THE States police were ‘genuinely concerned’ that controversial OneGov reforms would affect their independence, the head of the Island’s force has said.
But Robin Smith – who took up his post in 2019 – told the Public Accounts Committee ‘with absolute confidence’ that there was ‘no issue with operational independence’ today.
Although the reforms initiated by former government chief executive Charlie Parker – which have since been partly reversed – were begun before Mr Smith’s arrival, the police chief acknowledged ‘legacy stuff and certainly some concerns’ about operational independence which he said ‘was disruptive’ for the States of Jersey Police.
‘There is no doubt that colleagues in the SOJP prior to my arrival… were genuinely concerned [that] whatever changes were being proposed were beginning to impinge upon the independence of SOJP. It was disruptive [and] I think it caused some concerns,’ Mr Smith said, when he appeared at a Scrutiny hearing this week.
Responding to questions about performance management and about the relationship between the police, the Police Authority – to which the police chief is formally accountable – and the government through the Home Affairs Minister, Mr Smith said that some of these concerns about independence ‘were elevated to a degree I think they didn’t need to be’. He drew a distinction between operational and formal independence.
‘The police service talks about operational independence – that’s not formal independence. I’m not really independent from the finance point of view and from the HR point of view. There are dotted lines into government. We are not independent organisationally; we are certainly independent operationally.
‘Some of the plans and suggestions regarding Team Jersey and target operational models and the like began to interrupt that. I think it crashed into operational independence and organisational independence. I can say with absolute confidence to this committee that there is no issue with operational independence, and following the explosion [at Haut du Mont] I was asked a number of times by the media about operational independence – I’ve not been asked since,’ Mr Smith said.
The police chief was speaking at the latest in a series of public hearings being held by PAC to review performance management across the government when members of the committee, chaired by Deputy Lyndsay Feltham, asked about arrangements for appraisal within the States police, and about the relationship between ministerial priorities and those within the police.
He said although police chiefs would invariably welcome more resources, the Island had currently ‘got the balance right’. He highlighted the fact that the majority of the dozen or so officers who left the police in Jersey each year were retirees compared with an increasing UK trend – partly the result of efforts to restore cut posts – of officers leaving in service. Commenting on the capacity to develop talent within the Island, diminishing reliance on importing officers from the UK, he said: ‘I have real talent across the board.’
