Meet the new head of Avon and Somerset Police
The first female Chief Constable says she wants to "break through the glass ceiling" for other under-represented groups
The new Chief Constable (CC) of Avon and Somerset Police says she's honoured to be the first woman to hold the role.
We've been speaking to Sarah Crew, who was officially appointed to the role last week (25 November).
She had been in the job temporarily since July when her predecessor Andy Marsh left.
In an exclusive chat we discussed her ambitions and vision for the force, restoring trust and improving transparency, as well as what it feels like to take on the top job.
"I'm really excited and enthused," she said.
"Being in the role temporarily, it gives you a sense of what it's going to be, and I'm a little bit relieved as well because the process to turn from temporary into permanent has actually been very rigorous.
"The Police and Crime Commissioner and the Police and Crime Panel have put me through my paces."
CC Crew has risen steadily through the ranks since joining the force in 1994, but told us it was not originally an ambition of hers to become Chief Constable.
"No, absolutely not," she said.
"I've been in the force for 27 years. At a certain point I did have an ambition to be the first female head of CID (Criminal Investigation Department) but I never did achieve that, but at different points I've always wanted to be as effective and have as much impact as I could do.
"As I've progressed, at each stage I've thought I can do a little bit more by doing a different role.
"So this was never in the sights when I joined."
Being the first female Chief Constable
CC Crew tells us it is an honour to be the first woman to hold the role, but adds it should have happened sooner.
"It's interesting that we even mark it. That we have to mark it," she said.
"Our model of policing has been around for 190 years and women make up more than 50 percent of the population, so it really should have happened before now...
"I want to reflect that there are lots of other groups within policing who are under represented, and one of the things I want to do during my tenure, where I can, is to break through the glass ceiling for them as well."
CC Crew says a team formed of people with different strengths, different outlooks and different backgrounds is much more effective.
"Strong teams make for strong performance and our communities benefit from that," she said.
Priorities
Top of her to do list, she says, is rebuilding public confidence in the police.
Recent events such as the police response to several Kill the Bill protests in Bristol, plus the murder of Sarah Everard in London by then serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, have severely tarnished the reputation of the police across the country.
"My top priority is to strengthen and rebuild public confidence," she told us.
"Confidence in policing has taken a hit, it's taken a number of hits but the biggest hit has been the Sarah Everard case most recently, particularly given the role a police officer played in that.
"Policing in the country revolves around what I call a bond of trust, between citizens in communities and citizens who wear the uniform.
"My job as Chief Constable is to make sure I'm protecting and preserving and strengthening that bond."
CC Crew adds she also wants to improve the focus on offenders, meaning how they are dealt with when under suspicion of a crime, how they are rehabilitated once convicted and how they are looked after once returned to society.
"I want to place the focus back equally on offenders," she said.
"I lead nationally on rape and serious sexual offending, and that's something we are pioneering in Avon and Somerset through a collaboration with some academics, but I think it's got wider resonance."
CC Crew is the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for rape and sexual assault, while Avon and Somerset Police are currently running a programme called Operation Bluestone, which aims to improve how such cases are investigated to better support victims.
It also aims to shift the focus of investigations off the victims and onto the suspect.
"Yes, policing has a core role in catching criminals, disrupting their acivity, convicting them, but I think we've also got a role to play with partner agencies in preventing and deterring people entering a life of crime...but also helping people at the other end out of the cycle of reoffending.
"We want to be really good at that."
Transparency
One reason for a lack of trust in the police of late is a perceived lack of transparency around their decision making process, in particular around large events like the Kill the Bill protests in Bristol earlier this year.
In a recent interview with us Superintendent Mark Runacres, who led the response from Avon and Somerset Police, admitted transparency of decision making was an issue at the time, for example on when to disperse crowds and how to do it.
"I want to open our doors wider...wider than ever before," CC Crew said.
"Not just to let the public see what we do and how we do it. We do that to an extent, but I want the public to understand who we are behind the uniform and why we do it, because we are of the community and I think that will remove some of the barriers between the police and the public."
CC Crew says she is also open to more scrutiny, adding she is looking into creating more scrutiny panels formed of experts, to asses how the police do things.
"There's much more to do to open the doors of, how we have that very difficult balancing act between the right to protest, which is a fundamental one and we'll be unapologetic about our legal responsibility to facilitate that, but also how we balance that with the rights of the wider community as well.
"I think that balancing act is not something that should be kept secret and done by the police alone...and I think how we strike that balance is worthy of much greater public awareness and public debate.
"I want to open the doors on how we prepare officers and commanders and train them, I want to open the doors on our briefings where we set the tone and objectives for a particular protest.
"I want to, and I've got track record of doing this...of opening the doors into the control room, into the command suite, so people understand and see the thought that goes into the decisions, and I do also want to be much more transparent about how professional and diligent we are in debriefing every single protest to learn for the next one."
Message to the public
If you, to any degree, have a distrust for police officers, either because of recent events or otherwise, CC Crew had this message for you.
"I'd want them to know that that culture of courage and empathy is something that I'm going to put into practice almost immediately," she said.
"I want to have courageous conversations with them and I want to hear about their lived experience of policing.
"I want them to think what the answer to this question is; what can policing do to rebuild you confidence?
"I want to listen to that, I want to hear it and I want to act upon it."