Pc Karen Giles has served as a Met Police officer since 1976
The Metropolitan Police’s longest-ever-serving police officer has said officers are too often criticised as “narrow-minded”, as she celebrated her 50th year of service on the force.
Pc Karen Giles, 68, who joined the Met in 1976, said the misconception that police officers are intolerant and “set in their ways” is untrue, adding that their work is frequently “undersold”.
Speaking at a surprise party to celebrate her decades-long service at New Scotland Yard on Tuesday, Pc Giles told the Press Association: “I’ve never met people as broad-minded, as tolerant, and kind as the people I’ve met in the police service, both police staff and police officers.
“People willing to put themselves at risk.
“People doing really kind things. Just doing ordinary things on a daily basis to try and help people, and it goes unrecognised.”
Pc Giles, who has been a police constable her whole career across various London boroughs, said officers of her rank are the force’s “backbone”.
“I love being a Pc. I’ve had a wonderful time as a Pc. I just think it’s what keeps the Metropolitan Police and all the other police services going,” she said.
“Everybody makes a contribution, of course they do, but for me Pc’s are the backbone of the police service,” she added.
Pc Giles also served in the Community Safety Unit helping victims of domestic abuse, which she described as her “favourite posting”.
Asked about how policing has changed, Pc Giles said social media has made the job increasingly “complicated”, although the basics largely remain the same.
“We sort people’s problems out. We deal with domestics. We deal with people who take other people’s property. It’s basically the same, except obviously for online crime. But I think the biggest change is technology,” she said
“Social media makes it very, very complex and difficult to deal with people.
“I think it’s very difficult to get to the truth of what’s happening,” she added.
Pc Giles also said she never felt “isolated” as a female police officer in the 1970s, adding that she has always felt able to deal with any incidents with male officers.
“There were a lot of women in my intake at Hendon Police College”, she said.
“Out of 60 officers, 25 were women. So, actually, I didn’t feel that there weren’t many women because it was a sign of the times, if you like, and there was a huge recruitment drive in ’76.
“It’s ups and downs, you know. And I’ve always felt able to deal with things if there have been incidents. If people have ever said or done anything, I’ve taken it up with them.”
Pc Giles, who is currently posted to Plumstead, south-east London working in Integrated Offender Management, was surprised with cake by her friends and family at the force’s central London headquarters.
“I really didn’t have any idea at all. It’s amazing. I’m just overwhelmed. It’s lovely,” she said.
“It seems a bit surreal when I think 50 years. I can’t believe it’s 50 years. It’s you know, it’s flown by.”
Her daughter Jennifer Sharpling, 40, who is also a serving police officer and helped organise the surprise, said her mother’s decades-long service was “unbelievable”.
“They assumed that she would just leave the job when she was pregnant with me… Women just didn’t stay in the job when they had children,” she said.
“Even when things sort of get a bit hard, and they were for women when she joined, and actually even up until relatively recently, and she just always kept going.”
Ms Sharpling added: “When you think when she started, she was walking around with a handbag, and that was it.
“And now you look at there are women in the job who are carrying tasers and driving and doing all. So, the change has been amazing.”
Sheila Fellows-Turnbull, 70, from Hastings, East Sussex, who served alongside Pc Giles in the late 1970s, also attended the surprise event.
Ms Fellows-Turnbull, who served 30 years on the force, rising to the rank of detective sergeant, said Pc Giles had always been “humble” about her successes.
“She’s done so much, and she is very understated about it as well,” Ms Fellows-Turnbull told PA.
“I find out things about her all the time, bear in mind, we’ve been alongside each other since the late 70s.”
Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist, who is responsible for all borough policing in London, said Pc Giles’s service is “absolutely astonishing”.
Speaking to Pc Giles as well as her friends and family, he said: “I wanted to take today to one invite you here to say thank you for 50 years of service, to say thank you in front of your friends and family.
“And also, as you will know, over the years we don’t give away free cake or tea or anything else.
“But in so doing, to just put on you know some cakes and to mark the occasion.”
Asked by Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist about her plans for the future, Pc Giles said: “Keep coming to work!”
“As long as you keep coming, we’ll keep paying you,” he replied.
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