This article was first published in the September 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
It looks like a typical small English town, complete with a high street bank, a post office and a takeaway restaurant. But nobody lives here, and the place is constantly devastated by violence. Welcome to the Metropolitan Police Service Specialist Training Centre in Gravesend, Kent -- a replica of a UK community where police officers train to deal with public disorder.
The Met comes here to rehearse crisis scenarios: police officers in riot gear learn to manage angry mobs by confronting in-character colleagues who pelt them with bricks and petrol bombs. Charred marks on the walls of the buildings testify to the authenticity of the high-octane drills that groups of senior officers undergo every five weeks. "It could be the industrial part of any British city," says Edgar Martins, who photographed the eerie riot town. "But sometimes it just looks a bit like a grown-ups' playground."
Restoring order
The 38-hectare centre was built in 2003 by Cubic Range Design Solutions, a private defence contractor that specialises in the design and construction of training facilities. "The various roads and façades are used to create a simulated public disorder scenario, where officers can be trained to deal with a variety of public-order situations in a safe environment," says Met spokesperson Steve Sherwood. The bricks-and-mortar reproduction town may be the facility's most eye-catching part, but Gravesend also boasts virtual training technologies, such as an indoor 3D simulator for firearms training, as well as a live shooting range. Up to 300 officers can be housed on the site.
Built environment
The centre's structures vary in their degree of detail: some buildings are more developed, with rooms and doors; others are empty façades. But in general, the team that devised the centre created an environment that reflects the range of possible settings in which the Met might operate. This includes a pub, a nightclub, a sports stadium - even a Tube station with train. There's also a mocked-up aircraft, to simulate hijacking scenarios. Chris Evans, Cubic's regional director, explains that the training facilities' designers sometimes look to Hollywood to achieve greater realism. "There have been instances where we have worked with personnel from the cinema industry," he says.
Crowd control
The streetscape is used to train medial specialists and police who may be called to oversee peaceful protests. There are stables for ten horses so that mounted units can be trained to disperse crowds. Drills can be lengthy, explains James Rawlings, a photojournalist who witnessed a training session last year. "The public-order scenarios last for as long as it takes," he says. "It could be 15 minutes, it could be two hours."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
