Vow to address police concerns (From Wiltshire Times)

Vow to address police concerns

7:00pm Saturday 4th August 2012 in News

Wiltshire chief constable Patrick Geenty has vowed to listen to his staff after almost half said in a survey they don’t have enough manpower to get their job done properly.

And just 40 per cent have confidence in the force’s leadership.

A total of 1,496 people out of a staff of 2,500 answered the survey, conducted by private firm ORC International earlier this year.

Mr Geenty said: “I think it’s important that we listen to what is being said and try to act on that. “We are looking to ourselves to find out how we can improve our leadership skills and deal with some of the issues that are worrying staff.”

Only 38 per cent of those surveyed believed chief officers were open and transparent in communications with staff. Just 37 per cent of respondents felt that the force acted on the feedback received from the public.

A total of 48 per cent of the police staff surveyed felt that poor performance was not managed effectively within the organisation, and 47 per cent believed there were barriers to their progression within the force.

But 89 per cent liked the kind of work they were doing and 88 per cent said they were happy to go the extra mile at work, when required.

Since the last survey in 2010, the biggest decline in satisfaction was for the response to the statement, “I am satisfied with my benefits package”, where the results were 20 per cent lower in this year’s survey.

There was also a 12 per cent decline in satisfaction given this year for the statement: “Morale is good where I work.”

In the 2012 results, there were 36 per cent of positive reactions to the morale section, while 23 per cent of respondents gave neutral responses and 40 per cent disagreed that morale was good. The lowest levels of morale were reflected by responses within operational support, finance and logistics and local policing, at just 28 per cent, 29 per cent and 30 per cent positive answers respectively.

The results also suggested that confidence in the leadership of the police was suffering, with the results falling 11 per cent below the external benchmark set by ORC International.

Mr Geenty said the survey was taken while bosses were changing shift patterns, which had been difficult for some staff.

“The staff went through some considerable upheaval while we were working to make the shift patterns more effective, and that was clearly fresh and ongoing when the survey was completed,” he said.

“The whole police service has been through a period of immense change. All public services have. We have all had to make significant budget cuts. For Wiltshire Police, we have dealt with this by reorganising the way we do business.”

He said communication can be difficult for an operation the size of Wiltshire Police. “My style of leadership is about values and behaviours. We’re trying to ensure that everyone has a clear understanding of what we are trying to achieve.”

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