James Power - Q & A

18 January 2024

For James Power, the idea of having a career that presents the same daily routine just wasn’t appealing.

Now, with almost 23 years’ worth of policing experience behind him, James has spoken on why he felt his next natural step was his role as Deputy Secretary of the Lancashire Police Federation.

Tell us a little about your career in policing, James…

I started my career in 2001 so that’s 22, nearly 23 years now. I have predominantly a roads policing background. Then, I came off Roads policing and became a Crime manager before moving on to the federation.

So why did you make the move into becoming a fed rep?

A couple of years ago I became the Chair of the Disability Support Network in Lancashire Police and that opened the door to helping officers going through certain periods of life that were tough. The opportunity then came up to become a workplace representative in the federation, so I thought I’d join that and decide to help more officers going through whatever they might be at that time.

It’s such an important role – what do you enjoy most about it?

I enjoy meeting new people every day - genuinely, I talk to different people every day. I was thinking about this in the car yesterday. I was looking at what I’d call a mundane building and thinking ‘People are going into that building doing the same job, speaking to the same people, every day’ and I thought: ‘Could I do that? No’. I enjoy just helping and meeting new people.

What would you say to other people considering becoming a fed rep?

Policing is a unique role and I think everybody gains their own experience through incidents they’ve attended, colleagues they’ve supported, and I think any experience you’ve had through your career you can use to then support other people that might be going through a similar situation in the future - and that could make the difference to one of your colleagues.