Every contact leaves a trace | John Sutherland | TEDxLondon

I'm a fortunate man I'm a husband to an extraordinary wife I'm a dad to three beautiful girls and for the last 25 years it's been my extraordinary privilege to serve as an officer in the Metropolitan Police here in London this city that is my home I joined the Met in September 1992 this is me a training school back then and in the time since then policing arguably has changed in all sorts of ways certainly since the Met was founded in 1829 but then of course the world has changed and society has changed and the communities that we live and work in have changed technology has changed crime has changed each of these things is still happening and arguably a gathering speed but when it comes to policing and when it comes to the things that really matter I'm not sure that anything has really changed at all the job is still to save lives to find the lost to comfort the brokenhearted to defend the vulnerable and to confront the dangerous sometimes even to risk it all whilst I'm here talking to you there are men and women in blue out there prepared to step into harm's way in defense of complete strangers they always have been to me and always will be the everyday heroes and heroines who police our streets and today I'd like to offer you an insight into their working lives in the form of a short lesson in forensic science in particular I'd like to introduce you to la cartes principal it's most definitely an idea worth sharing Edmond Locard was a French forensic scientist born in the nineteenth century who gave his name to an idea that remains fundamental to the way in which we investigate crime in the 21st century la cartes principle says very simply that every contact leaves a trace every time two objects come into contact with one another an exchange happens picture the following scene if you will a family home in a quiet residential street a thief climbs over the back garden fence leaving footprints in the flowerbed he breaks a ground-floor window cutting himself as he does so leaving drops of blood on the sill as he climbs through he catches his clothing leaving fibers on the edges of the glass and once inside he leaves his fingerprints over all of the surfaces finally as he tries to make his escape the registration plate from his car is captured by his in hidden CCTV camera okay so he's not the brightest of thieves but I hope his small story offers just a small insight into the genius that is lockhart the police do their job well and they get to the scene quickly they find the footprints and the blood they recover the fibers and the fingerprints evidence of the suspect left at the scene and they catch up with him quickly enough to find mud from the flowerbed on the bottom of his shoes and microscopic fragments of glass all over his clothing and because they're having a particularly good day in because it's my story they even find everything that he's stolen in the back of his car evidence from the scene carried by him it's a powerful principle that explains how a great many crimes get solved traces of the scene carried by the suspect traces on from the suspect left at the scene because every contact leaves a trace but if you think about it a little more it seems to me that la cartes principle has an application that goes beyond simply the investigation of crime it has an application for every kind of human relationship and interaction every time two people come into contact with one another an exchange takes place whether between lifelong friends or passing strangers we encourage we ignore we hold out a hand or we withdraw it we walk toward so we walk away with less or we curse we love what we hate and every single contact leaves a trace the way that we treat and regard one another matters it really matters and in an increasingly uncertain and often frightening world it might even be the thing that matters most of all the painful privilege of policing is to see all of life in all its fractured pieces broken hearts and broken homes broken lives and broken bones police officers so often find themselves in the hurting places going where most couldn't doing what most wouldn't but it comes at a cost that's a picture of me after a particularly painful night at work but here's the thing I've worked with officers who've been injured much more seriously than me I've worked with officers who confronted gunman and disarmed those wielding knives I've worked with officers who've walked into the midst of unimaginable horrors the scenes of crimes and car crashes and every place in between I've worked with officers who have been first on scene following terrorist atrocities and have seen things in those places that defy comprehension I've seen things and done things myself that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy now I don't see any of these things to impress or to alarm I say them simply because they're true and it would be impossible to do this job for any length of time and to remain unaffected by it perhaps I could tell you a little of my own story to do that I need to go back to April 2013 at the time I had the privilege of being the police commander for the borough of southwark in South London I was responsible there for about a thousand officers and staff and we collectively had a residential and business community of hundred mm to protect it had some of the highest levels of serious crime anywhere in Britain almost every kind of chaos almost everyday it was the best and the most fulfilling job that I've ever had but it was also the most challenging and the demand of most demanding six months into my time there I broke it began with a deepening sense of overwhelming exhaustion of the kind that I just couldn't shake off it developed into a malevolent form of anxiety that would wake me in the middle of the night but leave me with no understanding of the reasons why and eventually came the depression now depression is not the same as sadness in fact sadness is to depression as a puddle is to the Pacific it's a thing of raw horror and blind terror a waterboarding of the mind and it smashed me to the ground I was off work for seven months more than four years later I'm still recovering and initially at least it robbed me stripped me of everything that I had ever had confidence in of my personal identity as a husband as a dad as a man I just felt like a failure it stripped me of my professional identity as a police officer as a borough commander as a hostage negotiator as the man in the arena in the space of a few short days I went from running a borough to barely being able to run a bath it was a crisis of everything and as I lay at home slowly and quietly recovering I try to work out what the hell had happened to me and in truth it was a collision a combination of things the first was just the simple wear and tear of a policing life shift working extended hours over prolonged periods of time but more than anything else the consequences of the repeated exposure to extreme trauma as a society I don't think we've really properly begun to understand the impact on our police officers of the repeated exposure to extreme trauma but alongside that general wear and tear there are just particular faces and places each of my colleagues could tell you their own stories the scenes and the screams that sear themselves into your soul and remain then there were the expectations of the day job more and more and more being demanded with less and less and less to give all in an environment of seemingly relentless criticism from the media and from politicians in particular and then of course there are things that have nothing to do with policing but everything to do with me we all have our stories but it was the combination of these things that left me in pieces the good news though is that I'm a heck of a lot better than I was and I just like to leave you today with three practical thoughts and three personal thoughts how that's been possible and it continues to be possible first practically is to rest we live in a world and in a society that is moving far faster than is good for any of us I think it was Gandhi who said there's more to life than increasing its speed but I'm not sure anyone was listening out of necessity these days I am having to slow down and to learn how to rest so that's the first thing the second thing is medication one of the first things I did when I got up this morning was to take an antidepressant and there is absolutely no shame in the fact they don't work for everybody but they work for me and for a lot of others besides and so I'll take them for as long as I need to and thirdly counseling I see a wonderful counsellor I've seen her throughout the last four years and she helps me to untangle the mysteries of me and put myself back together again the reality is we all need someone to talk to sometimes so those are the three practical things and last of all three personal things the first of those is faith the religion that I'd grown up with failed me but a small fragment of faith remained I've begun to discover something of the mystery of grace the rumor that I'm loved beyond measure just as I am secondly friends both at work and at home who loved me and walked alongside me until I was able to walk on my own again and thirdly family particularly my three girls and my extraordinary wife is sitting over there she's called bear and she was the harbor wall to whom I lashed my little boat and she stayed strong and true I suppose it really was love that saved me which is possibly not the first thing you'd expect to hear officer say but in this increasingly uncertain world what is it that we can have confidence in maybe love is all we need between friends and strangers between lovers and foes between neighborhoods and Nations the way that we regard and treat one another matters it really matters and every contact leaves a trace you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 33,440

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United Kingdom, Life, Career, Community, Emotions, Mental health, Relationships, Security, Violence

Id: ibl3M4dTF2U

Length: 15min 37sec (937 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 22 2017