Chief officer Robin Smith said they would act on recommendations contained in a report produced following the audit, which was conducted two months ago, including on vetting procedures. He added that he wanted to ensure the community continued to have a ‘high level of trust’ in the States police.
Two inspectors travelled to the Island in August to interview Jersey police officers and staff, and examine existing systems to protect the service from corruption. The inquiry was ordered by the police chief last year but delayed because of the pandemic.
Mr Smith said that he had ‘a high degree of confidence’ in current vetting procedures for police officers, following the audit, which was ‘in many ways very reassuring’.
He made the comments following a question without notice in the States last week to the Chief Minister from St Lawrence Constable Deidre Mezbourian about local police-vetting procedures in the wake of the Sarah Everard tragedy in London. She was raped and murdered by off-duty police officer Wayne Couzens, who used his police ID and handcuffs to kidnap her. Couzens received a life sentence for his crimes and will die behind bars, with Mr Smith condemning his ‘despicable actions’ following the sentencing.
Mr Smith said: ‘To reassure Islanders, there is nothing in that report that has caused me alarm – nothing – and it was a very thorough report. What it has done is to reassure me to a large extent but it has also given me lots of ideas about how I can continue to protect Islanders by ensuring that its force is one that is properly protected from within.’
He added: ‘My message to the public is that I am very sensitive to the concern of our community, as indeed are my staff, and I want to ensure that [the community] continues [to have] what I believe is a high level of trust and confidence in the States of Jersey Police.’
Mr Smith explained that he had initiated the inquiry – having notified the Home Affairs Minister at the time, the late Constable Len Norman, the Jersey Police Authority and the Jersey Police Complaints Authority – because, although he had experience of such work elsewhere, no similar counter-corruption inspection had previously taken place in Jersey.
Although its timing was fortuitous in relation to the Sarah Everard case – which Mr Smith described as one which had ‘shaken the foundations’ of the police service – parts of the report he has been provided with relate to the issue of vetting and will inform the approach of the senior management team.
Mr Smith said that he recognised the difficult circumstances facing the Metropolitan Police but said that the community in Jersey was a very different one, and that he had not given formal guidance to local officers of the kind issued by some UK forces.
‘I’ve spoken to our officers here and I haven’t given that direct guidance but I have said – because I’m trying to ensure that I strike the right balance here and I want to reassure but I don’t want to alarm – just be mindful of the wider context. I deeply trust my officers’ professionalism,’ he said.
Last week, Chief Minister John Le Fondré confirmed in the States that he would be meeting Home Affairs Minister Gregory Guida and the police chief, and would also be ensuring that the Council of Ministers received a full briefing on the issue of police vetting.
Responding to the issue of public confidence in the police in Jersey, Mr Smith said that it was important, in spite of the impact of the Sarah Everard case, that they were not defensive in their response.
‘I do not want, for one second, for our communities to think that we are remotely complacent. If there are any positives to come from this – and it is hard to think of what those positives might be given the horror of what happened – it has alerted us even more to ensuring that we keep Islanders safe.
‘I want Islanders to see a States of Jersey Police officer and think that’s a safe place and there is every example [of] that.
‘We see it in increases in calls for care and welfare, and over mental-health issues, for example.
‘You could ask: why do they ring the police? I think they do that because we are often seen as the last line of social care, but also because we are trusted and we will respond. We will continue to do that,’ Mr Smith said.
