Darren joined Kent Police in 1990. He was on section for six years before transferring to a ‘tac team’ where he spent a further four doing public order duties, EGT, Forward Intelligence Officer, search warrants, anti-drug and street robbery operations, POLSA, surveillance work and eating an awful lot of breakfasts. He then spent ten years as an AFO responding to spontaneous firearms incidents and carrying out protection duties for high-profile politicians and continued eating an awful lot of breakfasts. He also qualified as a Ballistic Teams Medic, realising how useful this knowledge might prove seeing as he was the father of two small, and rather adventurous, boys.

No Moor Tomfoolery

In 2010 he decided that he was getting a little old for all that firearms tomfoolery and that he needed, instead, a role that didn’t involve climbing over eight-foot walls in the pouring rain, in the middle of the night and carrying more luggage than he generally took on holiday with the added pleasure then of hiding in a bush for hours whilst staring at a house and waiting for someone to come out who may or may not have a gun. He, therefore, returned to section and was promoted Sergeant where he remained until retirement in late 2020 doing a mixture of patrol skipper, admin and custody roles depending on what the Queen required of him that month. Margate!

His last four years were spent at glorious Margate as permanent patrol skipper, thereby keeping the team safe from his often eccentric attitude to casefile and crime report admin. Enjoying himself and having a great team, he continued working 24/7 shifts right up to retirement, even staying on for an extra couple of months because, being in the middle of the covid crisis, it was the easiest way to get out of the house. Ask him nicely and he might bore you with the tale of the arrest he made during the last hour of his last shift, having once again run out of patrols – “Hi Darling, I’m going to be late …” Trauma

Darren was a Trauma Management (TRiM) practitioner for fourteen years, aiding colleagues after incidents as well as assisting in the selection and training of new practitioners. He was also a Post Incident Manager (PIM) supporting colleagues after death or serious injury following police contact and was on the county board of the Kent Police Welfare and Ethics Committee.

The end of the beginning?

Now retired, he is married with two grown-up children – they somehow managed to survive childhood – and enjoys sailing (badly, sometimes suicidally), cycling, endless walking, trying to be middle-class by belonging to a cold-water swimming group, and then recovering from these energetic activities by reading historical biographies the size of building blocks – which encourages him to doze-off and catch-up on all that sleep he’s missed out on during the last thirty years of earlies, late shifts and nights. He lives on the Kentish Riviera in Herne Bay.