Get to know your Federation reps: Barry Horton
21 September 2021
Barry Horton became a Police Federation workplace representative through a desire to help colleagues.
Barry, who joined the police 16 years ago and now works in CID, began his Federation career in 2013.
He said: “I wanted to help officers. It has been a tumultuous time for policing pretty much since I joined the service.
“I’ve always taken notice of what the Home Office does or doesn’t do for policing and it felt like a natural step to become a rep.
“I genuinely care - perhaps too much - and will often, like other reps at West Mercia, give up my own personal time to help others.
“I’m approachable and hopefully this shows through in how I deal with colleagues during their time of need. I enjoy being there when someone needs to turn to you for help.”
Barry admitted fitting in Police Fed work alongside his CID role and family life was often a challenge.
He is deputy secretary of West Mercia Police Federation and has completed Federation reps’ introductory training plus a course on conduct and performance and plans to do Post-Incident Management (PIM) training in the future.
He said forthcoming challenges for the branch included staying relevant to younger officers who often see the group insurance payment as an irrelevance when it is actually so important.
Barry’s policing career began in 2005 when he joined West Midlands Police and was posted to Dudley.
“I transferred to West Mercia Police in 2015 from West Midlands Police having served nine-and-a-half years in a number of roles - response, safer travel police, neighbourhood officer and lastly community action and priority team similar to LPPT before transferring,” he said.
“In West Mercia I started off on patrol before moving into CID in PVP before sadly failing the National Investigators’ Examination (NIE) twice... and returning to patrol.
“My ambition was to always return to CID and I moved back in December 2019 and thankfully I passed the NIE at the first time of asking this time round. I’m currently in reactive CID at Telford and loving the role.”
Barry said he had always looked up to police officers as a child and was attracted to a career with structure, job security and the ability to make a difference.
His very first posting was at Dudley Police Station with D Unit on a night shift.
He explained: “I was so excited I fell up a set of stairs going to my first real sit down with my tutor before going to a break-in in progress where on our arrival I forgot I had my seat belt on and couldn’t get out of the car. Luckily there were others there!”
Career highlights include working at the NATO conference in Cardiff which he described as a “truly special 10 days. Very tiring but worthwhile”.
He added: “I’ve been lucky to have worked on a number of different jobs but reuniting an estranged father and son who had not seen each other for 20-plus years really resonates with me at a personal level.”
Barry said future challenges for West Mercia Police included upgrading an “abysmal” IT infrastructure but he also warned one of the biggest issues it faced was policing the region’s ever-expanding towns.
He said: “Telford alone has had thousands more houses in the last 10 years and police officer numbers aren’t increasing to match. The other divisions will be in the same boat and officer numbers must increase to match it.”
He also called for better equipment for officers and staff and Tasers for all who want one.
He said: “It protects the officer from harm and it baffles me how it’s handed out to only a few officers. We also need to return to the days of more support staff, without them officers are doing more and more admin work which prevents them from being out on the streets being a visible deterrent.”
Turning to the police service generally, Barry was highly critical of the mainstream media and its “rhetoric against policing” and called for a change in attitude.
He said: “It’s totally unacceptable and makes our lives harder.”
Barry also backed Police Federation demands for a complete overhaul of the police pay system.
“Officers deserve a pay rise yearly and that goes without saying it seems that people forget that we’re also humans and life costs go up and we need to be able to afford to live,” he said.
Barry’s advice for new officers just joining the Force is: “Keep smiling. Be confident and be prepared to ask for help. We were all there at one point or another.”
But also: “Make tea and bring cakes!!!”
