FOCUS: A year as Police Chief

Tuesday 29 December 2020

When Robin Smith, a Senior Commander for the Manchester Arena and London Bridge terror attacks, started in his role as Police Chief, corona virus was all in the future - but in just a few weeks, it was in everyone's minds and the focus of much of the local police work.

Express spoke to Mr Smith as he approached his first anniversary as the head of the local force to discuss policing, the challenges the pandemic posed and everything in between. Today, is the first part of the interview.

You started in your role on 6 January, what were your thoughts about the force you came in? 

My thoughts about, you know, coming to a new force in a very different jurisdiction did start in November (when his appointment was announced).

In fact they started probably about 30 seconds after I was informed by the Chair of the Police Authority after I got the job, which is the way of things. 

Pictured: "I've been around long enough to know that actually when you go into a new organisation, it's better to remember that you've got two ears and one mouth."

To answer your question specifically, I worked for a few forces now and I've worked for, I think, eight Chief Constables or Chief Officers. There is a temptation, I think, that when a new Chief or Chief Executive or whatever comes in, he or she wants to make a big splash and do all of those things very quickly, which I think is a mistake. I don't sign up to that philosophy. 

I've been around long enough to know that actually when you go into a new organisation, it's better to remember that you've got two ears and one mouth. And listen carefully to what your staff are saying to you and you don't do anything for the first three months or the first 100 days, unless what you see needs, for want of a better phrase, open-heart surgery, largely because it's not keeping islanders safe.

I didn't see any of that in my first few weeks that caused me to think I needed to do something because otherwise there could be a tragedy, or otherwise. In fact, the opposite is what I saw, or experienced. 

I'm experienced enough to know that, actually, all of my staff would be looking to me thinking ‘crikey what's this new guy going to be like’. Because I've done that on a number of occasions. 

So, I felt no urgency to start changing things around, changing shift patterns, ways of working and structures and all of that, because the sensible leader is the one that looks up what he's currently got. Because there is a natural history to where we've got to certain things, it strikes me that if any leader worth his or her salt, you'd probably want to understand that natural history before you seek to make changes. 

Pictured: "There are traditions of policing here, take for example our Honorary Police colleagues."

And you could argue, that a small island community like ours probably has a slightly more defined natural history than that perhaps of a big metropolis?

Fantastic question actually. I also wanted to understand, learn and have the courtesy of learning what policing is in this jurisdiction and how different it might be and what I would need to be in to understand. You know, understanding how the Government works, understanding how the States Assembly works, the Royal Court, the Law Officers’ department, and various other key parts of the Government, so all of that was important in terms of networking and understanding it. 

But also, there are traditions of policing here, take for example our Honorary Police colleagues. You know, if we arrived on some mythical island and somebody said to me 'how could we best engage our communities in helping with the sort of civic duties about law and order?' I might say 'you know what, why don't we divide the island up into twelve? And have local people policing their local communities?' Wouldn't that be a great idea?

I think I've taken my time to understand and learn how we both push against the same wheel, we fight the same fight ourselves and our honorary police colleagues.

I think one of those things we can be thankful of covid for, which are few I think - but this is a question you may want to ask our honorary colleagues, particularly people like Danny Scalfe - I think our relationship, some might say has never been stronger. 

Pictured: When Mr Smith arrived in Jersey, covid-19 was only a distant concept.

Was it a particular leadership challenge knowing that most people were in lockdown that had to be enforced, while your own staff would have had concerns for themselves and their families?

I remember when I arrived looking at the BBC news and noticing or reading that there was some form of virus-thing that was going on in China. 
And over the period of the next few weeks, sort of as we went through January and then into February, you know, there's a sense of this almost like a green cloud was going to come across the sea and engulf us. 

It's interesting how we felt then and how we feel now, however, I have in more lighter moments joked with the Chair of the Police Authority and indeed the Minister Len Norman and said to him 'I don't remember you asking me any questions in my interviews about how would I police a global pandemic?' 

But of course, the way I look at these things is that you deal with the unusual in the usual way, that is, you have a plan, you stick to the plan. 

Video: Mr Smith features in a Government video reminding people to stay safe for Christmas.

There is a need to show not only police leadership but also community leadership. I desperately wanted to ensure that islanders felt reassured that their policing service at the end of all this is something that they could be proud of and that we weren't heavy-handed and that, as you may have heard me say a number of times before, we're here to police the virus. 

We're determined to police the virus, with our Honorary colleagues and indeed Government, we don't necessarily feel the need to police islanders. 

Now, in the first wave, certainly lockdown coincided around Easter Holidays if you remember. Beautiful day, Easter Friday, Good Friday and I remember going out on patrol to I think Saint Aubin's Bay and I thought, 'Crikey, this is going to be a tricky day,' beautiful day, hardly a soul on the beach. Hardly a soul there and I took a photograph of it. 

I think we've had a fantastically understanding and compliant island, who, for want of a better phrase, get it. Now there will always be those idiots that are looking for a village, frankly, and that's what the police are there to do. 

But they are very few in number and I think in first-wave we only arrested, I think twenty people. And I think we stopped, spoke to over 10,000 people with Honorary colleagues, we've kept all the facts and stats to show what we've done. 

What we decided to do is to adopt what we call the four Es in terms of our policing style and that was first of all to engage, explain and encourage and then if necessary and reluctantly enforce, which we won't blink over, because if we've passed the first three steps and we still can't get compliance and bear in mind we're talking about the health and protection of islanders, then we enforce. 

Pictured: "It is vital, crucial that we comply with the latest regulations as we go into the festive period."

So, I'm pleased thus far. Although of course now we're in a very different and probably more difficult situation than we were in the first wave, particularly as we come towards the festive period, increase in infection levels and of course, a long way off really, is the prospect of vaccination or what some people might consider to be a cure. 

Now I'm not going to trespass into understanding anything about the medical side of things, that's nothing to do with me but it is vital, crucial that we comply with the latest regulations as we go into the festive period. 

I used, probably inappropriately, but I used a football analogy when I had a similar interview I said 'look, I think the islander's compliance has been astonishing actually and if it was a football game we're 1-0 up.' My sense is right now that we're in the second half of the second half and it's 1-1. So we need to bring a few subs off the bench to make sure we finish this off properly and in, I think, the next few months is what we need to do.

To take that analogy a bit further, do you think that one of the subs is the fact that you've got more powers with the recent regulations that have either come into force or are due to come into force? 

Well, sort of yes and no. What my experience of this year has shown is in order to get the vast majority of islanders to understand the risks associated with the virus, they don't need powers. I don’t need powers, for the vast majority because the vast majority of islanders don't rely on being told what to do.

They know what to do. Is it sensible to wear a mask in a shop? Well yes and I'm sure they don't need the likes of cops or indeed Government - or if I may say so even the Chief Minister to tell them that because the vast majority of people get it. 

Pictured: "The vast majority of islanders to understand the risks associated with the virus, they don't need powers."

I think, of course we need those regulations for those people who choose not to get it, so I welcome them and it could be that if we don't have the compliance then we will move quicker and more swiftly across those four Es to create reinforcement, particularly during the festive period and the areas where we are focused on-, so we've changed our patrol plans. 

We had more police officers on duty before the pubs closed. We had more cops out and we've got twenty police officers out that night. We had similar numbers into at weekend, accepting that what we describe as 'the night-time economy' has been disrupted too, there's a different battle rhythm on a Friday and Saturday night than whatever there used to be. 

But what we're keeping a close eye on is private parties, gatherings, that don't comply with the current regulations and working with health and safety, our honorary police colleagues and to just, you know, be available to islanders should we need it.

And the message for that is less about enforcement and more about reassurance.

That's been how I position the police in all of this is, that's for those islanders who want to be reassured it's not to go around bashing in, not that we can, bashing in people's doors saying 'look, sort your life out'. 

We ought to just focus on the fact that we've got over 100 thousand people living in this island with thousands of homes and that a tiny, tiny minority of people choose to-, and if they choose to, and we will, with our partners, be knocking on the doors but I'm sure that will be only very few and far between. 

Come back tomorrow for the second part of Robin Smith's interview.