PFEW Conference: Looking back at the 2021 virtual event

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THE Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation has been looking back on this year’s Police Federation Annual Conference, which was held virtually at the beginning of June.

It was the first mass meeting of Federation Representatives since 2018, after 2019’s conference was cancelled due to a cyber attack and last year’s was called off due to Covid.

Steve Kent, South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair, said: “The Federation did the best they could with the virtual conference. I thought it was quite slick to look at, although there were a few technical gremlins at the start.

“A virtual conference is never going to replace the actual physical act of being there because I don’t think people appreciate the conversations that take place in person are much better to be had than over a mic. And when you’re online, you’ve always got one or two people speaking, and you miss out on that interaction with a larger group.”

Steve said the Home Secretary’s words during a Conference Keynote Speech were met with a lukewarm reception.

Priti Patel told the Conference on 9 June: “The overarching message is of enormous thanks and gratitude for the service officers have given. We have all experienced some terrible things but policing has been front and centre. It has been heroic and I want to give my thanks to everybody who has been out that because they have helped to save lives.” But she stopped at promising them a pay rise.

Steve added: “The Home Secretary’s comments were positive – certainly more positive than others’ in recent years. So it has to be a lukewarm reception from us because the words were right, but we’ve heard it all before. It needs to be backed up with action.”

Steve said more still needs to be done to protect police drivers from prosecution. He added: “The Government needs to back that up and get that sorted. We hear these warm words, but actually we need to see some action to back them up and to make our cops feel a bit more protected and valued on the front line.”