Scottish Police Federation film highlights reality of the frontline

The film shows an officer having to explain to a small girl that her mum has overdosed.

It lasts just three-and-a-half minutes, but a gripping new short film encapsulates the full range of distressing scenarios faced by police on Scotland’s frontline.

In a swooping take through a block of flats in Glasgow, we see a lone officer dealing with the emotional turmoil of talking a teen down from the roof, while downstairs, cops face a man brandishing a machete.

Elsewhere in the building a young cop tries to find the words to talk to a child whose mum has overdosed, and as the film ends, there’s no time for the responders or viewers to breathe before reports come in of an officer being stabbed.

Created by the Scottish Police Federation, the body representing rank and file officers, the stories in Relentless are played out by actors but are based on an often grim reality faced on the beat.

“There’s a lot of things we see that are very frightening and traumatic,” said PC Mark Richardson, one of three officers whose stories are adapted in the film.

“It’s not all the glitz and glamour you see from the official side, playing with the dogs or the helicopter. There are some cold, dark, miserable nights where you’ll be getting sent to every call coming.”

Part of the film is based on his final shift in community policing, where he was called out to two attempted suicides and also helped someone suffering a seizure.

Just as he thought it was time for home, he was put on the case of a child who’d run away and was found in the pouring rain having been hit by a car.

“Seeing the film was quite emotional because I’ve been in every one of those scenarios,” Mark said. “You don’t get a choice. You can just be the one that has to turn up and it can be very frightening out there.

“From my perspective, that shift I had was a great shift. Yes I was shattered, I didn’t get a cup of tea, but we managed to save a couple of lives and I went home feeling proud that I’d done the best I could for my community.”

An actor plays an officer who has just talked down a teenager from the roof of the building.

Another officer interviewed for the film, PC Claire Taylor, has been in the force for 22 years. Preferring to stay on the streets over a desk job, she says she joined to help the public.

“I feel that police officers are the voice of vulnerable people in the community,” she said. “We’re here to help and we do help a huge number of people every hour of every day across the country. I absolutely love my job and that’s why I put on the uniform every day – I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”

She recalled an incident where a man who’d taken drugs was threatening members of the public with a knife and was running into motorway traffic.

“We were trying to save his life, trying to prevent a major motorway pile-up, and in the chaos he tried to stab me and my colleague. We both managed to get out of the way. You’re in such a state of high alert and adrenaline that you almost don’t notice until your shift finishes. Then you’ve got to be normal when you go home to your family and just be a mum.

“The worst time is when somebody dies that you’ve tried to save. A few months ago a child passed away. I had been doing CPR for 45 minutes but it was unsuccessful. These are the moments when it’s just really traumatic, no matter how resilient you are, or how experienced. You go over and over it, you don’t forget.”

Actors play police officers facing scenarios drawn from real life stories.

Relentless debuted at the Scottish Police Federation conference this week alongside a social media campaign. Its aim is to reclaim the narrative on policing. Many officers feel they’ve been portrayed negatively in recent years and want to shift the focus back to the work they do, often at great personal risk.

“Anything that happens worldwide in the police comes back to us and we face it on the street,” Mark said. “There’s a lot of angry people who will blame you for things that have happened in America or down south. We’re totally different here.

“It’s about having thick skin to deal with that. There’ll be people that just hate the police. It could be they’ve had a negative experience with police or someone they know has and we have to be cognisant to that. They’re not seeing the mother, the father, the daughter, the son, they’re just seeing a cop.”

PC Craig Purdon, the third officer who shared his experiences with filmmakers, said being a police officer was a promise he was fulfilling to his late gran.

Since joining the force in March 2020, he’s been assaulted many times while on duty.

“In Scotland, specifically Glasgow, there is hostility to the police,” he said. “We want to show that we’re here to help.

“Having viewed Relentless, I was blown away with how accurate it is, how it made me feel watching it and the emotion I felt throughout.

“I am very proud to be a police officer and strive to do what I can, with the public’s best interest at heart. I’d hope the relationship between the public and police could mend and unite the two.”

Officers attend a domestic dispute in the film.

Scottish Police Federation General Secretary David Kennedy said Relentless was a call to recognise the work of Scotland’s police officers and to foster a better understanding between the public and those who serve them.

“We were really careful when we came up with the film that all the scenarios actually come from real ones,” he said.

“Over the last few years, we’ve seen it more and more that some police officers are ashamed to actually say they’re police officers.

“They should be able to go into these situations knowing they’ve got the public behind them. They’re facing real fear. After they go home at night, it follows you and that does have an impact.

“These are real people, with families, who are deeply affected by the traumas they witness.”

Visit spfrelentless.com