Annual Police Superintendents' Association Conference
Speech by the Minister for Policing and Crime Sarah Jones.
I am beginning week two as the new Policing Minister, and I wanted to come to see you all, to listen to what you say, and to spend a bit of time with you. I have to go back to do a debate in Parliament so I can’t stay for the whole day, but this is the start of a relationship, and I hope you forgive me for not spending more time here.
I was the Shadow Policing Minister for three years. Paul Fotheringham, I think, was in charge then, and we had a really good relationship. We would meet regularly, it was during the covid period where the sort of partnership working between the Supers, the Fed and the NPCC was really instrumental in making sure that policing during that very difficult time was done with as much clarity and certainty and leadership as possible in what was a very changing environment. And I enjoyed that relationship very much, and I look forward to continuing it now.
Coming back, I’ve been doing another role for the last two years, so coming back into policing is firstly fabulous, because I absolutely loved doing it in opposition, but also a really good opportunity to reflect on what’s changed in those two years.
And in many ways the challenges then are the challenges now. And I think the situation we find ourselves in, there are many similarities. Policing remains, and I think will always be at the forefront of our national life. Two weekends ago in London, big protest, Palestine Action, hundreds of arrests that the police were having to make. Last weekend, 100,000 people marching on the streets, mostly very safely, but some of our officers were injured. And you know, the perpetrators will face the full force of the law, but our officers were there, responding, going into bat for us to protect us, to protect that freedom that we want and enjoy.
And of course, tomorrow, we have the President of the United States coming to this country, and who will be there making sure he is safe and everything goes smoothly, using all the best expertise that we have, all the new technology that we have to make sure that visit is as smooth as possible? Policing will always be at the heart of our national life.
And as a politician, as every politician will tell you, policing remains absolutely a top priority for all of our constituents. It is the top issue when you have conversations, when you’re knocking on doors and you’re talking to people in your own patch, crime and policing is always one of the top issues that people talk about. They want to feel safe. They want to see you as much as possible. They want to know that their issues, from anti-social behaviour to the very serious crimes that people are victim of, that they will get the support that they need.
I have twin boys, and they have been mugged twice with their phones stolen. First time, in an out of town shopping centre, three lads come towards them, put on the balaclavas, mug them, take their phone. They were very upset, obviously. The police were called. The police were lovely. Gave them the support that they needed and followed up and are taking forward action in terms of you know, we know who the lads were.
Crime impacts everybody. I mean, the upset we feel as parents when our children are victims of crime, and that will always be the case, what you do will always be at the heart of people’s lives.
And I think that the third thing that hasn’t changed, and that will always remain, is that you make huge sacrifices. We’ve heard many of them already. In Croydon, where I represent, Sergeant Matt Ratana lost his life, as you all know, right at the end of his policing career, he was six weeks away from leaving, and he made the ultimate sacrifice. And his community was grieving, as well as his family and, of course, the force. But the bravery that you show, the sacrifices you make, we recognise that and we appreciate that. We will not stop being grateful to you for everything that you do.
I hope you have a clear sense of the priorities of this government and the things that we want to work with you on. Of course, the Safer Streets Mission, driving forward action on knife crime, on violence against women and girls, on anti-social behaviour, and, of course, the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, putting back that relationship with named, contactable officers and additional neighbourhood officers on our streets.
We also want to make sure that you have the support that you need, but you also have the standards that everybody expects. So whether that is the welfare officers, and I’m very interested in the Covenant. I was the Shadow Policing Minister when the legislation went through that set up, at the start of that process, I want to make sure that’s working and you’re getting the welfare support that you need, whether it’s pay, whether it’s pensions, whether it’s legislation.
So the legislation that we’re passing at the moment to provide, just one example is presumption of anonymity for firearms officers subject to a criminal trial. We want to make sure we’re doing the right thing so you can do the job that you need to do. But we also want to reform standards so that we’re tougher in terms of the people that come into the force, in terms of those vetting rules, and also standards that we will all agree we want to uphold when people are officers, and I want to work with you on getting that right.
A lot of the challenges that we faced, I would say, reflecting the work that I did as the Shadow Minister were a lack of resources. It’s hard to manage and lead and mentor new officers when you are very stretched for time. So we need to have those conversations. Talk about how we keep the highest standards in our police forces across the country.
And I hope you’ve seen a little bit of the new Home Secretary. She was speaking in Parliament yesterday. She is well known by those of us in politics as someone who will take on the difficult challenges, who will make decisions, who will move things forward, who won’t be shy to have those conversations and get things done. But she will always respect you, and she will always respect what you do.
Yesterday, she set out her ambition to reform policing. She talked about how police time should not be wasted policing incidents like perfectly legal tweets. She talked about the freedom of speech and freedom of conscience and religion and belief, and how those two inevitably cross over, and we need to get that balance right. And we are looking forward to the advice that’s coming to us from the NPCC and others on how we take that forward.
She also talked about the protests at the weekend, and she talked about, I think, very powerfully about how the St. George’s Cross and the Union Jack belong to us all. They’re symbols of unity, a kingdom, a United Kingdom, and must never be used to divide us. And I think she spoke very powerfully, and will always give you her support in those difficult points, when you are making those difficult decisions.
I look across the policing landscape today and the huge challenges that are inevitably left. I don’t shy away from them at all. Funding, of course, confidence from the public, of course, and the changing nature of crime that we all know too well, very complex, difficult, intensive investigations that you have to do. Fraud and the online space and the challenges with people’s expectations and the rise in demand.
And I’m acutely aware of my responsibility as Policing Minister that I need to work with you to tackle these challenges. I don’t want to be a minister who plays a game of whack-a-mole with different crimes. Oh, I’m interested in this crime. Can we all go over here and tackle this one? Oh, no, I’m interested in this one. That doesn’t work, and I don’t want to be that minister.
I think the challenges that we face are too great to approach it in that way. And we do need reform, and we do need reform of the whole system. And the white paper is something that I am most excited about. Quite rightly, quite rightly, people are asking, Nick’s asking, where is it? And it is being developed, we will publish it in the autumn. We need to get it right, and there’s a lot of work to do to get that right.
We’ve been very clear that the Home Office needs to be more active in policing. We know there was a sort of step away under Theresa May. We want to come back into that space, and the Reform White Paper will be absolutely key to that. Looking at a new Centre of Policing so we can coordinate what it makes sense to coordinate so forces can focus on what they need to focus on, and that we can get that balance right.
I’m very excited about new technologies and the unleashing of resource that that can potentially give us in terms of your and your forces’ time to do the things that they need to be doing, whether it’s automated redaction and AI, whether it’s facial recognition, whether it’s drones, all of these new technologies that we have that can reduce bureaucracy, that can help us be faster and better at fighting crime. I think there’s a huge amount we can do in that space. And then, of course, efficiency, whether that’s within the day to day job or whether that’s how we procure, how we do things together, there is a huge amount of work there to be done as well.
I think there are a few other professions where we don’t have a central sense of workforce planning, where we don’t have a central sense of what we’re going to need in the future, looking ahead, trying to anticipate and help you to do the job that you need to do.
I genuinely believe, if we get this right, by working together, we can protect that very precious policing by consent model that we all hold so dear, that we can rebuild trust in policing, which, of course, is still a lot higher than politicians, for example, still a lot higher than many, many other professions. And I think we can build a police force that is fit for the future and the crimes of the future.
But my last, and I think most important message, is that we can only do that together. We may not always agree, but I hope that we can agree the direction of travel, that we can go on that journey together. I know as a politician, I’m not a police officer. I don’t know all the things you know, you have to tell me and we need to talk to each other, we need to be frank with each other and move forward together.
So I would end just by stating where I started, and thanks to you all for inviting me and for giving me a little bit of your time, and by saying that I want to build that relationship. I want to work with you and build a resilient police force. Thank you very much.