“Embed the Constabulary within the community” says police chief

This week, Devon and Cornwall Police Authority announced the appointment of 3 new Assistant Chief Constables (ACC) for the force.

Two of the ACC’s are women and two of them have been ‘imported’ from police constabularies elsewhere. Their appointments come in the wake of recent comments made about the importance of recruiting police officers locally by the Deputy Chief Constable of the Isle of Man Constabulary, Gary Roberts, in a letter to the Celtic League.

Mr Roberts argues in his letter:

“In the past considerable numbers of officers have been imported from the United Kingdom. This approach, whilst understandable, does not help to embed the Constabulary within the community. Furthermore, a staff development strategy should help ensure that all ranks within the Constabulary are occupied by locally developed officers within a reasonably short period of time.”

CPW agrees whole heartedly with Mr Roberts who also says that all recruitment to the Constabulary will be from the island over the next five years. If the Isle of Man Constabulary can do this, there is no reason why Devon and Cornwall Constabulary cannot either. As can be seen from the comments related to the below news item, members of the public seem to agree with us too.

THREE ASSISTANT CHIEF CONSTABLES NAMED 18 March 2008

Source: www.thisiscornwall.co.uk
Author: Unknown

Devon and Cornwall Police Authority has appointed three new assistant chief constables.

The new permanent team has been created to help the force make improvements to its service over the next five years.

The new assistant chief constables are Sharon Taylor, who has been an acting ACC in Devon and Cornwall for the past year, Debbie Simpson, currently serving with the Bedfordshire Police, and Paul Netherton, who is currently serving with the Hampshire Constabulary.

All three will join the force over the next few months.

Chief Constable Stephen Otter said: "I welcome these new members to the Chief Officer Group.

"This new permanent senior team gives the force a stable leadership team to take the force forward, and to help us to deliver the improvements we need to make over the next five years in order to achieve our goal of becoming a top performing force.

"The three appointments, coupled with the temporary return of ACC Richard Stowe will give us the extra senior capacity we need whilst we enter a period of significant change and development."

COMMENTS (as of 19/03/08)

Devon and Cornwall is renowned for importing Senior ranks from other forces, but only since the retirement of Sir John Evans. Indeed, Maria Wallis is quoted as saying on one occasion " Locally grown (ie Devon and Cornwall) does make the grade for me..."MORRIS, PLYMOUTH

I agree with Mike Chappell. Why is it whenever you watch the endless TV traffic cop programmes they all speak with accents local to the area and they seem to know their `patch' well. In contrast,does anyone know a Cornish Policeman on the beat in the county? Do the head honcho's at Middlemoor care about this subject -probably not! The last time a Policeman spoke to me it was obvious he had no idea of the culture and way of life here in Cornwall. As well as having a black police officers association for Devon & Cornwall-what about a Cornish Officers association? After all, they would surely be an `ethnic'minority in D&C police wouldn't they?ANONYMOUS, BODMIN

I am sure that the money spent on these 'imports' will bring a more efficient and 'in touch' police service to Kernow. After all, why waste money on bobbies on thje beat when you can invest it in 3 or is it 4 Assistant Chief Constables. 'Chiefs and Indians' comes to mind !Michael Chappell, Kernow - Goonhavern

Hooray! Devon & Cornwall will have two women Assistant Chief Constables to help put things back on track. DEBBIE & SHARON - "beautiful British names" (to quote Al Murray) Let's have a TRACEY in there too. That ex-comprehensive school trio would be formidable.Rick, Trowbridge