PC Joel Bastable has joined the force from the London Met, where he spent two years working on response and community policing in the Brixton and Peckham areas. His father, who died in the summer of 2018 after a battle with cancer, joined the States police in 2013 following a 30-year career with the City of London Police.
PC Bastable (26), who has come to Jersey with his young son, Judah, and wife, Jazmine, said he had always envisioned himself coming to Jersey to work but not this soon.
‘It was always a plan but it’s happened a bit quicker than I expected because obviously mum is on her own. But as soon as dad got the States police job he was sending Jaz nurse jobs to try to get us over,’ said the PC, who is from Sutton, south London.
‘It was pretty intense over there. Officer numbers are low and calls are high. It’s intense but it’s a great place to learn. Brixton and Peckham are obviously quite well known and you’d see stabbings, serious violence and major drugs crimes. Obviously it is going to be a different patch here but it will still have its challenges. You just have to apply yourself differently.’
Asked what his father might think of his new patch, PC Bastable,
who joined the police two years ago after a stint as a civil servant in the UK’s Department for Education, said: ‘He’d be proud and I think he’d laugh too. We went to meet the management at the station and I was walking around imagining going into dad’s office and hearing what he’d say and the kind of jokes he’d say and how awfully awkward the whole thing would be.’
A husband and wife were also among the new officers who took the oath. PCs Leon and Rachel Peddlebanks-Wright, formerly of West Midlands Police,
have moved to the Island.
PCs Lesley Wade and John Buxton, also formerly of the London Met, and PC Andrew Kellett, who has transferred from Greater Manchester Police, were also sworn in.
All the transferees will now undergo a ‘two-week supervised orientation period to familiarise them with the ground and Jersey law’, a spokesman said. They are due to start full duties after that.
A total of 11 transferees have joined, or are due to join, the States police as part of their latest recruitment drive. A further 30 new trainee Constables are due to begin their training next year.
