Just as I was leaving.....

What a dramatic and tragic event on HMS Astute. This should have been a good will visit to the City for the sub and its crew but it ended in the terrible shooting and the brave response of those on board at the time. It seemed strange to me no longer to be responding to such an incident in Southampton but I knew Supt. Steve France-Sargeant and Chief Superintendent Dave Thomas were dealing with it with great professionalism. I don't expect Dave would have anticipated being on TV talking about such a serious incident within his first week but that's the nature of policing a busy City I guess.
If I thought my new job was going to be loads of corporate stuff then I was right but it is also about some really exciting potential developments in how we communicate. At last a new and much better internet site is planned and we have a project to deliver really informative data about local crime linked with the chance to have local officers and PCSOs giving information about those crimes and what is being done about it. If I can be involved in changing the way we are 'seen' and 'heard' by people then I think that would be a good way to improve our service and improve people's confidence in us. I think we need new ways of communicating but also a new language and vocabulary. Less of the "a female was ........." or "at approximately xxhours an incident occured......." and more simple, plain and convincing language. I am going to have a go at Twitter and see if there is any interest in what I have to say about my work, the Constabulary, policing issues etc. We'll see and I will report back!

New job

This week I start a new job at Police Headquarters in Winchester. I am over-seeing some of the important changes we are going to make in Hampshire Constabulary to improve the way we communicate with and serve the public. That includes the work of our force control room (the place you get through to when you ring 999), our Force Enquiry Centre (the place you get through to if you ring non emergency e.g. 0845 045 4545), our corporate media and communications dept. and more. I shall miss working in Southampton but it's time for someone else to have what I think is one of the best jobs going. Superintendent Steve France-Sargeant is the new Commander for Southampton and Chief Superintendent Dave Thomas is the Commander for the newly merged West Policing Area. Good luck to them both.
My leaving do last week was split between one of the oldest pubs in town (Tudor connections and a parrot, know where?) and one of the newest Indian restaurants - both were great. My departure was short lived though as this week I come back to take charge of the Saints v Charlton game. I hope that wont feature in a future blog as if it did that would probably mean there had been problems and buoyant Saints heading back to the Championship don't need any fan trouble. Any such potential problems though would pale into insignificance in comparison to what the Police Service of Northern Ireland is facing with the murder of PC Ronan Kerr. How hard it must be, but how important to give good leadership at such times. Let's hope the community turns against those responsible and even better turns them in. How the police service and the community recover from such tragedy is dependent on the trust and confidence with each other. One of the purposes of my new job is to increase that confidence in policing. One way to do that is for us to find a more open and accessible identity and voice, both collectively and individually. If you've ideas about how we can communicate better please let me know.