Monday 10 January
After my usual Monday morning meeting with the Chief Officer Team, I welcome a new member of OPCC staff to the team. This is Aimee, who is providing maternity leave cover to our Office Support Manager [Abbey]. She came across as capable and business-like. Cracking!
That is followed by a very looooooooong meeting about the Budget. Crucial stuff, but lengthy. Note to self: lay in a stock of biscuits.
Finally, it is time to meet Mark Harrison from Historic England to discuss Heritage Crimes. As an historian, this is a crucial issue to me. And it is not just lead from church roofs that gets stolen. Parts of a Roman mosaic were pinched from a field a while ago, and a chap is in prison after having made off with some top class Anglo-Saxon crystal ware that might have belonged to Alfred the Great himself. I won’t bore you with the details, but I am fascinated.
Tuesday 11 January
A London day for me.
I get the early train and, since it wasn’t raining, strolled from St Pancras down to an office round the back of St Paul’s Cathedral for my first meeting. This is with a lawyer who acts for police officers who have been injured in the line of work. He also encourages police forces to put in place top quality support mechanisms for officers and staff – which is why I am meeting him. We have a wide ranging discussion and promise to chase things up.
Then I’m off to Westminster – it’s still not raining so I walk along the river – to meet with Neil O’Brien MP. Not only is Neil MP for Harborough, but he also now delights in the title of “Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities”. I have the address for his office, but despite walking up and down the street twice I can’t find it. In the end I walk into an office block and ask the receptionist.
“Oh yes, that is us,” she says brightly. “We just haven’t put a sign up outside yet.” Great! I’m ushered up to the 6th Floor and shown to a waiting room. “Would you like a tea while you wait?” she asks. I accept. When it arrives it is the colour of mud. Fortunately Mr O’Brien arrives and whisks me off to his office. We have a very interesting meeting with a mass of technical detail that I write down so that I don’t forget it.
Then to an anonymous office in Whitehall to meet one of those incredibly important people who beaver away anonymously in blank offices. Beth organises ministerial visits to the provinces. It is all hush hush, but I hope to get a minister up here so we can show off some of the excellent work our police force is doing.
Next it is the APCC to log on to their wifi for a Teams seminar with the College of Policing. Finally, I’m meeting a journalist. I get a text from him suggesting we meet in a café in Tothill Street. A café! Crickey! Journalism has changed since my youthful days in Fleet Street. You couldn’t get the journos out of a pub with a crowbar back in those days.
I consider walking back to St Pancras, but notice a stabbing pain in the left big toe. I have a blister. Tube it is.
Wednesday 12 January
Back to the office. A crucial task awaits. We are recruiting members of the public to sit on our new Ethics and Transparency Panel. The work that this Panel is going to do will be vital in giving the public reassurance about the ways in which the police go about their business. I have no doubt that the officers and staff of the Leicestershire Police are a respectable and trustworthy group, and that we have in place robust training and disciplinary measures to deal with any issues. But it is not good enough to be open, honest and ethical, it is crucial to be seen to be so as well. That is where this Panel will come in. Fortunately we have had applications from top quality candidates – and more than double then number of spaces we need to fill.
The Deputy Chief Constable, Chair of the Police and Crime Panel and I meet on Teams to draw up a shortlist for interview. It takes time, but in the end we get there. I’m looking forward to the interviews in a fortnight’s time and even more so to getting this Panel up and running.
I then meet with Saj from my office who has been working on options for the future funding of Community Safety Partnerships [CSP]. He has done a grand job. We decide it would be wise and fair to consult the CSPs themselves before making any decisions.
Thursday 13 January
This a Community Day in Rutland, ably organised by Sophie from my office. We start with a cup of tea at a garden centre outside Oakham so she can brief me on the day ahead. Then we head to the Oakham Police Station to meet PC Joe Lloyd. He grabs his coat and custodian helmet, and I head for the door. But PC Lloyd goes the opposite direction. “I’ve got to get the taser,” he explains. A taser in Oakham, really. “Oh yes,” he says. “One day last year I was chased down the road by a man with a great big axe.”. Crickey, in Oakham!
Once out on patrol there is a pleasing lack of mad axemen, but plenty for PC Lloyd to do. He shows me the trouble hotspots, the streets were drug dealing takes place, the areas plagued by ASB and such like. Everywhere we go we bump into people who know him by name. One tells me how wonderful PC Lloyd is. Just what a beat officer should be like. Grand!
We then move on to Greetham to meet with the Parish Council who want to discuss traffic issues in their village and the ideas that they have com up with to deal with them.
Next stop is Uppingham for lunch. After a quick ham sandwich Sophie and I go on a walkabout. We pop into several shops to talk to the managers about local crime and policing. They all give the policing of Uppingham a massive thumbs up. “Great relationship” says a pub landlady. “Just what we need,” reports the owner of a gents outfitters [I buy a new tie while I am in there]. “Much better policing here than at our other branch,” says a butcher. I nervously ask where this other branch is, but it’s ok it’s outside our force area. We end up at the Uppingham Town Hall to meet the town council and mayor. They are concerned about anti-social behaviour at “Tod’s Piece”. I must have looked blank as the mayor leads me to the back door and points to a park “That is Tod’s Piece,” he explains. We then slip next door to the Uppingham Police Office, where I meet a cuddly “trauma teddy” in the shape of a hand-knitted police officer. I don’t know what the children make of it, but I love him!
Finally, back to Oakham to round off the day delivering some of our OPCC crime protection leaflets.
Friday 7 January
Another office day with long meetings about the Budget. Will this ever end!?
One bright spot though. The Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi MP is in Leicestershire. I’ve been promised ten minutes of his time. I raise two issues – the role of police liaising with schools, including the Mini Police and Police Cadet groups, and government guidance about bringing people back to the office rather than working from home. Typical politician [I’m one to talk] he give vague answers, but to be fair promises to follow them up in writing. Let’s see what he comes back with.
I end the day with a meeting with Jenny Kent of our own Heritage Crime Team. Some great, positive news about how we are dealing with the issue. As I say, I’m a historian. So I’m probably more fascinated by the subject than you are.
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