Kent Police Federation Chairman: Thank you to officers working their hardest in challenging times

22 April 2020

Neil Mennie, Chairman of Kent Police Federation, has thanked officers for “working their hardest at challenging times”, despite the risks to themselves and their families.

As the UK enters its second month of lockdown, Neil said that officers were doing their best to work with the new legislation and powers the Government had introduced during the coronavirus crisis.

Neil said: “Thank you to officers working their hardest in challenging times. We are being asked to carry out roles and to enforce – at times – laws and guidance we have had little or no training in, and which have been introduced at very short notice.

“All this while under the very real threat that Covid-19 presents to police officers.

"Our uniform is no protection, but the force have been working hard to provide PPE to maximise officers safety.

"Our officers have been using the four "E" strategy right from the outset and I am pleased that this has only resulted in enforcement in a small number of cases.

“Police officers are human beings, not robots. We are mums and dads, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends. We want to go home at the end of every shift fit and healthy for our families.

“We understandably have the same anxieties and worries as everyone else about the coronavirus outbreak.”

Neil said that Kent Police Federation were “fully engaged” with the force and that they were working collaboratively at this crucial time for policing. He added that Kent had maintained a particularly low absence rate, which he believes is one of the lowest in the country.

Commenting on a spate of spitting incidents from offenders claiming to have the coronavirus, Neil said that he was pleased that courts were giving the clear message that spitting at police officers was unacceptable.

Earlier this month a man was jailed for 120 days for spitting on a Kent Police officer.

“The majority of us can't work from home and still have to encounter the same customers… who may now threaten to cough and spit on us, using Covid-19 as a new weapon,” Neil said. “Those that do this deserve the strongest of punishments. We must protect the protectors.”