International Women’s Day: Fed member reflects on resilience and leadership

7 March 2025

To mark International Women’s Day (Saturday 8 March), we caught up with Federation member Beth Warren about the resilience she has developed to help her achieve in policing.

And this interest has stuck with Beth ever since, guiding her to the role she has held for the last three months as a detective inspector (DI).

Federation member Beth Warren.

“Although I have always loved whatever I’ve done within the police, the idea of working in an investigative role has never really gone away,” she said.

“I became an inspector four years ago, and then the Force opened up the DI pathway to the inspector rank for the first time in 2023. That was the perfect opportunity for me, and I felt so lucky it had fallen that way.

“But the journey to get to that point was not always easy. I actually failed my first inspector’s board, and that really knocked my confidence – I had never really failed anything in the police before.

Uniform

“I really had to pick myself back up, and other people had to help me back up too. That enabled me to pass a year later, and looking back, I have definitely reaped the rewards for keeping going.”

Spending most of her career in uniform across response and neighbourhood policing before her move to the CID, Beth says this was not the first time her resolve had been tested in the Force through adversity.

Challenging behaviour from colleagues around her gender as she made steps up in rank had the potential to be damaging, but she dealt with this robustly.

Although better prevented altogether, these experiences have helped shape Beth’s values as a leader in Northamptonshire Police.

“I have a great relationship with my team, and I love leading them and being in a decision-making position. Of course, it’s a big responsibility, but I think it’s crucial everyone working in our force feels they have a place,” she continued.

Perseverance

“And, in my role, that’s what I will always give my all to.”

Despite her progression, Beth revealed that alongside her perseverance in tough moments, many sources of pride in her career have come towards the beginning.

As a relatively inexperienced constable, she helped to remand a dangerous Northamptonshire-based paedophile as part of her duties on an online child abuse investigation team.

She also played a key part in the Force’s roll-out of Operation Eagle, a neighbourhood policing project targeting the organised recruitment of children for drug dealing.

Beth said that her victories at work have also been made possible thanks to the sustainment of her career when she became a mother.

Maternity leave

She added: “Being able to work flexibly after my maternity leave was great for me – it was the only way I was going to be able to carry on in the job.

“Like I said before, I feel lucky to have had the career I’ve had, especially as I’m not sure every female officer will have had the same opportunities. And that’s important to acknowledge.

“Ultimately, what we should be wanting to demonstrate as much as possible is that women can have children without it being a barrier to working in policing.

“And I think it’s equally important to have that resilience as a woman in policing, so we can have that presence and credibility across all ranks, which historically hasn’t always been there,” she ended.