This week I travelled to Mount Browne, Surrey Police force’s headquarters for an exclusive Rank Success podcast interview with the force’s Chief Constable Tim De Meyer. He kindly set aside time from his busy schedule to discuss police promotion and leadership in some depth.
In this informative and insightful podcast with one of the UK’s inspiring police leaders, Chief Constable De Meyer offers an array of insights, not just for Surrey’s 4200 officers and staff, but aspiring cops everywhere. His responses are comprehensive and fascinating, with lots of food for thought and reflection for aspiring police leaders everywhere; whether seeking promotion or simply listening as part of your continuous professional development (CPD).
Whether you’re seeking promotion to the ranks of Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector or even Superintendent, there’s something here for you. Or if you’re just interested in Surrey Police and/or what a Chief Constable has to say on a variety of policing topics.
In this blog as usual, I pick some of the highlights. The full podcast is below for convenience. Subscribe to my Police Promotion and Leadership podcast for more great content and to support my work in bringing these voices to you…
Surrey Police Plan
For some context, Surrey Police covers 644 square miles and has a population of 1.2 million. We start the podcast talking about Surrey’s ‘Public Performance and Accountability’ meetings. These are ‘live’ on YouTube, demonstrating transparency and accountability, moving on to the force plan.
In relation to the 10-point force plan, whilst “Fight Crime and Protect People” is the headline, Tim proceeds to detail the individual elements of the plan, including increased rates of arrest and charges in respect of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and other serious offences. There’s really a lot of interesting work going on to improve policing in Surrey.
He summarises “clear, hold, build”, a new approach to dealing with organised crime to initially ‘sweep this away’ via robust policing tactics, including financial investigation, working with communities and partners to hold and then rebuild those areas.
Career Insights
I invited Tim to share insights from his career, which started in the Metropolitan police from a Constable in Croydon to Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) in Hounslow. This was followed by promotions from Superintendent to ACC in Thames Valley Police (TVP), before becoming a Chief Constable here in Surrey.
He recounts the value of working with and learning from more experienced colleagues and continuous development gained from maximising opportunities along the way. He explains this helped shape his formative experiences and senior leadership development.
As a former Chief Superintendent heading up the Professional Standards Department for 3 years, I asked Tim what he believed has changed in this area? He shares some interesting recollections, describing this responsibility as a “Skin thickening and hair thinning” role, due to intense focus and differing stakeholder expectations.
Leadership, Sergeant, Superintendent…
As usual, I asked questions relating to leadership and on the differences between the ranks.
For example, on the expectations of Sergeants, I asked what advice Tim would offer to listeners aspiring to progress their career through the ranks in the police service today. Here are some snippets of the insights he gave to newly aspiring police leaders…
“There is a need for Sergeants to benefit from direction, enabling and inspiration. Part of enabling our Sergeants and police staff leaders is ensuring they are equipped with the technical knowledge around crime management and supervisory reviews, making clear just what it is that force expects of them in meeting their responsibilities and to better inform their professional judgement.”
“You can’t get anywhere in the police without relationships… with your peers, CPS, partners, social services and plenty more. You can’t really get anything done on your own. If you want to make the best of those relationships, you need to be trusted. How competent are you? How credible are you? We tend not to trust people who are not credible.”
“Really trying to master your brief is important, knowledge is important, competence is important. You’ve got to be reliable. Get a reputation for being someone who delivered what they said they were going to deliver and get to know your teams personally.”
He also covered what it means to be stepping up to Superintendent. I asked Timwhat is different about the step up to Superintendent. What does he need and look for when promoting leaders to this senior rank? Here’s just a fraction of his response:
“Superintending is especially challenging in a unique way. You are arguably at that apex of the frontline operational ranks, but also find yourself in the gateway to the most senior ranks.”
NPCC Disclosure Portfolio & More…
I asked Timabout his NPCC ‘Disclosure’ portfolio and what changes investigators might expect to see in the next couple of years to support investigations.
Tim provides an informative update brief. In short, he has been “working very hard with colleagues from the CPS and the government over the last couple of years to work out what the best approach and legal position is. New technology, an ongoing review of documents and full findings and recommendations of a review by a distinguished Kings Counsel (KC) on the disclosure process are awaited.”
I closed the interview with the following question:
“If you could travel back in time and speak to yourself as a young constable, with what you know now, what career advice would you offer yourself?”
Listen to the full podcast for his responses to this and several other questions covered, you won’t regret spending the time. Whether you’re at the rank of Constable or aspiring to Superintendent, I’m sure all levels of policing can learn from Tim’s leadership approach and the development ideas discussed.
I’d like to thank the Chief Constable again for his time and openness. As a reminder, I’m happy to share my platform so please get in touch if you’re interested in an interview like this talking about all the important aspects of policing and promotion.
Kind Regards, Steve
Seeking police promotion? Want a MASSIVE head start right now? Hit the ground running with your personal digital promotion toolkit, and/or my market-leading Police Promotion Masterclass. There’s nothing else like it to effectively prepare you for success in your leadership aspirations. You can also contact me to arrange more personal coaching support. Or try my podcast for your ongoing police leadership CPD covering a range of fascinating subjects.
