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Greg at a training session

Greg grew up in South Yorkshire, where his father was a miner who manned the picket lines during the miners' strike of '84/'85. Greg recalls as a young boy of twelve pestering his father to take him on one of the picket lines where he and his father came face to face with the riot police who were called upon at that time to police the picket.

He says it's quite ironic that twelve years later he found himself on the other side of the fence, when he joined the South Yorkshire force as a student police officer. He stayed with the force for eleven years before leaving to start his own 'safety' business at the start of this year.

During his time as a police officer, he was involved in the embryonic 'neighbourhood policing' strategy. The idea was to get the police closer to the community and says it was a difficult time as he and his colleagues had no blueprint for how such a scheme should operate. He worked 'undercover' targeting drug dealers and criminals, although readily admits, short hair would often give them away.

It was during this time he became aware of how his training didn't fulfil his need to deal with dangerous situations as well as it might. Although he considers himself fortunate not to have suffered injury during the course of his duties, upon reflection after each operation Greg thinks the potential for serious harm was always there. He says there seemed to be no consistent way of dealing with violent people and individual officers would adopt their own techniques which would lead to confusion.

Christopher Alder

It was this realisation that brought him to the conclusion that a reassessment was required of how to respond to these situations. In particular he followed closely the case of Christopher Alder who died whilst in police custody. As a member of听 the Personal Safety Training Department, this case was very much on his mind.

听As a student of martial arts for many years he switched from karate to aikido and found a new teacher who taught him new techniques. Ones which he was able to use in everyday situations and with success. He says unlike some of his colleagues who suffered severe injuries in some cases he left the force unscathed. He says this wasn't because of his size, power or strength but due to technique and skill. Greg whose qualifications include BSc (hons) PGCE, MICM says psychology plays an important role in dealing with conflict situations.

He's keen to pass his skills on to others in a new business venture. A venture听 which has come out of the development of his conflict resolution, self defence and control and restraint skills. He trained officers in many ways of achieving covert surprise and in unique restraint skills, he then drilled the training until the officer could make the approach, restraint, load on vehicle and drive off within twenty seconds. Previously there was no national course to teach these skills.

Greg follows a 'doctrine of minimum force'.听 On courses, he teaches people to recognise danger early on. He says people often miss the early signs of conflict and a situation can often escalate into something more dangerous. He says, using body language, verbal skills or even taking shelter, harm can be avoided. That doesn't work for every situation so he teaches 'breakaway' skills and higher level self defence too. Although he's keen to work with employers and their employees he's also organising ladies self defence classes which will allow them to walk away with an accredited certificate.

One area he's keen to make people aware of is how they can defend themselves and stay within the law. He says there's much confusion over what a person can and can't do to defend themselves. He says the guidelines are clear and he can teach people to ensure they defend themselves personally and legally.