Don’t tell him Pike!

Pc Neil Pike swam to the man’s aid in the River Thames

A police constable who dived into the River Thames to save a man who jumped off a bridge has been commended as “extremely brave” by senior officers.

Pc Neil Pike was called to Bridge Road, Chertsey, to reports of a man threatening to attempt suicide.

He managed to reach him in the water and got them both to safety with the help of a buoyancy aid dropped from a police helicopter.

Ch Insp Dave Kelley paid tribute to the “professionalism” of Pc Pike.

The incident took place at about 1420 GMT on Saturday.

‘Reacted instinctively’

Video footage shot from the police helicopter showed the man sitting on the edge of the bridge, lowering himself over and then falling.

He could then be seen afloat in the water for several minutes before Pc Pike appeared and got the buoyancy aid to him.

He said afterwards: “I am pleased that I was able to help to save a life.”

The man involved was taken to hospital for treatment, while the officer suffered shock caused by the cold water in the Thames.

Ch Insp Kelley said: “Pc Pike was extremely brave to risk his own life in order to save another, and reacted instinctively to the scene as it unfolded in front of him.

“Without his fast actions… the man could have died.”

This is the sort of thing police officers do on a daily basis. They risk their lives for other people. They don’t do it for the money. They don’t do it for the glory. They do it because it is the right thing to do.

There are no performance criteria against which this sort of action can be measured. There are no government targets for rescuing people out of rivers, burning buildings, smashed up cars, hostage situations, failed relationships, drug addiction or alcoholism. Yet all of these things are done by police officers each and every day.

For this, what reward do we get?

We get a total lack of support from the Home Office, who expect us to perform these duties as well as meet a raft of targets that do absolutely nothing to improve the quality of service that the police provide.

We get the uninformed comments from members of the public. (There are some informed comments amongst this lot, but read through a few and you’ll see what I mean.)

We get abused for stepping into the fray. We get abused for not turning up on time when something more urgent is happening. We get assaulted, insulted, villified, accused of being fascist, racist, homophobic, uncaring and power mad.

Yet for all this, there are occasions when someone will say “Thank you”. I had such a case last night. I won’t go into details, but one man who had been through a hell of a time still found time to thank the officers that had helped him. Again, there’s no target or bonus for this sort of thing, but you know what?

It makes up for all the other crap!