ALL expatriates leave Jeddah eventually, either moving on to other expatriate jobs, or jobs back home, or to retire. However, not many of them leave to join the London Metropolitan Police Service. Dylan Wright first came to Saudi Arabia in 2003 to teach English at the Berlitz School of English in Jeddah. He had come from Japan where he had already been teaching English for five and-a-half years. The job was to be an interim one for only six months while he waited for security clearance prior to joining the London Metropolitan Police Service – popularly known as “The Met”. This process frustratingly extended to three years, during which time he threw himself wholeheartedly into all the activities Jeddah had to offer. His first impression of Jeddah was not what he expected. “Jeddah was flooded! I arrived just after Jeddah's annual rainy day and due to the city having no drainage system, the streets were like rivers. The following year, after a similar downpour, I could have canoed out of my compound!” It was also Ramadan when he arrived. “I had to go to my institute during the day to be trained and I had to fast as well. Even though my stomach was growling, and I had a headache by the end of the day and felt very tired, I was grateful for this experience as it gave me empathy with the Saudis and other Muslims.” Wright's next move was to head for one of Jeddah's beaches which immediately put him in touch with the scuba diving community. Already a diver, he spent the next couple of years going out on dive trips on the Red Sea just about every weekend. His hair grew long and became bleached by the sun and he was soon a well-known figure in the expat social scene. Everyone got to know of his ambition to become a London “Bobby”, and often when we saw him, we would ask: “Any news from the police?” He didn't limit himself to the expatriate social scene and also made many Saudi friends. “Most foreigners would be taken aback by the small courtesies and the generosity of the average Saudi. Complete strangers would come up to me and say “Welcome to my country!” Saudis love to talk and they are very interested in you and your impression of them and their religion.” Wright was in Jeddah in 2004, a year when the US Consulate was attacked. Nonetheless, he remarks that “Even at its worst, walking around Jeddah was far safer than walking around parts of the UK and the US. Both compounds I lived in were protected by high walls, barbed wire, private security, a unit of National Guardsmen and concrete road blocks.” In 2006, Wright's security approval finally came through; he left Jeddah for London, to follow his dream and become one of “the boys in blue”. We met in London recently and he arranged permission for me to join him and a fellow Police Constable on a night shift in their Response Car. Excited and a bit nervous, I drove all the way across London to meet him at Shoreditch Police Station. A barely recognizable man came out to meet me: gone was the casual look with untidy mop of bleached, blond hair; in its place, a “short back & sides” haircut, and a smart uniform complete with stab-proof vest. This was Police Constable Dylan Wright of “The Met”. He explained that a Response Car is driven by a Police Officer who has been on a specialized driving course. They are allowed to answer distress and emergency calls and drive through towns at high speed, with blue lights flashing, but they are not allowed to chase criminals in, for example, stolen cars. He is currently based in the London Borough of Hackney which has one of the highest crime rates in the UK, frequently involving knifing assaults and occasionally gun crime. “It is quite a challenge with a huge contrast in residents. There are some very wealthy people, living in large expensive houses, and then there are very poor areas. There are a lot of drug related and mental illness problems here.” Following the briefing (during which a couple of plain-clothes police were dispatched around the community to look out for drug dealing) I was kitted out with a stab-proof vest, introduced to PC Paul Eaton who has been with the Met for 14 years, and we headed out into the London night in the squad car, a Vauxhall Astra 1.7 litre Diesel. In general, the British police don't carry guns; they are usually equipped with a truncheon (either a solid one, or a telescopic one), some CS spray, and a pair of strong, solid handcuffs. As we began our drive around Hackney, PCs Wright & Eaton told me that there are more gangs in Hackney than anywhere else in the UK. They name themselves after their neighborhoods, carry knives and occasionally firearms – although these are often imitation or starter pistols. There is also a large immigrant population, including many Muslims, mainly of Turkish extraction. PC Wright has found that his experience of living in Jeddah and getting to know something about Islam has been very helpful. He is currently involved in the drawing up of a pilot training program on how to deal with incidents involving members of the Muslim community. Sudden deaths, forced marriages, and Mosque “etiquette” are some of the topics touched on, and the purpose of the program is to raise awareness of Officers to the issues involved. He hopes to work more closely with the Muslim community of Hackney and break down the barriers that have come up since the 7/7 bombing and the Jean Charles De Menezes shooting. All of a sudden a call came through that a woman was being held at knife-point. On went the blue light, and PC Paul Eaton went into action. His driving skills were immediately obvious as we drove at high speed along a complex route to the given address. By the time we arrived and joined other police officers, the drama was over, but at least I had experienced one emergency call and high-speed drive! They showed me a plaque on a nearby wall, commemorating the death of 27-year-old PC Laurence Brown in 1990. He had been lured to the location by a 999 emergency call. On arrival there, the two callers ambushed him and one shot him at point blank range with a sawn-off shotgun. The man was caught and convicted of murder. PC Wright was dismissive of the recent publicity that has been given to racial tension in the service itself. “At my level, nobody cares what color you are, what gender you are, your religion or your sexual orientation, so long as you do your job and you're there when your mates need you. Our job can be quite dangerous and if you are involved in a “roll around” or facing a hostile crowd you don't care whether your back-up is white, black, brown or yellow, gay or straight, Christian or Muslim, so long as they get there quick! The moment any officer presses his EMA (Emergency Activation Button) we are all up and running to get to them - because we expect them to do the same for us.” Most of the time, the two PCs were just cruising around the community, keeping an eye out for any problems, observing areas outside nightclubs and bars at closing time, and also checking up on the occasional homeless alcoholic, huddled up in a corner somewhere with a bottle of beer, but always ready in “Response” mode. “Tonight is really very quiet, but Friday nights are when we see a lot of action,” explained PC Eaton. “That is boys night out.” Although he misses his weekends in Jeddah, the scuba diving, water ski-ing and rugby, PC Wright is very happy that he finally got started in the career of his choice. “There is an old saying ‘If you do a job you enjoy you never work a day.' I haven't worked a day since I arrived in Hackney.” __
