Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits Police Headquarters

Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid a visit to Police Headquarters this morning to meet with senior police officers and the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, as well as a group of new recruits who have recently joined Northamptonshire Police.

The Prime Minister was also shown the new fleet of Interceptor cars which hit the road earlier this month in a bid to tackle those people who use our roads to commit crime.

Mr Johnson met with PFCC Stephen Mold,  Deputy Chief Constable Simon Nickless and Assistant Chief Constable Simon Blatchly to discuss policing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following the meeting DCC Nickless, said: “It was a huge honour to be able to welcome the Prime Minister to Wootton Hall today. I think it shows that the great work being done by all our staff is being noticed far beyond Northamptonshire.

“Mr Johnson was really interested to hear about how we have approached the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges it has brought to policing. But there was also a chance to discuss the excellent work we are doing around the vulnerability agenda as well as to highlight the real success we have had in recruiting new officers to the Force.”

Northamptonshire Police Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold said: “It was great that the Prime Minister has acknowledged how well we are doing with recruitment and that the Force has pushed ahead with numbers so that we are well on the way to meeting our targets.  We had already pledged to recruit an additional 83 police officers using our local council tax funding and we were very fortunate to benefit from more than 190 extra officers funded through the Government’s uplift funding. This will take the Force to over 1,500 officers by 2023, and make it the largest it has ever been. 

“The Covid 19 pandemic has highlighted more than ever the critical role of our police and the trust we place in them.  The daily demands of crime and incidents haven’t gone away as the police take on new roles in dealing with the pandemic.  I was grateful to have the opportunity to discuss this with the Prime Minister and to be able to assure him how hard Northamptonshire Police are working to keep them safe.” 

Northamptonshire Police has not slowed down its plans to have 1391 officers in post by the end of March 2021, an increase of 82 in 12 months.

In April, we advertised for people to join us on our very first Accelerated Detective Pathway. We attracted 269 applications in five weeks, with 92 people making it through the first stage of the recruitment process.

In July we ran our last recruitment drive to attract people to join us as constables without the need to hold a degree, a new national requirement. We received 360 applications in two months and the recruitment process is continuing with those candidates.

Our hugely successful recruitment campaign is now focussed on attracting degree holders, with a drive to attract an increase in the number of candidates from BAME backgrounds, in a bid to have a force which better reflects the communities it serves.

 

Policing in the pandemic

 

• Since April, we have issued more than 370 Fixed Penalty Notices to people who breached the coronavirus legislation
• We have received more than 11,400 reports of Covid-19 breaches and attended more than 3,700 of these incidents.
• Since March our Special Constabulary have volunteered more than 35,000 hours of their time to support local policing
• Since July we have attended 35 addresses to conduct International Travel Quarantine checks on behalf of the Border Agency
• We were the only force in the country to host regular Facebook live question and answer sessions with the public, receiving more than 2,500 questions in five and-a-half hours
• Officers and staff have taken part in more than 250 national, regional and local multi-agency Covid-19 meetings since March