Following the recent loss of MP Sir David Amess to an incident of knife crime, Footprints Learning for Life Nursery owner Sharon Birch has spoken out about the levels of violence experienced by those in public-facing roles.
Sir David’s tragic passing comes at a time when violence against workers in such positions is on the rise. According to The Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union, 60 per cent of transport workers have been subject to workplace violence since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, while 424 attacks per day on average are inflicted upon shop workers.
Sharon, a former police officer who was attacked with a knife on active duty, told MyLondon News: “Everybody has the right to go home after a day's work. I think people who work with the public are more at risk now than they've ever been before.
“The most worrying part is that most of the confrontation public facing workers meet, you never actually hear about, you only hear about these things if someone is killed.
“When I saw on the news that Sir David had been killed, it affected me like I knew him personally because it reminds me how much danger people in public-facing roles are really in.”
Sharon still recalls the night she herself was attacked at work back in 1988, when she was a young 23-year-old officer who had recently joined the Metropolitan Police force.
Attending a domestic disturbance in East London, Sharon entered the property with a colleague armed only with a small truncheon and her handbag, before being accosted by a man holding a knife in each hand.
“It was about 2:30am when we arrived at the flat,” Sharon remembers. “The door was open and we shouted 'hello', but no reply.
“I went in first, with my colleague behind me and as I went around the corner, he came charging at me with a kitchen knife in each hand lunging at me.
“As he came at me, I felt white inside. I felt completely empty just thinking how on earth am I going to get out of this and fearing for my life.
“I fell to the floor and the first thing I remember is looking at my hands and everything was red, it was like I was wearing gloves.”
Sharon suffered stab wounds to her hands and arms as a result of the incident and was back on duty within a week after receiving hospital treatment. Others who have been on the receiving end of similar acts of violence have not been so lucky.
“I don’t think I realised at the time how bad that incident was. I am lucky to be alive,” Sharon, now 55, told the news outlet.
Sharon admitted that at the time, perhaps naively, she viewed the risks of being attacked on the job as simply part and parcel of the role. Now, with public-facing workers suffering more and more each day, she feels that enough is enough.
“Other times [when I was working with the police] I was indecently assaulted at work, had my front tooth kicked in and when I was pregnant with my third child I was kicked in the stomach and bitten,” Sharon explained.
“It was only at that point that I thought this is too dangerous. I was 34 then and decided I don't want to be on the front-line anymore because of my kids.”
After leaving her police role, Sharon spent eight-and-a-half years as a Child Protection Detective operating in the northeast of England, before establishing the Footprints nursery in Hartlepool in 2006.
But with her two children working in public-facing roles today, Sharon’s speaking out also stems from her personal concerns for their safety in what is becoming an increasingly unsafe world.
“My daughter is a social worker, and my son works as a prison officer, so I worry for both every day.
“I don't think I realised how dangerous these types of jobs can be at the time, but now I see my children doing them I'm terrified.”
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
