Branch secretary ‘disappointed’ in Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner

21 March 2024

The secretary of Northamptonshire Police Federation has spoken of her disappointment at sexist comments made recently by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

Charlotte Pateman was speaking on BBC Radio Northampton about misogynistic comments made by Stephen Mold about Northamptonshire’s new Chief Fire Officer, Nikki Watson.

Charlotte, who was interviewed during yesterday morning’s (20 March) breakfast show hosted by Annabel Amos,  said: “It’s made me feel disappointed. I’m disappointed on two counts.

“I’m disappointed on behalf of myself, our members and other women that he would feel it appropriate to use such derogatory language, which is usually directed at women.

“And I’m disappointed from a personal point of view, that this is somebody we’ve built up a good professional relationship with for the benefit of our members and I feel really let down by that.”

Charlotte was joined by branch chair Sam Dobbs, who said that members felt ‘pretty hacked off’ about the issue.

“They’re under a lot of pressure,” he said. “They’re under a lot of scrutiny about their own behaviour, and rightly so.

“And at that time of being held to account, they feel it was hypocritical in the very least that the person who sits at the top of our tree made the unfortunate remarks that he did.”

The commissioner has admitted he made a ‘significant mistake’ and will not stand again when the position comes up for election in May.

Charlotte said it was the correct decision not to stand again, while Sam described how Mr Mold had stayed away from a series of events around misogyny.

“Yesterday Mr (Ivan) Balhatchet, the Acting Chief Constable, opened a seminar for around 80 people on misogyny,” he explained.

“There’s another one today for police and fire staff, which I think the Chief Fire Officer is opening.

“Our commissioner would normally be part of that, but having stood up and said what he said about culture in the fire service and having at the last police, fire and crime panel talked about the Angiolini Report in policing, it would just be hypocritical if he turned up and had anything to do with those.

“Our members have actually said that if he turns up, we won’t.

“Now the commissioner is astute enough to realise that.

“He has no credibility on those issues.”

Charlotte added that female colleagues feel ‘so let down’.

“We all know misogyny is there and we’re working with the Force to try to improve that, but the fact that the man who has been put in charge of holding policing to account locally thought it was okay to make such a comment has really caused us some concern and quite a lot of upset,” she said, adding: “Yes, it is our women members, but I’m pleased to say there’s been a lot of outcry from male colleagues as well, which is a really positive step.”

The interview also covered the issue of trust in policing after nine Northamptonshire Police staff were suspended due to ongoing criminal investigations into rape or sexual assault.

Charlotte said: “The fact we are finding these people, investigating these people, I think that’s a real positive.

“We want to instil that public confidence in police.”

Sam said that policing needs to ensure that women working in the Force and women in the community can come forward with confidence to make complaints.

He said: “We need to make sure that … women in the community can have confidence they can come to the police and be treated with respect and therefore they can trust us.

“If we don’t have that we might as well all just go home.”

He added: “We need to be there and have the capability and capacity to represent and support women to come forward.

“We’ve had our own horror stories in this Force.

“There was the publicly documented discipline of an officer who had made sexualised and misogynistic comments over a period.

“We represented him but we also represented the women so that they can see that you can come forward and have this kind of stuff challenged.

“We are accountable in so many ways now.

“And what’s surprised us is that, rightly or wrongly, the commissioner is accountable to the public and all of the framework that exists for us doesn’t exist for the role of a commissioner, and that’s been quite surprising.”

Listen to the interview in full. The segment starts at around one hour, eight minutes and 35 seconds.