Kirsten Bates
My name’s Kirsten Bates, I’ve been a PCSO for the last 17 years with Northamptonshire Police. Prior to that I was a Special Constable for two years. Whilst working as a Special Constable, I saw the role of PCSO come into play. It was one of those roles that I was a little bit sceptical about, where obviously, going out without handcuffs, PAVA, and everything a police officer would carry but, again, out on the streets and being public facing. So, again, as the role developed, I found the community side of being a Special Constable something that I really enjoyed which then steered me towards the role of PCSO.
So, my role as a PCSO is about being that visible presence in the community. It’s about being accessible and available, as and when. Again, my role is around problem solving, around sort of low-level crime, anti-social behaviour, and, again, I do a lot of work in schools and clubs and societies.
Probably my main achievement is the Butterfly Project that I sort of developed with a colleague on the back of a young child disclosing domestic abuse in the home. It came around every school assembly that I would give – I’d always say to the young people ‘you know what, if you get that butterfly feeling in your tummy, that feeling when you don’t feel safe, that’s your body telling you that you need to share that worry’. It was after one road safety presentation where a seven year old came up to me, she said ‘Kirsten, I’ve got a butterfly and I need you to make it go away’ and it took me a minute to realise what actually she was saying, and we sat down, I sat with her teacher, and she shared that she’d got that butterfly when she’d seen mummy and daddy fighting, and daddy had hurt mummy. But she waited weeks for me to come into school because she thought I was the only person she could share that butterfly with. I came away from that thinking ‘you know what, it was such an easy concept for a young person to understand and way of protecting themselves’. So, again, we developed the Butterfly Project, and you’ll see my badges on here, and that’s now county wide.
Working as a PCSO, and a Special Constable, is what has moulded me into the Kirsten Bates I am now. I look at what I do now and the people that I can help and the people that we support in our communities around domestic abuse, around, again, being victims of crime. The role that I do now is, do you know what, I shall work this role until the day I retire.
Meet PCSO Kirsten Bates, who has been with Northamptonshire Police for 19 years.
“My role is to be a visible presence in the community, offering reassurance, tackling crime and anti-social behaviour, and forging stronger relationships within the community. I play a crucial role in identifying people who may be vulnerable to becoming a victim of crime and use problem solving techniques to help them. I also play a huge part in gathering and submitting intelligence and developing this for further action to be taken by police officer colleagues.
“My role allows me to build relationships within the community and people will talk to me about their concerns whereas they may be less likely to talk to a police officer. This helps to build an intelligence picture of what is happening within the community and leads to the detection of crime and its perpetrators, giving justice to victims.
“There is no typical day! My day can be shaped by what crimes and incidents have occurred on my area. I carry out patrols within my community on foot, pedal cycle or car, interspersed with visits to victims of crime and any welfare concerns. My day will often include school visits, where intervention projects are delivered to young people.
“Initially I was studying for a degree which I didn’t enjoy and had started experiencing life within a policing environment as a Special Constable prior to becoming a PCSO. When the PCSO role was introduced and I realised that it was primarily focused on building community relations, helping vulnerable people, and providing the community with support, I found it was the role which perfectly fit with my views and values. As a Special Constable, I was exposed to many different experiences that I never would have had otherwise, and this helped me with my application and interview process.
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“The part of my role which I find most difficult is having the ability to leave my work at work. I always find myself worrying, and wanting to do more for the vulnerable people, during my days off or whilst I am away.
“This role can be difficult especially when you can’t always come up with a working solution to a problem and provide people with the answers that they always want and need.
“There is a completely different side of life which I have experienced since being in the policing world. Prior to joining the police, I had lived a sheltered life, where I was not exposed to crime or what vulnerable people experience.
“What I enjoy most is that I have been entrenched within my policing area for over a decade and feel part of that community. I have watched and engaged with young people from primary school through secondary and into young adults and feel I have had a positive impact on most of their lives. My positive attitude to my role means that people are pleased to see me as I carry out my patrols and are happy to stop and chat with you. Being able to target and support the most vulnerable people on my beat, brings me lots of satisfaction.
“One of my achievements in this role was when I initiated and was involved in the development of the Blue Butterfly Project. This project was developed on the back of a child disclosing an unsafe feeling to me. This tool was developed as a way for children to be able to express their feelings in a safe environment.
“Some of the things that really stand out for me is winning PCSO of the Year and a Women in Policing National Award for the Butterfly Project. I also represented Northamptonshire Police at the Remembrance Parade in London, a big thrill being able to stand outside 10 Downing Street in uniform.”
Sergeant Greg Harrison, Kirsten’s supervisor said: “When I first got offered a job on the neighbourhood team at Daventry, a colleague from another department asked who I had on my new team, and when Kirsten’s name cropped up, they stated that she was one of the best PCSOs this force has ever had. Even before I came to the area, I knew of her Forcewide reputation as a superb PCSO, and she certainly lived up to this reputation.
“Even after 19 years, she still has an exemplary level of compassion and empathy with her colleagues and the general public alike, which provides an essential check to the team in these days where it is so easy to suffer with compassion fatigue. In practical terms, this means that people are always willing to talk to her, meaning that she gathers lots of brilliant intelligence. She is one of those officers who just knows her town and her community absolutely inside and out.
“She is extremely well respected, and her work is highly valued by all partner agencies who come into contact with her. It seems that not a day goes by where I don’t hear ‘Kirsten has already spoken to me, so she knows all about it’.
“She has a presence within the team whereby her values and work ethic spread out to affect those she works with, not only within the team but across the whole organisation. She is very approachable, and always ready to offer a kind word or a sympathetic ear, and to impart her experience and knowledge to other members of the organisation, and as such is a point of contact for several areas.
“She is innovative, and always able to view an issue from a human perspective, often bringing views and initiatives to a problem which would never have been considered otherwise. The Blue Butterfly project is a perfect example of this.
“Despite all the above however, Kirsten has remained completely grounded. I firmly believe that the core motivation for her working as hard as she does is that she genuinely just wants to help people in life. I have rarely met anyone so sincere and unassuming, and I am certain that she will be utterly embarrassed by what has been written here. She absolutely deserves every word of it.”
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