Fed rep on mission to create fairer workplace

26 August 2024

As an officer for over 26 years, Stephanie (Stephe) Dyer says experiences early into her police career are the driving force behind her work as a West Mercia Police Federation workplace representative.

A career detective, Stephe revealed certain events towards the beginning of her time with West Mercia Police’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) left her feeling 'ignored and unvalued'.

Now, she is determined to change this, so other staff in the Force do not have to suffer the same fate she did.

Stephe says her hardship started in 2006, when she was preparing to return to her role as detective constable, following the birth of her first child. It was at this point, she recalls, that she found out plans for her to be moved across to a Safer Neighbourhood Team were already underway.

Stephanie (Stephe) Dyer.

“I was told the CID didn’t have female constables with children,” 47-year-old Stephe said. “I had no idea that becoming a mum would have an effect on my career.

“I thought I was a valued officer and it never occurred to me for a second that, with my experience and knowledge, there would be an issue with me coming back to the job I loved,” she continued.

“I just couldn’t understand it.”

Stephe was not prepared to accept this proposal and successfully fought to remain in the role of her dreams.

Return to CID

However, following her second maternity leave four years later, Stephe says she found herself on the receiving end of another unpleasant return to the CID.

“The whole department had been moved to a new station, but left all of my stuff – desk, chair, case files – in boxes where I had once been,” she says, adding: “And no one had been in contact with me whilst I was off either.

“This time, the battle was my location from work and flexible working. I was a now a single mother with two children while having to maintain a full-time job, but this didn’t seem to matter. As far as I was concerned, nothing had been learnt from the last time.”

Despite her disappointment, Stephe was still not to be displaced from her position within the CID, where her policing passion has endured to the current day.

What changed this time around, however, was that she became something of an unofficial point-of-contact for other officers with disputes over shift patterns, helping them to complete necessary application forms and guiding them on their approaches to decision-makers.

In 2018, her desire to help colleagues took on an official capacity when she became a workplace representative for the Federation.

Unjust

“It was a no-brainer for me [to become a rep]. I just hate anything unfair or unjust, and although I had been informally helping colleagues for some time, I knew I had more to give,” she said.

Over the past six years, Stephe has assisted countless police staff with issues surrounding flexible working applications, cancelled rest days and leave, as well as other welfare issues. She has also demonstrated her commitment to officer welfare by supporting colleagues with early retirement with injuries and on mental health grounds.

“One of the biggest reminders we get that police officers are human is when the impact of trauma is felt. We can be witness to some extremely distressing incidents and material and sometimes it can be very hard to process – we are not machines,” she explained.

“In terms of what I do with leave and shift-related issues, I am continuing my efforts to make the Force realise flexible working is a good thing – it should not only be sanctioned but encouraged for work-life balance. For me, the default position of the force to applications is still ‘no’, whereas it should start out as ‘yes’ and then only switch if or when a request is unreasonable.”

Since becoming a workplace rep, the mother-of-two has also taken on the additional role of West Mercia Police Federation Detective Lead, representing West Mercia Police's CID Officers at the Federation’s National Detectives’ Forum alongside leads from all 42 other forces within England and Wales.

The Forum discuss all matters regarding detectives at regional and national level, allowing Stephe to further her career-long allegiance to the rank.

Detective

In her Force role, she also supports the learning of young detective constables as an Investigative Skills Trainer as well as manager of Serious and Complex Interviewing and Specialist Witness courses.

Regardless of the role she is performing at any given time – Force or Federation, general welfare or specialist detective – remembering the person behind the uniform is at the heart of everything she does.

“It has to be that way,” she said.

“If those at the top are not treating officers who are on the frontline, for instance, with kindness, consideration and compassion, then they become demoralised and end up doing the same to colleagues around them and potentially projecting this attitude onto victims of crime because they think, ‘what’s the point?’

“Then it becomes a vicious circle, which is no good for anyone.”

Stephe ended by looking towards the future of staff culture within the Police Force and made clear her dedication to the members of West Mercia Police Federation.

She said: “There is, of course, a place for processes, policies and numbers, but the focus still needs to be lessened on them and turned more towards people. I do think improvements have been made, but there is a lot of work still to do.

“Policing is a significant part of my life – for me it is still and always has been a vocation and not just a job. I know how it feels to be treated in a way that threatens that – I will keep fighting so other officers don’t have to go through the same thing, with the hope that one day, I won’t be needed any more.”