The new Chair of Avon and Somerset Police Federation has said one of the biggest challenges for the service currently is the perception of policing. 

Mark Loker was speaking to BBC Radio Somerset.

He said: “Our colleagues are out there working incredibly hard, in very, very difficult situations and circumstances, each and every day. The things that you see in the news never tend to be good news stories, unfortunately. 

“It’s always, for Avon and Somerset, the Bristol riots, and then it comes down to the safeguarding of the vulnerable and countering the terrorism. Then we also hear of horrific acts where we’ve had the local murders quite recently. Police officers are prime and front in all of those incidents. What I would like people to consider is these are people's fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, husbands, wives. We put a uniform on to protect the public, and with a constant focus that’s negative, and if I can be frank, from very horrific actions of a very, very small minority, it’s not only damaging to the public’s perception of policing, it’s also really demoralising to our colleagues. It’s been a very difficult few months.” 

He said the only way officers can improve public confidence is to “do what we do best and that’s to get out there, into our communities, confront danger, keep people safe, catch the bad guys and hopefully bring them to justice. That is core to policing.” 

Mark said he is committed to doing his best in the role, which he has come to after a 19 year career on the front line working in response, public order and neighbourhoods.

 

He will use his role to promote the excellent work carried out by officers, and ask the public to respect the important work they do. 

He added: “There will always be mistakes made and I would just implore people to accept that we are humans underneath the uniform. Whilst we will never condone the most horrendous or even the moderately horrendous acts that some police officers have taken upon themselves to commit, the vast majority of the 130,000 police officers in England and Wales are hard-working, conscientious, committed and dedicated people that have sworn an oath to maintain public peace and to keep people safe.” 

Mark has a good working relationship with the new Chief Constable Sarah Crew which he said he will build on.

He added: “The good thing about the chief is that she recognised that the Federation is a critical friendship. The purpose of the Federation is to make sure that obviously police officers are looked after and that we get the best deal we can; to make sure that we’ve got the right equipment, the right terms, the right conditions and the right recognition for the work that we do.”