Chair of Cleveland Police Federation: "I know the difficulties officers face and I will do everything to support them"

8 December 2021

The new Chair of Cleveland Police Federation, Steve Williams-Reader, says he’s seen first-hand the difficulties officers are facing and will do everything he can to support them.

A police officer for 19 years and a Federation Rep for the past five years, Steve said: “I've worked in a lot of roles, I know a lot of people, and I feel that I'm in a good position to be able to represent officers and do my best for them.”

In his most recent position as Custody Sergeant, Steve was shocked at the amount of violence officers were subjected to.

He said: “I was forever seeing people being brought into custody for assaulting an emergency worker. The amount of my colleagues that are being subject to violence on a daily basis is staggering. The trauma that officers are subject to, quite often when they’re very young-in-service, is significant, and it has an impact on them.”

Steve’s other priorities are to highlight officers’ good work within communities, and improve working conditions for colleagues.

He said: “A really important thing for me is to make sure that the public are aware of the fantastic work that my colleagues do on a daily basis, night and day, supporting them in their communities. Quite often they don’t get the chance to read about the good stuff.

“I also promised I would work my hardest to reduce the impact on officers’ private lives, by trying to look at reducing the amount of rest days getting cancelled.”

Steve has held a number of different roles throughout his career, including neighbourhood officer, response officer, public order training, counter-terrorism search training and as a Detective Sergeant in a paedophile investigation unit. He said he wanted to continue to work with his colleagues across the board.

He said: “My intention is to get out there, to work shoulder to shoulder with colleagues in different roles, trying to maximise the impact on the communities.”

He added that if officers were struggling with their wellbeing, they must not “suffer in silence”, saying: “My aim is for Cleveland officers to have the confidence, the knowledge and the belief that the Federation is going to be there to support them. I also want them to have the confidence in their knowledge of the regulations, so when things do appear to be going wrong for them they can challenge it appropriately.

“And it’s so important that we identify the signs of poor mental health, by checking in with your colleagues, talking to each other, not being frightened to speak up and say you’re struggling, or you could do with having a chat with somebody. Because at some point all of us will need a bit of support.”

Steve said he was looking forward to getting started in the role, saying: “I appreciate every person that put their vote in, and I will do my best to represent officers in every way I can.”