How PC’s brutal riot killing drove me on to top of Scots force
AS she watched reports of the savagery unfolding only a couple of miles from her home, Rose Fitzpatrick was horrified.
What had begun as a routine call-out to Tottenham’s Broadwater Farm estate had ended in rioting – and the brutal murder of PC Keith Blakelock.
The shocking events of October 6, 1985, and the courage of the officers involved, drove Miss Fitzpatrick to join up herself – and now, almost 30 years on, she is second-in-command of Police Scotland.
PC Blakelock, 40, died after being stabbed 43 times by rioters on the run-down North London council estate.
‘Broadwater Farm preyed on my mind,’ says Deputy Chief Constable Fitzpatrick.
‘I had no connections to the police at all. But I knew after that night I wanted to be in the public service.
‘When an officer loses their life, something’s gone wrong. I thought it seemed the right thing to do, I wanted to make a difference.’
She quit her private sector job and joined City of London police, aged 27. Having risen to become the first Met female borough commander she retired in 2012 – but couldn’t resist one of the top posts in the new Police Scotland. Now 54, she says: ‘I applied for the job because I believed a single service for Scotland was the right thing, and it would provide a better service for the public. It’s a privilege to be in at the beginning of things.’
When she joined the police in 1987, female officers were not a regular sight on the streets.
She says: ‘Women couldn’t go out together and were never paired up to go out on the streets. It wasn’t considered that women could take care of themselves on the streets. Gradually, things changed.’
As deputy chief of Scotland’s single force, Miss Fitzpatrick is now in charge of 12,500 officers.
‘When I first joined Police Scotland, I was the only senior female officer,’ she says.
‘Now there’s four of us, so a third of the executive team are women and they’re really able women and I’d love to think it would continue.’
Overall, female officers make up 30 per cent of Police Scotland’s workforce.
But Miss Fitzpatrick says: ‘I’d like more women to see lots of female role models and think, “I could do that job” and go for it.’
However, she admits policing is an unpredictable job. ‘You do have to be fit and you do have to be prepared to run towards things other people are running away from,’ she says.
‘I had an amazing woman inspector when I was a newly promoted sergeant, who is still a friend. It was a good lesson for me.
‘I really want it to be like that for other women in the service. I want them to feel encouraged and to see role models, as that made such a difference to me.’