The Romany copper

WITH his smiling eyes, earrings and a swathe of tattoos covering his beefy arms, biceps and chest, Steve Dean would not look out of place in a travelling fair or driving a cart collecting scrap. So it is no great shock to learn that he is a Romany gipsy. What might surprise many people, though, is that he is also a Metropolitan Police officer.

Dean can understand people's surprise - he is the first to admit that most of us are programmed to think of police and travellers as enemies. But he also knows that this great divide is not helpful at a time when clashes between travellers, police and villagers have never been more bitter.

Now, having been a police officer for more than 30 years, he is speaking out about his Romany background in the hope that it will help defuse a rapidly deteriorating situation. His fear is that despite every London borough having a gipsy and traveller liaison officer, many among the 42,000 trave l lers in Greater London see the police - "gavvers" in Romany - as people who only harass them.

Dean says this mistrust goes both ways. Of the Met's 45,000 staff, there are only about 50 with a Romany background, and the only contact many officers have with travellers is confrontational.

"There is mistrust on both sides," says the 48-year-old constable, the Met's dog-breeding manager at Keston Dog Training Establishment in Kent. "Gipsies are the only ethnic minority it still seems acceptable to be racist about and there are some police officers who don't see gipsies as a genuine ethnic minority group. If the majority of travelling people the see are those who are giving them grief, then their perception is 'all I ever get from this group is aggravation'. That's the case at present.

"But it's a two-way thing. If the only police the travellers meet are those moving them from where they want to be, their observation of the police is that we are a nuisance, and not a particularly polite one at that."

PC Dean has personal experience of such prejudice from both sides: other gipsies have been less than keen on his choice of career - and, when off-duty, he has suffered harassment from police who did not realise he was one of their own.

He was born into a large Romany family. As with many gipsies, who struggled when their men went to fight in the Second World War, his mother had moved into a council house in Whitstable, Kent, where Dean grew up. As a child, he spent summers with Romany relations travelling to pick hops and fruit, and he can still speak some Romany. When he left school he applied to join the police cadets because "it offered the facility to do a lot of sport".

Later, having been accepted into the cadets, he went to visit his great-grandfather, who was in his nineties. "When I showed him my police helmet he put it on and, with a stern look, he pointed at the floor and said: 'Put the fire out and move on.' That's what a police officer was to him.

"The general reaction from Romany family and friends has been fine, though," says Dean, who lives in Canterbury with his wife, Jane. "At family weddings and funerals I get a bit of teasing about being a policeman, but nothing bad.

I think some revel in it, to some extent. I was at a funeral once and one of my relations said to me when we were having a drink: 'I've never stood this close to a copper before!'" But the conduct of fellow officers has not always been so enlightened. "At Appleby Gipsy Fair four years ago, I was with a Romany family and we parked our pickup truck in a space where another car had been parked. As soon as we stopped, two police officers came across the road like Exocets and said aggressively: 'Move it!' I asked why and was told it was illegally parked and would be towed away if we didn't immediately move it.

"On another occasion, my father and I were driving his horse and carriage when two officers drove right up beside us shouting abuse, which could have caused the horses to spook and us to crash. It was plainly two officers just being prejudiced.

This was because their perception was: 'There's a couple of pikeys, why do they needed to be treated decently?' "If I had identified myself on either occasion as a police officer I'm sure I would have got an apology. But I didn't because I didn't want them apologising to me because I'm in the force; I want to be treated the same as everyone else, irrespective of who I am."

Dean started working with police dogs 24 years ago and since 1991 has been at Keston training dogs to sniff out guns, drugs and suspects, as well as to maintain public order. His past work as a bobby on the beat and his current expertise with dogs calls for him to face an often hostile population, including fellow gipsies.

"I've visited travellers' sites as a police officer and when I've told them I'm Romany, I've not had any animosity from other travellers."

But he says the police still need to gain more awareness of Romany culture.

"For instance, while dogs are common on sites, they are seen as unclean and not let in caravans. So, if a police officer with no knowledge of gipsy traditions went on a site and took a dog into a caravan he would have no idea why the family living there suddenly goes berserk. But to the family, everything that dog touches is defiled.

"I'm not saying there should be one law for travellers and another for everyone else, but let's be sensitive to the issue. If, say, we needed to search a caravan for drugs, let's take time to explain why and look at possible alternatives.

It may be that we would have to use a dog to search, but if we don't give it any consideration, police are going to be shocked by the reaction and create lasting resentment among the travelbeling families. It's all about communication. While it's not happening there's going to be this divide. At present, everyone seems to be chasing each other round in a circle and no-one is stopping to talk.

"It would be good to see more people from travelling backgrounds become police officers. They can provide a bridge which is not there at the moment.

"The problem is that anyone who is a traveller will be reluctant to join the police, as they'll have negative experiences of their contact."

His immediate colleagues have always treated him as any other and he has never denied his Romany background, but it is only recently that he has decided to speak up. He explains that he can see why the public sometimes feels resentful of travellers, particularly when a site causes an eyesore. "A lot of the problems could avoided if there was more dialogue between police, travellers and the rest of the public, who may suddenly find some caravans nearby. Police statistics show that crime rates do not go up when travellers move to an area. What does go up is the fear of crime.

"I cannot understand it when there is a mess left behind," he says. " Traditionally, gipsies are cleaner than the average house- dweller. If you ever go into a genuine Romany caravan you will be amazed by the cleanliness of it.

For example, they wouldn't dream of washing their hands in the same sink as they wash plates.

"But the problem is, how do you define what a gipsy is? When you get some caravans and a huge pile of rubbish, the people who left it are going to get labelled as gipsies - but who knows what they are. Everybody I know in the travelling community is a decent, clean person.

"I'm not saying you don't get rogues among them because there are rogues in every walk of life. But it would be interesting to have a conversation with those who leave a mess and ask who they are and why they are doing it. I would tell them that they must understand the implications of what they are doing.

"I think the Met might get me and some of the other Romany officers to go on these sites and do just that. I think we would be best placed."

He believes the only way that the mistrust can be countered is for police officers, travelling people and house dwellers to have more positive interaction. And he says that by having police gipsy and traveller liaison officers, and with forces such as Cambridgeshire launching a Pounds 10,000 campaign entitled del gavvers pukker-cheer us (Romany for "give police a chance"), the change in police attitudes has already started.

Dean says the biggest change will come from within the force, as he and other officers talk about their backgrounds.

"This way, other officers will see we are decent people. Once they realise that, they will think there's no reason why others from the travelling community are not decent, too."

Dean may have bridged the gap but he won't let his five children, aged eight to 21, forget their Romany heritage. "They are aware of it because I won't let them not be," he says.

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