Cleveland Fed Chair Calls for Legal Guarantee to Protect Officers’ Welfare

14 October 2025

Changes to the law should create a guarantee for police officers that the government will properly protect them from the effects of the Job, the Chair of Cleveland Police Federation has said. 

Lauren Somerville has backed Nick Smart’s call for better protection and support for police officers, describing the Policing Covenant covenant as “a pale imitation of the military covenant.”

She was speaking after Nick Smart, President of the Superintendents’ Association, told ministers that 17,752 officers had been signed off in the past year due to stress, depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, and called for welfare budgets to be “protected at all costs.” 

Nick said: “We can’t stop the job our people are doing from being traumatic, but we can build solid infrastructures to support them so that when it gets too much - which it undoubtedly will - we have their back.”

Speaking after the conference, Lauren said she agreed with every word of his warning that officers are being “stretched beyond belief.”

“I absolutely agree with Nick,” she said. “He said: ‘Keeping staff fit and healthy, physically and mentally, should be a moral obligation. The police covenant is a pale imitation of the military covenant.’ I would go further, saying that a true covenant should create a guarantee, not a promise. It should protect every officer with the same seriousness and statutory backing that the Armed Forces Covenant provides for them.”

Lauren said that for too long, the welfare of officers has been treated as an afterthought, despite the trauma they face daily.

“The reality is that policing brings repeated, cumulative trauma. We are wading through it every single shift. Death, fatal collisions, violent assaults, child abuse and domestic violence are just some of the incidents. Each scene leaves an emotional mark, and over the course of a career the psychological weight is immense.

“Officers are swimming in this every single day. Not to come out of it soaking wet is impossible, and there is no time between shifts or incidents to dry out.”

Lauren said that in Cleveland those pressures are even greater. “Our force area continues to record some of the highest rates of violent and knife crime in the country, with 154 knife crimes per 100,000 people and nine homicides recorded in 2023 alone. We have fewer than  1,600 officers in Cleveland, and every one of them runs toward danger - often returning to duty the next day to face the next tragedy.

“If we can legislate to support veterans who have served our country overseas, then surely we can legislate to protect those who continue to serve it every single day on our own streets,” she said.

“A covenant worthy of policing must offer not just gratitude, but real, enforceable protection for those who bear the human cost of keeping others safe. Police officers are not medics or social workers. Yet we are increasingly being asked to fill those roles as other services shrink. Until that changes, the pressure on policing will continue to rise.”

She called on the Police Minister to go beyond words, adding that their praise and promises must be backed by “real action.” 

“Our people are the backbone of public safety. They deserve not just respect, but the legal and practical guarantees that ensure they are fit, healthy and properly supported to do the job the country depends on,” she added.