Q&A with Ian Lester

1 May 2024

With more than two decades of policing experience under his belt, Ian Lester has seen much of what the job has to offer.
Ahead of taking over from Mary Brown as Lancashire Police Federation’s Divisional Representative for the West, he told of his enthusiasm for what the role will bring.  

Give us a breakdown of your policing career so far, Ian…
I joined in 2003 and started in South Division, which is Preston. I did five years there, moved over to the old Northern Division - which is now West. Started on IR, but the majority of my career has been spent around problem solving, neighbourhood policing and now civil orders.

What made you become a fed rep?
It’s difficult how to word it really. I went through some difficult times myself, through divorce, through complaints, through meetings and various different things. To pass on that experience and to genuinely help those members who are going through those types of scenarios - and quite significant periods in their lives - [is helpful]. Having gone through it already, I just felt that I would be in a better position to assist them and help them through that process. Doing it part-time initially gave me an insight into what the federation rep actually did, because you don’t know what they do until you actually fulfil that role.

 
How did you get into policing?
Up to the age of joining the police, I never had any interactions with the police. I didn’t know what police did other than by looking at programmes on the TV. I thought “that looks alright”, so I did that for 18 months and then I made the transition over. It’s only when you actually start doing the Special Constabulary type of things that you actually realise what really critical, good work you can do for people and being in that privileged position, what a difference you can make.

And do you think this is similar to your work with Lancashire Police Federation?
It’s not too dissimilar to federation work, if I’m perfectly honest with you. You utilise not just yourself, you utilise a lot of people like yourself and a lot of agency work, wellbeing, force counsellors, psychological therapy, LANGO - there’s lots of things.
There are many different ways you can help the policing community, aren’t there…
There are so many features and that collectively just made my mind up that I do genuinely want to help the members, because some of them are going through some very difficult times. I’ve been there, got the badge, and I just felt that I was experienced enough as a police officer and I was experienced enough in the federation role, which I’d been doing for a couple of years. Not only that, I’ve had some really good feedback and some excellent results as well. I just felt it was a natural transition for me to go and do that.

What do you enjoy the most about being a fed rep?
It’s about ensuring, really, that the member is looked after - they have the correct advice, they get the correct support, they get the correct legal advice if they need it. [It’s also that] they’re looked after in terms of ensuring their supervisors have submitted the relevant referrals - whether that’s internally or externally. It’s just looking after that one individual or group of individuals, depending on the scenario. I’ve been through some difficult periods as a police officer and I wasn’t looked after as well as I look after them. I think that’s probably my main motivation - to try and change the way we work and to support better.