Chief constables praise officers

11 April 2022

Police chiefs have praised the dedication and sacrifices of officers during the pandemic.

Giving evidence at the House of Commons in Westminster, the chief constables of the four Welsh forces spelled out the challenges facing policing in the country.

Speaking at a one-off session of the Welsh Affairs Committee on policing, they said that officers have stepped up to those challenges over the past two years of Covid-19.

Jeremy Vaughan, Chief Constable of South Wales Police, said: “The last couple of years have been extremely challenging in policing, with a global health pandemic.

“On March 24 2020, the rest of the population went home but policing came to work with no real idea about what PPE should be worn and no real idea about the impact of the virus.

“We all, in Wales, had police officers who were living away from home, staying in student accommodation, because they were worried about taking things to vulnerable people at home.

“Not once did any of us, I’m sure, get a grumble from people about the mission of policing.”

Amanda Blakeman, Deputy Chief Constable of Gwent Police, said: “We’ve managed the relationship between us and the public in the pandemic.

“We’ve managed that because of the skill of our officers on the street daily, doing the job that we ask them to do.

“It was very difficult on occasion for officers working not necessarily always with all of the facts in front of them, trying to gather those and trying to make some difficult decisions.”

Dr Richard Lewis, Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys Police, said officers were helped by the public’s support and that relationships with communities were maintained throughout the pandemic.

“It’s important to note our thanks for the support the public showed for the new regulations, laws that we were interpreting on the hoof,” he said. “The vast majority of our communities complied entirely and continue to.

“That made policing the pandemic a much easier task than if we had faced a lot more difficulties in our communities during those difficult months, indeed years.

“Our staff members, of course, are also members of the public. They suffered the same losses as a general member of the public.”

Carl Foulkes, North Wales Police’s Chief Constable, added: “I genuinely think we got the balance pretty right, not just in North Wales but across Wales.

“The four Es approach very much started with engagement, moving on through encouragement and only using enforcement at the very last. That was right.”

Dr Lewis was asked about his comments this week that the four police forces in Wales be combined into one. He stressed to the committee it was his personal view but that it had worked successfully in Scotland.

“We have seen savings of, I think, in excess of £2 billion, on a much larger model than we have here in Wales,” he said. “There are efficiencies that can be reinvested into policing in Wales, including into police staff members.”

Chief Constable Vaughan said any move to combine the four forces would have to come after policing in Wales was devolved.

He said such a move would be more efficient but it wasn’t clear the service would be better as a result.

Deputy Chief Constable Blakeman added: “My personal view is that bigger is not always better. We are here to deliver a service locally. We are locally accountable public servants.”

Chief Constable Foulkes said North Wales police had a good working relationship with forces in the north west of England.

“Wales operates quite well left to right, but it struggles up to down sometimes, and we see that with our crime,” he said. “The threat of serious organised crime, for me, comes left to right: it comes from Merseyside, from Manchester.

“All my working partnerships are with the north west, with the North West ROCU, with my dog section, which I combine, and my firearms unit, which I combine with forces.”

Dr Lewis, the former Chief Constable of Cleveland Police, also discussed the differences in funding for forces in England and Wales.

“A recent example might be the additional funding announced by the Home Office in response to Dame Carol Black’s review into the drug strategy,” he said.

“As the Chief Constable of Cleveland Police, I didn’t have to ask the additional question of whether this applied to Wales and whether the funding would be easy to establish.

“I could apply and bid for funding because I knew it would apply to me as the chief constable of an English force. I’ve returned to Wales and am getting used to having to ask that additional question.

“The Home Office is better at that now than when I was last working in Wales, but it remains a challenge in us finding the thread of money that has been allocated perhaps to the devolved administration for things such as health, and whether we can access some of that funding.

“That is an additional challenge faced in Wales.”

He added: “What I will say, having recently returned, is that I have yet to work in another area or see another region of policing that has such collaborative arrangements and good working partnerships, between all four of the Welsh forces, as we have here in Wales.

“It’s a pleasure to be home and to work with colleagues that do that so collaboratively.”

Nicky Ryan, the Police Federation’s Welsh lead, has welcomed the chief officers’ praise for the way in which officers responded to the pandemic.

“Police officers really did rise to the challenge and coped with what were incredibly difficult times, putting their health and wellbeing on the line to remain on the frontline,” says Nicky.

“I am pleased that the chief constables have acknowledged this.”

But Nicky is less convinced about the possibility of one force for Wales.

“The Police Federation has a neutral stance around devolution and the one force model. But, from that neutral stance, we also say follow the evidence of the Silk and Thomas Commission and if that evidence concludes a better service can be provided to the public, it should be given consideration,” she says.

Watch the meeting.