“Despicable attack” on policing by Home Secretary

THE Home Secretary’s speech to the Federation Conference was a “despicable attack” on police officers across the country, the chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Neil Bowles (pictured) said delegates were “absolutely shocked and astounded” by Theresa May’s speech, in which she told officers: “Make no mistake… If you do not change of your own accord we will impose change on you.”

Mr Bowles said it was not so much what Mrs May said but the way she delivered it. “You could see hate in her eyes,” he said. “It was just absolutely unbelievable. It wasn’t just an attack on the Police Federation, it was an attack on every single police officer in this country, which is despicable.”

Jim Lucas, secretary of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “What annoyed me more than anything was that she knew we were going to go through a process this week, where we were going to look at the recommendations to move on with the Federation and make changes. That was already on the cards.”

Nevertheless, Mr Bowles has urged members to “have confidence” in the change process that the Federation is going to go through, which could take at least two years to put in place.

He added that the Federation agrees with the “majority” of points in the Normington Review and said they can be “implemented quite quickly”. Other things in the report require changes to Police Regulations, while some need a “lot of work to get into some sort of shape that would be practical for our organisation”, he said.

Mr Lucas said that members “can be assured that it is business as usual”. He added: “Regardless of what has happened and what you see, including the figures that are spun, the vast majority of members get a gold class service and that will continue. That’s not going to change.”