Service before Self

Today I attended the funeral of fire-fighter Alan Bannon at St Mary's Church. The event was a very moving and a powerful mixture of intense sadness but also much pride. It was amazing to see the streets lined with so many members of the public there to pay their respects. It was a very emotional goodbye from all the HFRS staff to one of their colleagues. I was very proud to be there to represent the Constabulary and especially Southampton OCU. I was proud too of the police officers who attended the funeral. They had been involved in the tragic events at Shirley Towers. The funeral must have been very difficult for them but I was heartened by the strength of support given to them and by them.

Many of the tributes paid during the ceremony highlighted the courage and bravery of the two fire-fighters who died. All fire-fighters do a very special job involving physical courage and commitment. I thought how several of the tributes were also very applicable to the Police Service. Public service in the face of risk and hardship, service to the community and beyond all else 'service before self'. Members from all emergency services go about their daily tasks knowing they face risks but, as was said at St Mary's today, they do so willingly in the service of others.

When the call for help comes in then people from emergency services respond. On this occasion it was fire-fighters who took the greatest risks. On other occasions it might be police officers. We should never take that response and that service for granted; it's very special and we must protect and value it for the protection it offers to those we serve and to ourselves.

A good week

This week was another of great variety and includes several successes. Here's a few. We seized the biggest haul of cocaine this year from a suspected dealer along with thousands of tablets and significant cash. Its good to get drugs off the street but there's a special satisfaction too in taking money off drug dealers. If you are a user then 'sorry' but we have made it just a bit harder to score this week (could be the week to kick it, there's plenty of help around if you want to).
As I type someone is in custody for a nasty sexual assault last night. These are always horrible crimes for the victim and their family so its especially important when we can have early success in the investigations. Finally we were congratulated this week by the Chief Constable for our success last year in reducing crime in the city by 14%.
As the Chief said that's maybe the most important test of good policing and it goes right back to Sir Robert Peel and 1829 when he said " The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder". Not all weeks are so good but when we get it right it's not just a success for Southampton Police, it's a success for the whole City.

Best crime reduction in the county

After last week's tragic fire at Shirley Towers some normality is returning for most of the residents but of course not for those few whose homes wont be fit to return to for some time. It will be a long time too before any sense of normality comes back for the families of the deceased firefighters and their colleagues. Tributes continue as does the investigation into the cause of the fire and how the firefighters lost their lives.

Within a month we'll know which party is in government. All the parties are saying plenty about policing. In Thursday's leadership debate on TV all 3 candidates talked in emotive terms about crime and people's concerns about it. Of course crime is a crucial issue for us all but is it as bad as it is sometimes portrayed? Well of course if you have been a victim of crime then statistics are of little comfort but it must be good news for me to be able to say that over the last 12 months crime in Southampton has reduced more than in any other part of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; 14% down so 4,600 fewer victims than the year before. That's great police work and good work from partner agencies in the City and from communities themselves. Ok, so that's recorded crime but we know that what we record matches more and more closely what people say they have suffered when they are asked by independent surveys. Whichever party wins and whatever new policies might emerge, (elected local police chiefs?) if we keep improving our police performance in the way we have last year then we will be in a strong position to respond, whatever is asked of us.

But I don't take that success for granted. I know it's based on hard work and commitment by my officers and staff and by many other people, often in the face of hardship; but hopefully, rarely hardships as serious as last week's dramatic events.

Tragic events at Shirley Towers

This is one of those weeks when commenting on routine work in the City can seem almost irrelevant in the face of tragic events such as those at Shirley Towers. Southampton police officers and staff, like many others, consider firefighters as good colleagues in keeping the City safe. The death of two brave men as they tackled the fire was a tragedy and a great sadness. On behalf of all police officers and staff in the City I offer my most sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of James Shears and Alan Bannon.
My thanks go to all those who have been part of the response to this incident, emergency services, City Council local community organisations and voluntary groups including the Salvation Army and local businesses. It sometimes takes an event like this to remind us of the great community spirit which still exists. My final thanks and respect goes to the community and in particular the residents of Shirley Towers for their patience and forebearing. We will continue to work with the City Council to try and get their lives back to normal as soon as possible but I hope it's understandable that we have an important investigation to conduct so we can establish what happened and how those two brave men were killed in the line of service to the public in Southampton.
That return to normality will happen soon and I hope my comments here will once again be about more routine issues. In the meantime it's right to pause and reflect on our colleagues and their ultimate sacrifice.