One of the UKs highest ranking Police Officers gives a unique and personal insight into the changes in Policing and its leadership style over the years. He is still active, helping to apply a viewpoint on today’s Policing and the many challenges it faces.
Foreword
The author spent almost forty years in policing, firstly as a police officer and then during the past more than eight years, operating as a member of police staff but still involved in the delivery of front line policing at a regional level, as part of the SE Regional Organised Crime Unit. Indeed, he is proud to say that his entire service was spent in an operational capacity.
As a police officer, he served for over thirty-one years within Sussex Police, the vast majority as a detective. He served at all ranks from detective constable through to and including detective chief superintendent as Head of Sussex CID. During those years, he led many homicide investigations and was acclaimed as a highly effective senior investigating officer. He also spent time as the divisional commander for the City of Brighton and Hove.
He has witnessed many changes to policing in his time. During his service, he gained a reputation for being an outspoken and no-nonsense leader with a determination to ensure that everything the police did was designed to enhance public safety by ‘locking up the bad guys’. This included pushing the boundaries where appropriate and being ‘lawfully audacious’ whenever possible. Inevitably, during his service, he has attracted differing views on his leadership style and general approach to policing, both internally and externally, and many of these will be covered within the book. However, he would argue that he has always attempted to operate for the greater good of the public, never losing sight of the purpose of policing and the long-standing definition of a constable. In addition, he always tried to espouse the original principles of policing put in place by Sir Robert Peel, many of which have stood the test of time. In other words, he was determined to see that things were done in the right way or, as in the title of this book, My Way.
This book is a personal reflection on the changing face of policing and police leadership style over the past sixty years. Its purpose is to challenge the reader to achieve a greater understanding of how and why approaches have changed and how this has affected decision-making by operational leaders. It will hopefully provoke some thought as to what has influenced this, and whether this has been to the benefit or detriment of the police service.
The author has been able to draw on evidence spanning many years from the mid 1950s, when his father joined the police service, to the current day. As he enters full retirement, inevitably his thoughts have turned to the changing face of policing over this period and the drivers for this change, as well the culture underpinning this. Much of the account will contain a unique and personal insight based on the evidence gathered over a lifetime in policing, during which he achieved high rank and therefore mixed with some of the most senior leaders within the organisation. This has arguably given him a real opportunity to understand the mind-set of those working at the highest levels in policing. Many of his views may appear controversial but will be based on what he believes to be sound evidence- and are therefore honestly held. He will explore the thought processes that a senior police officer goes through in reaching key operational decisions and why, on occasions, these sometimes go wrong.
Finally, he will consider whether policing was better in the past than now, whether such perceptions are accurate and why these may have developed in the way that they have.
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