‘He knows the county’: Chair reacts to Northamptonshire Chief Constable appointment

5 February 2025

‘The uncertainty is now over’ says branch chair Sam Dobbs as he responds to the appointment of Ivan Balhatchet as Northamptonshire Police’s new Chief Constable.

Sam gave his reaction to the news on BBC Radio Northampton’s breakfast show last week (Tuesday 28 January).

Chief Constable Ivan later appeared on the show himself, where he outlined his vision to ‘make Northamptonshire the safest county in the UK’.

Ivan, who has been part of the Force since 2000, was confirmed as the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Danielle Stone’s preferred candidate for the role, having stepped up as acting Chief Constable over a year ago following the departure of Nick Adderley.

Speaking to host Annabel Amos, Sam, who acknowledged the Commissioner for involving the Federation in the selection panel, said: “The uncertainty is now over.

“For me and what Ivan stands for is, he is a Northampton person and he knows the county. I remember him coming to the Force as a deputy and he only wanted to come to Northamptonshire.

“I remember him as a sergeant at Rushton. He’s worked his way up through the county’s ranks. He knows the county. 

“One of the things I think is really good about Ivan is he knows the partnerships, and one of the things I think this county has to get a grip of is the fact that these issues that face our county will not be policed on their own, they need everyone to pull together.

Partnerships

“What he now needs to do is knit [everything] together so that police officers are dealing with police things, and not the things we shouldn’t be dealing with as the lead agency, because we can’t do everything.”

When asked how local officers would feel about ‘having Ivan at the helm’, Sam responded with: “Well, we have a permanent chief now. Following on from a year, everything temporary.” 

Reflecting on the last year, Sam said that ‘on the one hand, a lot of our members have just got on with their day job because that’s what police officers do.

“And on the other hand, it’s been a case of keeping business as usual whilst also reeling from all the other issues facing policing around trust and confidence and around keeping our standards up.”

Hard work

He added: “One thing I would want to say on behalf of our members, that we might have lost or missed, is that performance in the Force has been increasing and that’s thanks to an awful lot of hard work.”

The branch chair went on to praise the added rigour of Northamptonshire Police’s response to misconduct cases seen under Ivan’s interim leadership, saying he has been very clear on the fact there is no room for poor officer behaviour within the Force.

“Unfortunately, policing has taken hits in recent years around its trust and confidence. The Police Federation has, at its core, trust and confidence in policing,” he said, adding: “The Commissioner is very clear she wants to drive that up and the Chief Constable is of that view and rightly so.”

When discussing his mission for the post, the confirmed Chief Constable told the breakfast show that regaining trust and confidence in policing is ‘at the heart’ of his plans.

Culture

“Looking at Northamptonshire Police, we know from extensive survey that we have the lowest confidence in policing that Northamptonshire that we’ve ever had,” said Ivan.

“What I have been doing over the last couple of years is increasing our professional standards team, increasing our counter corruption team and we’re rolling out a lot of training in terms of culture, standards, and behaviour.

“We actually have to deliver a service to the public that they expect. They see police officers and they know who they are. And we actually start engaging with partners so we can all work together to make Northamptonshire a safer place. 

Ivan touched on the Force’s ongoing boost in neighbourhood policing numbers: “We’re putting policing back into communities.

“My overall mission is to make Northamptonshire the safest county in the UK. That is my aspiration.” 

Listen to the BBC Radio Northamptonshire interview here.

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