WIP

“21. God, that was a long time ago. I was in the Metropolitan Police Force. I joined at 18 and was a Constable at 21 in Central London studying for Sergeant Exams. I was allowed to take my exams early because they thought I was worth saving so I was a front line operational police officer”.

“That is how it started. I had no idea when I joined I was going to end up here. 1977 was around the time of the IRA campaigns in Central London so my knowledge of here was simply that the IRA was blowing up London where I was a cop.I wanted to progress so I was ambitious that is the first point. Secondly I did well in my Sergeant Exams. I worked out that it is a lot easier to work really hard and do things once. I worked that out late, as I was pretty crap at school. I persevered, did well and that gave me the opportunity to go on to interview for promotion. A three day process including interviews, role play and team exercises, I got lucky and was selected along with 32 others from country wide competition. I went to Staff College at Bramshill for one year, studying leadership and policing. The exams were tough but I stepped up and progressed through a series of promotions, difficult policing, CID, major crime investigations, drugs, international crime positions in Jamica and South Africa. When this job came up, it was one I just really thought I could do. I applied and have been here seven years, so that is really how – a long journey – joining to coming here took me 25 years”.

“That is really interesting because I don’t really have one. Do I have a role model? No. That’s not being arrogant; there are all sorts of people that are leaders who I am interested in. I am interested in quiet leaders, by that I mean not people who yell and scream. If you look at the guy who runs Ryanair (Michael O’Leary) he comes across as a bit of an idiot, self publicist, very successful but successful by being rude to people and that doesn’t strike me as a good role model. If you look at military and policing they are different. I fundamentally disagree with the notion that soldiers make good cops – they are different – but that said I find people like General Wellington and General Montgomery really interesting. Montgomery is interesting because he started off as influential and quiet but got progressively big for his boots as he became a more successful General, so I wasn’t as impressed with him at the end as I was at the beginning. If you look at people like Shackleton, he had amazing determination, great leader who achieved the unachievable. Spike Milligan is brilliant! His approach to life, wit, humour, he is one of the funniest men on the planet; so a mixture of people. No person in particular. My family were clearly influential in some ways but I don’t have a person which really makes a mess of your question, if I was to pick one person…crikey I don’t think I could because it’s a series of people”.

“Probably my health actually, doing a job like this you need to be fit. I’m still interested in fitness, I sort of lost interest in the MET and then took over a support group where you had to be really fit. I have maintained my sanity by keeping fit and trying to maintain my health and it’s difficult in this job as the hours are incredibly long and unhealthy. This week I am out 4 nights which all include eating out and speaking and I’m in the office every morning at 7.30am so they are very long days and you get tired. I do most of my thinking while running; it’s an opportunity to get that bit of space. I prefer to run outside as the gym is rather boring. So my health is what I most value”.

 

“Leave! I don’t mean that in a nasty way.The point about leaving is I think you have got to get experience abroad. I have been here 7 years but it’s very small and that’s not a criticism it’s just how it is even if you include Dublin. I think there is more to life than just Northern Ireland. The thing I regret is not travelling when I was young. I joined the police and didn’t do the travel thing; I lived in southeast England and moved to London to work. My godson went to Australia at 19, he is now 27 and he is still there. He has travelled the world, there’s something about settling down and earning a living that’s important but I do think you are further grounded if you’ve had the chance to travel. It’s a big ask as you’ve got to find the money but its doable, so my advice is to get out and look before you leap. This is a great opportunity to go to Washington DC it’s my favourite city in America, a walking city, the culture, museums. Go to the holocaust museum-it’s an unbelievable place. Discover great opportunities – I didn’t have these until late in life”.

“My family were all farmers, I was farming but with no land and no position of responsibility it was a very lonely world you spend all your time driving tractors and milking cows. The only other thing I was interested in was policing and that came about through a sergeant giving a career talk at my secondary school. So when my mum said its time to move out dear, I worked out it was down to the farm or in to London. In those days you got accommodation, so I was 18, single, with accommodation in central London and a job I loved so that’s why I did it!”

 

 

 

 

“Crikey, well policing is a huge challenge; the challenge in a way is trying to distil politics and policing so we do the policing and the politicians deal with the politics. Although that is a very black and white statement it’s managing the complexity of policing here and holding true to your principles of policing whilst under massive pressure from all sorts of sides to do something differently which would not be right; that’s relentless and that is every single day it’s coping with an interface of politics and policing, the peace process and moving that on. I mean the peace process is where it is because of policing, it’s not what I have done, it’s what my cops have done. The front line has delivered the conditions which have allowed the politicians to move on so we now have Sinn Fein on the Policing Board. My next meeting today is with the First Minister and Deputy First Minister one of whom has a far more interesting history than the other. I meet people like Adams, who 15-20 years ago would have tried to blow me up. When I met Bush for the first time seven years ago we were in a room not much bigger than this I stood where you are, Adams and McGuiness stood here and they wouldn’t even acknowledge my presence now they ring me up and ask for meetings – that is a step change which has been delivered by effective policing, it’s about managing that really, after seven years it does wear you out, a fantastic job but it is seven days a week”.

 

“Very good question. If I looked at it strategically, which is what leaders are supposed to do, we are on course. The process is going ok, we’re in a bit of a crisis and that’s what we have here we are on a rollercoaster, the trend line is looking ok, devolution potentially October/November, policing and justice is a critical bit but as ever in Northern Ireland its getting people to take responsibility and unfortunately politicians don’t do that terribly well. We still have the politics of division look at the debate around the MEPs, crazy stuff, the older candidates are just knocking holes out of each other, it makes them look stupid and communities are far more sophisticated than the politicians so I think we are in a bit of a mess. At present the threat is very high we could lose another officer, the problem with policing is you get to a point where if the call is there you have to go there, with all the protection in place the cops have to go and that’s were the risk is; look at Stevie - he was killed protecting the local unit going to a call, they knew the risk, they did all the ground work to minimise the risk but that’s why policing is so complicated and so difficult and our guys are so good but we still lost an officer with a huge amount of experience. So the risks are still there, I think the people who are determined to wreck everything are very small in number (less than 300) but they can still do huge damage, so everyone has got to hold their nerve and eventually the communities will convince these idiots that its not working. The problem you have with the people you’re trying to convince is that they are so disengaged that getting anywhere is difficult. It’s a huge challenge, it’s not great but I do think we have made a big step – if we see devolution we’re on the right track, but we’re not there yet”.

“Engage with it – don’t step back, take responsibility for your own destiny. Engage with people become part of the social infrastructure of where you live and lead your people. Young leaders are critical to the future of Northern Ireland, look at the mess the politics are in, we need the next generation to step up and say ‘I can do that and I don’t need a duck house or my moat cleaned!’ Take responsibility to move Northern Ireland on, which is a big task”.

“Hmm gin and tonic…yea lots of gin (laughs). I don’t know. That is a very good question I do think luck plays a part in it, but you make your own luck. I think you have got to be focused on what you want from life. Personally I would far rather be successful in public life and add value rather than private life and make lots of money which is why I joined the public sector. I ask myself at the end of everyday – Have I made a difference to policing in Northern Ireland? The answer some days is yes we have made a step change but some days we go backwards. When you know what you want from a work life balance, work hard to achieve it. Have focus and a vision, be successful in adding value and keep challenging and pushing yourself forward”.

“Fascinating. I’ve got great pictures with them. The White House is a great place. Beautiful paintings, it’s more like a home, not like the Palace and it’s the centre of all power. Very different to Bush. I liked Bush. I thought he was ok. We got on well. He was far better privately than he came across, he got a tough press. But with Bush he was very supportive of what we were doing, it was important that he would meet people like us to send a very clear message to those who were still pissing around to join policing; and so never underestimate the influence international politics had on policing in Northern Ireland. This year was completely different but equally good fun. It’s not just that, you get to go to the Speaker’s Lunch, you get to meet people like Pelosi, Teddy Kennedy, Richie Neale; all people who historically wouldn’t touch policing; Hilary Clinton, I get the opportunity to tell the story of policing in Northern Ireland in the US. The Obama’s were very interesting in a different way – it’s a double act as you can see – very powerful, very charismatic and you can just feel it! Very articulate and a bloody good double act, the best I’ve seen. Genuinely interested in what we are doing in NI. Michelle was genuinely interested in the welfare of Stevie Carroll’s family an immense level of detail, showing the most powerful couple in the world can still do detail. The danger of getting to my level for example you can disconnect and at that moment your dead, I mean I wouldn’t send my guys out to Craigavon for example if I hadn’t been there and experienced the front line for myself. What they proved to me was that they had the ability to reach out and touch the people at the bottom end of the ladder in a very effective way. It was great; good fun and make sure you tell them I say HI when you get to Washington!”