‘Trust Sergeants To Do Their Job’

BETTER training and placing faith in sergeants to make the right decisions would go a long way in reverting a ‘crisis’ in the rank, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

The PFEW says Sergeant and Inspector exams moving online due to COVID-19 this year has exposed broader problems in the sector. It says officers who have already passed their exams are being ‘overlooked’ in favour of quick-fix gap in service fillers.

It says it is concerned that acting Sergeants are being placed at operational and legal risk because they are not getting the support or mentoring they need.

South Yorkshire Police Federation has echoed those concerns. Chairman Steve Kent said: “In our force and everywhere, there’s a little bit of a crisis at sergeant and inspector level.

“The role of sSergeant has become a lot more challenging over the past years because of bureaucracy and because of certain things that HMICFRS is wanting from policing.

“I think we need to do more to protect our sergeants. We’re planning a survey within the force which could help see the stresses on sergeants, and that includes acting sergeants because obviously they’re the ones who are expected to do the same job but with less experience and fewer qualifications to do it.

“It is essential we keep an eye on our sergeants and our acting sergeants who are under a lot of pressure at the minute – perhaps under the most pressure with the way that bureaucracy’s changing within policing.”

The force is looking at rolling out risk assessment training to Sergeants, and Steve is hoping that across the service they will get the training and the trust they need to do their jobs.

He said: “They need better training and more trust in them to make decisions; that’s a significant problem at the minute.

“Sergeants have been second-guessed every turn they take, and it’s almost like what’s the point in having them then?

“If we’re going to give these people these stripes, whether they’re acting or they’re qualified or a substantive sergeant, they need to be given the support and trust to go out and do their job as the professionals that they are.

“We need to give sergeants increased training on risk assessments which is obviously very important when incidents go wrong.

“The force is actually rolling that out and are in the process of righting that training now. So there is progress – the force has taken that on board.”