the guy's the guy the officer who shoots him is tried for murder yes he's tried for murder um i think uh it's it's grotesque it is grotesque um this country it's uh was famous once maybe one day again for probably having the best justice system in the world right uh very rigorous very open you You know, we all put in the same, you know, level and we all be, you know, judged accordingly.

56:17So open scrutiny is very, very welcomed, you know, very, very welcome. Though the portrayal of what happened there, in my opinion, was indeed actually taking away from an impartial, honest process. But it was a little bit one way. this officer is a murderer. Seriously? What do you know about ARV training? What do you know about receiving any information about a vehicle which was linked to armed defenses? Someone tried to ram you with their own car, maybe having a gun because that's information you have. Maybe they're trying to ram with you with the car, but maybe next time there was a gun. You don't know that.

57:04You know that that vehicle is linked with guns and not only that, he's trying to run it with his car. What do you think is the best solution in that split second? The police officer in question has made that decision. And I think the decision was based on self-defense and defense of others.

57:26Francis Foster:Because I was walking in North London and this chap came up to me and he said, I love trigonometry. I want to let you know that I'm a police officer. There's a lot of police officers that watch the show. And one of the things a lot of the people in the force believe is that neither senior leadership nor the politicians have our backs. There's an incentive like that, yeah, quite strong within the Metropolitan Police. But it's true, isn't it? Like, I mean, of course, they clearly don't have their backs because if they did in this situation, the guy would get a medal, not a murder trial. Right? They could be, they could, they can receive an award for exemplary work.

58:09Yes, that can be the case, most definitely. Or they were acquitted, I think, quite fast. So there's some hope still, though... He should never have gone to trial. Never. Maybe for, I think, I'm not defending them by all means necessary, the people who took him to trial. Maybe for the sake of seeking that ultimate justice, this officer was put through, indeed, a horrific, I think, trial. I can only imagine what he has been through, but it was not that much about the trial. It seemed to me to be a witchcraft, like they were trying to convince him. I think that's the problem. It's not questioning, oh, let's see exactly what happened, what you have done, could you have done anything better, all these questions they're asking you.

59:06I think it was a witch hunt. Witch hunt. Yes, that's what I think. That was the problem, yes.

59:12Francis Foster:But this is kind of what I'm getting at is you say, you know, in the interest of absolute justice, but as you know better than I, justice is a nuanced thing. There are different people. if you hound an armed police officer in the way that he was hounded both in the media, by politicians, by activists, and you put him on trial for murder when he's clearly not only done the right thing, but done the courageous thing in very difficult circumstances, that's not justice, that's injustice. And this is something that a lot of people feel has now happened in the country where the rights, I'm using inverted commas for people listening, of perpetrators of crime, which is what Chris Carver was, he was a criminal, are placed far and above the interests of the ordinary person who is the victim of those crimes, or, in this case, of the police officer whose job it is to stop criminals like Chris Carver doing what they do.

1:00:09I think, to some extent, there might be some ideologues within the system, the police, the courts, which indeed may perpetuate some ideologies and therefore affect the process of justice. Now, why we have people like that in such positions of power is beyond me. I don't know how they're selected. I don't know how they think. I don't know if they can't see for themselves that this is actually not transparent. I say that word quite often. This actually is leaning one way rather the other. let's not forget that the courts are there for one thing and one thing only to be absolutely honest and clear about the picture their job is not to try to find someone guilty or not guilty but to find out what is the truth and you here come very very correct unfortunately i think we're living in a situation, in a world in which truth can be interpreted very differently according to the people, you know, people in power.

1:01:37And that worries me a lot because if we're going to have an ideologue making decisions, what is wrong and what is right, then we're on a very, very slippery slope of, and I think we're very, very close to a point of no return with some insanities going on in London and in England to begin with.

1:01:57Francis Foster:Because we're talking about ideologues setting policy. Yes. I mean, there's a lot of problems with that. But one of the major problems is ideologues see the world through their lens. It's an ideology. And with policing, you can't have ideology. You have to have reality. Absolutely. Yes. Yes, correct. So you look at something like stop and search and people are going, oh, we need to get rid of stop and search. Now, again, I've never policed a day in my life, but to me, that seems lunacy. It is lunacy. It is absolutely crazy. Why is it lunacy? I would tell you. Stop and search is very, very controversial because according to statistics, black kids maybe stopped a little bit more than, you know, anyone else.

1:02:51okay i've done a few stop and searches and i um will tell you something specifically when i was in a snt safer neighborhoods team uh most of the stop and search were searches were in relation to drugs you know if you can find some drugs on them you know drug paraphernalia uh because these kids they go into uh inside properties you know on the staircase and they smoke weed and they listen to loud music. Well, guess who is calling us there? It's the black lady next door who had enough of them. Guess who called us again? The black gentleman who told me, I can't deal with these kids anymore. Not only they're getting high in front of my apartment on the staircase, last time one of them pissed in an elevator.

1:03:40The people who are calling me to do the stop and search and go and attend, most of the time were black themselves. There were black, lovely people living in these buildings who had enough of kids running up and down, smoking weed and causing havoc, you know, stealing your bikes and like this guy said, you know, pissing in the elevator. So stop and search is not exactly as people think. Most of the time, it's other black folks calling on these kids some of the stop and searches in Soho for example Soho is very famous for getting your phone snatched your watch snatched if there's a hot crime spot and you are dressed in a you know black Nike you know, tracksuit with a mask on.

1:04:41Of course, that's not enough for anyone to stop and search. Maybe just the way you want to dress, you know. But when you're running away from the police and you try to hide yourself away from the police and before that there was an intelligent sources described someone like you feeding that description of just robbed the phone 20 minutes ago, you might indeed get stopped and searched. Not because you might be guilty, but you may fit very, very well the description of that person found in that exact location in which 20 minutes ago someone got their phone snatched, you know, and you really, really look like that person.

1:05:23if you have nothing to hide that's absolutely fine you can stop and search me you know if you if you have a description of eastern european guy you know looking like me snatching phones you know i want to be stopped and searched as soon as possible because i want to eliminate myself i want the bad guy actually to be found so stop and search most of the time in my opinion looking at my colleagues as well it's very very well researched it's not done for the sake of stopping and searching people. That is not true. That is not true. Actually, the stop and searches which have been conducted are very, very professional, you know, very courteous.

1:05:58They take their time, they explain everything in detail. They're willing to give you a record of the stop and search. If you think it was not right for you to go and, you know, say, you know, I don't think that was right. You know, I don't think that officer stopped me for the right reason. And that never happens because most of the time the intelligence sources are quite spot on.

1:06:20Francis Foster:And it's not just crimes, it's also preventing crimes. Yes. But if you've got the report that somebody is carrying a knife, you could be saving someone's life. Absolutely, yes. And knives are, how can I put it, much more prevalent than people think. A lot of people carry knives. However, they tend to hide them sometimes near them. If they're in a particular area, they might not carry the knife with them all the time. But if another gang comes, they know where the knife is and they can run and get it. So a lot of people might be found not carrying a knife, but they might have knives somewhere close to them or within some of their friends, which haven't been stopped.

1:07:12and such. Knife, it's an epidemic. It's a really epidemic and it's extremely dangerous. Yes, I agree with you. And they have ways around it, you know. They know what to do. They really, really do. People who actually carry knives, they're quite well educated on the topic, if that makes sense. They really do know what to do.

1:07:29Francis Foster:What does that mean, Dimitar? Well, like I said, they might hide the knife. They might hide the drugs. They might not have it on them. So, let's say 20 minutes ago, you saw someone marching my description you know pulling you know having a knife you know just putting a knife in my in my in my pocket okay and um however in this 20 minutes that until the police come and found me you know i'm in my area you know and i'm let's say i'm doing something dodgy there you know but i know you know i don't want to carry the knife with me you know i'm going to be here let's say for the next half an hour i might leave the knife somewhere close by and on my way out of this area, I can just pick it up with me.

1:08:09So you have that information, you come, you stop and search me, but the knife is not on me because I've stashed it somewhere. That's it.

1:08:17Francis Foster:And now you've committed a point, whatever the term would be, a pointless or a fruitless or a baseless stop and search and you are now... Yeah. Negative. Negative. It's negative, yeah. It's negative, yeah. And why is there an epidemic of knife crime in London? Because of how volatile the city is. the cities I will give you an example which I think fits the characteristics of London quite well. I'm from Eastern Europe I say that to all my friends, Eastern European friends, across the seas, my English friends, pick any Eastern European country pick any city in any European country, any street, any day any time, I will walk there on my own.

1:09:03No worries. I would never, ever do the same in London in some areas. Never. I'm going to get jumped. I won't. I won't. I am genuinely scared. I'll do that everywhere else in Eastern Europe. Lovely. With pleasure. Here, I won't do the same thing. I go back home sometimes and I say to people in Bulgaria, it's a probably Eastern European country, how dangerous London is. and they look at me in disbelief, in absolute disbelief. I said, well, yeah, oh yeah, fights, your watch gone, people getting stopped almost on a daily basis. I think I'm not very, very sure. 40 % of all mobile snatches in continental Europe, I think, are conducted in London.

1:09:52I'm not very, very, very sure, but it's something extraordinary like that. Dean, can you check that with Venice AI?

1:09:57Francis Foster:it's what we use to fact check things while we're continuing the conversation. Yeah, please, I'm interested. Is it true that 40 % of phone snatching in Europe is in London? Just check that. Thank you. And do you put that down to the problems of policing that you told us about, which is effectively if you don't have enough police, if you're losing good police officers, if the quality of the police officers decline, and we know under Theresa May's government, there were slashes to, or when she was Home Secretary, rather there was huge budget slashes and therefore you couldn't you lost tens i think over 10 000 police officers is the reason london has become less safe and more there's more crime because there's not enough good police officers i think it's partially because of that and what else apathy people don't care people think that they can get away with everything the social cohesion of so-called diversities are strength in london in my opinion is a fairy tale i have never seen a city so beautiful with so much potential and yet so divided i i am i am really really shocked to see that i think a lot of these young kids these gangs they don't care They have absolutely no connection to anyone and anything but the gangster lifestyle, because it seems so easy to get away with it.

1:11:28And yes, it seems so easy to get away with it because, like you said, there's not enough police officers. The second part is, even there are some police officers, like Francis said, they look at them and they're thinking probably they look like a sack of potatoes in uniform. I, or Aldrodham officer, they try to detain me, push them over and get away with it. I think all those factors contribute to that.

1:11:55Francis Foster:You know, it's interesting you say that. You guys were talking about this. I saw, I was scrolling my Twitter yesterday. I saw this video of a guy posted this video saying, oh, the police in London don't fuck about and and it's uh police it's guys on bikes snatching phones and then a police officer comes in and just smashes them off the bike or they tackle them off the bike or they ram them not the ram them with the car but they sort of enclose them and i was like oh wow this is oh have they changed policy that's an ai i watched this yesterday yeah yeah yeah i was like oh this is what we want oh oh okay yeah that was that was an air yes yes it is it is yeah sort of tells the full story yeah It is indeed exactly that.

1:12:41It's apathy. They don't care. Police are not there to begin with. They don't look respectful enough to... A police officer should be, especially frontline police officers, should be, to some extent, possessing authority. So when I see two police officers coming from a police car, I want to think for myself, you know something, man, I'd rather do what I got to do. I don't want to mess with this guy. Exactly. I don't want to get detained by these officers. It's not going to be, and they obviously seem like they're going to detain me. Maybe I should do something else with my life. However, these officers are getting less and less and far between.

1:13:22And that's a tragedy. And the taxpayers are paying for that. Dean, were you able to look it up?

1:13:29Francis Foster:The UK as a whole accounts for about 40%. Okay. So the UK as a whole is 40 % of all phone snatching in Europe. That's, I mean, that's crazy. Oh, Constantine, it is beyond belief how bad it is. Can I ask a question? Because this really, like, this is going to, this, as a Londoner, this boils my urine. You see these kids, you see them nicking phones. Yes. You see them cycling around. I don't see a police officer. I'm like, why don't you arrest this kid? I mean, it's not exactly a difficult crime to solve. They don't have enough people, Francis. Like I said, specifically Westminster, which I used to work, you go from call to call to call to call.

1:14:18And to some extent, if you're an experienced police officer and you are, let's say, on Oxford Street and very, very quickly need to go to, I don't know, just Regent Street, it's not that far away. You know, somebody snatched your phone. Let's be very, very precise. I snatch your phone. Until the victim finds someone to call the police, until the police ask you a few questions, until a police unit is dispatched to come and see you, the fellow on the bike, it's in Lambeth, in that electric bike, you know, he's in Lambeth. And a lot of police officers, they know that. Yes, of course, they're going to put the blue lights on and they're going to try to come and speak to the victim as soon as possible.

1:15:04That's absolutely fine. But deep down, they know the whole process until they get dispatched, until they come and see you. Especially now Oxford Street will be, you know, made for pedestrians alone. It's not going to be a crime heaven. That is going to be something else. Your phone is gone. So they know that. They know that. But I will say something a little bit controversial. Snatching phones is just a little part of actually what is going on in London. The robberies are something else. People being threatened with knives, beaten in front of their wives and partners. You know, there are a few videos like that on social media, getting their watches away from them.

1:15:49The violence is escalating quite a lot. A lot of people are not afraid to stand in front of police officer and abuse them, sometimes even become physical with police officers. And I think that's very, very, very telling. Very, very, very telling. I have a colleague who, in one of these protests, which used to happen every Saturday, got dragged in, in the crowds. I think they stole her helmet. I think they stole her button and I think they broke her hip I'm not very, very sure if she had a broken hip or not and then they spat her off I mean it's really, really bad if something similar happens to 2011 in London I don't think we'll be able to cope

1:16:40Francis Foster:You're talking about the riots? Yes Dimitar, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on We're going to go to questions from our supporters I really thank you for coming on And I think it's really important for people like you to come forward to tell your story and to explain to people at the normal level of the person, the frontline police officer, and this will be true in the NHS, it'll be true in prison service in many different areas, what's actually going on. Because politicians talk about politics and media people talk about this at a political and media level. But just to hear your story from your experiences has been really valuable.

1:17:15Francis Foster:So thank you for coming on. Before we get to questions from our supporters, what's the one thing we're not talking about? about that we really should be. Before Dimitar answers the final question at the end of the interview, make sure to head over to triggerpod.co.uk where you'll be able to see this. What does the public most misunderstand about being a police officer? Why is there two-tier policing? Is it now time for all police officers to be armed with guns? What's the one thing we're not talking about that we really should be. The very painful topic of

1:17:53introducing higher standards when it comes to recruitment. The very topic of

1:18:06few... I have to say it. I think to some extent the from line has been quite saturated by female officers which are absolutely wonderful in what they do but when it comes to volatility and being able to objectively restrain someone I think they are not prepared to such level of violence and they need a lot of backup sometimes And because they need backup, most of the times they're taking away a unit that might be dealing with someone else. If we have more officers, that's absolutely fine. I want and I wish everyone the best. I want everyone to expand in their work. But we are at such stage of low numbers that if we don't address the quality of policing, we might be indeed in the next few years seeing the total collapse of the police, in my opinion.

1:19:22Francis Foster:And what do you think the answer to that is? Because when we had Chris Donaldson, who's a former police officer himself, and in fact, he worked his way up, I think. He mentioned that, you know, we talked about the female aspect of this, that you bring up the physical strength of being able to deal with violence. And what he said is, the thing is there's a flip side to this, which is when female officers can quite often diffuse the situation in a way that men are less likely to do, which I suspect is probably partly true. So is it about having the right mix or partnering people in the right way or having more people?

1:19:58Francis Foster:Or do you think it's just a question of people being put into positions for which they're not suitable? I think DEI has introduced a few of these policies that we need. A certain amount of that type of people, a certain amount of this type of people, which is absolutely crazy. That's insane because The moment you say, I need more Bulgarians, you know, give myself into example, you are taking away the opportunity of someone else that might be much better suited for that position. And that's true. And I disagree, actually, with that, that they're better in diffusing situations. Diffusing situation needs courtesy and professionalism.

1:20:41That's the only thing that it needs. It doesn't matter where it comes from, as long as the other person can see that it's genuine, regardless if it comes from me or you or some other lady. It truly, truly doesn't matter. It has to be sincere. Courtesy is something that you cannot fake. Discretion is something that you cannot fake. Maybe some female officers may possess that more naturally. But then again, what makes a person naturally more courteous? We can't pick and choose when it comes to the reality of frontline policing. I'd rather have someone who is more physically capable of doing things and then work on their courtesy and discretion than someone that has only courtesy and discretion, but it's not working on the physical ability to do something because most criminals really don't much care how courteous you are, especially if they're guilty.

1:21:50They want to get away. They want to get away. Of course, that doesn't mean you have to approach them. Hey, mate. But they really, really don't care. they're thinking, how I'm going to get out of this, what I'm going to do, what I'm going to say, you know, it's a whole avalanche in their head. So to some extent, they might be right, but I wouldn't myself use that as a theory to just put more courteous people, regardless of their sex.

1:22:17Francis Foster:When we saw, I mean, with the Manchester airport confrontation, I mean, you feel sorry for the for the female police officers involved in that situation who were badly injured. But as you said earlier, in an ideal situation, those guys who punched police officers really should have been very hesitant to do so because of the stature and the presence of those police officers. And they would ideally be thinking, I don't want to punch these people because that's going to end very badly for me. Yes, absolutely. And clearly that deterrent wasn't there, which is what you're saying. No, it wasn't. It wasn't.

1:22:53And to some extent, I actually think it might be invitation. Of course. And I think we should address something else here as well, which, again, may sound controversial, but we live in a very, very multicultural society. And I think perhaps we have to take into consideration that some cultural upbringing may have different views on women. Yeah, I think we might. Yes, that is very, very, very important.

1:23:35Francis Foster:Oh, I see even more what you're saying. So when it comes to policing, the way somebody from a certain background might react to a female police officer is different. Yes, absolutely. I've seen that many, many times. I've seen that many, many times. I have done very many cell exits. Cell exit is when someone is very, very angry and you need to detain them inside the cell. And there's a particular way how you get away from them. And I've seen people being angry, being handled by female police officers quite often. And they come from, most of the time, particular backgrounds in North Africa and Southeast Asia, most of the time.

1:24:29And I've experienced that myself. I've experienced people telling me, why are we the English? You're like us, you're a foreigner, you're one of us. Quite a few times. Most of the times they think I'm Russian because of my family name. Yes. And they have been told me, why are we the English? Why are we the English? they never say the British. They say the English. We think we are British. They think this is England. It's quite interesting that we want to achieve something which is, you know, under the United Kingdom, we're all British, but they don't see the locals as British, they see them as English.

1:25:10And to some extent, I think the animosity is quite open. And I'm very, very very sorry to say that but i have experienced that myself i have seen it i've heard it many many times oh why are you helping them you know why join the police are you crazy stuff like that you know from uh quite a few quite a few people and it's also as well let's be honest about that

1:25:31Francis Foster:in this country you're taught never to hit a woman now some people do because they're not very nice people they're not good people morally but that is what you're taught in this country There are other cultures, they don't really have an issue with it. Francis, the insanity of the city, this is my opinion again, you know, I think it's an insanity what we have found ourselves to be in. Let me paint a picture. People in suits, paid by taxpayers money, going to the home office. okay for months thinking about what we are going to do and came out with leaflets saying you need the other person to say yes before you have sex don't have sex with someone who is asleep for the love of god are we living in a age of total delusion yes this is this is crazy you know i i said that to my sister and she thinks i am i am joking you know people outside of britain think uh you people are totally nuts and i and i mean that because i feel sorry for this country that has given so much to the world and it doesn't really matter in my in my case where i have come from because where you come from yes indeed matters a lot but essentially what matters is your ideas, what you believe in, how you want to live your life.

1:27:02That's why I have chosen to live in Britain. I don't consider myself British. Maybe one day if I marry a British lady and we have kids, maybe that kid will be British, but not me. I consider myself as a subject of this great place and I want to help out. But I'm afraid to say that I think I'm in the minority. There's a A lot of people who don't think that way whatsoever are openly hostile. And for the United Kingdom government to approve that, I think tells you everything you need to know of where we are heading.

1:27:37Francis Foster:Absolutely. Dimitar, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Make sure to head over to our substat where you get to ask Dimitar your questions. He says, I believe broken windows theory is one of the best forms of crime prevention in the community. Why is low level crime not cracked down on very hard so that you prevent crime escalating as we've seen in London?