SAJID Javid\u2019s address to the PFEW Annual Conference has been praised \u2013 but officers are looking for much more than nice family stories and warm words from their Home Secretary.<\/p>\n
Lancashire Police Federation Vice-Chairman Steve Rothwell thought the new Minister came across as being \u2018very knowledgeable\u2019 and he\u2019s confident he will do what he can to support the service.<\/p>\n
In his keynote address to conference, Mr Javid – whose brother is a police officer – said he \u2018got\u2019 the issues policing were facing and that properly resourcing the police was going to be a priority for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of the best ones we\u2019ve heard, and I think for someone who has only been in the job for three weeks he came across very well and was very knowledgeable,” Steve said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made admissions about his skill level in the role at the moment and clearly he had to make some concessions on behalf of the Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said that times have got to change, and he mentioned he will support us to get those changes through,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, the test for him will be, if he\u2019s still in the role next year, is that he\u2019s made a start to getting new resources in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve agreed with Mr Javid\u2019s stance that degrees should not be a necessary qualification for new officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think they are necessary for everybody,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe for those wanting to take particular avenues in the police they are useful but not everyone wants that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome join to be a frontline operational cop for as long as they can, and you don\u2019t need a degree for that, so he was quite right in that respect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fatigue and officer welfare set against the backdrop of cuts and austerity was perhaps not surprisingly a hot topic at the Annual Conference, held over two days in Birmingham.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking after officers\u2019 mental health has been overdue and we seem to think that stress in police officers\u2019 lives is relatively new, but it\u2019s not,\u201d Steve said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only new thing is that the powers that be and Chief Officer teams are acknowledging it as an issue and that they\u2019ve managed to secure funding to put that resource back into their staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Steve\u2019s members, the rest day issue is a key problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a frustration officers across the country will share,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery time there\u2019s a major incident or a shooting or a burst of violent crime the media announce that \u2018extra\u2019 police are on the streets.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, they\u2019re not, they are not extra police. It\u2019s these sorts of incidents where rest days and leave get cancelled, tours of duty get extended and officers spend more time away from their families.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SAJID Javid\u2019s address to the PFEW Annual Conference has been praised \u2013 but officers are looking for much more than nice family stories and warm words from their Home Secretary.\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=429"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lancsfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}