A Thames Valley Police department has won a Federation Team Excellence Award for removing HS2 violent protesters from trees, who threatened officers and covered officers in urine.

The Public Order Department – a joint operation between Thames Valley and Hampshire Police – will be presented with the award at the end of the month.

The team faced threats and violence while having to work at great heights to remove the protesters from trees.

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At the time, it was the only police department in the country that had the skills and training to do this kind of work at height.

Between September 28 and October 8 2020, the officers completed five deployments to two HS2 protest sites.

The weather for the last three deployments was described by the force as “horrendous”, which made the deployments even more difficult and dangerous.

The first of these final three deployments saw the officers successfully removing two protestors from 70ft-high treehouses; one of the protesters was locked on and unable to self-release, and was suffering from exposure.

Meanwhile other protesters assaulted the officers by tipping urine over them. The team used a cherry picker to remove the protesters; the unstable nature of the treehouses presented even more challenges.

The second deployment was to remove and arrest the protestors who had assaulted the team. The team was assembled quickly, with officers volunteering to work on their rest days. Again, in challenging circumstances, they successfully removed the suspects and placed them under arrest.

The third deployment meant dealing with seven protestors up an even higher and more precarious tree. At one point a protester attempted to lock on to the hydraulics that were holding up an officer. Not only was this extremely dangerous, but would have involved a difficult rescue operation. Only the quick and decisive action of the officer in the basket prevented this from happening.

The incident was live-streamed by the protestors, so the officers were under heavy scrutiny, but the force said they remained “calm and quick-thinking” and managed to get all protesters down to arrest them.

PC Phil Hewitt helped lead the deployments and organise specialist training for the officers.

He said: “It was most definitely a team effort, and we pushed through adversity together. Our last deployment was dealing with protestors who were 90ft up in the air.

“The court-appointed bailiffs had already gone in to do a removal, but they’d been assaulted so we had to go in to make arrests. The weather was awful, we were knee-deep in mud, it was raining and freezing cold and there were 35-40mph winds. We thought: ‘Is this actually doable?’”

He continued: “It’s probably the first time a police protest removal team has operated in this way – usually bailiffs do work at height and police stand back. Some of the protestors even attempted to interfere with the safety of the officers, grabbing their ropes. It was a constantly fluid situation, but the team shone through and they deserve this recognition.”

Sergeant Alex Shepherd, who was in charge of the team, said: “The officers had to look after themselves, each other, and ensure the protestors didn’t put themselves at undue risk. It was one of the scariest things I have witnessed as a supervisor.

“The whole team was amazing: they were dynamic and decisive. It’s difficult to express in words just how high these officers had to work, and how difficult these incidents were.”

Thames Valley Police Federation chair Craig O’Leary said: “These Public Order Department officers truly excelled in unique and extremely difficult conditions, while also being scrutinised on social media.

“They were well-trained, well-organised and composed, and worked brilliantly as a team, attempting to resolve the situation through negotiation in the first instance. Even when they were assaulted, they remained professional and completed their task.

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“They went above and beyond, and exceeded themselves in this challenging situation. They fully deserve this Excellence Award.”

PC Phil Hewitt and Sergeant Alex Shepherd will attend the 2022 Thames Valley Police Federation Bravery Awards on April 28, where they will collect an Excellence Award representing their whole team.

The Awards are in association with Uniform Mortgages. The hashtag for the event is #TVPFedBravery.

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