Have you ever witnessed a security operation taking place?

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Shriven@reddit

I'm a police officer, and I remember being on duty and then 16 armed NCA officers leaping out of cars and smashing up 2 other cars and dragging the occupants out and away. I had no idea it was going to happen, was just in the town centre getting some CCTV... Was stood staring just like the person I was getting the CCTV from

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ArcadeCrossfire@reddit

I woke up to counter terrorism police conducting an armed raid on a house on my street, turns out it was a modern slavery bust. Nothing like the sound of flashbangs and the sight of automatic weapons outside your window to get the blood going

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Fight_Disciple@reddit

Best wank you ever had.

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ArcadeCrossfire@reddit

Took my danger wank to a whole new level

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Lukeyboy9191@reddit

Used to manage a sports centre and one afternoon a couple of men were acting strange hiding behind these concrete pillars opposite reception. They saw I was a bit weirded out watching them when one of them secretly flashed a police ID. Never found out who they were following/watching

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Techpreist_X21Alpha@reddit

Our old office was next to the TA centre and the police go there for training. We get warned when they're were doing some training. namely stopping a suspect in a car and getting them out. More unusual was when there was a bomb scare at the TA. During one lunch time there was a suspicious unmarked box outside somewhere. fearing the worst, a bomb squad was called in and the police had cordoned off some of the roads. Hell, some of our staff got caught up with it and waited outside of the cordon until given the all clear. The rumor was that some one had left a box of stationary and didn't tell anyone but who knows.  heres a story of it here: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2534723/territorial-army-centre-evacuated-as-suspicious-package-sparks-bomb-scare/

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privateTortoise@reddit

Opened a door and at the same time saw old lady pass by in the corridor, found myself up against the wall by the time my brain registered that it was The Queen Mother. This was at Westminster Abbey and I was there testing and inspecting throughout the buildings and as I knew the layout fairly well and had taken a route that had this 'secret' door that opened into a wood paneled corridor. Queen mum was just popping in to say thank you to the chef for last nights banquet and especially the apple shaped into a swan. I've been in quite a few places security wise and it's fair to say that there's a lot more going on that you'll never think of lest see. A swan crossing a lake is a good example, paddling along frantically underneath but on the surface all serene.

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BearMcBearFace@reddit (OP)

I’ve always wandered about the security arrangements in places like the tube and airports. I assume there are little rat runs everywhere that can be used to shortcut from one place to the next?

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privateTortoise@reddit

In the 80s there was The Kings Cross underground fire that was ultimately due to The Underground having no provision on what to do if there is a fire. HSE has become more prevalent since then for obvious reasons. As for Ports of entry to our nation its quite staggering whats going on in the background and at times creates bizzare experiences. I once went to a call out for an intruder alarm at an international airport but because it was airside (passed customs control) I had to get authorisation from the police and customs before going to the store that sold perfumes.

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CarpeCyprinidae@reddit

'80s kid, several times been emergency evacuated due to bomb threats. one of them (Oxford St 1991) wasn't just a threat and we heard and felt the blast

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BearMcBearFace@reddit (OP)

My old man was nearby the Guildford pub bombings during the 70s. Sounds like an explosion like that is just otherworldly if you’re not expecting it!

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CarpeCyprinidae@reddit

Many years later on - 11th December 2005 - I was 1000 metres from an oil depot when it spontaneously ceased to exist and spread its remnants over several square miles that led me to reassess my opinion of the IRA's ability with explosives. Small timers. Pah.

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Conveth@reddit

Buncefield! Bloody hell, I still lecture on that and how the fire pump for the firewater lagoon actually caused the spark that ignited the vapour from the overflowing tank. So many failings in that incident.

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BearMcBearFace@reddit (OP)

Funnily enough my wife was also near to Bunsfield. She grew up in Hemel and her only memory of it is everything being covered in the fire retardant foam after it blew off the site and her school windows being blown through.

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CarpeCyprinidae@reddit

It was quite a wake-up. My dad's office was destroyed. My brother's office was never even found... Shredded and blasted away. If it hadn't been a Sunday morning there would have been tens of thousands of casualties. My car was set on fire but not actually seriously damaged.. it was raining burning fluids that just scorched the roof. All the trees on our street died.

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boredathome1962@reddit

Was that Bundsfield? We heard it from a hundred miles away...

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CarpeCyprinidae@reddit

Yes. We heard it rather more distinctly

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MoistChuff@reddit

I remember loads of evacuations in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Schools and stations. I was never close to any but I heard the Canary Wharf bomb.

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Conveth@reddit

Moved to a new place - mid terrace in NW Glasgow; Nice and quiet area but we'd noticed you could sometimes hear the announcements from the train station 3 streets and a canal away. Anyway on night 3, with the blinds down watching TV we noticed flashing blue lights on the Venetian blinds. I did the usual peek through and saw several vans and police cars 2 doors down. When I went outside there were 7 bloody police vehicles in the street! A day later we found out that the ex-girlfriend of the drug dealer 2 doors down had arrived with a machete and was out to get him and his new squeeze. Like I said...lovely quiet area.

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pissbuckit666@reddit

I've seen a lot, probably missed or walked past a lot too. I live in Hereford so lots of activity around, my sister has bumped into some soldiers wearing gear a couple of times at night. They like a farm nearby for practice. They have an agreement with the farmer.

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privateTortoise@reddit

Its easy to spot SF in Herts as they all have extremely broad shoulders and beards. /s Father was 2 1, 5ft 7, no more than 11stone nor worth a second glance so for me its weird that units whose role is to blend in and watch undetected are portrayed as big elite super killers. Ultimately they are just blokes but with a sprinkling of nutters that get through the net. Ultimately no matter how sharp an individual is to whats going on around them there's a lot more going on behind the scenes.

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Foxmourne@reddit

I used to work in retail and my shop was next door to a unit that was turning into a Fraser Hart. I sometimes used to work 5 am starts and I remember I went in one morning and noticed there was armoured security van (Loomis I think) dropping off the jewels and watches with two police cars and three or four armed officers guarding the delivery. That's about as exciting as I've witnessed.

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imminentmailing463@reddit

About a decade ago on the second or third day after moving to London I was coming back after dark from an evening out. My place was opposite the entry to a really quiet cul-de-sac. As I walked past the cul-de-sac I saw that there were about 10 riot vans, multiple police cars and bikes and scores of riot police and armed police. It was quite eerie as they were all just there unmoving and silent. Never found out what they were there for. They were gone in the morning and I heard nothing overnight.

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BearMcBearFace@reddit (OP)

10 riot vans is more than they have in the entirety of my local force I think… (Dyfed-Powys)

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PeggyNoNotThatOne@reddit

Funnily enough I've seen Heddlu vans here in South London. I have no idea why but there must've been something big going on.

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BearMcBearFace@reddit (OP)

For big events I think they draft in South Wales Police to help police them.

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Thriftfunnel@reddit

Football. The away team bring their local police who know the fans by sight.

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PeggyNoNotThatOne@reddit

I'm a very long way from a football ground. More likely some music event in Brockwell or Burgess Park, possibly Clapham Common.

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SteptoeUndSon@reddit

Special Branch officers filmed me molesting a swan in my hotel room, and now I am basically their puppet.

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CoffeeandaTwix@reddit

Not that out of the unordinary but still specialist police... I have seen armed police after shooting round the corner and also saw an early morning drugs raid.

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boredathome1962@reddit

Multiple times. I used to work for customs back in the day, and there were often security alerts at my station. Regular police, armed police, anti terrorism police, sniffer dogs, bomb disposal, forensics, ambulances too, in the background. Oh, and tv crews. Luckily, while I was on duty, no coroners vans. It all happens rather gradually, the local guys arrive first, but more than usual, then the specialists arrive in bits, due to the travel time. Someone takes command, then later someone else takes command over them. My favourite job was to get out of the way, and maybe make some extra tea. The worst job was to have had some involvement from the beginning, and have to tell what happened over and over again. I can give some advice too. Don't come up on the armed cops from behind...

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Responsible-Walrus-5@reddit

Couple of years ago, there was a commotion outside. Looked out my bedroom window and there was a car in the neighbours front garden (no wall just grads) and like three unmarked police cars with their grill lights on, boxing in the car. Very very quickly they got the person out of the car and into one of theirs, and off they went. And one of the police (not wearing uniform tho!) got in the suspects car and drove it off. So after 5 mins there was absolutely no sign of any of his having taken place except the tyre marks on the front lawn. Looked like a kidnap really!

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Alutus@reddit

No idea but a couple of years ago I was coming up to a roundabout in MK (Uncommon right?) and a motorbike(Cant remember if marked/unmarked, but it had blue lights flashing) from the right exit cut our lane off and blocked our entering the roundabout. We sat there for about 30s, then between 5-10 black SUV (inc full tinted windows) screamed through the roundabout without slowing down. That was a strange one.

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MoistChuff@reddit

Not major but I remember an unmarked ripping down Wardour St shortly after 7/7. The wrong way down a one way street. There was a credible threat of another bombing and London was on higher alert than I remembered growing up in the 70’s and 80’s with the IRA bombs. Or it felt like it.

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Clear-Meat9812@reddit

I was in the states and saw one. Somewhere between fifty and a hundred police all making a parameter. Being British I went for a walk round the outside of it to see how big. Got about a four mile walk in so it must have been something around a mile in each direction from the incident. Suddenly a couple of less shiny but definitely more used vehicles with blue lights and camouflage turned up at speed parking completely randomly. Out jumped a bunch of beefcakes with who start shouting at the newly scared looking police. Apparently they were military police and took the situation over. Local rumour was someone came back on leave, didn't want to be redeployed, took his mum hostage and claimed he'd take pot shots at anyone who argued with him using a sniper rifle. Of course local rumours are always inflated so who knows. Still, not a bad walk and the next day it was like nothing had happened.

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YchYFi@reddit

Yes and it was nothing spectacular. There's always cannabis farm raids in Newport.

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hotdogs4T@reddit

Was eating breakfast in a restaurant in Durban South Africa, a truck screeches up and about 8 guys with machine guns jump out and start running around. They weren’t exactly in uniform, all in the same navy polo shirt with a logo on it and navy combat trousers. It was fair to say that I shit myself just a little bit. Apparently there was an armed gang robbing petrol stations in the city and they’d had some intel that the petrol station opposite the restaurant was about to be hit.

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hunger_chamber69@reddit

Years back myself and my housemate were about to leave for work, noticed tons of police in the street and suddenly got ordered to go back inside. There was an armed response unit dealing with a situation down the street, could only see so much from our window but they brought a bloke out and had him on the ground. Made me an hour and half late for work. A couple of times in Hamburg, once during a protest over a squat being closed down and the other time on May Day. Vans equipped with water cannons, tons of riot police. It was pretty wild as the protestors both times used fireworks and set barricades on fire. Then in Toulouse back in 2016 after the spate of terrorist attacks. I was there on holiday. Actual troops patrolling the streets.

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AJCham@reddit

No, but I remember it being jarring enough the first time I saw armed police merely patrolling (2 officers with rifles, in Newcastle city centre). I think it was in the wake of the Christmas Market attack in Berlin.

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BearMcBearFace@reddit (OP)

I live in a rural area where I see guns on a regular basis, but that’s just because farmers and farmers mums are packing heat around here. Every time I see armed police just standing around with a weapon if I visit the big smoke I feel so uneasy about it (totally recognising the fact that they’re there for our safety etc).

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thediaryofwoe@reddit

Yes, it happened on our street, the police came over to the problem house (noisy neighbours, always music, stinks of weed) they let him in but they locked the door behind him, around 5 minutes later, several cars attending, ten minutes after that. Six vans came out, some of them was carrying ballistic shields and tasers.

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