Paul Pickett: a passion for fair treatment of all officers

3 March 2020

Sergeant Paul Pickett spent 12 years as a Federation member before taking the plunge and becoming a workplace rep.

He often found himself being approached by officers asking for advice and assistance with sickness, performance or general unfairness issues and was always happy to help.

But then, during a professional development review, he was given feedback by an inspector who said he needed to be mindful of supporting the organisation as a manager and be less protective of the officers.

It was then he explored becoming a Federation workplace rep and the rest, as they say, is history.

That was in 2015. Fast forward five years and he is now into his second term.

“I’m passionate about officers being treated fairly and I can promote that cause and help safeguard that in my role as a Fed rep,” he explains.

“I enjoy being able to support my colleagues in a variety of matters, officers are often seen as strong-willed, opinionated, leaders who are resilient and can handle anything life throws at them but we are all human at the end of the day and, from time to time, fall victim to the same frailties as anyone else can experience and at some point are all vulnerable either due to internal factors such as being subject of a complaint, performance issues or due to external factors such as relationship breakdowns, debt issues and sickness.

“I get to help the people who help and support other people all the time. I get to meet officers in different roles and ranks I wouldn’t otherwise and benefit from doing so and I have benefited from some additional training.”

One of the biggest challenges Paul faces is doing the role alongside the day job and he ends up doing the majority of it in his own time.

However, there are rewarding aspects too.

He explains: “I specialise in misconduct and I find it rewarding when I’m able to assist an officer either prove their innocence or enable them to provide their account of what went wrong or why they deviated from a policy and sometimes help them provide mitigation.”

It was back in January 2003 when Paul first joined the Force and in 2005 he took his exam to become a sergeant and was posted to St Albans Intervention where he has remained ever since.

Looking at what the future for Hertfordshire Police Federation holds, he said: “I think we are in a stage of modernisation and somewhat of a re-connection with the wider officer base. The last couple of years with the election of a new chair and secretary, supported by the experienced hand of the treasurer and misconduct lead, we have seen some great progress, from the purchase of a respite and welfare retreat, the introduction of an allowance for officers for team-building events and the provision of a welfare van to simply being more of a visible presence about the Force. The challenge will now come in keeping that change momentum going. With the right people I think we can.”

Turning his attention to the Force, he explained: “The challenge ahead for the Force will be to manage the ever-increasing expectations of the general public and other public services in the wider context of what the role of the police is in society… we have finite resources and pressures around changing crime type and a budget which is in reality becoming more locally dependent though tax rises. The Force will have to manage a more fluid and changing workforce due to the entry qualification level changing and the reality that policing is becoming less of a career for life.”