New PCC must 'hit the ground running'

7 May 2024

Nottinghamshire Police Federation chair Simon Riley has congratulated Gary Godden on his election as the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Nottinghamshire.

But he warned the PCC he must hit the ground running in his new role if he is to tackle the crisis in policing.

“The police service is facing a real crisis,” says Simon, “Police officers, as evidenced by our recent pay and morale survey, do not feel valued by the Government. They do not feel they are fairly paid for the challenges and dangers they face when carrying out their duties and many are struggling with their finances.

“This is the same across the whole of England and Wales, but in Nottinghamshire we also have the added difficulty of the inspectorate having put the Force into special measures.

“The PCC needs to quickly get up to speed with the realities of policing and the issues we are facing within our Force. He then needs to help drive the change that is needed.

Newly elected PCC Gary Godden.

“As a Federation, we hope to be able to set up a meeting with the PCC at the earliest opportunity so that we can have an open and frank conversation about how our members are feeling, but also put forward suggestions for ways in which he could help address the issues they are facing.”

Gary, the Labour candidate in the elections, received 119,355 votes. His predecessor Caroline Henry came second with 77,148 votes. She had been PCC since 2021.

After being elected Gary, who served as a Nottinghamshire police officer for 15 years but was working in the NHS at the time of the election, said he felt “incredibly humbled”.

Among his election pledges was a plan to rebuild neighbourhood policing by recruiting more officers and creating community hubs, a zero-tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour, a focus on combatting knife crime and prioritisation of road safety.

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